“There’s nothing dishonorable about taking back someone who shouldn’t have been taken in the first place,” snapped Arden.

“That’s my opinion, too.”

“Uh, not to sound dense here, but how does this fix anythin’?” asked Danny. “Sure, you get the missing dude back, but Arden here is still under attack by Queen Crazy-cakes and her big-ass army, and we’re all gettin’ banished or killed. I’m not really seeing this as a win.”

“We don’t have to win. We just have to hold off her forces long enough to contact a higher authority. Getting Nolan out of her knowe is mostly to make sure she won’t do anything vindictive and stupid when she realizes that the tide has turned against her.” I looked toward Quentin. He met my eyes levelly. “She’s held this throne because she was unchallenged, and because no one higher up than she was ever had the excuse to say, ‘No, that is not yours.’”

“Arden’s claim is good, and supported by the Library,” said Quentin. “I’m sure King Sollys will hear your petition.”

“Swell. Do you think you could relay that to him, then, preferably before the Queen of the Mists decides to kill us all?”

Quentin smiled crookedly, while May and Tybalt looked at me in bewilderment. “I can do that.”

“Good. Because you’re going to be staying here.”

His eyes widened. “What?”

“You heard me. Someone needs to stay here and make sure the Queen doesn’t send people to attack the house. Jazz is asleep. I’d rather she not be ambushed. And we’re going to need May to put on some of my clothes, cast an illusion to turn her hair brown, and go with Arden. We need them visibly standing together, both to draw fire—”

“Gee, thanks,” said May.

“—and because people will assume that May is me.” I looked around the little group. “This is a risky plan. It’s complicated and it’s convoluted and it’s entirely outside of my primary skill set. And it’s the only one I have that stands a chance of working. If any of you have something better, now would be the time to bring it up.”

No one said anything.

I nodded. “Okay. If any of you doesn’t want to be a part of this, now would be the time to leave.”

“Pass,” said May.

“No way,” said Danny.

“I’d love to, but I’m the only one that offer doesn’t apply to,” said Arden.

Tybalt didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to.

“I want to make a change,” said Quentin.

I raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“Instead of staying here—and I mean, I get why you want me to stay here; somebody has to stay with Jazz, and you probably want me to be as far away from actually breaking the law as possible right now—why don’t Jazz and I go to the Library of Stars and hole up there? I can call Raj. He can take us, and we won’t ever have to go outside.” Quentin shrugged. “It won’t stop the Queen if she decides she wants to burn the house down, but we couldn’t stop her if we were here. I’m not Elliot. I can’t create big waves just because I want them.”

“And the Library is neutral ground,” I said thoughtfully. “Even if the Queen wants to cause problems for you there, she can’t. All Mags has to do is refuse to let her into the stacks. Okay. We’ll go with that. And, uh, bring donuts or something to apologize to Mags for my exploiting my Library pass.”

“Will do,” said Quentin.

May looked relieved. “I guess I can take a few headshots for the cause if Jazz will be safely out of the line of fire.”

Arden looked confused. I glanced at her, explaining, “May is literally indestructible. As near as we can tell, she can’t die now that she’s no longer connected to me.”

“Oh,” said Arden.

It was time for the part that wasn’t going to go over so well. I turned to Tybalt, and took a deep breath. “Tybalt . . .”

“Ah.” His eyes narrowed. “This is where you once again ask me to leave you for someone else to defend, and trust that I will do it simply because you claim that it is necessary. Really, October. I thought this time, perhaps, your endless assurances that you weren’t going to send me away might last a little longer.”

“I’m not sending you away. I want us to end up in the same place, because I need you to go break Nolan out with me. I just need you to do something else, first.” I tucked my hair back behind one ear, trying to ignore the snarling from my stomach. “I need you to go and ask the cats for help.”

He blinked. “You what? October, the Court of Cats cannot fight—”

“No, they can’t. This is a matter of succession for the Divided Courts, and it would be completely inappropriate for the Court of Cats to get involved. But if they happened to be hanging out in Muir Woods before hostilities were formally declared, and accidentally served as an early warning system . . .”

Tybalt blinked, and then smiled, although his pupils remained hairline-thin. “You have gotten trickier. It suits you. I am not happy about this request, but I can see the wisdom in it, much as I might wish not to. I will ask them.”

“And since you’re the King of Cats, that means they’ll do it, right?”

He snorted. “So long in my company, and yet you still know so little of the feline mind. Some will cooperate. Others will find better things to do with their time.”

“Fair enough.” Even partial cooperation would give us the manpower we needed to make this work out. Of course, there was one other stumbling block to be overcome . . . “Someone needs to explain what’s going on to Sylvester.”

Now Tybalt’s eyes widened. “You cannot be serious.”

“I am.” I could have called. Sylvester would have listened. But I didn’t want them fighting any longer than was absolutely necessary—and more, sending Tybalt would impress on Sylvester just how important this really was.

“He kept me from you.”

“And now he can pay back a little of the debt he incurred to me in doing that. He can come and fight beside us. Please.”

Tybalt simply stared at me for a long moment. Then he stepped closer. “You were less trouble before I told you that I loved you.” This said, he bowed his head, and kissed me, long and slow and sweet. Despite the fact that we were surrounded by people, I kissed him back.