Page 10

Shy

Rhys’s hand is firmly in mine as we reach the entrance to the cave where we will find the doorway to Faery. At least the hounds seem to think so. The biggest is at my side, as though trying to ensure I don’t fall off the mountain. I know he has a name. Something Welsh. But I call him Fluffy. He seems to like it.

“My parents will go first.”

Rhys helps me up the last of the steps, and I’m so grateful he overrode his father’s suggestion of designer heels. The slippers I’m wearing are sturdy and don’t slip on the wet rock stairs. “And then the two of us. Sasha will watch our six. Stay close to me. No matter what my papa says, it’s dangerous until we’re in our temple. We’ll stay in the rooms there. I won’t let them separate us.”

It’s so odd to think in a matter of hours I’ll be presented to Miria, Queen of the Seelie Fae. My boyfriend’s granny, though I doubt he calls her that. I’ve only ever heard Rhys refer to her as Queen Miria. I wish we went over royal protocols but no, I had to make us lunch. I’m wondering if I’m supposed to curtsey, and then panicking a little because I don’t know how to curtsey, when a shiver goes through me and I realize the Drowning Woman is here again. I gasp and shift toward Rhys when I realize how close she is.

His arm goes around me. “Are you okay? What do you see?”

“She’s here,”

I whisper and try not to look at her. I can feel her, though. Cold and dead and longing. Longing for what? To take me with her? Fluffy barks and circles the spirit. It surprises me, though I don’t know why since it makes sense. “The hellhounds can see her.”

“Emyr seems to sense something,”

the queen says as the hound joins Fluffy.

We find ourselves in a cave, though it’s obviously magical. There are faery lights all around, and it’s far warmer and drier than it was outside. It reminds me of the entry into Frelsi.

All three hounds circle the Drowning Woman, but they don’t seem to see her as a threat. They bounce around as though asking if she wants to play.

So much for their instincts.

“It’s a spirit,”

I tell the queen. “One that has followed me around since I was a child. She’s the first spirit I ever saw, and quite frankly, one of the most frightening. Not that the hounds seem to be afraid.”

They are literally running in and out of her, playing in the water surrounding her like puppies.

“I hoped she wouldn’t be able to follow,”

Rhys says with a sigh.

“She might not be able to,”

I reply. There’s something desperate about her. I feel energy coming off some spirits. It’s stronger the older I get. Or perhaps I’m simply more at ease with it so I feel it more. The Drowning Woman is desperate. “She hasn’t come this close in a long time. She might be trying to imprint on me because she knows she’ll lose me once I cross the plane.”

She shimmers. I can’t tell if it’s the faery lights or something she’s doing herself. But for a moment she glows and I feel…sadness.

“Is there anything we can do to banish her?”

The king stares like he’s trying to see what I can see.

I face her for the first time. “Do you see a light?”

Now that I’m looking at her, the rushing sound of water is so much louder, and I feel her chill. “If you can see the light, you can leave this plane and begin again. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. The light is another chance. Can you see it?”

A shiver goes through me as a hand breaks through the water, a long finger pointing at me.

She doesn’t want to go into the light. She wants me.

“I’d like to pass through now,”

I say quietly.

Rhys leans close and whispers in my ear. “We can talk to Arawn about banishing her. If anyone will know how to get rid of an evil spirit, it will be the King of the Dead. I promise, I will find a way.”

I believe him. I really do. I love this man so much, but as I turn from the spirit that has haunted me since I was a child, I’m back to being worried about the fact that his grandmother is a Faery queen and he has a temple where he’s supposed to conduct fertility rites.

“Are we good to go?”

Rhys’s papa asks. “Is there anything we can do to protect you, Shy?”

I shake my head. “I’m ready. She wouldn’t be the first to try to take my body. Harry taught me well. I can expel a spirit with a single breath. I’ll be fine.”

Devinshea nods and moves toward the back of the cave. We’re all lined up. The royals first. Rhys and I after them with our wolves, and Sasha in the back. The hounds seem to know things have gotten serious because they stop playing and take up their spots. Fluffy and Caddoc on either side of me and Rhys and Emyr behind the queen.

Devinshea places the largest stone on the door and says something I can’t hear. Likely an incantation or request for entry. The door opens and I can see another world. It’s near dark here, but the sun is vibrant in Faery. Time moves differently, I was taught. It passes more quickly here on the Earth plane.

Rhys’s hand is in mine as we approach the door his parents walked through. I look back and the Drowning Woman is still there, her monstrous hand reaching out.

I swear I feel sadness. Loss. An ache I haven’t felt before. Like I lost something.

I have the oddest feeling I should stay. But then Rhys squeezes my hand, and I know it’s just my fear and anxiety. Since the encounter with Matilda, I find myself walking the knife’s edge between excitement and worry. I want to know if there’s something more inside me, something else I can help our cause with. But I worry the Welsh King of the Dead will take one look at me and realize a mistake was made.

I force myself to turn to that soft light coming out of the door. When I walk through, I feel a jolt on my palm as though the stone in my hand zapped me lightly. I ignore it since it doesn’t really hurt. It’s one of those magical things. Rhys leads me out and we find ourselves walking into a field, and I know immediately the door worked and we are in the Faery realm.

I know because the air is sweet and the sun warm on my skin. Softer than before. I know because the grass is perfect and green, and I can see a palace in the distance. I know because Rhys takes a long breath, and a shudder goes through his big body like something inside him relaxes simply by being here.

I look behind me as Cassie moves forward with her dad, and I see Sasha walking out of the door. In the back I see the Drowning Woman is gone. The door closes and she is not here. She cannot follow me. I breathe a sigh of relief. She is attached to me. She proved that when she managed to follow me to Iceland. But she’s more attached to the Earth plane.

“Is she here?”

Rhys asks.

I look around to make sure. “No.”

“Good.”

He kisses the top of my head and looks out over the green fields toward the gleaming palace in the distance. His shoulders straighten. “Well, I suppose we should get going. Did anyone send word we were coming?”

His papa turns our way. “I spoke with your grandmother via the mirror network. I expect there will be an escort waiting closer to the palace. I didn’t tell her we were coming in through Arawn’s door. I can’t be sure if she even knows this door exists, so I explained we would meet them outside the palace walls. We should get going.”

“She readily agreed we could bring Dad and the wolves and Sasha?”

Rhys asks the question in a challenging tone.

“Yes. She agreed to it,”

Devinshea replies with what seems like patience. “She understands the rules. When Mom, Dad, and I went missing, the Fae took it as a bad portent. They are deeply superstitious. In their minds they had only recently gotten their fertility back and then it was gone again. They blame my interactions with non-Fae creatures. Once we start setting the fields right and perform a few rituals, they will calm down.”

“Fecking bastard.”

The words are spat from somewhere over my head as Devinshea continues to explain why it’s going to be all right this time, why it’s not like when she turned away Lee and Fenrir.

“I hope they kill him.”

I glance up, and there’s a small creature sitting on the lowest branch of a tree to the left of the door. Not that you can see the door anymore. It disappeared after Sasha walked through it. I move in closer. “Are you all right?”

I think it’s a troll. Oh. A dead troll. I can see a gaping wound on his neck and one eye dangles.

The troll nearly falls from his perch.

“So, I think it’s safe to assume she can see dead Fae creatures,”

the queen says.

Rhys nods his mom’s way. “She sees them back in Frelsi. I’m not surprised she can see them here.”

The hounds circle the tree and the troll shrinks back. “Leave me alone, fecking bastards. Don’t let him look at me. Don’t let him send his evil eye.”

“They can’t hurt you,”

I explain, moving beneath the big oak tree. I tilt my head up. “They’re curious.”

His head turns down, one big black eye taking me in. “I assure you they can hurt anything they want to. And so can the king.”

“I don’t think the king is here to hurt anyone.”

I’m not sure how this troll knows Daniel Donovan, though I’m sure he came to Faery many times with his family. The king has a profoundly calm energy. Not that I haven’t seen him mad, but his base energy is good. The queen has this frenetic but lovely energy around her. A little like chaos, but the kind that works for good. Devinshea is the one with hard, purposeful energy.

The troll stares at me for a moment. “Why are you with him? This is not your world. Are you his captive? Is he taking seers now?”

“I’m no one’s captive. He’s my boyfriend’s father.”

I’ve found simple replies are best with new “friends.”

I swear that dead troll paled. “Then I curse you, too, and all is lost.”

And then he’s gone.

He is a very dramatic troll.

I turn to the king. “Did you screw over some trolls the last time you were here, Your Highness?”

King Daniel looks confused. “Why would you ask that?”

“Because that was a dead troll who really doesn’t like you. And he curses me because I’m with you. How much magic do dead trolls have?”

I ask. In all my time in Frelsi I only met witches with my best interests at heart. Rhys keeps me shielded when we’re in the field. When I’m allowed in the field. I don’t like the thought of being cursed by a troll. Dead humans don’t have a lot of magic, but I don’t know about the Fae who live in a sithien.

Devinshea grins as he puts a hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “None at all, Shy, and I think the last time we were in Faery, Dan here did get into a row with some trolls. Apparently they remember.”

“They were cheating at cards,”

the king says with a sigh. “I did call them out on it. I respect a con, but I’m not going to get taken by one.”

I stare up where the troll sat, the hounds rejoining us since their curiosity will obviously not be assuaged.

And then I feel it. I feel an invisible tug to my gut. Like I’ve been hooked but no one is reeling me in yet. That tug forces me to turn and look to the north. Past the rolling fields and forest. Away from the shining White Palace.

A chill creeps up my spine. Not because I’m afraid of those mountains in the distance. Because I want to be there. Because something waits for me there. Something wants me there, cries for me to come forth.

“Shy?”

Rhys is at my side.

“What’s in those mountains?”

I ask, trying to temper my growing anxiousness.

“Well, not a frost giant. That’s for sure.”

Neil gestures the king’s way. “Daniel killed that motherfucker years back. It was sad. We killed a frost giant and all I got was a T-shirt.”

The queen’s eyes widen. “You could have gotten hexed by leprechauns if you had taken even a T-shirt. We made a deal with them. We got the Blood Stone and nothing else. Except apparently the trolls hate us now. That was so long ago I’m surprised anyone remembers.”

“The Fae never forget.”

Devinshea is more sober now as he takes in the mountains I pointed out. “Those are the Shehy mountains. It’s the northernmost part of the sithein. They’re dangerous, as my goddess and Daniel discovered. I think I know what you’re feeling. There is a cave system, and it’s where the sluagh of our plane reside. We have quite a few unshriven dead.”

I shake my head. “That’s myth, Your Grace. Shriven, unshriven, it does not matter. The universe does not constrain a soul based on rituals. The soul itself decides whether to move on. No ritual can hold it back nor can a ritual force it into the light. The sluagh are simply Fae who choose to stay for whatever reason. I’ve found it’s almost always fear, though some stay in a bid to protect those they love. Yes, I believe that’s what I’m feeling.”

So many souls without light. Souls who choose to cloak themselves in shadow and feast on death itself.

“Well, we stay far from the north, then.”

Rhys slides his hand against mine. “I want to bathe you in light and life, my goddess. Not expose you to all the death Faery offers.”

I follow him as we begin our walk to the palace. The trouble is I find that death very attractive.

And that scares me most of all.

The sun is beginning its long march to evening as we make it to the forest. I was told from here it’s only an hour or so into the village that surrounds the palace.

The queen has a lot of memories of Faery.

“This is where I was almost eaten by an ogre,”

she says, pointing out a small pond.

Most of them involving some kind of bloody battle.

Neil sighs as he looks it over. “Good times.”

“I still owe Herne the Hunter for that one,”

Devinshea admits with a sigh. “Although he did me a solid when he called down the Wild Hunt and slaughtered my enemies.”

“All Dad talks about when he tells that story is how he almost lost his favorite pajamas,”

Cassie points out.

“Pops bought him those.”

Brendan defends his parents.

They start to reminisce, and Devinshea declares this is a perfect spot to eat the sandwiches I made earlier. I like to joke about the fact that I only cook for productive people, so I carefully put together the brown bread, butter, and ham sandwiches while the rest of our group packed.

I’m not hungry.

My mind keeps going back to those mountains.

Rhys begins a fire with nothing more than the clapping of his hands and pulling from the earth. The royals all sit around it, the wolves and Sasha joining them. The hounds prove their canine instincts as they are far more interested in the food that’s being brought out than in anything else around us.

But I feel myself pulled to the pond.

“Hey, Shy. Don’t get too close,”

the queen calls out. “There are lots of things that want to eat you out here.”

“The hounds don’t seem to think so,”

Cassie points out. “And I don’t smell anything but some small prey.”

Brendan grins and suddenly looks very wolfish. “I haven’t hunted in a while.”

Neil growls his boy’s way. “No changing until we need to.”

He takes a deep breath. “I don’t sense any threats. If anything this place smells…different.”

“You can’t possibly remember how a place smelled decades ago,”

the queen argues.

Neil frowns her way, taking two sandwiches. “I assure you I remember everything about the day I had to fight with a damn ogre.”

“But it was tasty, right?”

Brendan asks.

I hear whispers coming from bushes to my left, but they hush as I move closer. I glance back and no one seems to notice except Rhys, whose eyes are on me even as he downs half a sandwich. I have to assume a Fae elemental would sense if there was some terrible danger.

“Why do you aid him?”

The question startles me, more because of the haunting voice that asks it. I turn and Rhys stands, obviously ready to intervene, but I hold a hand out.

A beautiful woman stands in the pond, her torso exposed, her long dark hair tangled with vines and weeds and sticks.

We’re far enough away from the party that we’re not interrupting them, though I’m sure they can all hear us. Well, the queen might not be able to but the wolves and vampires certainly can.

“I see your light and yet you walk with him.”

Her skin is pale, lips a deep blue.

“Are you talking about the king?”

I ask, walking to the edge of the pond. One of the hounds has left his search for treats and joins me at the water’s edge. I’m certain it’s only Fluffy’s calm demeanor that has Rhys restraining himself.

Her head cocks slightly. “Yes, though I’m surprised I don’t see his guards around him. I thought he was never without his dark guard.”

“He travels with wolves,”

I reply. I’m not sure what the Fae call their guard, but the high priest wouldn’t have one assigned by the palace unless there was some sort of threat. The way I was told, Green Men are welcome on all the Fae planes. No one would dare harm a fertility deity.

She snorts. “He does? I thought only sidhe were good enough for our king.”

“He certainly has a fondness for the sidhe,” I reply.

“I don’t think she understands, Shea,”

a quiet voice says, and then I’m turning to my right where a young woman sits on a rock. I didn’t notice her before, so she’s either good at hiding or she’s just come into this discussion. Like her friend, she has long hair, but there’s a warm tone to it, like the bark of a tree. Her skin is so translucent I can see traces of the veins where her blood once flowed. They have a greenish cast.

I frown her way. “You see each other? You can converse?”

It’s not that way on the Earth plane. Each spirit is solitary. They exist in some kind of bubble where they are utterly alone, able to see the living world but not interact with it. There is no dead world to live in on the Earthly plane. Death without the light is to be sentenced to a singular prison. Until you find someone like me.

The nymph goes underwater and quickly reappears close to what I might call a sprite. All I know is she is definitely a woodland Fae.

I hear Rhys telling someone to let me be, that I will find more information out if they pretend not to notice us.

So they are listening, though they can only hear one side of the conversation.

“We’re Fae, not human,”

the sprite tells me. “We are more in touch with our energy than any human.”

“Why have you not moved on?”

I ask. “Do the Fae not see the light?”

The nymph’s lips curl up in the slightest smile, the expression a bit cruel on her pale blue lips. “I have seen only darkness here since the king decided to rule with an iron fist. I thought he left for an outer plane. I saw him with his guards.”

Time flows differently for the dead. Harry talked about it quite a bit. He died the day the king and queen went missing, but he didn’t find me until years later. He remembered nothing of the time in between. His soul got stuck, or rather as Harry died he made the choice to not leave. When his soul picked up enough energy, he could manifest himself again. For others, they immediately start their lives as ghosts. So it’s not surprising that she’s talking about the king leaving like it was yesterday. For her, it might be. “He means you no harm. I know the king can seem intimidating.”

“That one looks to be his son,”

Shea says, her gaze on the party sitting around the fire. “Did you know the bastard has a bastard, Clem?”

“He does. At least that’s the rumor. He had a child with a woman from one of the villages on the edge of the forest,”

Clem replies as she shifts on her rock. “I suppose that’s him. I don’t know what’s going on, but this is wrong. Can you not feel it?”

“If you’re talking about Rhys, he is most certainly the king’s son.”

While not exactly by biology. I’ve been told I shouldn’t have to explain the dynamics of a threesome here in Faery.

Clem gasps slightly, and I can now see the marks on her neck where someone held her, likely until she could breathe no more. “Do you feel it? Sacred One, are you carrying a blue stone?”

I pull out one of the stones Matilda gave us. “Yes, we came through a doorway we wouldn’t usually use.”

Now Shea’s smile is full, and I can see her fangs. She laughs. “Is the king hiding from his own people? Wouldn’t that be well deserved.”

“I don’t think the king is who you think he is,” I reply.

Clem is staring behind me. “He certainly looks like our king.”

I am confused. “Your king? You have a queen.”

“What kind of nonsense is this?”

Any amusement in Shea is gone. “Is he trying to hide? He can’t hide from the dead. He can’t hide from what he did to me.”

She turns and her back is a mass of open wounds. Like someone burned her and then beat the pained flesh. So it hurt more. Blood pours from her mouth, and there’s a sword in her belly.

“I do not know what happened to you, but I know King Daniel did nothing of the kind.”

I know the King of All Vampire has done brutal things in his past, but he would never torture a Fae creature like this.

“I don’t know who Daniel is, but I assure you I spent time in Seelie dungeons,”

she hisses. “Anyone who was protected by his brother was tortured.”

“The king doesn’t have a brother,”

I point out.

“Of course he does,”

Shea spits back. “He had a twin. He murdered him and took his throne.”

The hound at my feet goes perfectly still, and I hear growling from behind me.

“I don’t think that’s our king, Shea,”

Clem says right before a blast comes through the forest and I feel fire all around.