I nodded. “Mircea—a master vampire with mental abilities,” I added for Guinn’s sake. “Pulled me into some kind of tunnel complex, then Iris touched me and got drawn in as well—”

“So that’s what she was talking about,” Rhea said. “I had wondered.”

I nodded.

“But are you sure you were in Faerie? Perhaps—”

“My power didn’t work; I’m sure! And we were spirits—or something like them—Iris, too. We were even hit by spell bolts that did nothing—”

“Well, they’re doing something now!” Guinn yelled, as outside the little glade, the terrible, soul searing screech of a dragon tore through the night and fey spells lit up the sky.

We hunkered down, hands over our ears, because the din was honestly breathtaking. It was almost as good as a stun spell, all on its own. But as soon as it slacked off slightly, Guinn grabbed me by what was left of my shirt.

“Magic grows; it learns,” she hissed. “It isn’t static; it isn’t a machine! Spells adapt over time, as long as they have the energy to work with—”

“And you’re Pythia,” Rhea added. “Meaning that Lover’s Knot had an almost unlimited source of power fueling it. Who knows what it could do?”

Okay, finally something clicked. I flashed back to the castle in Romania, when Mircea and Pritkin and I had first visited it. I’d only been able to see through their eyes for brief periods, and even then, it had been confusing and impossible to direct and pretty unclear.

But in that underground lab, I’d been myself, looking like me and in full control of my actions, just ghost-like. Mircea had called me a mental projection, as if my mind was there, but nothing else. Because we were linked mentally and he had just manifested that link.

But now… what was I now?

I looked down at my hand—dirty, bruised, and with grime in the lines of the palm and under the fingernails. And then at my clothes, which looked like you’d expect after tramping through a forest for hours. And then there was that missing clump of hair…

It all added up, I’d just been too preoccupied with what I was seeing in the Common to pay attention to what I was seeing here. Or to what I was doing here, without Mircea’s years of experience with the mind to help me. I had his gifts, but not his knowledge.

And that, as it turned out, was a really dangerous combination.

“You’re saying I shifted our souls in here?” I said, still hoping I was wrong.

“And Faerie clothed them in flesh,” Guinn said, with the air of a woman who has won through against great odds.

“It seems the only explanation,” Rhea agreed. “Although it may be only a partial shift—”