“Like Chimera,” I said hopefully, referring to a Pythian spell that allowed a Pythia to visit two timelines at once. It was usually reserved for emergencies—or for training, because if you died while in Chimera, your soul just snapped back into the remaining body.

But Rhea was biting her lip again.

“This isn’t Chimera, and the Pythian power doesn’t work here,” she reminded me.

“Meaning… what?”

“What do you think?” Guinn said. “She means we can die in here! Or end up back in our world with half a soul—which means we die there. Which is why we have to go.”

“We have to retreat, Lady,” Rhea agreed.

“No.” I grabbed a knife belt off the fallen fey. “You have to retreat.”

“Lady—”

This time, I grabbed her, and let my fingers dig into her shoulder, because I needed for her to get this. “You’re my heir. If I don’t return, this is all on you. Get to Gertie, get to your mother. Have them train the hell out of you in the past, then shift to the present when you’re ready. I don’t know any two better women, you understand?”

Rhea stared at me with huge, frightened eyes. “Cassie, I—I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready.”

“Nobody ever is for this job, but I chose you for a reason. You’re better than you think you are. Stronger, smarter, braver. Better than me, all right?”

She stared at me some more.

“What about me?” Guinn said, looking less angry and more unsure suddenly.

“Take care of her—and yourself. Get to a portal and she can shift you both back. Fey bodies drop when you leave,” I added, because her eyes had a thousand questions.

“And what are you going to do?”

“Finish this,” I said, and ran.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Four

I strapped the knife belt around my waist, my fingers clumsy with haste and my legs still staggering from whatever that purple spell had been. But staggering with vampire speed is still moving damned fast. Or it would have been, if the trees hadn’t staggered along with me.

Goddamn it!

“Shoo!” I told them. “Shoo! Go away!”

They either didn’t understand or didn’t care. They stuck to me like glue, a little insta-glade of leafy guardians that wasn’t helping. Except to point out my location to anyone who was paying attention. Guinn might as well have put a neon sign over my head!

Until I put on a burst of speed and lost them in the melee. Only to have to dodge behind a wagon when some wild-eyed horses thundered past, and then to duck behind it again when a bunch of fey came running out of the woods, as if finally realizing that their prey was back at camp. They stopped abruptly and stared, but not at me.