A Little Night Muse(67)

                Her true place was here, beside Josh, for as long as they                     had.

                Which wouldn’t be long.

                She squeezed his fingers, interlaced with hers. “Josh, we don’t                     have a way out.”

                “There’s always a way out.”

                “Not from the phaedrealii,” she                     said grimly. “Do you know what Vaile had to do to escape with Imogene?”

                “No, but whatever it was, we can do it too.”

                From behind them, a dog bayed. In another heartbeat, a                     multiplicity of eerie howls echoed it. The sound carried up the corridor, lacing                     the stark walls with curls of crimson that dripped down like blood.

                Josh slowed to point the tip of the spear at the warning. The                     bloody streak curled back, as if pushed by an invisible force but did not                     disappear.

                “The Queen appears to have recovered from her shock.” Adelyn                     tugged him onward, anywhere farther from the throne room. “And she has set the                     Hunters’ hounds on our trail.”

                “I take it we’re not talking wannabe Wollys.”

                “If Wolly had three heads, and all three wanted to dig your                     bones from your flesh.”

                “Ah.” He slanted a glance at her. “You seem every bit as                     dangerous.”

                She blinked. Did she? She’d never thought of herself as                     dangerous. She touched her hair with her free hand, the one not linked to Josh,                     and the serpents twined around her fingers. Their tongues flicked her skin with                     a cool caress.

                “Only some of them are venomous,” she said modestly.

                “You’ll have to show me which ones. After you show me a way                     out.”

                Her little burst of happiness that he still wanted to know her                     evaporated. “I told you, there is no way out, not without gate spores, and I                     gave mine away.”

                “Can we get them back?”

                “Not soon enough to save ourselves.” She hesitated. “And we’d                     make escape impossible for anyone else.”