Shane shot her a look that could have cut stone. ‘If you can manage it, I’m sure I can.’

‘Once they agree to meet us, we offer to exchange Mikey and Jenny for our most prized possessions. Then, we leave as quickly as possible. Easy peasy.’

Shane grunted.

‘A little too easy if you ask me,’ he said, but Cat ignored him. It wasn’t as if they had a better plan.

‘Remember,’ she said. ‘If they offer any food or drink don’t take it.’

‘Why not?’

‘Basic fairy-tale stuff,’ Cat said. ‘Everyone knows that. Are you ready?’

Shane nodded, but Cat saw the fear in his eyes.

‘We’re doing this for Jenny and Mikey,’ she said gently.

Hearing his sister’s name seemed to harden his resolve. They were as ready as they would ever be. Without another word, Cat and Shane strode forward and entered the Green Rath.

All at once, the world seemed to change. Cat had expected to walk into an open courtyard no more than a few metres wide, but instead they found themselves standing in a corridor made of rough-hewn stone. It looked like the interior of a castle. Flaming torches sat in sconces along the wall and cast pools of thick, rich golden light. Cat looked behind her, expecting to see the clearing, but found the archway they had just entered through was gone. There was only a grey stone wall and no sign that an entrance had ever been there at all.

Shane looked at her with wide eyes. ‘No turning back now,’ he said.

With nowhere else to go they set off down the corridor and into the heart of the fairy fort.

Chapter Seventeen

The Revels

Cat and Shane had barely walked five paces when the floor began to slope downwards, winding its way toward the heart of the hill in an anticlockwise direction. Although flaming torches were mounted onto the thick stone walls every couple of feet, they did a poor job of keeping the darkness at bay. Cat could feel it creeping in on them from all sides. They had only been walking for a few minutes when they came to a place where two corridors branched off in different directions.

‘Which way?’ asked Shane.

Cat closed her eyes and reached out with the Sight. Immediately, she felt the fairy magic wash over her with the force of a tidal wave and she stumbled backwards into Shane.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked, steadying her.

Cat nodded. It seemed that now they were in the fairies’ domain her Sight wouldn’t be of much use to her. There was just too much magic battling for her attention all at once.

‘Maybe we should pick a path and see where it leads?’ said Cat uncertainly. She didn’t like that that idea much – there was a fifty-fifty chance they would choose wrong and waste what little time they had left going around in circles again, but what else could they do?