"If he wanted to exclude me, he should have taken precautions," Mab says crossly. "He knows I've been around, and he should know how to ward us off, even if that rattletrap brain of his didn't retain anything he learned in Arcadia. The humans have been doing their little tricks with the salt and bread and iron for centuries."

She glances at Victor. "Oh, don't quiver so. I don't have anywhere to drag you back to now besides my boudoir, and you'd be right back out again in the morning."