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Faerie was located.
    The whole time we were crossing the border, I kept telling myself this was the stupidest idea in the history of the universe, and I should object. But somehow, that didn’t seem to be what I was doing. Instead, I let Al lead me along as my pulse sped ever more rapidly and my palms dampened with sweat.
    I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding once we made it through the border crossing and set foot on English soil. Once again, Al guided us into a restroom, dropping the invisibility spell as soon as we were out of sight of prying eyes.
    “This is insane,” I told her. “We have to go back.”
    “This is exciting and fun,” she countered, doing that lip-sucking thing again.
    It occurred to me for the first time that she was still wearing the dress she’d been trying on at the shop. Add shoplifting to the list of crimes we were committing.
    I wasn’t convinced, but once again I found myself following her as she headed out of the restroom and got in line at the taxi stand. I looked longingly over my shoulder at Avalon, wondering what was wrong with me, why I was letting Al manipulate, bully, and cajole me into doing something I knew was both wrong and downright stupid. Sure, I’d taken some pretty reckless chances in the past, but it was always for a good reason, always because I was convinced it was the right thing to do. This time, I was convinced I was doing the wrong thing, and yet I couldn’t seem to stop myself.
    We reached the head of the line and climbed into a cab. Al rattled off an address, and the driver took off. I still couldn’t believe what I was doing. I tried to rally my mental troops in hopes I could craft an argument that Al would actually listen to, but she turned to me with a frown.
    “You look sleepy,” she said, then sucked her lower lip. “Why don’t you take a nap until we get there?”
    Suddenly, my eyelids felt really, really heavy. A chill of alarm crept down my spine as it finally occurred to me there might be a very good reason I was doing this against my better judgment. Every time I came close to putting my foot down, Al sucked her lower lip and somehow talked me out of it. The most powerful of Fae magic-users can trigger spells with subtle gestures, and I’d guess that as Mab’s daughter, Al was definitely a powerful magic-user.
    She smiled at me, and I might almost have called the look on her face apologetic.
    “Sleep, Dana,” she said.
    The compulsion slapped me upside the head with the force of a
    sledgehammer, and my eyes slid closed.

Chapter Three
    I woke up, groggy and disoriented, when Al grabbed my arm. I blinked in confusion as she pulled me out of the cab, and I almost fell flat on my face before my wits returned enough for me to straighten my knees. I tried to shake off the cobwebs as Al slammed the car door behind me and the cab sped off.
    “You used magic on me!” I said, suddenly feeling much more awake as
    indignation flooded my system.
    She had the grace to look guilty about it. “My specialty is illusion magic, but I’m pretty good at compulsion, too. I’m really sorry about that, but you were my only hope.”
    I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at her. “This expedition is over,”
    I said. “And if you try sucking your damn lip again, I’m going to make you regret it.”
    I waved my fist at her. I probably looked pretty ridiculous making threats like that, but I’d had enough self-defense training that I figured I could break her magical concentration if it came to that.
    “I don’t need the compulsion anymore,” she said with a shrug. “We’re here.”
    I finally took a moment to look around and saw that we were in a kind of run-down-looking residential neighborhood. Narrow two- or three-story townhouses lined the street, their facades grimy and weathered. Most of the townhouses had bars over the first-floor windows, which didn’t give me much in the way of warm fuzzies. Nor did the fact that I could see