WHY DID SETH HAVE to be right? The Stone Castle had stood for centuries. No matter how many times it had been attacked, no one could ever get through the double walls. We could also secure it with an electric grid. If we didn’t get killed trying to capture it, then we just might survive an attack by the fairies. And the attack would come.

“Come on.” Ricci looked at the sketch of the castle’s fortifications that Bralazin had made. “Don’t all castles have secret tunnels and whatnot?”

“It does,” Vinsor confirmed, then pointed at the cave east of the castle. “Through here, but it’s small. We couldn’t sneak up on them through it. At most, we can get a few people, and that’s assuming we don’t set off spells.”

“I can sense any feelers they would use,” I said.

Lord Dralik always wanted strings of magic weaved through weaknesses in the defences. This passage was no different. At one point, my own magic had guarded it, but I had grown stronger than ever before. Stronger than anyone else in this world.

“You got a rocket launcher.” Seth pointed at the front gate. “If we have a team pretending to attack from the front, we can have a few people sneak in through the tunnels while all of their soldiers are distracted.”

Could I really go back there and face Lord Dralik one more time? Meeting Jill had been a blessing in its own strange way. My family probably would hate me if they knew I was helping Jill instead of trying to kill her, but she showed me a better way than dedicating my life to revenge at the expense of my own dignity.

“I can lead the frontal attack,” Bralazin said. “Our soldiers are used to following me into battle, and Lord Dralik won’t question it. I can shoot down one of their guard towers to show our strength but leave the rest.”

“I’ll go through the tunnels,” Seth said. “This is the kind of thing I’m used to doing. Nasilain will come with me to help with the alarms.”

I nodded in agreement. My stomach twisted into knots. Go back there? Face Lord Dralik again? The few glimpses I had gotten over the last two years hurt enough.

“I’ll go through the tunnels too,” Vinsor said. “You’ll need my mind-reading abilities if we run into anyone.”

“I’ll go too,” Jill said a little too cheerily.

“No,” Vinsor answered. “You and Ricci should go back to your world and buy everything we need to secure the castle. We won’t have time to waste.”

An excuse. Vinsor worried about putting Jill in danger. She knew how to heal, not how to fight. Same as Ricci. The two of them had come a long way in the last two years, but at the end of the day, their dislike for death got in the way.

“I can make another landing bay in this world, so you don’t have to risk returning here alone.” I only had to enchant a piece of wood and carry it into the castle after we finished fighting.

“Fine.” Jill sighed. “We’ll go to New York, split up between a few stores, so we don’t draw too much attention, then get back as soon as we can. It shouldn’t be more than three days of this world’s time. You should be able to hold the castle that long without much problem.”

“You two know where we’d find Lord Dralik when we get inside?” Seth asked.

“Yes,” I answered. “He’ll be either in his study or in his bedroom.” The two places I hated the most.

“Alright, then let’s get some sleep. Might as well be in top shape for this.” Seth got up from behind the low table in the main room of the caves.

I followed him outside. In order to keep Belka and Strelka from going crazy, we decided to sleep with them in one of the few reasonably secure buildings - the showers.

“Worried?” Seth asked as we came outside.

“If anyone can capture the castle, we can.” Unless I messed it up somehow and got us captured. What would Lord Dralik do to us?

“Yeah, but you still look worried.” Seth opened the door and let me in as if I was someone special, not just another nameless commoner.

“Thanks.”

How odd. Seth thought he owed me a lot more respect than I deserved. Sorceresses weren’t that important.

The dogs ran up to me, tongues hanging out, ears at attention. They had no problem being around people, but they mostly tolerated everyone. Few of us got the honor of considering these girls our friends.

“Nasilain, talk to me. If there’s something I should know about, it’s better if you tell me now, so I can adjust for it. I don’t want to run into surprises in the middle of the mission.”

I sat against the wall and sighed. Where could I even begin with this conversation? How could I know what might go wrong when half the time I didn’t know what I was doing? I spent hours every day studying, and I still didn’t know enough.

“I could’ve gotten you all killed today,” I said at last. “When I read about splitting atoms, it didn’t say anything about radiation. My ability to teleport is the only reason anyone even tolerates me.”

Seth sat down next to me and took my hand in his. Such a familiar and comforting gesture for someone I had only known for a few days.

“You saved us today. Jill and I know about radiation because in our world, we had some seriously messed up things happen. We leveled two cities with one bomb each. Our people tried to split atoms to get energy, but one of the reactors blew up. Decades later, the city is still abandoned. It’s impossible for us not to know about it.”

“I should’ve known about it. What if the explosion was even bigger?”

His thumb moved over my knuckles. Back and forth. Back and forth. “You’re way too hard on yourself. You know how incredible what you did is? You just read about it and pulled it off.” Seth looked into my eyes as he said it.

My breath caught. “But what if I killed us? What if the radiation kills us?”

My heart pounded. How did we end up sitting this close?

“Look at it this way, I didn't know fairies were dangerous. If you and Vin hadn't started killing them, I never would've guessed we needed to.”

“But you just got here. I've been studying your science for two years.”

“Only two?” He stared at my mouth. “Nasilain, promise you won’t electrocute me in the next couple of minutes.”

“What?” Why would he even ask about it? “Why would I electrocute you?”

“Because of this.” He cradled my head in his hands as he covered my lips with his.

All of my thoughts stopped, replaced by his warm body pressed against mine, his tongue sweeping over my lips, demanding entrance. I opened up for him and kissed back. Whatever would happen tomorrow, the day after that, or in the months of the fairies attacking the land, at least I had this for now.

Strelka let out a low growl. I pulled away to see what the dog had reacted to. Two pairs of orange eyes watched us.

“Jealous.” Seth's hands still cradled my head, but instead of pulling me closer, he caressed the sensitive skin on the back of my neck.

“Behave yourselves, girls,” I said to them. “You can only growl at people who are threatening us.” The two dogs sat quietly, no longer showing any sign of aggression but still watching Seth. “I’m sorry. They just need time to get used to you.”

Seth pulled me to his chest, letting me rest my head against it. “It’s hard to domesticate wolves. If you want to speed things along, we can always bring a couple of male dogs about the same size to make the next generation more tame. These girls are doing pretty well, though.”

“I guess.”

His steady heartbeat comforted me. How odd. I had always worried about my safety, but with Seth, I didn’t need to. He could do it for me. Was this what being with a man should feel like?

Seth kissed the top of my head, keeping his arms around me but never straying away from my back and waist, never doing anything inappropriate. It reminded me of the first time I had felt his embrace, when I had become so engrossed in reading that I didn’t even notice him. Even then, the worst he had done was make a bad joke about showers.

As if he read my mind, Seth said with a smile in his voice, “You know, we actually did end up in the shower together.”

I muck-punched him in the stomach. “Be quiet, or I’ll set the dogs on you.”

“I’m more worried about you electrocuting me.”