“I believe Madeline told you we were here to rescue her gargoyle.”

“So you lurked in the woods to spy on our conversation? If your conscience is clear, why not simply rejoin your party?”

Just as Nathaniel was about to open his mouth and respond, yet another faerie came trotting out of the woods from the direction of the swamp. This one, too, was tall and thin and dark haired. They all pretty much looked the same, like they’d been cloned.

The new arrival stopped in front of Ivin and reported. “The leviathan has been killed. Burned to death.”

Ivin’s eyebrows winged up to the top of his forehead. He turned to look at me accusingly.

“It was going to eat me,” I said. “What did you want me to do?”

His eyes hardened. “I should kill you here and now for this offense, but since you are Azazel’s daughter I will take you to the queen for judgment. Bind her hands.”

I wasn’t willing to jeopardize all of our lives by doing something foolish, and I didn’t think Lucifer would appreciate it if I spoiled his negotiations before they even began by knocking all these idiots out with my magic and running away. But there was no way in hell they were going to bind my hands. I would not be brought before Amarantha like a prisoner. I may have been covered in mud and dressed like a homeless person, but I was still Madeline Black. I had some pride.

One of the faeries came forward with the vine cord. I stepped back and conjured a ball of nightfire, holding it in front of me. The other four faeries made ready to fire their bows.

“You’re not putting those on me,” I said softly, and I felt Beezle on my shoulder twitch in surprise. I didn’t look at him. If I did, I would doubt myself, because I was sure he had a what-in-the-four-hells-do-you-think-you’re-doing look on his face.

“You are to be brought before the queen for judgment,” Ivin shouted.

“And I’ll go. But you will not treat me like a criminal,” I responded. I wondered if I could make the nightfire scatter, like a shotgun blast. Of course, maybe now was not the time to be contemplating new and exciting ways of using my power.

“In my eyes you are a criminal. You have trespassed on Amarantha’s kingdom with foul intentions,” Ivin responded.

I drew my power around me like a cloak, pushed it up and out so that all in the clearing could feel it. I wanted them to know just who they were messing with. All the faeries took a little sidling step backward, not a lot, but just enough for me to know that they felt my magic, and it gave them pause.

“You will not bind my hands,” I repeated. “You will treat me with all due respect accorded to an ambassador from Lucifer’s kingdom.”

“I could kill you before you wielded your spell,” Ivin said, and he pulled his bowstring tighter.

I narrowed my eyes at him and pushed more power into the ball of nightfire that hovered above my palm. “Care to try me?”

I knew that I put Ivin in a bad position. He was the authority here, a representative of the queen, and it would be difficult for him to back down in front of his men. On the other hand, my sympathy only went so far. I had enough sense to know that I needed to come to the queen on my own terms or else she would never respect me.

Everyone in the clearing was still. Ivin and I had our eyes locked on each other, each waiting for the other to make a move. The faerie who had approached me with the vine cord seemed to be holding his breath. I wanted to look at Nathaniel, to see if he would help me if it came down to a firefight, but I didn’t want to release Ivin from my gaze.

A minute passed, two. I readied my power. He wasn’t going to give in. I wondered how many of them I could take down, and if I could avoid ending up looking like a pincushion filled with arrows.

Ivin abruptly dropped his bow. The other faeries paused a moment, as if in astonishment, and then dropped their weapons to their sides.

He gave me a little bow. “Welcome to the kingdom of Queen Amarantha, Ambassador Black. We would be happy to escort you to our queen.”

I closed my hand and the ball of nightfire disappeared. I gave Ivin a regal nod. “Would you please unbind the hands of my escort?”

Ivin looked like it would pain him to do such a thing, but since he’d already embarked down this path he had to see it through. He nodded at one of the other faeries and the cord on Nathaniel’s wrists was cut. Nathaniel gave the faerie who had fought him in the woods a look of venom. If I were that guy, I would avoid being caught alone at night by Nathaniel.

Nathaniel came to my side. The leader stepped around us, another faerie next to him, and indicated that we should follow them through the woods. We walked behind them in silence.

Even though Ivin had spoken the correct words and released Nathaniel, it still felt like we were prisoners. Two faeries walked in front of us, one behind and one on either side. Their weapons had been returned to their backs but all five faeries were tense and watchful. It was clear that they didn’t trust us and that any false move on our part would result in someone getting bloody.

The terrain did not improve significantly as we moved away from the swamp. The woods became thicker, the trees larger. The way that we followed didn’t really seem like a path. There was no tramped-down dirt to indicate the crossing of many feet. Gigantic roots jutted from the ground; large branches reached into our way. Small bushes with prickly thorns scratched and caught at my clothes.

The faeries leapt lightly from root to rock, easily avoiding creeping branches and reaching thorns. They seemed to slide through the woods like water. I was more like a stumbling rhinoceros. I tripped over every obstacle, got grabbed by every jutting piece of greenery. After about twenty minutes I was sweating like a pig under my winter overcoat.

I might technically approach Amarantha like an ambassador, but I was certainly not going to look like one. I don’t generally think of myself as vain or girly, but I was sweaty, bruised and covered in dried mud from head to toe. Nobody wants to appear before a queen like that. I shuddered to think of what my hair looked like.

We walked for what seemed like an hour. After I’d tripped over my nine hundredth tree root, I decided to break the silence.

“How much longer?” I asked Ivin.

He looked back at me. “The court of Queen Amarantha is approximately a day’s walk from here.”

I stared at him. “A day? Are you crazy? I can’t take a day to walk to court. For chrissakes, Nathaniel and I can fly. Surely there’s a quicker way than walking.”

“You can fly but we cannot,” he said. “You entered the queen’s kingdom at the very borders of her authority. It is not my fault that you chose to come that way.”

“Believe me, it’s not a choice I would have made if I had known,” I grumbled. “What about a portal?”

“We do not have the ability to create portals. That is solely the province of your kind,” he said.

“Then Nathaniel can make one. This is ridiculous. Do you seriously think that I am going to . . .” I trailed off as the ground beneath me trembled and all the faeries went still. “What is it now?”

The leader looked alarmed. “We must go now. As quickly as you can, follow me.”

“What is it?” I asked again, but all the faeries had disappeared into the brush.

The ground shook. I heard something chittering and clicking in the darkness of the trees. It sounded like several legs thumped on the ground. Dead leaves crackled and twigs snapped as the creature approached. There was a heavy scrape of furred body on bark as it pushed through the woods.

“That sounds like a—” Beezle began, but I cut him off.

“Don’t say it. It’s not allowed,” I said, and I pushed my wings out. I have a mild to moderate case of arachnophobia. If that thing was what I thought it was, then I would probably pass out right there and wake up to find myself in a cocoon hanging from a tree. “Come on.”

Nathaniel and I flew up toward the top canopy of trees, but the branches were tightly woven and it was impossible to get above the tree line. My clothes and wings snagged on everything and my face was horribly scratched after a few minutes.

The chittering and clicking came closer. Nathaniel looked at me in alarm.

“We can’t get through,” he said.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” I muttered. “Beezle, can you squeeze through here and try to get above the trees, maybe find a place where we can fit through?”

Beezle looked at me doubtfully. “I can try. But how will I direct you from up there? You’ll never hear me, and you certainly won’t be able to see me.”

Nathaniel broke a small branch off one of the trees. He snapped it in half, muttered a word, and the ends of each branch started to glow.

“Take this,” he said, handing it to Beezle. “It will send a signal to us and guide us to where you are.”

“Magical GPS,” Beezle said, and he sounded impressed. “Okay, don’t get eaten by the giant sp—”

“Don’t say it,” I repeated. “Just go, and be careful.”

“I’d rather go up than down,” Beezle said, and as he disappeared into the branches, I had to agree.

The creature-that-shall-not-be-named in the woods seemed to have paused. We still couldn’t see it but it seemed frighteningly close. The air was dense with a strange green miasma that slowly filled the clearing. I wondered if the gas was emanating from the creature, or if it was yet another obstacle generated by the forest for me to deal with. Amarantha had a pretty effective defensive system here in the outlands. I’d probably appreciate it more if her system would stop trying to eat me.

“What do you think?” I asked Nathaniel.

“I think we should stay as high as possible,” he said grimly.

“I’m on board with that,” I said. “But I don’t think we should move too far until Beezle . . .”

I stopped as a wave of dizziness overtook me and I almost fell out of the tree. I rested my head against the bark for a minute, then resecured my grip on the branch I was seated on. It didn’t seem to help. Nausea rose up in my stomach and I gagged, trying not to boot.