The Iron Warrior. Julie Kagawa

I myself have too many to count, but there is one thing that I have never regretted, and that is meeting your sister.” He said it calmly, like he was stating the obvious. “I would not change anything when it comes to Meghan,” Ash went on, “but I do know that our decisions have made your life very hard. She wished it could have been otherwise, but I think we both know why she chose what she did. Just remember that she was always thinking of her family, and you especially, Ethan.”

      I blinked rapidly and swallowed the lump in my throat. “I know,” I husked out, and said something that I had never spoken out loud before in Faery, had never thought I would. “Thanks.”

      Ash spun and vanished into the darkness, leaving me and Kenzie alone. I stood there a moment, waiting for my eyes to clear, before I felt Kenzie’s warm hand on my back. “You okay, tough guy?”

      I dragged in a deep breath. “Yeah,” I rasped, turning to face her. “I’m fine. You ready for this?”

      She smiled, slipped both arms around my waist and hugged me. For a moment, I just held her, my brain looping in dark, endless circles. Find Guro, destroy the amulet. Or at least, reverse whatever soul-sucking juju was at work here. That was it. And, hopefully, once that was done, Keirran would stop being an unforgivable douche and go home. Of course, there was still the Lady and the Forgotten to worry about, but one problem at a time.

      Kenzie let me go and stepped forward, peering into the tunnel. Razor leaped from a shelf and landed on her shoulder, buzzing happily, and the blue-white glow from his fangs threw strange flickering lights over the walls. “Do you think Annwyl is all right?” Kenzie whispered. “And that Keirran will really come to his senses once we kill the amulet?”

      I stepped up beside her and took her hand. “Let’s find out.”

      Together, we walked into the darkness.

      

       CHAPTER SIX

      RETURN TO GURO

      We followed the passage for a while as, I suspected, it took us beneath the palace and then below the streets of Mag Tuiredh. The stone tunnel soon dumped us into a large copper tube, where I had to bend slightly to keep my head from hitting the ceiling. Smaller pipes and tubes broke off from the main passageway, dripping water, oil and, occasionally, some strange, bright green substance that sizzled when it touched anything but the copper piping. I was careful to avoid it and kept a sharp eye on Kenzie, hoping she would not get curious and poke a stick into the caustic green puddles just to see what happened.

      Small metal cockroaches crawled along the walls and ceiling, waving bright, hair-thin antennae at us, pinprick eyes glowing the same poison green as the puddles. Razor’s arm shot out once, faster than thought, snatching one of the metal bugs from the roof and stuffing it in his mouth with sharp crinkling sounds. Kenzie “Eww-ed,” handed me the gremlin and refused to let him sit on her shoulder again until we got outside. Despondent, Razor pouted on my back, muttering nonsense and making my teeth vibrate with his constant buzzing.

      Finally, the tube came to a dead end, with a steel ladder leading up to a square trapdoor. Pushing back the lid, I squinted as bright sunlight flooded the air above me. Crawling out of the tube, I felt a tingle of magic against my skin, like walking into a spiderweb. Ignoring the urge to wipe at my face, I heaved myself onto a patch of cool, dry grass, leaving one realm behind and entering another.

      The real world. Home.

      I turned to help Kenzie through the hole, grabbing her wrist and pulling her up beside me. Razor immediately leaped to her shoulder, as I gazed around to get our bearings.

      “Where are we?” Kenzie asked, dusting off her hands. I blinked, shaking my head in amazement.

      “I don’t believe it,” I muttered, staring around at the overgrown lot. “We are literally three blocks from my house. When Ash had said it was close, he wasn’t kidding.”

      “Really?”

      I nodded and gazed through the trees, spotting the road a few yards away. An old gray truck rumbled past, tossing branches, and a knot formed in my stomach. So close. My parents, Mom especially, were probably frantic to see me.

      And...I couldn’t go home yet. Three short blocks from my house...and I couldn’t see them. Because they wouldn’t let me go back, and Meghan still needed my help. I couldn’t abandon one half of my family for the other.

      Kenzie’s eyes were sympathetic as she put a hand on my arm. “Missing home?”

      “Yeah, but there’s nothing I can do about it now.” I turned and forced a smile. “Come on. Guro’s house is clear across town. We’re going to have to call a taxi.”

      * * *

      Thankfully, Kenzie had enough cash for the taxi ride, and the cab eventually dropped us off at a curb in a small suburban neighborhood. Across the street, Guro Javier’s simple brick house waited at the end of the sidewalk, though the driveway was empty. After piling out of the cab, I looked at Kenzie.

      “What day is it?”

      “Um.” Kenzie pulled out her phone and frowned at the screen. “Ugh, the battery is already almost dead. Stupid faery time differences. It’s Thursday, according to this.”

      Thursday. Kali class was on Thursday evenings. “He’ll be at the dojo tonight, teaching,” I told Kenzie, peering over her shoulder at the phone. “We probably have an hour until he gets back.”

      She nodded, and we sat together on a ledge to wait. Cars trundled by, and a couple of joggers passed us without pausing, not seeing the gremlin hissing at them from Kenzie’s shoulder. I hid my swords behind the ledge, just in case someone saw a pair of strange teenagers loitering around the neighborhood and noticed that one of them was armed.

      Finally, a single white car pulled into the driveway and shuddered to a halt. The driver’s side door opened, and Guro stepped out, carrying his gear bag over his shoulder. Slowly, I stood up, wondering if I should walk forward, suddenly uncertain as to what my mentor thought of me now. I’d been gone for months. The last time he’d seen me, I’d brought a pair of fey into his home, performed a dark ritual and vanished into the Nevernever. That was a lot of weird crap for anyone to handle.

      Guro froze when he saw me hovering at the edge of the sidewalk. I swallowed and stayed where I was, waiting. If Guro didn’t want to see me again, if he turned, walked away without looking back and slammed the door behind him, I wouldn’t blame him.

      “Are you just going to stand there, Ethan, or are you going to come inside?”

      My legs nearly gave out with relief. Numb, I followed Guro up the driveway to the front door of his house, where a series of wild barks could be heard beyond the door. Razor hissed and hid in Kenzie’s hair, and she grimaced.

      “I’ll wait outside, if you need me to,” she offered.

      But Guro shook his head. “One moment,” he said, unlocking the door and pushing it open a crack. “I will return shortly.”

      He slid through the opening, and I heard him calling to the dogs, leading them away from the door. Kenzie and I stood on the step and waited, the gremlin muttering nonsense beneath her hair. A few minutes later, Guro appeared in the doorway again, motioning us inside.

      We followed him into the same living room where, not so very long ago, it seemed, Keirran, Kenzie and I had gathered with a dying Annwyl, and Keirran had begged Guro to save her. Even if it meant turning to the dark arts. And Guro had agreed. And Keirran had