Chimes at Midnight

“I’m gearing up to ask you for a favor to be named later. I’m just adding to my leverage here.” Her tone was light, but there was an element of seriousness there.

That was something to worry about later. “I still appreciate it. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Please do. Now get yourself un-banished before time runs out. This Kingdom would be awfully dull without you.” Li Qin hung up.

“She got me the pass,” I said, lowering my phone. “And yes, you can come with me, since she didn’t think I’d want to go alone.”

“Both of us?” asked Quentin hopefully.

Tybalt didn’t ask. He just raised an eyebrow.

Li Qin said “friends” when I asked her about bringing an escort . . . “Yes,” I said firmly. My phone buzzed again as Li texted me. I checked the display. “Lucky us: we’re staying in the city. The place is just a few miles from here.”

“I don’t think you should change your clothes,” said May.

I turned, blinking, to see her standing in the kitchen doorway with Jazz. “What?”

“Keep the dress. Most Librarians don’t get out much. Whoever runs the local branch is probably a little bit behind the times. They’ll find formality appropriate and respectful.” May shrugged. “Just a suggestion.”

Sometimes it was easy to forget that my silly, flamboyant Fetch had started her existence as one of the night-haunts. They met all the Librarians, eventually. “Okay,” I said. “As long as I can keep my jacket. But I don’t think we can all go.”

“I know,” said May. “Jazz and I will stay here and deal with anyone who shows up to tell you how sorry they are. You go and make this exile go away. Find out whose throne that really is, and depose the bitch.”

“No pressure,” added Jazz, with a sweet, if worried, smile.

“No pressure,” I echoed. I tucked my phone back into my pocket. “Come on, boys. Let’s go to the Library.”

“If I may,” said Tybalt. “Were I the Queen, I would almost certainly set someone to watching this house, to see if you went anywhere after you finally came home from racing about the city, looking for aid. Were I the Queen, I would also be quite likely arrogant enough to disregard the fact that you are being courted by a man who can take you anywhere you wish without needing to move the car or, indeed, step outside the threshold.”

“Were you the Queen, I wouldn’t be dating you, but point taken,” I said. “Can you carry me and Quentin over to 5th and Brannan? I’m not leaving him here just so the Queen doesn’t follow me.”

“Your loyalty will be the death of us all one day, but yes, I can take you both,” said Tybalt. “It may not be pleasant. I can still manage it.”

“Then let’s go,” I said, and offered him my hand.

“As you like.” This time, Tybalt took Quentin’s hand directly, rather than letting him hold onto me. “Both of you, take a deep breath, and hold fast. I would not want to lose you.” On that dire note, he stepped into the shadows formed by the meeting of the cabinet and the wall, and pulled us with him, into darkness.

The Shadow Roads seemed colder this time, maybe because we were going farther than before. I held Tybalt’s hand, trusting him to see us through the darkness, which was too deep for my eyes to penetrate, but must have been clear to his. I could hear Quentin’s teeth chattering. He hadn’t traveled through the dark this way as many times as I had, and I wasn’t sure he’d ever come this far.

Just as my lungs were beginning to burn, we stepped out of the darkness and into the watery streetlight shining on the corner of 5th and Brannan. There were no people in sight. A few cars moved on the cross streets, but none close enough to have seen our sudden appearance.

“Good aim,” I said, stuffing my freezing hands into the pockets of my jacket. “Quentin? You okay?”

“I really, really miss living where there’s snow,” he said, sounding altogether too chipper for someone who’d just been pulled along the Shadow Roads.

“All right, when this is all over, we’ll go skiing. Now let’s find the Library.” I pulled out my phone, checking Li’s text. Then I blinked. “This isn’t what it said before.”

“What?” Tybalt stepped closer, peering at the screen over my shoulder.

“Before, it said ‘5th and Brannan.’ Now it says to turn left.” I scowled. “April’s been making improvements again. Yippee.”

April O’Leary, Countess of Tamed Lightning, was the reason I had a cell phone. She’s the world’s first cyber-Dryad, and she specializes in making mortal technology compatible with fae magic. Phones that could work in the Summerlands, for example, or survive the freezing temperatures of the Shadow Roads without breaking. And now, apparently, phones that could receive semi-sentient text messages.

We started walking. After we had turned left, the message changed again, now telling us to head three blocks down. We kept walking.