For once, the only two people laughing were Rachel and Finn. Katherine was distracted by her own problems, and Becca was characteristically quiet, but I knew better than to complain. It would only fuel Finn's amusement.

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"Issue edicts," she said. "Post formal statements emphasizing Tir na Lar that focus on other aspects of Meridian. Military would be best."

"We don't have a military."

Rachel threw up her hands in exasperation. "The Highwood elves are your military, and at least half the Fae living with us are mean-ass fighters, even if they don't have training. If you'd come and watch the sparring matches like I asked, you'd know that."

"I like Radegund," Becca chimed in. "She's so strong."

"The Duende are known for their durability," Finn agreed. "Keep in mind that every organism is built for survival and each of the Fae has unique quirks that might make the Tir stronger than even Rachel's estimate. But let's not get off the subject. Reinforce the name you want to keep. They'll use the other in secret, but it'll be seen as an inside joke or a little harmless rebellion."

"And that's a good thing?" I asked, annoyed at her flippancy. "I thought you wanted me to be a leader. How do I do that if everyone is laughing behind my back?"

"It's not about what I want," Finn said, cracking another smile. "These are people who rejected both courts, risking their lives to remain free. But they need community and someone to protect and guide them and they know it or they wouldn't have accepted the conditions for joining. Think of them as teenagers. They'll whine and sulk when you tell them to clean their room, but if you exercise your authority the job will get done and in the end they'll respect you for it."

"Won't stop them whining and sulking, though," Rachel added.

Finn nodded sagely, "Like I said, teenagers."

"Fine," I said irritably, trying to dismiss the subject. "What about Katherine?"

She stopped in front of a plain looking door with a crooked metal plaque that read simply, "The Boss," and we followed her inside.

"Before we get into that," she said, "there's something else you should see."

Finn's office was large and cleaner than I would have expected, except for a desk piled with papers and unopened cardboard boxes. The rest consisted of a round table, an assortment of well-used chairs, a small sofa, a water cooler, a microwave, and rows of cabinets and shelves full of books and objects I couldn't quickly identify. She crossed the room and fished the pendant out of a drawer, holding it up where we could see.

"First of all, the locket is infused with a traveling spell."

"Traveling?" Becca interrupted. "Does that mean we can use it to fly? Or teleport like Titania?"

Finn shook her head. "There are too many variables to pull off reliable teleportation with Veil magic. When I agreed to let Titania visit we couldn't just drive her out, so Meg cooperated with her mages to open a temporary passage—think wormhole, but with different physics. It's still difficult, especially when you don't want to give away your location, but the spells involved are well established. They've even been given names, like wayfaring and riftwalking."

She held up the locket again, "This is more of a key, or a map. This kind of spell is typically used to get past magical defenses without disrupting them. The means of travel doesn't matter."

"Like our rings?"

"Your rings are just for identification, all the security is built into the wards and managed by Amy's mainframe."

"So where does it lead?" I asked.

"That's a very good question," she said, handing the necklace to me. "We could theoretically use it to open a portal, but the destination is occluded and we have no way of knowing where we'd end up. It might be the bottom of the ocean, or in the heart of the sun."

I blinked in surprise, it never occurred to me that the Fae could use magic to travel into space. "So you think the summer court is still trying to kill me?"

Finn shrugged. "Titania is the one who suggested we examine it. She knew we'd figure out what it was for so I doubt it's inherently dangerous, but even if you end up in a field of daisies and kittens, she didn't give that to you without a reason. You're meant to learn or do something once you get there, something that's out of her reach."

"What could I possibly do that the summer court can't?"

"If I knew that you'd already be on your way."

I turned the locket over in my hands. It didn't look like anything special, apart from its intricate design. "What else?"

"This was inside," she grumbled and produced a small ruby bound in a filigree of dark metal. Becca stepped closer to get a better look.

"What is it?"

Finn struggled with her expression, as though she was both annoyed and appreciative of the gem. "It's a banestone, crafted specifically to fuck with a particular type of magic. Meg's pissed that she didn't notice it."

"Particular magic? What magic?"

"Titania is a diviner," Finn said with a grimace, "she can sense and manipulate distortions in the Veil..."

"Like Moonspirit and Brightweave?" Becca cut in again. The two Camenae back at Meridian were introduced to us as prophets, but it turned out that their ability to see the future was less than reliable, and Moon, in particular, had a habit of predicting catastrophe. In her latest vision, which appeared to her just after watching a nature documentary, I was in danger of severing my left hand while running across the Grand Canyon.

"Not quite," Finn said. "Those two are seers, Titania's gifts are more practical. Distance viewing, psychometry, limited telepathy, that sort of thing. She helped the druids design the first scrying bowls."

Becca gasped. "She's that old?"

"Older. She's not technically an immortal, but she might as well be."

"So what does this have to do with the gem?" Rachel asked.

Finn held it up again, rolling it between her finger and thumb. "This was specifically made to interfere with communication into and out of the Tir. Meg thinks it might be a bug, but it can't break through the wards on its own and it was given to you knowing we'd examine it. Titania isn't a fool. It has some other purpose."

Becca fidgeted nervously. "Could it... um... could it affect the mirror?"

"Probably, why?"

Becca frowned and began fidgeting. "I think I messed up." All eyes were instantly on her, which noticeably heightened her anxiety, but she swallowed hard and forged ahead. "After her visit I picked up a flower that had fallen from her cart and tried to use that in the mirror to find out what she was really up to."

Finn closed her eyes, exhaling slowly. "What happened?"

"It showed me Tom and Professor Kelly instead and told me I had to help them, and it showed me what I had to do to trick Tom into using his power. I didn't want to, but it felt really important, like life or death, and when the time came I didn't really have a choice."

"That crazy bitch," Finn muttered with an ironic chuckle. "That didn't have anything to do with the banestone, Becca, she hit you with a geas. She felt you probing and pushed back."

"I'm so sorry," Becca whimpered, retreating into herself. I stepped close and put an arm around her.

"It'll be fine," I assured her. "It was awkward, but it forced me to open up to Kelly, something I've been meaning to do for weeks." Then an icy fear crept up my spine and I turned back to Finn. "How could Becca trick me into using my power? It doesn't work that way."

Finn bit her lip and I could practically see the wheels turning in her mind. "It could have been Titania, but she can only affect transactions across the Veil, the same way you need an open connection to access a person's will. She might be able to influence you, but she wouldn't have vicarious access to your abilities without one."

I glanced at Becca, not because she had answers, but because I instantly shared her anxiety. She wasn't the only one who messed up.

"I touched her just before she left," I confessed, and Finn began rubbing at her temples. "It was an accident," I hastened to explain, "but I couldn't stop it, it was like she was inhaling it."

"That information would have been useful when I specifically asked you for it."

"It's not like it's the first time it happened on its own. Why would I assume it was deliberate?"

"Because it's Titania," Finn shot back, "one of the oldest Fae, Oberon's consort, an Aes Sidhe, and technically an enemy of Tir na Lar!" She sighed out the last of her frustration. "Okay, what's done is done. Becca, be careful using the mirror from now on. Titania will recognize your aura if you start nosing around the Summer Court. Tom, we've been giving you time to get used to your situation, but you need to start training to use your abilities."

"I already have," I complained. Unleashing that power on purpose wasn't one of my favorite pastimes.

"You just acknowledged that your control is shit, and we need you answers," Finn insisted. "There are mechanisms at work in you that we don't understand. Neither the leanan sidhe nor the gean canagh look human in their natural state, but you've received the attributes of both without changing your form. Their magic was never designed to work together, but you've managed to combine them into a unique set of abilities that have done more good than harm. In all of Fae and human history, there's never been someone quite like you. Is it an accident, divine providence, or something else? It's time for you to stop stumbling around blindly."

"Providence?" Rachel snorted a laugh. "You think some holy roller is using Tom as a sock puppet? I thought you told us gods were just powerful Fae."

"I said they were mistaken for gods," Finn said. "That doesn't mean there isn't a higher being directing the cosmos."

"Bullshit."

"That's enough," I warned, trying to avoid an argument, but Finn just gave her a tolerant smile.

"Worlds are willed into existence, Rachel. How do you think it all started?"

"Fuck if I know, but you can't show me a sky daddy who makes it rain because I masturbate."

"Is that your magic power?" Katherine teased.

"Fuck off."

"Every world believes in a creator," Finn said, grinning her approval at Katherine. "It's practically the only thing they all have in common."

Rachel frowned but dismissed the conversation rather than argue. It wasn't something I often thought about, but it was hard to imagine even one universe popping into existence accidentally, much less trillions upon trillions, each one unique and complete, especially after all I'd learned in the last few months. When I confronted my dad I had, in wild desperation, somehow touched the Void, a seething paradox of chaotic non-existence that stretched forever beyond the continuum. I didn't remember much about that encounter, but even that emptiness had acknowledged an order to the multiverse.

"Okay, so when are we going to talk about Katherine?" I asked. "I thought that's why we came."

Finn nodded and gestured for us to take our seats in the mismatched chairs before claiming her own. "I have to agree with Saphielle," she told Katherine, "Tom somehow gifted this ability to you when you started having sex."

Rachel's eyebrows went up and she shot me an appraising look. "Banging Tom equals superhero?"

"Apparently," Finn said with less amusement. "More to the point, it changed how she interacts with the Veil, which is another reason for Tom to continue his training. There aren't any precedents for this."

"Need volunteers?"

"Shut up, Rach," I muttered.

"I'm just sayin'"

"Can I turn it off?" Katherine asked seriously.

"I don't know, but my gut says you should be able to control it. You'll need to play around with it to be sure."

"How? Just sit around and wait until someone has a nervous breakdown?"

"It's not triggered by emotion, that was just the thing that made your connection obvious. You should be able to forge a bond at will, once you figure out how. Hang on, I have an idea." She pulled an old flip-phone out of her pocket, hit speed dial, and said to the person on the other end, "Bring Cinnamon."

"Cinnamon?" Becca made a face. "What does that do? Does she have to eat it?"

Finn just tucked her phone away and slouched in her chair, smiling enigmatically. A few minutes later, a knock on the door preceded a trio of tiny brownies—I had no idea what kind—hefting a cardboard box into the office. Finn stood and took it from them before returning to the table.

"This is Cinnamon," she said, lifting out a medium sized calico cat that began purring loudly. "She wandered in here a few months ago and never left so the workers adopted her. We built her a deluxe cat tree and everything, but the ungrateful turd prefers this box."

"She's adorable," Katherine smiled, leaning forward to scratch behind its ears, "but what does this have to do with me?"

"Human mages always used cats or birds. They're easy to domesticate but they're not pack or service animals and that independence apparently helps you maintain control without being distracted by their instincts."

"So it's like... possession?" The idea clearly made Katherine uncomfortable, but Finn shook her head.

"The bond is more complete, more intimate. You won't be forcing it to act against its will, or vice versa. You'll merge with it, as if you're one being. You'll be the cat, and the cat will be you."

I couldn't get my mind around the idea of operating as a single entity with two minds and two bodies, but Katherine just sighed and nodded as Finn passed Cinnamon to her.

"So I just what, fake it 'till I make it? Pretend to feel what the cat feels until I really do?"

"You'd know how that part works better than me," Finn said. "I'm a little curious to see it for myself, I've only received reports."

"Go ahead," Rachel encouraged her. "You already tried to murder me, I don't see how this could be worse."

Katherine stuck out her tongue, then turned her attention on me while the cat kneaded her thighs and pressed its head into her hand. "What do you think?"

"Don't look at me," I said defensively. "If they're right you've already been inside my brain without going crazy and Cinnamon seems willing to cooperate."

"Okay," she sighed, and lifted the animal so she could look into its eyes. "How do I even start? Are you in there, Cinnamon? Can you hear me?"

The cat answered with an affectionate meow and Becca giggled. My girlfriend continued to stare, her crooked grin dubious until the cat locked eyes with her, then her smile faltered and a subtle tension worked its way through her expression as she concentrated on seeking out some unknown, unknowable feeling. I understood exactly what that was like.

Still, nothing happened. The silence dragged on, growing more awkward. Rachel shrugged at me and leaned back in her chair. Becca seemed eager, like she was stopping herself from shouting suggestions. All things considered, she might have been able to help more than anyone, having learned to use magic on her own.

Then a familiar sensation crawled its way up the back of my neck, a subtle twist in the Veil that indicated a change in reality. It was so slight I might have missed it if there had been any other distractions in that room.

Without warning the cat and Katherine both howled at the ceiling in unison, a wailing cry of surprise. She dropped it to the floor and leaned sharply forward in her chair while Cinnamon contorted as if trying to run in several directions at once. Finally, the cat jumped to the table and into the cardboard box as Katherine fell to her knees, panting heavily. Rachel and I were both out of our chairs, moving to help while Finn smirked in amusement and Becca sat, staring, unsure what to do.

"Kath?" I asked, kneeling next to her.

She trembled slightly, then arched her back and pushed her body into mine, nearly knocking me over.

"Hey, are you okay?"

She looked up and I recoiled from the intense ferocity in her expression, then she leveled a wicked glare at Finn. "You bitch," she hissed, levering herself unsteadily to her feet.

Finn cleared her throat to cover a chuckle. "What did I do?" she asked, looking around the room as if Becca or Rachel could shed some light on the accusation. Katherine ignored them all and grabbed a handful of my shirt.

"Come here," she growled, dragging me toward the door.

"What's going on?"

"Just shut up."

Seconds later we were in the hall. She forced me against the far wall with a strength that surprised me, and pulled my face down to hers, but there was nothing loving in her kiss. She bit at my tongue and clung to my neck as if she was trying to crawl beneath my skin. I had to push her away so I could speak.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

"Finn happened," she said angrily between breaths. Her fingernails dug into my shoulder hard enough that without the enhanced strength and durability I gained from my father's death, she probably would have drawn blood.

"What did she do?"

"As if I didn't have enough..." Katherine swallowed, then licked her lips and snarled, "Cinnamon is in fucking heat!" she tightened her grip and hooked a leg around mine.

I'm ashamed to admit I wasn't as angry as I should have been, not because I didn't empathize with Katherine, but because for once I wasn't the target of Finn's pranks.

"Oh no," I said, putting a little extra concern into my voice, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine, whatever," she muttered and turned her back to me, fidgeting with the button on her jeans and dropping them to the floor. "Now take out your cock and fuck the shit out of me!"