Crossing Boundaries

Chapter 26

Luin

Breakfast Saturday morning was tense.

Fen was quiet and nervous, worrying about his interview at Ashen Oak Academy in the afternoon. He kept fretting about his outfit and what talents he could sell to land a job. Then he would get quiet and guilty about worrying about such things considering the risks Arrowan and I were taking this afternoon.

Arrowan kept staring at me with a little furrow between his brows. I'd snap at him to stop worrying – snapping because I wasn't handling the tension well either – and he would look down at the table for a couple of minutes before starting up the staring again. He was worried about me being there today, I got that. I was worried about him, too. Both of us, really.

We were relying on Roderick to pull this off and we barely knew him. I knew he spent yesterday practicing the scene he was going to play out with his magic and he said he had the hang of it – juggling a simulacrum that looked like Arrowan and illusions to make it look like Arrowan was getting chased and killed. Still, practicing when there was no pressure was not nearly the same as actually doing it and knowing what a single mistake could cost us.

Also – things never went the same in reality as they did in practice. Roderick wouldn't have been able to practice responding to what the Unseelie were going to do.

And if they saw through Roderick's magic, we'd have to go back home and abandon the plan altogether. That might not sound so bad, but this might be our best chance to get the Unseelie to stop hunting us, and I didn't know what else we could do if it failed.

So yes, it was a tense breakfast.

When it was over, Fen gave us both huge hugs and retreated to his room – probably both so he could obsess over his outfit and hair and so he wouldn't have to watch us go. He was too much of a worrier for that.

I held out my hand for Arrowan, but he cupped my face in his hands instead and looked into my eyes. "You need to stay safe," he said. "I'll hold my own. If something happens, I want you to get out of there and let me handle myself."

I tried to shake my head "no," but Arrowan's hands held firm and wouldn't allow the motion.

"I mean it, Luin. Please."

"I can't abandon you," I told him. "You can't seriously ask me to. Would you promise to leave me behind if I asked?"

Arrowan looked irritated, but he didn't respond right away. I could practically see the thoughts churning in his mind as he searched for a way to turn the conversation back in his favor. His lips pressed into a thin line and he shook his head, looking defeated.

"We're going to stick together, you and I. We're stronger together – I really believe that," I told him. "Okay?"

He swallowed and gave a small nod. "But please be careful."

"You too."

He pulled me closer and kissed me gently, then pulled away far too soon. "We should go."

I hated that he was right. This time when I held out my hand, he took it, and I teleported us to Glenna and Safiya's living room. They were already there waiting for us, along with Roderick. Glenna was waving her wand over his body while Safiya twirled her wand between anxious fingers. As soon as she noticed us, she launched herself at us in a tight three-way hug.

I patted her back and waited her out. She finally pulled away and said, "Let's get you warded."

Soon, I had three witches plus Arrowan surrounding me as each of them wove wards over my whole body. These were just anti-tracking wards – as long as I wasn't seen, I couldn't be detected. We weren't able to do the same for Arrowan, since the plan depended on him being tracked to that cave. We did have a cloak for him that had been warded in advance. He'd be able to put it on and turn off the tracking sense – important for when the Unseelie saw his "death" and tried tracking him to make sure he was really dead. The cloak wasn't foolproof. Any damage would leave holes in the shielding, so it wasn't as good as the wards cast all over my body. I hated that he was less protected than me.