The oracle’s withered, eyeless face crumpled with rage. “Then I am sorry, Iron Queen,” she hissed, floating back several paces. “If you will not accept my offer, you give me little choice. For the future of the courts, and all of Faery, you will not leave this place.”

I drew my sword, and the oracle hissed, raising her steely talons. “You gave your word,” I told her as she circled me like a dusty, ragged phantom, her hair writhing in the breeze. “You promised Ash and Puck that I would not come to harm.”

“I said your physical body will not be harmed,” the oracle replied, baring rotten yellow teeth. “But we are not in the physical world anymore, human. This is more a dream, or a nightmare, depending on how you see it.”

Damn faery word games. I should’ve seen this coming. “Ash and Puck are still waiting for me,” I told her, keeping the point of my blade angled in her direction. “If I don’t return, you’ll have the entire Iron Realm coming after you. This isn’t worth it, Oracle.”

“Your protectors know nothing of what is happening now,” the oracle replied, darting back like a marionette whose strings were jerked. “They see only your physical body, and the death of your dream self will not affect it. Though they will take an empty husk back to the Iron Court tonight, and by that time, I will be long gone. I did say your mind might not be unchanged by this little encounter.”

I growled a curse and lunged at her, stabbing with my sword. She jerked back, baring her rotten teeth. “This is my realm, Meghan Chase,” she spat. “You might be a queen of Faery, and have an entire kingdom ready to fight for you, but here, the dream obeys me!”

Snarling, she waved a claw, and the landscape twisted around us. The moonlit hills disappeared, and black, gnarled trees rose up around us, clawing and grasping. I dodged, cutting away branches that slashed at me with twiggy claws, and the oracle hissed a laugh.

I smacked away a limb reaching for my head and spun to face the withered hag. My arms shook with anger, but I kept my voice calm. “Why are you doing this?” I asked, watching her glare at me balefully. “You were never spiteful, Oracle. You helped us a great deal before, why turn on me now?”

“You do not see, do you, child?” The oracle’s voice was suddenly weary. She waved a claw, and the trees retreated a bit. “I do not take pleasure in this. I truly do not wish your death. It is for the good of the Nevernever, for all of us. Your human sentiments make you blind—you would sacrifice the courts to save one child.”

“My child.”