“You,” Dell groaned, hating the idea already. That made two of us.

Dell had never properly met Lori, or the shade of her that remained. That was about to change.

“Sunrise in the woods gives us shadows to play with. All we have to do is fool Harlow—Charybdis—for a few minutes.” The more I spoke the more I convinced myself this had to work. It was this or the water, and I voted for this. “Between you, Graeson and Isaac, we can cover the area. That way if she runs, we’ll have a head start catching her.”

“Catching her could be dangerous.” Dell worried her bottom lip. “We don’t know what magic she has access to through him. We don’t know how much control he has over her.” She winced as she drew blood. “There’s too damn much we don’t know.”

“This is getting confusing.” Isaac rubbed his forehead, following along as best he could with his limited information. “Let’s stick with calling Charybdis Harlow. That’s the physical body we’re looking for, right? We just assume the lights are on and no one’s home.”

“That works for me,” Dell said with a slight flutter in her lashes.

“Confronting Harlow is a big risk, but I can’t leave her out there. As long as she’s under Charybdis’s influence, she’s dangerous.” Another thought hit me, and it should have occurred to me sooner. I turned to Emily. “Did the girl tell you why she didn’t deliver the gifts to me herself?”

“She said you liked to play tricks, but they only worked on fae.” Emily eyed me as if expecting me to do something sneaky to prove her right. “She wanted to give you the presents herself, but one of your fairy spells made her feel like ants were stinging her.”

“The wards,” I murmured. “She couldn’t get past the wards.”

The wards blocked only malicious entities or those who wished me or mine harm. That Harlow couldn’t cross them meant Charybdis’s evil had tainted her psyche in a tangible way, proof positive she was his avatar. She had to find a loophole. To beat the wards, she enlisted the help of a child. A girl. There was symbolism there, the continuance of a twisted theme. Gods only knew what she planned for Emily when the last token had been delivered.

“That’s why she enlisted Emily.” Dell pieced it together. “Emily didn’t wish you harm, so she could pass through. Harlow…” Her lips mashed together before blurting out in front of the girl that her new fae friend wasn’t one of the good guys. “That’s bad.”

I rubbed my tired eyes, but they kept settling on Emily. “You need to get her home before her dad misses her.”

Dell stood and wisely kept a hand cuffed on the girl’s arm. “What do you want me to tell him?”