Free Iron Codex 2 - The Nightmare Garden by Caitlin Kittredge

corridor. A series of arrows marked a symbol shaped like a lotus flower, and I followed them as the corridors narrowed around me, until only one hatch remained straight ahead.
    It opened before I could put a hand on it to test what was on the other side, and I found Shard’s thin, elfin face and burning eyes glaring down at me. I flinched. This was the exact opposite of what I’d had in mind when I snuck out.
    “It took you long enough,” Shard snapped. “How did you get out?”
    I backpedaled a step. Her glare felt like a slap. “You were watching me?”
    Shard pushed the hatch wider. “We can see all of Windhaven from here.”
    I stepped into the room and gasped. Below my feet, the ground fell away, and clouds drifted below the belly ofWindhaven. The walls and floors of the room were glass, bulbous petals of glass riveted to the walls along brass veins.
    Rising from the glass in the center of the room like the stamens of this odd frozen flower was a pilot console replete with dozens of dials and four rudders that steered the four great fans. To one side sat a bank of dials and knobs marked with more of the strange symbols, and to the other was a wall filled with screens that twitched and danced with images.
    Like the lanternreel screens back home in Lovecraft, but writ small. Dozens of them, showing rooms and halls and the exterior hull of Windhaven.
    “The aether feeds images from all over Windhaven,” said Shard, “and sends them to the screens here. So yes, we saw you escape, and yes, I saw you with my son.”
    She turned to me, but I refused to look away. “And?” I asked her, brash as the criminal she believed me to be. “Have you decided that I’m not a Fae spy? Or are you going to toss me off Windhaven without a parachute? Either way, make up your mind soon. I’m bored being locked in a tiny room on this floating lug nut.”
    Shard moved her hand lightning quick and smacked me across the face. It wasn’t hard enough to draw blood, but my cheek stung where she’d struck. I flinched, feeling all my bravery disappear with the pain. I’d tried to act like Dean, but I didn’t have his nerve. Most of my bravery was like fast-burning aether—a bright flame with a quick flare, and then nothing except ashes.
    “I hear you managed to impress the Wytch King,” she said. “So you’re probably not a Fae spy, I’ll give you thatmuch. But what you are is a rude, impetuous little girl who can still bring the Fae to us, and for that alone, we’re not letting you leave.”
    “ ‘We’?” I said. “You speak for all of the Erlkin?” I wasn’t sure exactly how much power Shard wielded aboard Windhaven, and she certainly didn’t seem to agree with the Wytch King’s assessment of me. This could go either way.
    “You’re important to my son,” Shard said, her voice softer. She looked out the front of the bubbled glass, at the fog drifting back from the prow of Windhaven. “And Nails is important to me. I already lost him once when he chose his father over me.” Her eyes drifted back to my face, and I could tell by the coldness in them I was no more substantial to her than the fog outside. “I won’t let it happen again. Not now.”
    “I—” I started, but Shard waved her hand.
    “Go back to your room, Aoife. Nobody but Windhaven crew is supposed to be up here.”
    “I care about Dean,” I blurted. That was a truth I didn’t have to question, ever. Dean, aside from Nerissa and Conrad, was always first in my thoughts. “Just as much as you do. He saved my life. I’m not trying to lead him astray or get him in trouble, but he should be able to have his own life in the Iron Land if he wants it.”
    “No, he should not,” Shard said shortly. “Saying that just proves how young and unsuited for
Nails
you are.” She gestured at one of the Erlkin arrayed around the deck, checking gauges or watching the rudders and the aether screens. “Take Ms. Grayson back to her room. If she won’t stay in