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did that whenever I mentioned them, too. I shook my head, anxious to get back to planning. “For now, Brígh and I will go to them.”
    “Agreed.” Liam’s agreement shocked the hell out of me considering his narrowed eyes betrayed his conflict.
    I tried pushing into his thoughts and found them furious and dreary, but he knew I had to go. Wasn’t he just sweet enough to rot my soul by not making it harder for me?
    It took Cas a few moments before he gave a curt nod and said, “Fine,” with the sincerity of a devil promising to pray.
    “Good. Now when can we leave?” I clapped my hands together, glad to finally have something to do instead of sitting around, waiting for the Magi to make their move.
    Brígh winced and gripped the table as if it was the only thing preventing her from falling into the jaws of the apocalypse.
    Cas rushed forward and put his arm around her. At my gaping mouth, he said, “She’s having a vision.”
    I’d never actually seen her have one before. Judging by her moon-sized eyes, it wasn’t good.
    “Laerni,” Brígh whispered and jerked to her feet, still staring into her inner world. Her china cup tipped over and sent a spill of brown liquid across the wood. She cried out, holding her stomach and screamed, “Oh, Goddess, Laerni!”
    A jolt of fright blasted to the top of my skull. I rounded the chair and grabbed Brígh by the face, forcing her to look at me. She rubbed at her arms, clawing at some unseen attacker in her imagination. “What’s wrong? What’s happening to the elves?”
    Her gaze slowly returned to me, emerging from her waking dream, her chest rising and falling like a marathon runner’s. “Freymoor Wood is about to fall.”

4
    As the four of us sprinted toward the portal, Gallagher, Neve and Andrew joined us. I gave them the quick and dirty version of Brígh’s vision of Laerni being attacked by something Brígh couldn’t identify.
    After a stumble—in shock, if his tight expression had anything to do with it—Gallagher took off ahead of us as though a rabid mountain troll cracked a whip at his rear.
    When Liam and I made it through the portal, we found Gallagher kneeling beside Laerni, who lay curled in a fetal position on the stone just outside Seven Gates. Her tall, thin body shook in violent fits. Angry red wounds sliced through the white cloth she wore around her hips and breasts.
    The bottom dropped out of my stomach. What appeared to be rope burns weren’t from ropes, but vines like the ones that had attacked us outside Talawen’s little cave five months before.
    More concerned with those Laerni left behind, I shouted a frantic, “Is it too late? How do I get to Freymoor?”
    She lifted her head, white hair tumbling around her face, the ends stained red. “You would help us, Lila Gray?”
    I knelt, afraid to touch her. It took every ounce of effort I possessed to resist shouting again. “Of course we would. Can you send us there from here?”
    Large silver tears formed on her lashes as she extended her shaking hand, opening her filleted fingers to reveal a shiny black stone. “Take the stone and think of Freymoor, and any who touch you will be taken. Goddess forgive me for being such a coward. Save them, Lila Gray. Save us from our own stupidity.”
    Nodding, I snatched up the stone, walked a few feet away, and stared at my company. Gallagher remained by Laerni, speaking quietly to her, while the other five sets of eyes all faced me.
    “We’re not going.” Liam stared first toward my belly, but lifted to my face, his Light flaring angry blue. “The Magi are trying to lure you out.”
    “Yeah, I say fuck ’em.” Andrew eyed me with such steel I almost took a step back. “They turned tail and ran when we needed them.”
    Cas glared at his brother-in-law, Brígh by his side. “Lila won’t turn her back on them. You have to know that. She can’t because she isn’t like them. She’s better than them.”
    Glowing a little at that, and even