“When I stop feeling like I’m going to puke, I’m going to punch you in the mouth,” she said to Samiel.
Samiel shrugged. I could have let that monster eat you.
“I can run, you know,” Chloe said.
Not fast enough.
“Don’t argue with her, Samiel,” I said. “She just wants to pick a fight because she knows you’re right.”
“How do you know that?” Chloe demanded.
“I live with Beezle,” I said. “I recognize the symptoms.”
I straightened up, wiping the sweat from my face with my sleeve. I looked at Nathaniel. “What do you think happened to the spriggan?”
“Either it was called off by Titania, or we got far enough away from its barrow that it decided we were no longer a threat to its treasure,” he said. “But there will be more creatures like it in these lands.”
“I know,” I said. “We’ve got to figure out where we are in relation to everything else. And we need a more effective way of tracking J.B. than sniffing around for him. Sorry, Jude.”
Jude barked once in acknowledgment.
“Weren’t you here before?” Chloe asked.
“Yes, but the portion of the kingdom that we walked through was an illusion,” I said. “I have no idea where we are in relation to the place where Lucifer brought us. And we might be walking through another illusion now. Faeries do like to maintain appearances.”
“What was underneath the last illusion?” Chloe asked.
Nathaniel, Beezle and I looked at one another. “Umm, it was a kind of game board,” I said.
Her eyes narrowed. “A game board.”
“Yeah, and Oberon and Titania were watching us on the board…Never mind,” I said, because Chloe looked like she might lose her temper. “Nathaniel, could we do a tracking spell to find J.B.?”
Nathaniel considered. “The tracking spell is usually used to find traces of magic. If J.B. has not used magic in this place, it would be very difficult to find him that way.”
“We can’t just walk around the forest banging into things and hoping we’ll stumble onto him.”
The next moment, Nathaniel shoved me to the ground. I hit the dirt hard and rolled over, ready to tell him off. But he stood where I had stood a moment before, an arrow in his hand. If he hadn’t pushed me out of the way, I’d have that arrow in my heart. I don’t know whether he could have caught it before his legacy from Puck had been revealed, and I took a moment to be thankful before standing again. Nathaniel pushed me behind him.
Jude tore into the woods, nothing but a furry blur. We heard someone cry out. Jude snarled and yelped, and Samiel ran into the trees after him. There was a flash of light, and the distinctive sulfur smell of nightfire.
Samiel came out of the woods lugging Bendith, Titania’s son, under one arm. Jude trotted out behind him. The faerie queen’s progeny was out cold, a nightfire burn on his shoulder. Jude had taken a good-sized chunk out of Bendith’s leg, too. Samiel tossed him to the ground, a look of disgust on his face.
“Who is this guy?” Chloe asked, nudging Bendith’s still form with her shoe.
“Titania’s son,” I said. “He doesn’t like me.”
“Do you think Titania sent him?” Beezle asked.
I shook my head, remembering the look on Bendith’s face when last I was in Titania’s court, when I had diminished Oberon in front of everyone. “He came on his own.”
I’d neglected to consider the possibility of a son’s desire for vengeance for his father. Well, Bendith thought Oberon was his father, and I was not going to be the one to disabuse him of that notion. Even though I couldn’t believe that he didn’t see the proof every time he looked in the mirror. His eyes were exactly like Puck’s. I stared at Bendith, possibilities turning over in my mind.
“So now we’ve got the faerie queen’s son,” I said. “And that means we have something to trade.”
“Bendith for J.B.?” Nathaniel said. “Are we going to return to the castle with a knife to his neck and demand Titania reveal J.B.’s location?”
“We could, if we had to,” I said. “Or we could make Bendith tell us where J.B. is.”
“If he knows,” Beezle said.
“Well, we’d better wake him up and find out,” I said.
“Shall I heal him?” Nathaniel asked.
“No,” I said. “He tried to kill me. He’s not getting courtesy from me.”
“Dark side,” Beezle murmured.
“I don’t care,” I said. “I don’t want him healed. If we have to kill him, then that’s a lot of energy wasted.”
“Are you really going to kill Titania’s son in cold blood?” Beezle asked. “I’m not sure I’m on board with this.”
“Me, neither,” said Chloe, who was eyeing me like she’d never seen me before. Even Samiel looked uncertain. It was hard to tell what Jude was thinking, as he was in wolf form. Nathaniel appeared unfazed. Nathaniel still thought like a member of the fallen, and that meant that whatever means were necessary were okay with him.
“Either I am in charge or I’m not,” I said through my teeth. “If none of you like it, you can find your own way home.”
There was an awkward silence that followed this.
“Wake him up,” I repeated.
Samiel shook Bendith roughly. Titania’s son groaned and opened his eyes.