“I don’t know what is wrong with you, but I’m not in danger!” Except from her right hook.

That didn’t seem to impress, either.

“Faerie is alive; it has a soul,” she snarled. “And it doesn’t like being spied on by outsiders! People who have tried before haven’t come back. They remain trapped in memory until they wither away and die. So, wake—slap—the devil—slap—up!”

It took me a moment to figure out how she was doing that, as I still had hold of her hand. But Guinn, it seemed, was an ambidextrous slapper. And if anything, her left hook was worse than her right.

It was a little hard to stop her, since my hands and Arsen’s still felt somewhat linked, and his were by his sides. But after a couple of tries, I finally managed to catch her other one. And now that she wasn’t causing my brain to slosh up against my skull every few seconds, I managed to think.

“I’ll only be another minute,” I said, trying to reason with her. “I just need to find out—”

But Guinn didn’t care. Guinn was a lost cause, judging by the fact that she was now kicking me in the ribs. Maybe Rhea, I thought, catching sight of her over Guinn’s shoulder.

“Hit her again,” Rhea said, her face fierce.

Or not.

“Oh, my God!” I said, my eyes widening. “What is that?”

“What?” Guinn twisted around to see what I was staring at. Because I guessed that trick wasn’t quite so old in Edwardian times.

Like this one, I thought, rolling out from under, jumping to my feet, and kicking her in the ass. She went stumbling into Rhea and both women hit the ground, weighed down by a ridiculous number of petticoats. And I didn’t wait for them to sort themselves out.

“I told you she was sneaky!” Rhea yelled. But the shout came from well behind me, because vampire speed leaves people in the dust pretty quickly. And there was no Pythian power here to help them catch up.

I headed for the camp, then grabbed a vine and used Mircea’s strength to swing up into a tree, sheltering well above any nosy fey. And above Rhea and Guinn, who ran by a moment later, looking around desperately. But they didn’t look up.

My back hit the trunk, allowing the branches to close over me and to give me some additional cover. I waited, my breath in my throat, and tried to hear over my pounding heart. But only silence met my ears, after the women’s footsteps faded away.

The forest was almost eerily quiet, like it was listening for something, too. I must be going crazy, I thought, not for the first time. But it couldn’t hurt… right?