A crashing sound put us both on edge, but when the wolf came into view another wave of relief washed over me. His green eyes surveyed the scene as if confused. He made a small whining sound, ears back.
“I’m okay,” I said, “Kiana saved me.”
The queen brushed leaves off her dirty shift dress. “Yes, yes, but we need to go. We’re still being pursued, you know.” She said it all in a dismissive tone as if this were something that happened all the time, and I realized that, for her, maybe it did. I’d spent so long underestimating my aunt. I vowed never to do that again.
Vaughn turned to go, but I held up a hand to stop him.
“Can you carry her?” I gestured to Daniella prone on the jungle floor.
Vaughn tilted his head in question.
I nodded. “I have a feeling we’re going to need her.”
Chapter Eleven
Back on the ship, Vaughn set a still-unconscious Daniella in the middle of an empty, windowless room, then stepped out and closed the door.
Dean McIntosh waved her hands toward the door, releasing a golden spell that seeped through the metal and went all around the edge completely sealing Daniella in.
“Nothing can go in and out of that room now,” the dean said with a nod of satisfaction.
The ship contained no plants that Daniella could control, and the spell should take care of the vines she could produce on her own.
Together, we rushed down the passageway to the control center. Kiana waited there, staring at all the computer monitors with distrust, the dean’s people staring back, uselessly trying to disguise their curiosity over the Queen of the Seelie Fae.
We had arrived just minutes before, and Vinya had led Kiana here while we secured Daniella. Vinya now sat off to the side, staring at her clasped hands in contemplation. She seemed to process things better in silence and on her own.
The dean gave Kiana a curt nod. Her eyes held distrust built-up over time. She knew of my aunt’s troubled past, having worked with her at the Academy on one occasion, and I’d also told her that Kiana had allied herself with the Habermanns. Perhaps, when the dean heard the Queen’s explanation of what had happened, she would see everything under a different light.
Approaching a blank wall, the dean pressed a button. A panel slid out of the way, revealing a monitor. Daniella’s prone shape appeared on the screen.
“Can your magic cure her?” I asked, apprehension tightening my chest. Vaughn intertwined his fingers with mine for support, and I relaxed a fraction.
Dean McIntosh shook her head. “I don’t know, Tally, but I’ll try everything in my power to make your friend better.”
“You must figure it out,” Kiana said fervently. “My son… he’s also a… creature.”
The dean gave Kiana a sideways glance, pushing air through her nose. “I was under the impression that you permitted the Habermanns to run experiments on him.”
“I didn’t do such a thing. Those perverse humans didn’t need my permission. I was their prisoner. I only went along because they threatened to kill him and Tally.”
Dean McIntosh narrowed her eyes. “And how did you manage to escape their highly fortified dome?”
“Because—” she started.
Vinya interrupted. “She’s waking up.”
The witch walked to the monitor and stared intently at the stirring shape.
Daniella was on her knees, swaying on the spot and glancing around her closed-in space. Suddenly, she jumped to her feet and rushed toward the door. She pulled on the handle, and when the door didn’t open, she pounded on it. Fists clenched, she stood as vines elongated from her body and tried to slide under the door. As soon as they touched the dean’s magic, however, they burned and disintegrated into ashes. She tried again and again with the same result.
After several long minutes, she turned toward the camera and screamed, her mouth forming a wide “O.” A terrible screech came through the speakers. I covered my ears just as the dean waved her hand and the volume lowered.
She nodded. “I think my spell will keep her.”
The screeching continued as Daniella threw herself against the metal walls, her claws scratching as if she could dig herself out.
“Tally, press this and talk to her, see if you can get her to calm down.” The dean pointed at a round, orange button underneath the monitor. “Otherwise, we might have to sedate her for her own good.”
I stepped closer and did as she instructed. “Daniella, it’s me, Tally.”
Daniella stopped scratching and froze, her head cocking to one side.
The dean gave me an encouraging nod.
I cleared my throat and pressed the button again. “You’re safe now, and we’re going to help you. We’re going to get you back to normal.”
Daniella stepped away from the wall and walked toward the opposite corner, staring up, straight at the camera, her eyes narrowed, her attention focused on my voice.
“I thought you were dead,” I said. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I promise you, I won’t rest until you’re better. You’ll never go back to that island.”
At the word “island,” Daniella bared her teeth and started screeching again. She jumped toward the camera and swiped at it. I thought she might dislodge it, but apparently, it was embedded into the wall because the monitor continued to show her useless attempts to claw it out. She screeched nonstop and at the top of her lungs, beating and clawing and ramming her body against the wall.
I winced, my heart shrinking. “Gods, she’s going to hurt herself.”
“No, she won’t.” The dean weaved her hands together, and in the next instant, Daniella crumpled to the floor, asleep.
Next to me, Kiana turned pale, but despite her horror, anger burned in her eyes.
“This is what they did to my son. But they’ll pay dearly for it.” Her eyes snapped to the dean. “You must help me fetch my Warriors. We will raze this place to the ground.”
The dean made a noncommittal sound in the back of her throat. “You never answered my question. How did you escape the Habermanns?”
Color rose back into my aunt’s cheeks, betraying her anger. Her temper was legendary, a creature no one ever wished to awaken. So fearsome that when she took a deep breath, her shoulders relaxing, the red in her cheeks subsiding, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It seemed her stay in this human realm and her visit with the Habermanns had taught her a thing or two.
“I didn’t have to escape the dome,” she said, her words measured, slow. “I was outside already, helping them look for my son.”
“What do you mean?” I said.
“He is… at large. That was the way they put it. They don’t know where he is. He seems to have cut free of their control, somehow. My Sinasre has always been strong, so I’m not surprised. They thought that if he heard my voice or saw me, he would come out. Once outside with those human guards, I had no trouble getting away. I hoped to find Sinasre, but then I found you instead.” She smiled in a way that made it hard to figure out whether she would have rather stay on the inhospitable island looking for my cousin.
The dean nodded. “It seems like a reasonable explanation but forgive me if I reserve judgment.”