Leanansidhe’s Mansion is a magnificent sight to see, complete with a double grand staircase sweeping toward a high vaulted ceiling, with roaring fireplaces and plush black sofas. The hardwood floors gleam red, the walls are patterned in red and black and gauzy black curtains cover high arced windows. Nearly every clear space on the wall is taken up by paintings—oil paintings, watercolors, black-and-white sketches. Music constantly echoes through the mansion, always played by one of Leanansidhe’s many human pets. The vast dining hall sports a long table that takes up most of the left wall, surrounded by chairs of glass and wood. Candelabras float down the length of the surface, and the rest of the room is buried in shadow. The mansion also contains a library, which is red-carpeted with a stone fireplace and bookshelves that soar to the ceiling.

Despite the grandeur of the main house, the basement looks like a medieval dungeon, with damp stone walls, torches hanging from the walls, wooden portcullises and leering gargoyles decorating the walls.

Leanansidhe’s Cabin

A wooden door in the basement of Leanansidhe’s Mansion leads out into a forest glen, where across a stream lies a cabin, fully stocked and kept clean by brownies. Leanansidhe’s “cabin” is an enormous, two-story lodge with a veranda that circles the entire upper deck. The front of it stands on stilts, twenty-or-so feet off the ground, giving the front deck a fantastic view of the whole clearing. Meghan, her companions and her human father stay in this cabin while Meghan learns to fight and to control her conflicting Iron and Summer abilities.

Familiar faces in the Between:

Kimi

Kimi is half Asian, half phouka, a follower of Leanansidhe who runs errands, and procures—and steals—items from the Nevernever in exchange for the Exile Queen’s protection. She is tiny, with furry ears, hair that is hacked and messy, and she wears a ratty sweater that is two sizes too big. She and Nelson use their skills to obtain items that help Meghan break into the SciCorp facility housing Virus and the Scepter of the Seasons, including building blueprints and an ID tag. Kimi is taken over by one of Virus’s bugs and, after being used to send a message to Meghan, has her brain scrambled.

Nelson

Nelson is a half troll, another of Leanansidhe’s half-breed followers. He is built like a linebacker, with muddy-blond hair and skin as green as swamp water. He helps Meghan break into SciCorp but like Kimi is later infected by one of Virus’s bugs and has his brain scrambled.

Warren