Prince of Air and Darkness (The Darkest Court)
“Dude, you like riddles now?”
Sebastian rips off a chunk of my crust. “Queen Mab announced a formal declaration of war this morning.”
“Oh, fuck.” I push my sandwich away, gut churning. Sue’s gone pale and even Herman doesn’t have any kind of response.
It takes her a few tries, but Sue finally gets the question out. “War? Actual war?”
Gumba nods. Sebastian’s given up on nibbling at my crust. Instead, he crushes and grinds it between his fingers, sprinkling its crumbs on my unfinished pasta salad.
“All Unseelie are required to return to the sídhe by tomorrow morning,” Gumba says. “If you don’t make it by the sealing...” He trails off and rubs a hand over his eyes. “Either you’re in, or you’re on your own.”
Tremors work their way from my feet up into my legs and through the rest of me. Not the strength of the ley line, which I’ve buried too far down to reach now, but a terrible, fearsome panic. “Sealing, as in, keeping people from getting in or out?”
Sebastian flicks a few crumbs off his fingers. Some hit my wrist.
I don’t care, focused on my next question. “For how long?”
Gumba watches me, expression far too gentle. “We don’t know.”
“What time is the sealing?” Sue asks. “Do you need help packing? Have you called your families?” Even in this moment, she focuses on the specific details. God, she’s wonderful.
“Roark had warned us it might come to this yesterday,” Gumba says. “I’ve been getting ready.”
“Me, too,” Sebastian agrees quietly.
“Yesterday,” I say, mind spinning. “That’s why he was back on campus.”
Gumba nods and clears his throat. “They’ve been sending messengers to anyone living outside the sídhe. Most of the Unseelie have already taken shelter.”
Roark is delivering news and then he’ll vanish into the sídhe with everyone else for only God knows how long.
I hit the table so hard when I stand that Herman has to reach out and keep our drinks from spilling. I can’t look at any of them. I focus on the table instead, staring at the fake woodgrain and the crumbs Sebastian dropped on it.
Denying the ley line’s power wholly made sense at the time, but now I could use it to try to find him. Maybe he’s not too far from Mathers. Maybe I can text him and ask him to meet me somewhere—
“He said he would be around if we needed him. Queen Mab made him responsible for getting the underclassmen safely to the sídhe,” Sebastian says.
“He’s still here?”
Four sets of eyes fix on me. My trembling gets worse.
“Finny,” Sue says slowly, “you should try to find him.”
“He’s busy. He won’t have time for me,” I protest on instinct, too scared at the prospect that if I find him now, he’ll be the one to turn away from me. That he’ll treat me with the same disdain I treated him yesterday. It would be only fitting.
“He said the same thing when I told him to find you,” Sebastian mutters, shredding lettuce on top of the crumbs.
“Oh, fucking Hades,” Herman grumbles. “You deserve each other. Morons, both of you.”
“We’ve got this,” Sue informs me. “Herman and I will help Sebastian and Gumba finish packing tonight. You need to find Roark.”
“Sue, it’s not that simple.”
Gumba growls and points a giant finger at me. “Yes, it is.”
Sebastian goes for the jugular. “Do you love him back?”
The truth tries to break free and I smother it. Deny it and burn it and burn its ashes and bury them where the light can never touch them because there’s no way it could be true. Because while the world likes to throw me to the wolves, it couldn’t be that cruel.