Книга - Wicked Lovely
Wicked Lovely
Melissa Marr
The clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in this cool, urban 21st century faery tale.Rule #3: Don’t stare at invisible faeries.Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world, and would blind her if they knew of her Sight.Rule #2: Don’t speak to invisible faeries.Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.Rule #1: Don’t ever attract their attention.But it’s too late. Keenan is the Summer King and has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost…Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working any more, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.
Wicked Lovely
Melissa Marr
For Loch, Dylan, and Asia,
who believed in me even when I didn’t,
and
the memories of John Marr Sr. and Marjorie Marr,
whose presences linger and give me strength
when I would falter
Contents
Prologue
The Summer King knelt before her. “Is this what you…
Chapter 1
“Four-ball, side pocket.” Aislinn pushed the cue forward with a…
Chapter 2
As freaked as she was by the faery approaching her…
Chapter 3
Aislinn closed her eyes as she finished describing the faeries…
Chapter 4
On the outskirts of Huntsdale in a gorgeous Victorian estate…
Chapter 5
Donia knew Beira approached when the wind shifted, bringing a…
Chapter 6
On Monday Aislinn woke before the alarm went off. After…
Chapter 7
“Hello?” Leslie snapped her fingers in front of Aislinn’s face…
Chapter 8
Aislinn stood motionless, gazing in the direction of the vanishing…
Chapter 9
As she tried to make sense of the earlier events—Why…
Chapter 10
By the time she was far enough away from the…
Chapter 11
When Aislinn walked up the steps to Bishop O.C. the…
Chapter 12
When Donia walked into the library, she saw Seth. Aislinn’s…
Chapter 13
After the taxi dropped her at the railroad yard, Aislinn…
Chapter 14
By the end of the week, Aislinn was sure of…
Chapter 15
When Donia returned home from her evening walk, Beira was…
Chapter 16
Seth stirred the pasta absently. He glanced at her. “You…
Chapter 17
A half hour later Aislinn walked down Sixth Street, feeling…
Chapter 18
Early the next morning, Donia awakened on the floor, Sasha’s…
Chapter 19
Keenan was shaken when he left Donia; he walked aimlessly…
Chapter 20
When Aislinn woke—the clock’s red numbers proclaiming it past 9:00—the…
Chapter 21
Donia walked past the faeries outside Seth’s home—a few familiar…
Chapter 22
When Sunday morning came, Aislinn wasn’t surprised to find Grams…
Chapter 23
Donia knew who it was before she reached the door.
Chapter 24
Keenan stirred his drink idly. The Rath usually cheered him…
Chapter 25
Aislinn didn’t stop running until she was at Seth’s door.
Chapter 26
“It’s her.” Beira stomped her foot, setting frost rippling over…
Chapter 27
When Aislinn woke the next morning—still curled in Seth’s arms—she…
Chapter 28
Keenan heard Elena’s statements as clearly as if she were…
Chapter 29
Aislinn stood motionless as Keenan walked on. Some of the…
Chapter 30
Donia knew they were coming, but it still made her…
Epilogue
Clutching the silk-smooth wood of the Winter Queen’s staff—my staff—Donia…
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
About the Publisher
PROLOGUE
The Summer King knelt before her. “Is this what you freely choose, to risk winter’s chill?”
She watched him—the boy she’d fallen in love with these past weeks. She’d never dreamed he was something other than human, but now his skin glowed as if flames flickered just under the surface, so strange and beautiful she couldn’t look away. “It’s what I want.”
“You understand that if you are not the one, you’ll carry the Winter Queen’s chill until the next mortal risks this? And you’ll warn her not to trust me?” He paused, glancing at her with pain in his eyes.
She nodded.
“If she refuses me, you will tell the next girl and the next”—he moved closer—“and not until one accepts, will you be free of the cold.”
“I do understand.” She smiled as reassuringly as she could, and then she walked over to the hawthorn bush. The leaves brushed against her arms as she bent down and reached under it.
Her finger wrapped around the Winter Queen’s staff. It was a plain thing, worn as if countless hands had clenched the wood. It was those hands, those other girls who’d stood where she now did, she didn’t want to think about.
She stood, hopeful and afraid.
Behind her, he moved closer. The rustling of trees grew almost deafening. The brightness from his skin, his hair, intensified. Her shadow fell on the ground in front of her.
He whispered, “Please. Let her be the one….”
She held the Winter Queen’s staff—and hoped. For a moment she even believed, but then ice pierced her, filled her like shards of glass in her veins.
She screamed his name: “Keenan!”
She stumbled toward him, but he walked away, no longer glowing, no longer looking at her.
Then she was alone—with only a wolf for companionship—waiting to tell the next girl what a folly it was to love him, to trust him.
CHAPTER 1
SEERS, or Men of the SECOND SIGHT,…have very terrifying Encounters with [the FAIRIES, they call Sleagh Maith, or the Good People].
—The Secret Commonwealth by Robert Kirk and Andrew Lang (1893)
“Four-ball, side pocket.” Aislinn pushed the cue forward with a short, quick thrust; the ball dropped into the pocket with a satisfying clack.
Her playing partner, Denny, motioned toward a harder shot, a bank shot.
She rolled her eyes. “What? You in a hurry?”
He pointed with the cue.
“Right.” Focus and control, that’s what it’s all about. She sank the two.
He nodded once, as close as he got to praise.
Aislinn circled the table, paused, and chalked the cue. Around her the cracks of balls colliding, low laughter, even the endless stream of country and blues from the jukebox kept her grounded in the real world: the human world, the safe world. It wasn’t the only world, no matter how much Aislinn wanted it to be. But it hid the other world—the ugly one—for brief moments.
“Three, corner pocket.” She sighted down the cue. It was a good shot.
Focus. Control.
Then she felt it: warm air on her skin. A faery, its too-hot breath on her neck, sniffed her hair. His pointed chin pressed against her skin. All the focus in the world didn’t make Pointy-Face’s attention tolerable.
She scratched: the only ball that dropped was the cue ball.
Denny took the ball in hand. “What was that?”
“Weak-assed?” She forced a smile, looking at Denny, at the table, anywhere but at the horde coming in the door. Even when she looked away, she heard them: laughing and squealing, gnashing teeth and beating wings, a cacophony she couldn’t escape. They were out in droves now, freer somehow as evening fell, invading her space, ending any chance of the peace she’d sought.
Denny didn’t stare at her, didn’t ask hard questions. He just motioned for her to step away from the table and called out, “Gracie, play something for Ash.”
At the jukebox Grace keyed in one of the few not-country-or-blues songs: Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff.”
As the oddly comforting lyrics in that gravelly voice took off, building to the inevitable stomach-tightening rage, Aislinn smiled. If I could let go like that, let the years of aggression spill out onto the fey… She slid her hand over the smooth wood of the cue, watching Pointy-Face gyrate beside Grace. I’d start with him. Right here, right now. She bit her lip. Of course, everyone would think she was utterly mad if she started swinging her cue at invisible bodies, everyone but the fey.
Before the song was over, Denny had cleared the table.
“Nice.” Aislinn walked over to the wall rack and slid the cue back into an empty spot. Behind her, Pointy-Face giggled—high and shrill—and tore out a couple strands of her hair.
“Rack ’em again?” But Denny’s tone said what he didn’t: that he knew the answer before he asked. He didn’t know why, but he could read the signs.
Pointy-Face slid the strands of her hair over his face.
Aislinn cleared her throat. “Rain check?”
“Sure.” Denny began disassembling his cue. The regulars never commented on her odd mood swings or unexplainable habits.
She walked away from the table, murmuring good-byes as she went, consciously not staring at the faeries. They moved balls out of line, bumped into people—anything to cause trouble—but they hadn’t stepped in her path tonight, not yet. At the table nearest the door, she paused. “I’m out of here.”
One of the guys straightened up from a pretty combination shot. He rubbed his goatee, stroking the gray-shot hair. “Cinderella time?”
“You know how it is—got to get home before the shoe falls off.” She lifted her foot, clad in a battered tennis shoe. “No sense tempting any princes.”
He snorted and turned back to the table.
A doe-eyed faery eased across the room; bone-thin with too many joints, she was vulgar and gorgeous all at once. Her eyes were far too large for her face, giving her a startled look. Combined with an emaciated body, those eyes made her seem vulnerable, innocent. She wasn’t.
None of them are.
The woman at the table beside Aislinn flicked a long ash into an already overflowing ashtray. “See you next weekend.”
Aislinn nodded, too tense to answer.
In a blurringly quick move, Doe-Eyes flicked a thin blue tongue out at a cloven-hoofed faery. The faery stepped back, but a trail of blood already dripped down his hollowed cheeks. Doe-Eyes giggled.
Aislinn bit her lip, hard, and lifted a hand in a last half wave to Denny. Focus. She fought to keep her steps even, calm: everything she wasn’t feeling inside.
She stepped outside, lips firmly shut against dangerous words. She wanted to speak, to tell the fey to leave so she didn’t have to, but she couldn’t. Ever. If she did, they’d know her secret: they’d know she could see them.
The only way to survive was to keep that secret; Grams taught her that rule before she could even write her name: Keep your head down and your mouth closed. It felt wrong to have to hide, but if she even hinted at such a rebellious idea, Grams would have her in lockdown—homeschooled, no pool halls, no parties, no freedom, no Seth. She’d spent enough time in that situation during middle school.
Never again.
So—rage in check—Aislinn headed downtown, toward the relative safety of iron bars and steel doors. Whether in its base form or altered into the purer form of steel, iron was poisonous to fey and thus gloriously comforting to her. Despite the faeries that walked her streets, Huntsdale was home. She’d visited Pittsburgh, walked around D.C., explored Atlanta. They were nice enough, but they were too thriving, too alive, too filled with parks and trees. Huntsdale wasn’t thriving. It hadn’t been for years. That meant the fey didn’t thrive here either.
Revelry rang from most of the alcoves and alleys she passed, but it wasn’t ever as bad as the thronging choke of faeries that cavorted on the Mall in D.C. or at the Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh. She tried to comfort herself with that thought as she walked. There were less fey here—less people, too.
Less is good.
The streets weren’t empty: people went about their business, shopping, walking, laughing. It was easier for them: they didn’t see the blue faery who had cornered several winged fey behind a dirty window; they never saw the faeries with lions’ manes racing across power lines, tumbling over one another, landing on a towering woman with angled teeth.
To be so blind… It was a wish Aislinn had held in secret her whole life. But wishing didn’t change what was. And even if she could somehow stop seeing the fey, a person can’t un-know the truth.
She tucked her hands in her pockets and kept walking, past the mother with her obviously exhausted children, past shop windows with frost creeping over them, past the frozen gray sludge all along the street. She shivered. The seemingly endless winter had already begun.
She’d passed the corner of Harper and Third—almost there—when they stepped out of an alley: the same two faeries who’d followed her almost every day the past two weeks. The girl had long white hair, streaming out like spirals of smoke. Her lips were blue—not lipstick blue, but corpse blue. She wore a faded brown leather skirt stitched with thick cords. Beside her was a huge white wolf that she’d alternately lean on or ride. When the other faery touched her, steam rose from her skin. She bared her teeth at him, shoved him, slapped him: he did nothing but smile.
And he was devastating when he did. He glowed faintly all the time, as if hot coals burned inside him. His collar-length hair shimmered like strands of copper that would slice her skin if Aislinn were to slide her fingers through it—not that she would. Even if he were truly human, he wouldn’t be her type—tan and too beautiful to touch, walking with a swagger that said he knew exactly how attractive he was. He moved as if he were in charge of everyone and everything, seeming taller for it. But he wasn’t really that tall—not as tall as the bone-girls by the river or the strange tree-bark men that roamed the city. He was almost average in size, only a head taller than she was.
Whenever he came near, she could smell wildflowers, could hear the rustle of willow branches, as if she were sitting by a pond on one of those rare summer days: a taste of midsummer in the start of the frigid fall. And she wanted to keep that taste, bask in it, roll in it until the warmth soaked into her very skin. It terrified her, the almost irresistible urge to get closer to him, to get closer to any of the fey. He terrified her.
Aislinn walked a little faster, not running, but faster. Don’t run. If she ran, they’d chase: faeries always gave chase.
She ducked inside The Comix Connexion. She felt safer among the rows of unpainted wooden bins that lined the shop. My space.
Every night she’d slipped away from them, hiding until they passed, waiting until they were out of sight. Sometimes it took a few tries, but so far it had worked.
She waited inside Comix, hoping they hadn’t seen.
Then he walked in—wearing a glamour, hiding that glow, passing for human—visible to everyone.
That’s new. And new wasn’t good, not where the fey were concerned. Faeries walked past her—past everyone—daily, invisible and impossible to hear unless they willed it. The really strong ones, those that could venture further into the city, could weave a glamour—faery manipulation—to hide in plain sight as humans. They frightened her more than the others.
This faery was even worse: he had donned a glamour between one step and the next, becoming suddenly visible, as if revealing himself didn’t matter at all.
He stopped at the counter and talked to Eddy—leaning close to be heard over the music that blared from the speakers in the corners.
Eddy glanced her way, and then back at the faery. He said her name. She saw it, even though she couldn’t hear it.
No.
The faery started walking toward her, smiling, looking for all the world like one of her wealthier classmates.
She turned away and picked up an old issue of Nightmares and Fairy Tales. She clutched it, hoping her hands weren’t shaking.
“Aislinn, right?” Faery-boy was beside her, his arm against hers, far too close. He glanced down at the comic, smiling wryly. “Is that any good?”
She stepped back and slowly looked him over. If he was trying to pass for a human she’d want to talk to, he’d failed. From the hems of his faded jeans to his heavy wool coat, he was too uptown. He’d dulled his copper hair to sandy-blond, hidden that strange rustle of summer, but even in his human glamour, he was too pretty to be real.
“Not interested.” She slid the comic back in place and walked down the next aisle, trying to keep the fear at bay, and failing.
He followed, steady and too close.
She didn’t think he’d hurt her, not here, not in public. For all their flaws, the fey seemed to be better behaved when they wore human faces. Maybe it was fear of the steel bars in human jails. It didn’t really matter why: what mattered was that it was a rule they seemed to follow.
But when Aislinn glanced at him, she still wanted to run. He was like one of the big cats in the zoo—stalking its prey from across a ravine.
Deadgirl waited at the front of the shop, invisible, seated on her wolf’s back. She had a pensive look on her face, eyes shimmering like an oil slick—strange glints of color in a black puddle.
Don’t stare at invisible faeries, Rule #3. Aislinn glanced back down at the bin in front of her calmly, as if she’d been doing nothing more than gazing around the store.
“I’m meeting some people for coffee.” Faery-boy moved closer. “You want to come?”
“No.” She stepped sideways, putting more distance between them. She swallowed, but it didn’t help how dry her mouth was, how terrified and tempted she felt.
He followed. “Some other night.”
It wasn’t a question, not really. Aislinn shook her head. “Actually, no.”
“She already immune to your charms, Keenan?” Deadgirl called out. Her voice was lilting, but there was a harsh edge under the words. “Smart girl.”
Aislinn didn’t reply: Deadgirl wasn’t visible. Don’t answer invisible faeries, Rule #2.
He didn’t answer her, either, didn’t even glance her way. “Can I text you? E-mail? Something?”
“No.” Her voice was rough. Her mouth was dry. She swallowed. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth, making a soft clicking noise when she tried to speak. “I’m not interested at all.”
But she was.
She hated herself for it, but the closer he stood to her, the more she wanted to say yes, yes, please yes to whatever he wanted. She wouldn’t, couldn’t.
He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and scrawled something on it. “Here’s mine. When you change your mind…”
“I won’t.” She took it—trying not to let her fingers too near his skin, afraid the contact would somehow make it worse—and shoved it in her pocket. Passive resistance, that was what Grams would counsel. Just get through it and get away.
Eddy was watching her; Deadgirl was watching her.
Faery-boy leaned closer and whispered, “I’d really like to get to know you….” He sniffed her like he really was some sort of animal, no different than the less-human-looking ones. “Really.”
And that would be Rule #1: Don’t ever attract faeries’ attention. Aislinn almost tripped trying to get away—from him and from her own inexplicable urge to give in. She did stumble in the doorway when Deadgirl whispered, “Run while you can.”
Keenan watched Aislinn leave. She didn’t really run, but she wanted to. He could feel it, her fear, like the thrumming heart of a startled animal. Mortals didn’t usually run from him, especially girls: only one had ever done so in all the years he’d played this game.
This one, though, she was afraid. Her already-pale skin blanched when he reached out to her, making her look like a wraith framed by her straight blue-black hair. Delicate. It made her seem more vulnerable, easier to approach. Or maybe that was just because she was so slight. He imagined he could tuck her head under his chin and fit her whole body in the spare fold of his coat. Perfect. She’d need some guidance on attire—replace the common clothes she seemed to prefer, add a few bits of jewelry—but that was inevitable these days. At least she had long hair.
She’d be a refreshing challenge, too, in strange control of her emotions. Most of the girls he’d picked were so fiery, so volatile. Once he’d thought that was a good indicator—Summer Queen, fiery passion. It had made sense.
Donia interrupted his thoughts: “I don’t think she likes you.”
“So?”
Donia pursed her blue lips—the only spot of color in her cold, white face.
If he studied her, he could find proof of the changes in her—the blond hair faded to the white of a snow squall, the pallor that made her lips seem so blue—but she was still as beautiful as she had been when she’d taken over as the Winter Girl. Beautiful, but not mine, not like Aislinn will be.
“Keenan,” Donia snapped, a cloud of frigid air slipping out with her voice. “She doesn’t like you.”
“She will.” He stepped outside and shook off the glamour. Then he said the words that’d sealed so many mortal girls’ fates. “I’ve dreamed about her. She’s the one.”
And with that Aislinn’s mortality began to fade. Unless she became the Winter Girl, she was his now—for better or for worse.
CHAPTER 2
[The Sleagh Maith, or the Good People, are] terrifyed by nothing earthly so much as by cold Iron.
—The Secret Commonwealth by Robert Kirk and Andrew Lang (1893)
As freaked as she was by the faery approaching her, Aislinn couldn’t go home. If everything seemed calm, Grams didn’t put many restrictions on her, but if Grams suspected trouble, that leniency would vanish. Aislinn wasn’t about to risk that, not if she had a choice, so she needed to keep her panic in check.
And she was panicked, more than she’d been in years—enough that she’d actually run for a block, attracting faery followers. Several gave chase at first, until one of the lupine faeries snarled at the others and they’d dropped off—all but one female. She loped alongside Aislinn on all fours as they ran up Third Avenue. The wolf-girl’s crystalline fur chimed with an eerily appealing melody, as if it would lull the listener to trust.
Aislinn slowed, hoping to discourage her, wanting to stop that chiming song. It didn’t work.
She concentrated on the sound of her feet hitting the pavement, the cars that drove by, a stereo with too much bass, anything but that chiming song. As she rounded the corner onto Crofter, the red neon sign for the Crow’s Nest reflected on the faery’s fur, emphasizing holly-red eyes. Like the rest of downtown Huntsdale, the building that housed the grungy club showed how far the city had fallen. Facades that were presumably once attractive now bore telltale signs of age and decay. Scrubby weeds sprouted from cracked sidewalks and half-abandoned lots. Outside the club, near the deserted railroad yard, the people she passed were as likely as not looking to score—seeking something, anything, to numb their minds. It wasn’t an option she could indulge in, but she didn’t begrudge them their chemical refuge.
A few girls she recognized waved, but didn’t motion for her to stop. Aislinn inclined her head in greeting as she slowed to a normal walking speed.
Almost there.
Then one of Seth’s friends, Glenn, stepped in her path. He had so many bars in his face, she’d need to touch them to count them all.
Behind her, the wolf-girl paced, circling closer until the pungent scent of her fur was chokingly heady.
“Tell Seth his speakers came in,” Glenn started.
The wolf-girl, still on all fours, nudged Aislinn with her head.
Aislinn stumbled, clutching Glenn’s arm for balance.
He reached out when she tried to step back. “You okay?”
“I guess I just ran too fast”—she forced a smile and tried to look like she was winded from her run—“trying to keep warm, you know?”
“Right.” The look he gave her was a familiar one: unbelieving.
As she started to walk past him, to reach the shortcut to Seth’s, the door to the Crow’s Nest opened, letting out discordant music. The thump of the drums beat faster even than her racing heart.
Glenn cleared his throat. “Seth’s not good with you going through there”—he gestured toward the shadowy alley alongside the building—“alone. He’d be upset, you know, if you got messed up.”
She couldn’t tell him the truth: the scary things weren’t the guys smoking in the alley, but the lupine fey growling at her feet. “It’s early.”
Glenn crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head.
“Right.” Aislinn stepped away from the mouth of the alley, away from the shortcut to the safety of Seth’s steel walls.
Glenn watched until she turned back to the street.
The wolf-girl snapped at the air behind Aislinn’s ankles until she gave in to her fear and took off jogging the rest of the way to the railroad yard.
At the edge of Seth’s lot, Aislinn stopped to compose herself. Seth was pretty together, but he still freaked out sometimes when she was upset.
The wolf-girl howled as Aislinn walked the last couple yards up to the train, but it didn’t bother Aislinn as much, not here.
Seth’s train was beautiful on so many levels. How could I be upset here? The outside was decorated in murals that ran the gamut from anime to abstract; beautiful and unexpected, they faded into one another like a collage that begged the viewer to make sense of the images, to find an order behind the colorful pastiche. In one of the few warmer months, she’d sat with Seth in his odd garden studying the art and realized that the beauty wasn’t in the order, but in the unplanned harmony.
Like being with Seth.
It wasn’t just paintings that decorated the garden: sprouting like unnatural trees along the perimeter was a series of metalwork sculptures Seth had made over the past couple years. Between those sculptures—and in some cases twining around them—were flowering plants and shrubs. Despite the ravages of the lengthy winter months, the plants thrived under Seth’s watchful care.
Heartbeat calm now, Aislinn lifted her hand to knock.
Before she could, the door swung open, and Seth stood in the doorway, grinning. The streetlights made him look a bit intimidating, illuminating the bars in his eyebrows and the ring in his lower lip. His blue-black hair fell over his face when he moved, like tiny arrows pointing to pronounced cheekbones. “Starting to think you were going to bail on me.”
“Didn’t know you were expecting me,” she said in what she hoped was a casual voice.
He gets sexier every day.
“Not expecting, but hoping. Always hoping.” He rubbed his arms, mostly bare under the sleeves of a black T-shirt. He wasn’t bulky, but his arms—and the rest of him—had obvious definition. He lifted one eyebrow and asked, “You going to come in or stand there?”
“Anybody else in the house?”
“Just me and Boomer.”
His teakettle whistled, and he went back inside, calling out as he went, “Picked up a sub earlier. Want half?”
“Just tea.”
Aislinn already felt better; being around him made her feel more confident. Seth was the epitome of calm. When his parents had left on some mission thing and given him everything they owned, he didn’t go on a binge. Aside from buying the train cars and converting them into a trailer of sorts, he’d kept it pretty normal—hung out, partied some. He talked about college, art school, but he wasn’t in any rush.
She stepped around the piles of books on the floor: Chaucer and Nietzsche sat beside The Prose Edda; the Kama Sutra tilted against A World History of Architecture and a Clare Dunkle novel. Seth read everything.
“Just move Boomer. He’s sluggish tonight.” He gestured toward the boa napping on one of the ergonomic chairs in the front of the train—his common room. One green and one bright orange, the chairs curved backward like the letter C. They had no arms, so you could sit with your legs up if you wanted. Beside each of them were plain wood tables with books and papers stacked on them.
Carefully she scooped up the coiled boa and moved him from the chair onto the sofa on the other side of the narrow room.
Seth came over with two china saucers. A matching cup with blue flowers sat on each of them, two-thirds full of tea. “High Mountain oolong. Just came in this morning.”
She took one—sloshing a bit over the edge—and tasted. “Good.”
He sat down across from her, holding his cup in one hand, the saucer in the other, and managing to look strangely dignified—despite his black nail polish. “So, anyone out at the Crow’s Nest?”
“Glenn stopped me. Your speakers came in.”
“Good you didn’t go inside. They got raided last night.” He scowled briefly. “Glenn didn’t tell you?”
“No, but he knew I wasn’t staying.” She tucked her feet up, pleased when Seth’s scowl faded. “So who’d they get?”
She sipped her tea and settled in for the latest rumors. Half the time she could just curl up and listen while he talked to the people who filled his house most nights. Then she could pretend—for a short time, at least—that the world was as it seemed to be, no more, no less. Seth gave her that: a private space to believe in the illusion of normalcy.
It wasn’t why she’d started visiting him when they met a couple years ago; that was purely a result of learning he lived in a house of steel walls. It was, however, one of the reasons she’d recently started having the wildly stupid thoughts about him, thoughts about giving in to his flirting, but Seth didn’t date. He had a reputation as a great one-night stand, but she wasn’t interested in that. Well, she was interested, but not if it meant losing either his friendship or access to his steel-walled haven.
“You okay?”
She’d been staring. Again. “Sure. Just, I don’t know, tired I guess.”
“You want to talk about it?”
“About what?” She sipped the tea and hoped that he’d drop it, almost as much as she hoped he wouldn’t.
How good would it feel to tell someone? To just talk about it? Grams didn’t talk about the fey if she could avoid it. She was old, seeming more tired by the day, too tired to question what Aislinn did when she was out, too tired to ask questions about where she went after dark.
Aislinn dared another smile, carefully calm, at Seth. I could tell him. But she couldn’t, not really; it was the one rule Grams had insisted they never break.
Would he believe me?
Somewhere in the depths of the second train car, music played—another of his mixes with everything from Godsmack to the Dresden Dolls, Sugarcult to Rachmaninoff, and other stuff she couldn’t actually identify.
It was peaceful—until Seth stopped mid-story and set his tea on the table beside him. “Please tell me what’s going on?”
Her hand shook, spilling tea on the floor. He didn’t usually push her; it wasn’t his way. “What do you mean? There’s nothing—”
He interrupted, “Come on, Ash. You look worried lately. You’re here a lot more often, and unless it’s something about us”—he stared at her with an unreadable expression—“is it?”
Avoiding eye contact, she said, “We’re fine.”
She went to the kitchen and grabbed a rag to mop up the tea.
“What then? Are you in some sort of trouble?” He reached for her as she walked past.
“I’m fine.” She dodged his outstretched hand and went to sop up the tea, staring at the floor, trying to ignore the fact that he was watching her. “So, umm, where is everyone?”
“I told everyone I needed a few days. I wanted a chance to see you alone. Talk and stuff.” With a sigh, he reached down and pulled the rag away from her. He tossed it toward the kitchen, where it landed on the table with a splat. “Talk to me.”
She stood up, but he caught her hand before she could walk away again.
He pulled her closer. “I’m here. I’ll be here. Whatever it is.”
“It’s nothing. Really.” She stood there, one hand in his, the other hanging uselessly at her side. “I just need to be somewhere safe with good company.”
“Did someone hurt you?” He sounded weirder then, tense.
“No.” She bit her lip; she hadn’t thought he would ask so many questions, counted on it, in fact.
“Someone want to?” He pulled her down into his lap, tucking her head under his chin, holding her securely.
She didn’t resist. He’d held her every year when she came back from visiting her mom’s grave, had held her when Grams had gotten sick last year. His holding her wasn’t strange; the questions were.
“I don’t know.” She felt stupid for it, but she started crying, big dumb tears she couldn’t stop. “I don’t know what they want.”
Seth stroked her hair, running his hand down the length of it and on to her back. “But you do know who they are?”
“Sort of.” She nodded, sniffling. Bet that’s attractive. She tried to pull away.
“So, that’s a good place to start.” He wrapped one arm tighter around her and leaned over to pick a notebook and pen up off the floor. Propping the notebook on her knee, he held the pen poised over it. With a reassuring smile, he prompted, “Tell me. We’ll figure it out. Talk to some people. Check out the police blotter.”
“Police blotter?”
“Sure. Find out more about them.” He gave her a reassuring look. “Ask Rabbit down at the tat shop. He hears everything. We find out who they are. Then we take care of it.”
“There’s not going to be anything in the blotter. Not on these two.” Aislinn smiled at the idea of faeries’ crimes being reported in the blotter. They’d need a whole section of the daily paper just for faery crimes, especially in the safe neighborhoods: the upscale homes were in greener areas, outside the safety of steel frames and bridges.
“So we use other routes.” He pushed her hair away from her face, wiping a tear off her cheek in the process. “Seriously, I’m a research god. Give me a clue, and I’ll find something we can use. Blackmail, deal, whatever. Maybe they’re wanted for something. If not, maybe they’re breaking a law. Harassment or something. That’s a crime, right? If not, there’s people Rabbit knows.”
Aislinn disentangled herself from his arms and went over to the sofa. Boomer barely stirred when she sat down next to him. Too cold. She shivered. It’s always too cold. She stroked his skin while she thought. Seth hasn’t ever told anyone about Mom or anything. He can be careful.
Seth sat back and crossed his ankles, waiting.
She stared at the worn vintage T he had on—damp from her tears now; the peeling white letters proclaimed: PIXIES. Maybe it’s a sign. She’d thought about it so often, imagined telling him.
He looked expectantly at her.
She wiped her cheeks again. “Okay.”
When she didn’t say anything else, he crooked one glittering eyebrow and prompted her again, “Ash?”
“Right.” She swallowed and said, as calmly as she could, “Faeries. Faeries are stalking me.”
“Faeries?”
“Faeries.” She pulled her legs up to sit cross-legged on the sofa. Boomer lifted his head to look at her, his tongue flicking out, and slid farther onto her lap.
Seth picked up his tea and took a drink.
She’d never told anyone before. It was one of Grams’ unbreakable rules: Never know who’s listening. Never know when They are hiding nearby.
Aislinn’s heart thudded. She could feel herself getting nauseous. What did I do? But she wanted him to know, wanted someone to talk to.
Aislinn took several calming breaths and added, “Two of them. They’ve been following me for a couple of weeks.”
Carefully, as if he were moving in slow motion, Seth leaned forward, sitting on the edge of his chair, almost close enough to touch. “You messing with me?”
“No.” She bit her lip and waited.
Boomer slithered closer, dragging the front of his body up over her chest. Absently she stroked his head.
Seth poked at the ring in his lip, a stalling gesture, the way some people lick their lips in tense conversations. “Like little winged people?”
“No. Like our size and terrifying.” She tried to smile, but it didn’t work. Her chest hurt, like someone had kicked her. She was breaking the rules she’d lived by, her mother had lived by, her Grams, everyone in her family for so long.
“How do you know they’re faeries?”
“Never mind.” She looked away. “Just forget—”
“Don’t do that.” His voice had a bite of frustration in it. “Talk to me.”
“And say what?”
He stared at her as he answered, “Say you’ll trust me. Say you’ll let me in for real, finally.”
She didn’t answer, didn’t know what to say. Sure, she’d kept things from him, but she kept things from everyone. That was just the way it was.
He sighed. Then he put on his glasses and held the pen poised over the notebook. “Right. Tell me what you know. What do they look like?”
“You won’t be able to see them.”
He paused again. “Why?”
She didn’t look away this time. “They’re invisible.”
Seth didn’t answer.
For a moment they just sat there, quietly staring at each other. Her hand stilled on Boomer as she waited, but the boa didn’t move away.
Finally Seth started writing. Then he looked up. “What else?”
“Why? Why are you doing this?”
Seth shrugged, but his voice wasn’t nonchalant when he answered, “Because I want you to trust me? Because I want you to stop looking so haunted? Because I care about you?”
“Say you do go research. What if they…I don’t know, hurt you? Attack you?” She knew how awful they could be even if he didn’t—couldn’t—get it.
“For going to the library?” He crooked his eyebrow again.
She was still trying to get her head together, to find a line between begging him to really believe her and telling him she wasn’t serious. She pushed Boomer off her onto the sofa cushion and stood up.
“You see them hurt anyone?”
“Yes,” she started, but she stopped herself. She paced over to the window. Three faeries lingered outside, not doing anything, but undeniably there. Two of them were almost human-looking, but the third was as far from human as they got—too big and covered in dark tufts of fur, like a bear that walked upright. She looked away and shuddered. “Not these two but…I don’t know. Faeries grope people, trip them, pinch them. Stupid stuff usually. Sometimes it’s worse, though. A lot worse. You don’t want to get involved.”
“I do want to. Trust me, Ash. Please?” Half smiling then, he added, “And I don’t mind being groped. Perks for helping.”
“You should. Faeries are…” She shook her head again. He was joking about it. “You can’t see what they look like.”
Without meaning to, she pictured Keenan. Blushing, she stammered, “Most of them are pretty horrible.”
“Not all of them, though?” Seth asked quietly, not smiling anymore.
“Most of them”—she looked back at the three faeries outside, unwilling to look at Seth when she admitted it—“but no, not all of them.”
CHAPTER 3
[Faeries] could make themselves seen or not seen at will. And when they took people they took the body and soul together.
—The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. Evans-Wentz (1911)
Aislinn closed her eyes as she finished describing the faeries who’d been stalking her. “They’re court fey; I know that much. They move in the circle of a king or queen, have enough influence to act without consequences. They’re too strong, too arrogant to be anything else.” She thought about their disdain, their disregard for the fey watching them. These were the most dangerous sort of faeries: ones with power.
She shivered and added, “I just don’t know what they want. There’s this whole other world no one else sees. But I do…. I watch them, but they’ve never noticed me—not any more than they do anyone else.”
“So you see others that aren’t following you?”
It was such a simple question, such an obvious one. She looked at him and laughed, not because it was funny, but because it was so awful. Tears ran down her face.
He just waited, calm, unflappable, until she stopped laughing. “I guess that was a yes?”
“Yes.” She wiped her cheeks. “They’re real, Seth. It’s not that I see things. There are faeries, creatures, almost everywhere. Awful things. Beautiful ones. Some that are both at once. Sometimes they’re horrible to each other, doing really”—she shuddered at the images she didn’t want to share with him—“bad things, sick things.”
He waited.
“This one, this Keenan, he approached me, made himself look like a human and tried to get me to go with him.” She looked away, trying to summon the calm she relied on when the things she saw got too weird. It wasn’t working.
“So what about this court thing? Could you talk to their king or whatever?” Seth turned the page.
Aislinn listened to the soft whisper of paper falling, loud in the room despite the music, despite the impossibility of hearing such a soft sound. Since when can I hear a sheet of paper falling?
She thought about Keenan, thought about how to explain that sense of strength he exuded. He’d seemed immune to the iron downtown—a terrifying possibility; at the very least, he’d been strong enough to hold a glamour around it. Deadgirl had seemed weakened by it, but it hadn’t repelled her either. “No. Grams says court fey are the cruelest ones. I don’t think I could face anything stronger even if I could reveal myself, and I can’t. They can’t find out that I can see them. Grams says they’ll kill or blind us if they find out we see them.”
“Suppose they’re something else, Ash?” Seth was moving now, standing in front of her. “What if there’s another explanation for what you saw?”
She folded her hand into a loose fist as she stared at him, feeling her fingernails dig ever so slightly into the palm of her hand. “I’d love to believe there’s another answer. I’ve seen them since I was born. Grams sees them. It’s real. They’re real.”
She couldn’t look at him; instead she stared down at Boomer, who had twisted his entire length into a tight coil in her lap. She trailed her finger down the side of his head gently.
Seth cupped her chin and tilted her head back so she was looking at him. “There’s got to be something we can do.”
“Can we talk about it tomorrow? I need…” She shook her head. “I just can’t deal with any more tonight.”
Seth reached down and lifted Boomer. The boa didn’t uncoil as Seth carried him to his terrarium and gently lowered him to the heat rock.
She didn’t say anything else as Seth latched the lid to keep Boomer from wandering off. Given half a chance, Boomer found a way to slither outside if he was left home alone, and in most months the temperature out there could be fatal for him.
“Come on, I’ll walk you home,” Seth said.
“You don’t need to.”
He crooked his eyebrow and held out his hand.
“But you can.” She took his hand.
Seth led her through the streets, as unaware of the fey as everyone else they passed, but just having his arm around her made it seem less awful.
They walked silently for almost a block. Then he asked, “You want to stop at Rianne’s?”
“Why?” Aislinn walked a little faster as the wolf-girl who’d given chase earlier started circling predatorily.
“Her party? The one you told me about?” Seth grinned, acting like they were okay, like the whole faery conversation hadn’t happened.
“God, no. That’s the last thing I need.” She shivered at the thought. She’d taken Seth to a couple parties with the Bishop O.C. crowd; by the second one it was pretty clear that the mixing of the two worlds was typically a bad plan.
“You need my jacket?” Seth pulled her closer, attentive as always to the slightest detail.
She shook her head no, but leaned closer to him, enjoying the excuse to be held by him.
He didn’t object, but he didn’t let his hands brush anywhere they shouldn’t, either. He might flirt, but he never made a move that was anything other than just-friends.
“Stop at Pins and Needles with me?” he asked.
The tat shop wasn’t out of the way, and she wasn’t in any hurry to be away from Seth. She nodded, and then asked, “Did you finally pick something to get?”
“Not yet, but Glenn said the new guy started this week. I thought I’d see what his work looks like, what styles, you know.”
She laughed. “Right, wouldn’t want to get the wrong style.”
Mock scowling, he tweaked a strand of her hair. “We could find one we both like. Get a matched pair.”
“Sure, I’ll do that—right after you meet Grams and convince her to sign a consent form.”
“So, no ink for you then. Ever.”
“She’s nice.” The argument was an old one, but she hadn’t given up yet—or made any progress.
“Nope. Not going to risk it.” He kissed her forehead. “As long as she doesn’t meet me she can’t look at me, and say, ‘Stay away from my girl.’”
“Nothing wrong with how you look.”
“Yeah?” He smiled gently. “Would she think that?”
Aislinn thought so, but she hadn’t been able to convince Seth of it.
They continued in silence until they reached the shop. The front of the tat shop was almost all windows, making it seem less intimidating to any curious ink seekers, but unlike the tattoo parlors she’d seen when they went up to Pittsburgh, this was not a glossy shop. Pins and Needles retained some of the grit of the art, not catering to the trendy crowd—not that Huntsdale had much of a trendy crowd.
The cowbell on the door clanged when they walked in. Rabbit, the owner, peeked out of one of the rooms, waved, and disappeared.
Seth went to a long coffee table against the wall that had portfolios piled on top of it. He found the new one and sat down with it. “You want to look with me?”
“Nope.” Aislinn went up to the glass case where bars, rings, and studs were laid out. That’s what she wanted. She only had a single hole in each ear, but every time they came in, she considered getting a piercing. Nothing in her face, though, not this year: Bishop O’Connell High School had strict rules about facial piercings.
One of the two piercers stood up behind the cabinet. “You ready for a labret yet?”
“Not till I graduate.”
He shrugged and went back to cleaning the glass.
The bell clanged again. Leslie, a friend from school, walked in with a heavily inked guy, far from the sort she dated. He was beautiful: close-cropped hair, perfect features, blue-black eyes. He was also fey.
Aislinn froze, watching him, feeling the world tilt under her. Too many faeries wearing human faces tonight. Too many strong fey.
But this faery barely looked her way as he went to the back room, trailing his hands over one of the steel-framed jewelry cabinets he passed.
She couldn’t look away, not yet. Most faeries didn’t walk downtown; they didn’t touch iron bars; and they sure as hell didn’t walk around able to hold a glamour while touching poisonous metal. There were rules. She’d lived by those rules. There were a few exceptions—the rare strong fey—but not this many, not at the same time, and not in her safe spaces.
“Ash?” Leslie reached her hand out. “Hey. You all right?”
Aislinn shook her head. Nothing is right anymore. Nothing.
“I’m good.” She looked toward the room where the faery waited. “Who’s your friend?”
“Tasty, isn’t he?” Leslie made a noise somewhere between a moan and a sigh. “I just met him outside.”
Seth put the book down and crossed the room.
“You ready to go?” He slid a steadying arm around Aislinn’s waist. “I can—”
“In a sec.” She glanced at the faery with Rabbit; their voices were barely more than a whisper. Forcing her paranoia aside, she turned her attention to Leslie. “You’re not taking him to Ri’s, are you?”
“Irial? What, you don’t think he’d be a hit?”
“He’s certainly different than your usual”—she bit her lip and tried to act like everything was normal—“vic—…I mean, partners.”
Leslie shot him a longing look. “Unfortunately he doesn’t seem interested.”
Aislinn held in the sigh of relief that Leslie wasn’t going to try to pursue the faery. Life was already complicated enough.
“I wanted to see if you’re coming to the party.” Leslie grinned—somewhat viciously—at Seth. “Both of you.”
“No.” Seth didn’t elaborate. He tolerated Leslie, but tolerate was the best he could do. Most of the girls who went to Bishop O.C. weren’t people he willingly hung with.
“Something better going on?” Leslie asked in a conspiratorial voice.
“Always. I only go to those fiascos if she insists.” Seth gestured toward Aislinn. “You ready?”
“Five minutes,” Aislinn murmured, and then felt guilty immediately: it wasn’t like they were on a date or anything.
She didn’t want to make Seth wait, but she didn’t want to leave a friend alone with a faery strong enough to touch iron. She certainly wasn’t leaving a friend alone with one wearing a human guise that would make even the shyest girls pant. And Leslie definitely wasn’t shy.
Aislinn glanced back at Seth. “If you want to head out, I can go with Leslie….”
“No.” He gave her a briefly irritated look before he wandered away to look at the flash on the walls.
“So what are you doing?” Leslie asked.
“What?” Aislinn looked back at Leslie, who was grinning. “Oh, nothing really. He’s just walking me home.”
“Hmm.” Leslie tapped her fingernails on the glass case, oblivious to the piercer’s glares as she did so.
Aislinn knocked Leslie’s hand off the case. “What?”
“And that’s better than a party?” Leslie linked an arm around Aislinn and whispered, “When are you going to give the poor thing a break, Ash? It’s sad, really, how you string him along.”
“I don’t…we’re friends. He’d say something if he”—she lowered her voice and glanced back at Seth—“you know.”
“He’s talking, girl. You’re just too thick to hear it.”
“He’s just flirty. Even if he meant it, I don’t want a one-nighter, especially with him.”
Leslie shook her head and sighed melodramatically. “You need to live a little, girl. There’s nothing wrong with a little quick love if they’re good. I hear he’s good.”
Aislinn didn’t want to think about that, about him with other girls. She knew Seth went out; even if she didn’t see the girls, she was sure they were there. Better to be just friends than one of his throwaway girls. She didn’t want to talk about Seth, so she asked Leslie, “Who’s going tonight?”
Trying to keep unpleasant thoughts at bay, Aislinn half listened to Leslie go on about the party. Rianne’s cousin had invited some of the guys from his frat.
Glad we’re skipping it. Seth would hate that crowd.
When Leslie’s brother walked in, Seth came back over and put his arm around Aislinn’s shoulder, almost territorially, while they talked.
Leslie mouthed, “Deaf.”
Aislinn leaned on Seth, ignoring Leslie, her brother’s comments about scoring some X, the faery in the back room, all of it. When Seth was beside her, she could keep it together. Why would she be stupid enough to risk what they had, to risk him, for a fling?
CHAPTER 4
“When you will be King of Summer she will be your queen. Of this your mother, Queen Beira, has full knowledge, and it is her wish to keep you away from [her], so that her own reign may be prolonged.”
—Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend by Donald Alexander Mackenzie (1917)
On the outskirts of Huntsdale in a gorgeous Victorian estate that no realtor could sell—or remember to show—Keenan hesitated, hand lifted. He paused, watching silent figures in the thorn-heavy garden move as fluidly as the shadows that danced under the icy trees. The frost never melted in this yard, never would, but the mortals passing on the street saw only the shadows. They looked away, if they dared look at all. No one—mortal or fey—stepped on Beira’s frigid lawn without her consent. It was anything but inviting.
Behind him, cars drove by on the street, tires grinding the frozen slush into a dirty gray mess, but the sound was muted by the almost tangible chill that rested like a pall over Beira’s home. It hurt to breathe.
Welcome home.
Of course, it’d never felt like home, but then again, Beira had never felt like a mother. Inside her domain the air itself made him ache, sapped the little strength he had. He tried to resist it, but until he came into his full power, she could send him to his knees. And she did—every single visit.
Maybe Aislinn will be the one. Maybe she’ll make it different.
Keenan braced himself and knocked.
Beira flung open the door. In her free hand she held a tray of steaming chocolate cookies aloft. She leaned forward and kissed the air near his face. “Cookies, darling?”
She looked as she had for the past half century or so when he stopped in for these damnable meetings: a mockery of a mortal epitome of motherhood, she was clad in a modest floral dress, frilly apron, and single strand of pearls. Her hair was twisted up in what she called a “chignon.”
She waggled the tray a little. “They’re fresh. Just for you.”
“No.” Ignoring her, he walked into the room.
She’d redecorated again—some modern nightmare, complete with a sleek silver table; stiff, awkwardly shaped black chairs; and framed black-and-white prints of murders, hangings, and a few torture scenes. The walls alternated between stark white and flat black with large geometric patterns in the opposite color. Selected images on the hanging prints—a dress, lips, bleeding wounds—were hand painted red. Those splashes of luridness were the only true color in the room. It fit her far better than the costume she insisted on wearing when he visited.
From behind the wet bar, a badly bruised wood-sprite asked, “Drink, sir?”
“Keenan, sweetheart, tell the girl what you want. I need to check on the roast.” Beira paused, still holding the tray of cookies. “You are staying for dinner, aren’t you, dear?”
“Do I have a choice?” He ignored the sprite to walk over to a print on the far wall. In it a woman with cherry-red lips stared out from the platform of a gallows. Behind her were craggy dunes that seemed to go on endlessly. He glanced over at Beira. “One of yours?”
“In the desert? Darling, really.” Blushing, she looked down, giving him a coquettish smile and toying with her pearls. “Even with the lovely chill I’ve had growing these past few centuries, that place is still off limits. For now. But it’s sweet of you to ask.”
Keenan turned back to the print. The girl stared out at him, seeming desperate. He wondered if she had truly died there or was merely a model for a photographer.
“Well…you get comfortable. I’ll be back in a jiff. Then you can tell me all about your new girl. You know I do look forward to these little visits.” Then, humming a lullaby from his childhood—something about frozen fingers—Beira left to check on the roast.
He knew that if he followed her, there’d be a bevy of unhappy wood-sprites bustling about her restaurant-sized kitchen. Beira’s cloyingly sweet act didn’t include actual cooking, just the image of the sort of mother who would cook.
“Drink, sir?” The sprite carried over two trays—one with milk, tea, hot cocoa, and a variety of prepackaged nutritional drinks; the other had carrot sticks, celery, apples, and other equally mundane foods. “Your mother is most insistent you have a healthy snack.” The sprite glanced in the direction of the kitchen. “It’s not wise to anger the mistress.”
He took a cup of tea and an apple. “You think?”
Growing up in the Winter Court had made him far too familiar with what happened to those who angered—or even irritated—the Winter Queen. But he would do his best to anger her; that’s what he’d come to do, after all.
“Almost ready,” Beira announced as she returned. She sat on one of the awful chairs and patted the one nearest her. “Come. Tell me everything.”
Keenan sat in the chair across from her, keeping his distance as long as he could.
“She’s difficult, resisted my initial approach.” He paused, thinking of the fear in Aislinn’s eyes. It wasn’t the response he usually elicited from mortal girls. “She didn’t trust me at all.”
“I see.” Beira nodded, crossed her ankles, and leaned forward—the picture of an attentive parent. “And did…you know, the last girlfriend approve of her?”
Without looking away from him, Beira motioned to the sprite, who promptly brought her a glass of something clear to drink. As Beira wrapped her hand around the stem of the glass, frost crept over it until the outside of the glass was entirely coated in a thin white layer.
“Donia agreed to her.”
Beira tapped her fingernails on the side of her glass. “Lovely, and how is Dawn?”
Keenan ground his teeth: Beira knew Donia’s name. After over half a century as Winter Girl, Donia’d been around enough that his mother’s feigned memory slip bordered on comical. “Donia is as she’s been for decades, Mother. She’s angry with me. She’s tired. She’s everything you’ve made her.”
Beira lifted her other manicured hand to examine it idly. “What I made her? Oh, do tell.”
“It’s your staff, your binding, your treachery that started this game. You knew what would happen to the mortals when they took your chill. Mortals aren’t made for—”
“Aah, sweetling, but you asked her to do it. You chose her, and she chose you.” Beira sat back in her chair, smug now that he was angry. She held open her hand, and the staff in question drifted into her grip, a reminder of the power she wielded. “She could’ve joined your little coterie of Summer Girls, but she thought it was worth the risk. She thought you were worth risking the pain she’s in now.” She tsked at him. “Sad, really. She was such a pretty girl, so full of life.”
“She still is.”
“Is she, now?” Beira lowered her voice to a stage whisper, “I hear she’s getting weaker and weaker”—she paused and feigned a pout—“just sick with it. It’d be a shame if she fades.”
“Donia’s fine.” He heard the edge in his voice, hated that she could anger him so easily. The idea of Donia becoming a shade—dying, but trapped and silent for eternity—was one that never failed to rouse his temper. Fey death was always a tragedy, for there was no afterlife for the fey. It’s why she mentions it. How his father had ever put up with Beira long enough for her to conceive was beyond him. The woman was infuriating.
Beira made a purring noise, almost a growl, deep in her throat. “Let’s not argue, dear. I’m sure Diane will be fine until the new girl can be convinced you’re worth such a sacrifice. Why with being so ill, she might not even work against you this time. Maybe she’ll encourage the new lovely to accept you instead of telling her all those awful tales of your wicked intentions?”
“Donia will do her part; I’ll do mine. Nothing changes, not till I find the Summer Queen.” Keenan stood up and stepped forward until he was looking down at Beira. He couldn’t afford to let her browbeat him, no matter that she still held all the power, no matter that she’d sooner kill him than help him. Kings didn’t grovel; kings commanded. His power might be bound—no more than a warm breath against her glacial cold—but he was still the Summer King. He still stood against her, and he couldn’t let her ignore that.
Might as well get it over with.
“You know I’ll find her, Mother. One of these girls will take the staff in hand, and your cold won’t fill her.”
Beira sat down her glass and looked up at him. “Really?”
I hate this part. Keenan leaned down and put a hand on either side of her chair. “One day I’ll have the full strength of the King of Summer, just as Father did. Your reign will end. No more growing cold. No more unchecked power.” He lowered his voice, hoping to hide the trembling. “Then we’ll see who’s truly stronger.”
She sat there for a moment, silent and still. Then she put one cold hand on his chest and stood, pushing him ever so slightly. Ice formed in a web growing outward from her hand, crawling over him until he ached so fiercely that he couldn’t have moved if the Wild Hunt itself were bearing down on him.
“What a charming speech. It gets more entertaining every time—like one those TV shows.” She kissed both of his cheeks, leaving behind a frostbitten trace of her lips, letting her cold seep under his skin, reminding him that she—not me, not yet—had all the power. “That’s one of the lovely things about our little arrangement—if I had to deal with a real king, I’d miss our games.”
Keenan didn’t answer—couldn’t. If he were gone, would another fill his place?
Nature abhors a vacuum.
Would a new king, an unbound king, come into power? She’d taunted him with that—If you want to protect them, end it. Let a real king reign. But would another king ascend with full power if he failed? He had no way of knowing. He swayed on his feet, hating her, hating the whole situation.
Then Beira leaned in and whispered, so her icy breath blew against his lips, “I’m sure you’ll find your little queen. Perhaps you already have. Maybe it was Siobhan or that Eliza from a few centuries back. Now she was a sweet girl, Eliza. Would’ve made a lovely queen, don’t you think?”
Keenan shivered, his body starting to shut down from the cold. He tried to push the cold back, push it out.
I am the Summer King. She cannot do this.
He swallowed, concentrating on staying upright.
“Imagine, all this time, all these centuries, if she were right there in the bevy of girls too weak to risk it. Too timid to pick up the staff and find out.”
Several fox-maidens came into the room. “His room is ready, mistress.”
“The poor dear is tired. And he was so unpleasant to his mummy.” She sighed, as if it had truly wounded her.
With one finger under his chin, she tilted his head back. “To bed without dinner again. One of these times, you’ll be able to stay awake”—she kissed him on the chin—“maybe.”
Then everything went dark as the fox-maidens carried him off to the room Beira kept for him.
CHAPTER 5
These Subterraneans have Controversies, Doubts, Disputes, Feuds, and Siding of Parties.
—The Secret Commonwealth by Robert Kirk and Andrew Lang (1893)
Donia knew Beira approached when the wind shifted, bringing a wave of biting cold over the cottage.
As if it would be anyone else.
No one visited, despite the location of Donia’s cottage—outside the iron-laden city, in one of the few wooded areas in reach of Huntsdale. When Keenan had chosen Huntsdale, they’d all followed him and settled into their homes to wait. When she picked the cottage, she thought—hoped—the fey could have their revelries among those trees, but they didn’t. They wouldn’t. No one got too close to her, as if Keenan still had a claim. Not even the representatives of the other fey courts came near her: only the heads of the Summer and Winter Courts dared approach.
Donia opened her door and stepped back. No sense pretending I don’t know she’s here.
Beira blew through the doorway, posing like some old vampy actress on the threshold. After air kissing and artificial pleasantries, she stretched out on the sofa, crossing her ankles, dangling her dainty feet off the edge. The femme fatale image was ruined only by the crude staff she held lightly in her hand. “I was just thinking about you, darling.”
“I’m sure.” The staff wasn’t any danger to her—not now—but Donia walked away. She leaned against the stone wall by the hearth. Warmth seeped into her skin, not enough to assuage the cold that slithered over her, but better than sitting near the source of that awful chill.
The cold never bothered Beira; she was of it and could thus control it. Donia carried it inside her, but not in comfort, not without yearning for warmth. Beira didn’t seek warmth; she reveled in the cold, wearing it like a cloud of icy perfume—especially when it made others suffer.
“My baby stopped in this evening,” Beira said in her usual deceptively casual voice.
“I figured he would.” Donia tried to keep her voice even, but despite decades of practice the edge of concern slipped out. She folded her arms over her chest, embarrassed that she still worried about Keenan.
Beira smiled at Donia’s reaction and let the pause grow uncomfortably long. Then, still smiling, she stretched out her free hand as if a glass would materialize in it. It didn’t. With a long-suffering sigh, she looked around. “Still no servants?”
“No.”
“Really, sweets. You simply must get a few. The wood-sprites are an obedient sort. Can’t stand a brownie, though.” She made an unpleasant face. “Terribly independent lot. I could lend you a few of my sprites, just to help out.”
“And spy on me?”
“Well, of course, but that’s really a minor detail.” She fluttered her hand airily. “The place is…squalid, truly. It’s worse than the last one. That other little city…or was that another of my son’s discarded lovers? It’s so hard to remember.”
Donia didn’t take the bait. “It’s clean.”
“But still so blah. No style.” Beira trailed her fingers over the sandstone carvings on the rough-hewn table by the sofa. “These aren’t from your time.”
She picked up a bear fetish—its right paw raised, miniature claws exposed. “This was Liseli’s work, right?”
Donia nodded, though an answer wasn’t necessary. Beira knew exactly whose it was. It irritated Beira that Liseli still visited Donia—and Keenan. She hadn’t done so in a few years, but she would again. Since she’d been freed from the burden of carrying Beira’s cold, she wandered the world—often choosing desert regions where there was no chance of seeing Beira or her ilk. Every few years she showed up to remind Donia that the cold wouldn’t last forever, no matter how many times it seemed as if it would.
“And those awful ragged pants you insist on wearing?”
“Rika’s. We’re the same size.”
Rika hadn’t visited in more than two decades, but she was a strange girl: more at ease with carrying the cold than with the idea of being Keenan’s queen. They were different, every one of them. All that the Winter Girls had in common was a strength of will. Better that than sharing traits with the vapid Summer Girls, who followed Keenan like children.
Beira waited expectantly as Donia tried not to show her impatience.
Giving in, Donia asked, “Do you have a reason for visiting?”
“I have a reason for everything.” Beira came to stand beside her; she rested her hand on the small of Donia’s back.
Donia didn’t bother asking Beira to move her hand; doing so would only encourage her to put it there more often in the future. “Are you going to tell me what it is?”
“Tsk, tsk, you’re worse than my son. Not as temperamental, though.” Beira moved closer, sliding her hand around Donia’s waist, digging her fingers into Donia’s hip. “You’d be so much prettier if you dressed better. Maybe do something more flattering with your hair.”
Donia stepped away, ostensibly to prop open the back door, letting the growing cold out. She wished she were as “temperamental” as Keenan—but that was the nature of the Summer King. He was as volatile as summer storms, moody and unpredictable, as likely to laugh as he was to rage. But it wasn’t his power that flooded her; it was Beira’s cold power that had filled Donia when she’d lifted the staff so long ago. If it hadn’t, if she’d been immune to the Winter Queen’s chill, she would’ve joined Keenan, had eternity with him. But the chill that rested inside the Winter Queen’s staff had filled her—consumed her until she was little more than a breathing extension of the Winter Queen’s staff. Donia still wasn’t sure whom she resented more: Keenan, for convincing her he loved her, or Beira, for killing that dream. If he’d truly loved her enough, wouldn’t she be the one? Wouldn’t she be his queen?
Donia stepped outside. The trees were reaching toward the gray sky, gnarled limbs seeking the last bit of sun. Somewhere in the distance she heard the huffing of the deer that wandered through the small nature preserve that abutted her yard. Familiar sights. Comforting sounds. It should’ve been idyllic, but it wasn’t. Nothing was peaceful when the game began.
In the shadows she saw a score of Keenan’s lackeys. Rowan-men, fox-faeries, and other court soldiers—even those that looked almost mortal were still somehow strange to her after decades of their presence. They were always there, watching her, carrying word of her every move back to him. No matter that she told him innumerable times that she wanted them gone. No matter that she felt trapped by their watching and waiting.
“It’s the order of things, Don. The Winter Girl is my responsibility. It’s always been so.” He tried to take her hand, to wrap those now-painful fingers around hers.
She walked away. “Not anymore. I mean it, Keenan. Get rid of them, or I will.”
He hadn’t stayed to see her weep, but she knew he’d heard. Everyone had.
He didn’t listen, though. He’d been too used to Rika’s cooperation, too used to everyone kowtowing to him. So Donia had frozen a number of the guards during the first decade. If they came too close to her, she let a thick rime cover them until they couldn’t move. Most had recovered, but not all.
Keenan merely sent more. He didn’t even complain. No matter how awful she was to him, he insisted on sending more of his guards to keep watch over her. And she kept lashing out, freezing them until eventually he told the next round of guards to stand in the safety of the furthest trees or perch in the boughs of the yew and oak. It was progress of a sort.
Beira stepped up to stand shoulder to shoulder with her. “They still watch. Obedient little pawns he sends to watch over you.”
“They saw you arrive. Keenan will know.” She didn’t look at Beira, staring instead at a young rowan-man who never kept his distance as well as the others.
He winked. In the past decades he’d rarely left his post outside her house. The others rotated in and out, staying constant in number, but not in face. The rowan-man was different. Although they never spoke more than a handful of words, she almost regarded him as a friend.
“Undoubtedly. But not now”—Beira laughed, an awful sound like ravens squabbling over carrion—“poor dear’s out cold.”
Pretending she wasn’t worried never worked; showing concern never worked, so Donia looked toward the thicket, trying to change the topic before she asked how badly it had gone for Keenan. “And where are your lackeys tonight?”
Beira made a “come here” motion in the direction of the copse of trees.
They came then: a trio of enormous shaggy black goats rounded the corner with three of Beira’s faithful hags astride them. Though they were withered things—looking like the mere husks of women—the hags were eerily strong, able to rend the limbs from even the eldest mountain trolls. They terrified Donia as they cackled like mad hens and paraded around the yard—as if they dared Keenan’s waiting guards to come closer.
Donia stepped up to the porch rail, away from Beira, closer to the wretched women who served the Winter Queen. “Looking lovely, Agatha.”
Agatha spat at her.
It was foolish to taunt them, but Donia did it every time they came around. She had to prove, to herself and to them, that she wasn’t intimidated. “You do realize that it’s not you who keep the guards at bay?”
Of course, it wasn’t her threat either that made the guards keep their distance. If Keenan said they should approach, they would. Her desires be damned. Their injuries and deaths be damned. Keenan’s will was all that mattered to them.
The hags scowled at her, but they didn’t answer. Like Keenan’s guards, Beira’s lackeys kept their distance from her. No one wanted to anger Beira, except Keenan.
Talk about dysfunctional families. Both Keenan and Beira protected her, as if the other one were a worse threat.
When the hags refused to say anything, Donia turned back to Beira. “I’m tired. What do you want?”
For a moment Donia thought she’d been too blunt, that Beira would lash out at her. The Winter Queen was usually as calculating as Keenan was capricious, but her temper was a truly horrifying thing when she did release it.
Beira only smiled, a characteristically frightening smile, but less dangerous than anger. “There are those who’d see Keenan happy, those who want him to find the girl who’ll share the throne with him. I do not.”
She let the full weight of her chill roll off of her; it slammed into Donia, leaving her feeling like she was being absorbed into the heart of a glacier. If she were still mortal, it would kill her.
Beira lifted Donia’s almost-limp hand and wrapped it around the staff, under her own frigid hand. It didn’t react, didn’t change anything, but the mere touch of it brought back the memories of those first few years when the pain was still raw.
While Donia was struggling to breathe, Beira continued, “Keep this one from taking the staff, and I’ll withdraw my cold from you—free you. He can’t offer you that freedom. I can. Or”—Beira traced a fingernail down the center of Donia’s chest in a perverse mockery of a caress—“if you’d rather, we can see how much cold I can push through you before it uses you up.”
Donia might be able to direct the chill, but she couldn’t contain it. The cold poured out, answering Beira’s touch, making quite clear who had the power.
In a ragged voice Donia said, “I know my place. I convince her not to trust him. I agreed to that when I took up the staff.”
“Don’t fail. Lie. Cheat. Whatever. Don’t let her touch the staff.” Beira flattened her palm on Donia’s chest, fingers slightly curled, nails scraping skin through Donia’s blouse.
“What?” Donia stumbled forward, trying to flee Beira without angering her further, trying to make her thoughts focus.
There were rules. Everyone knew them. They sucked for Keenan, but they were there. What Beira suggested was far outside the rules.
Beira let go of the staff and wrapped her arm around Donia, holding her up, and whispered, “If you fail me, it’s well within my power to take away this body of yours. He can’t stop me. You can’t stop me. You’ll be a shade, wandering, colder than even you can imagine. Think about it.” Then she let go.
Donia swayed on her feet, upright only because of the staff she was still clutching. She dropped the staff, sick at the touch of it in her hands, remembering the pain the first time she’d touched it, the despair each time the newest mortal didn’t take it from her. Donia gripped the porch railing and tried to hold herself upright. It didn’t work.
“Tootles.” Beira gave Keenan’s guards a finger wave and disappeared into the darkness with her hags.
When Keenan woke, Beira sat in a rocker by the bed—a basket of scraps at her feet, a needle in her hand.
“Quilting?” He coughed, cleared his throat. It was raw from the ice he’d swallowed when she’d frozen him. “Isn’t that a bit over the top, even for you?”
She held up the patches she’d sewn together. “Do you think so? I’m rather good at it.”
He pushed himself upright. Thick furs—some still bloody—were piled over him. “It’s a far sight better than your real hobbies.”
She waved a hand in a gesture of dismissal, letting go of the needle. It still darted in and out of the cloth. “She’s not the one, the new girl.”
“She could be.” He thought of Aislinn’s obvious control of her emotions. “She’s the one I dream of….”
A fox-maiden brought in a tray of hot drinks and steaming soup. She left them on the low table alongside his bed.
“So were the other ones, dear.” Beira sighed and settled back in her chair. “You know I don’t want to fight with you. If I’d known what would happen…You were conceived that very day. How could I know this would happen when I killed him? I didn’t even know you were yet.”
That didn’t explain why she’d bound his powers, why she’d used their common blood to have the Dark Court curse him. She never offered explanations for that, only for the origin of his mantle, not for the way she’d bound him.
Keenan took a steaming cup of chocolate. The warmth felt wonderful in his hands, even better on his throat. “Just tell me who she is,” he said.
When Beira didn’t respond, Keenan continued, “We can compromise. Divide the year, divide the regions, like it used to be with Father.” He finished the cup and picked up another, just to feel the heat in his hands.
She laughed then, setting a tiny snow squall spiraling around the room. “Give up everything? Wither like a hag? For what?”
“Me? Because it’s right? Because…” He swung his feet to the floor, wincing when they sank into a small snowdrift. Sometimes the old traditions were the worst, lines they’d exchanged like a script for centuries. “I have to ask. You know that.”
Beira took the needle back in hand, jabbing it into the cloth. “I do. Your father always asked too. Followed every rule right down to the line. He was like that”—she scowled and picked up another patch from the basket—“so predictable.”
“The mortals starve more every year. The cold…crops wither. People die.” Keenan drew a deep breath and coughed again. The air in the room was frigid. Now that he was weakened, the longer he stayed in her presence, the longer it’d be until he recovered. “They need more sun. They need a proper Summer King again.”
“That’s really not my concern.” She dropped her quilting in the basket and turned to leave. She paused at the door. “You know the rules.”
“Right. The rules…” Rules made in her favor, rules he’d been trapped by for centuries. “Yeah, I know the rules.”
CHAPTER 6
The sight of a soutane [priest’s cassock], or the sound of a bell, puts [the faeries] to flight.
—The Fairy Mythology by Thomas Keightley (1870)
On Monday Aislinn woke before the alarm went off. After a quick shower, she dressed in her uniform and went to the kitchen. Grams was at the stove, fixing eggs and bacon.
Leaning over to give her a peck on the cheek, Aislinn asked, “Special occasion?”
“Brat.” Grams swatted at her. “I just thought I’d cook you a good breakfast.”
“Are you feeling okay?” Aislinn put a hand on Grams’ forehand.
Grams smiled wanly. “You seem tired lately. Thought you could use something other than yogurt.”
Aislinn poured a small cup of coffee from the half-full carafe and added a couple generous spoonfuls of sugar before she came to stand beside Grams.
“SATs are coming up soon, didn’t do as well as I wanted on the last English essay”—Aislinn rolled her eyes as Grams shot her a disbelieving frown—“well, I didn’t. I’m not saying I did badly, just that I could’ve done better.”
Grams scooped the eggs onto the waiting plates and went to the tiny table with them. “So it’s a school thing?”
“Mostly.” Aislinn sat down and picked up her fork. She pushed the eggs around, staring at the plate.
“What else?” Grams asked in that worried tone. Her hand tensed on her coffee mug.
And Aislinn couldn’t tell her. She couldn’t say that court faeries were following her, that one of them had donned a glamour to talk to her, that it took everything she had not to reach out toward him when he stood beside her. So she mentioned the only other person that made her feel so tempted. “Umm, there’s this guy….”
Grams’ grip on the cup relaxed a little.
Aislinn added, “He’s wonderful, everything I want, but he’s just a friend.”
“Do you like him?”
Aislinn nodded.
“Then he’s an idiot. You’re smart and pretty, and if he turned you down—”
Aislinn interrupted, “I didn’t actually ask him out.”
“Well, there’s your problem.” Grams nodded with a self-satisfied look. “Ask him out. Stop worrying. When I was a girl, we didn’t have the sort of freedom you do, but…” And Grams was off, talking about one of her favorite subjects—the progress in women’s rights.
Aislinn ate her breakfast, nodding in the right places and asking questions to keep Grams talking until it was time to leave for school. Far better to let Grams think that boys and school were the source of her worries. Grams had faced enough worries in her life: Grandpa had died when she was still a young mother, and she’d had to raise a daughter and then a granddaughter with the Sight on her own. And if Grams found out how strange the fey were acting…well, any chance of Aislinn keeping her freedom would be quickly quashed.
By the time Carla knocked on the door to walk to school, Aislinn and Grams were both smiling.
Then Aislinn opened the door and saw three faeries standing in the hallway behind Carla. They kept their distance from the door—no doubt uncomfortable because of the wrought-iron curlicues that covered the outside of the door. Grams had needed special permission to install the new door, but it was well worth it.
“Wow,” Carla quipped when Aislinn’s smile faltered. “Not trying to ruin your mood.”
“Not you. It’s just”—she tried to rein in the force of her scowl—“Monday, you know?”
Carla looked to be sure Grams wasn’t in earshot and asked in a soft voice, “You want to ditch?”
“And get further behind in Calc?” Aislinn snorted. She grabbed her bag and waved to Grams before stepping into the hallway.
Carla shrugged. “I’ll tutor you if you want. There’s a sale down at the electronics shop….”
“Not today. Come on.” Aislinn ran down the stairs, past several more faeries. They didn’t usually come into the apartment building. It was one of the safer areas, no greenery in sight, steel security bars on the windows—not a bad neighborhood, but far from the dangerous trees and shrubs in the suburbs.
As they walked the few blocks to school, Aislinn’s good mood vanished entirely. Faeries crouched in the alcoves, walked behind them, murmured as they passed. It was beyond disconcerting.
And like an echo as she walked, she remembered Deadgirl’s comment: “Run while you can.” Aislinn didn’t think she could actually run, but if she knew what she was running from, it might at least ease the panic that she couldn’t seem to end.
Then one of the lupine faeries sniffed her, crystalline fur clattering like tiny glass chimes as he moved, and Aislinn trembled. Maybe knowing wouldn’t be enough to ease the panic.
As Aislinn went through her day, she pushed the morning’s worries to the back of her mind. It wasn’t like she could tell Father James she wasn’t paying attention because faeries were following her. The Church might caution against the dangers of the occult, but finding a modern priest who believed in anything supernatural—other than God himself—was about as likely as finding one who’d suggest women should be able to be priests too.
Actually, she thought with a wry smile as she headed toward her last-period English class, there might be some priests out there more likely to suggest female equality, just not at Bishop O.C.
“Did you finish the reading?” Leslie asked as she yanked her bag out of her locker and slammed it shut.
“Yeah.” Aislinn rolled her eyes. “Othello was an ass.”
Leslie winked and said, “They all are, sweetie. They all are.”
“How was the party?” Aislinn asked as they slipped into the room.
“Same as always, but”—Leslie leaned across the aisle—“Dominic’s parents are away all week. Fun to be had, trips to take, guys to make…”
“Not my scene.”
“Come on, Ash.” Leslie checked to be sure no one who shouldn’t hear stood nearby—glancing up and down the aisle furtively—before she added, “Ri’s friend at the music shop got her that extra package she ordered, too.”
Sometimes Aislinn wished she could smoke a little, drink a little, but she couldn’t. Once in a while she indulged if she planned to crash on Seth’s sofa, but she couldn’t risk walking through Huntsdale with her defenses down.
“I don’t think so,” she said more firmly.
“You could come along. You don’t need to party, just hang with us. It’s not like I get lit. Just a little relaxed.” Leslie tried again. “Some of Dom’s cousins are going to be there.”
“Thought they were all asses?” Aislinn asked with a smirk.
“Sure, but his cousins are asses with hot, hot bods. If you aren’t going to do anything about Seth”—Leslie gave her a lascivious grin—“a girl’s got needs, right? Just think about it.”
Sister Mary Louise came in, saving Aislinn from declining again.
With her usual flourish, Sister Mary Louise paced across the front of the room, eying them from behind her patently unattractive glasses. “Well, what can you tell me?”
It was one of the many reasons the class was Aislinn’s favorite: Sister Mary Louise didn’t simply launch into a lecture. She got them talking, and then she slipped in her points, revealing every bit as much information, but with more style than any of the other teachers.
Before anyone else could speak, Leslie announced, “If Othello had trusted Des, it would’ve all gone differently.”
Sister Mary Louise rewarded her with an encouraging smile and then turned to Jeff, who objected to most of Leslie’s comments. “Do you agree?”
The class quickly turned into a debate with Aislinn and Leslie on one side and Jeff’s lone male voice on the other side. A few other people joined in periodically, but it was mostly her and Leslie against Jeff.
Afterward Aislinn left Leslie at her locker and joined the crowd surging to the door. In all, her mood was a good one. Ending the day with her favorite class wasn’t quite as good as starting with it—instead of starting with the torture that was Calculus—but it was a close second.
Then Aislinn stepped outside the main door. The fear she’d stifled that morning came flooding back: outside, seated on the back of the wolf, was Deadgirl—looking every bit as terrifying as the other faery, Keenan, had at Comix.
CHAPTER 7
The fairies, beside being revengeful, are also very arrogant, and allow no interference with their old-established rights.
—Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland by Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde (1887)
“Hello?” Leslie snapped her fingers in front of Aislinn’s face, her silver nail polish catching Aislinn’s attention. “Are you coming or not?”
“What?”
“To Dom’s.” Leslie sighed, a familiar look of irritation on her face.
Beside them, Carla smothered a laugh.
Leslie exhaled noisily, blowing her too-long bangs away from her face. “You weren’t listening to a word I said, were you?”
“Hold up,” Rianne yelled as she ran down the steps. Like Leslie, Rianne already had her blazer off, but she also had the top two buttons of her blouse undone. It was all show, but it was a show that led to lectures from more than a few of the faculty at Bishop O.C.
From the side of the building, Father Edwin called, “You’re still on school property, ladies.”
“Not now.” Rianne stepped off the curb into the street and blew a kiss to him. “See you tomorrow, Father.”
Father Edwin tugged his Roman collar, his version of clearing his throat. “Try to stay out of trouble.”
“Yes, Father,” Leslie said obediently. Then she lowered her voice. “So are you coming, Ash?” She didn’t pause, walking toward the corner, expecting everyone to follow her.
Aislinn shook her head. “I’m meeting Seth at the library.”
“Now, he’s yummy.” Rianne gave an exaggerated sigh. “You holding out on us? Les said that’s why you bailed the other night.”
Across the street, listening to everything they said, was Deadgirl. She followed them, her wolf loping down the street, keeping pace with them.
“We’re friends.” Aislinn blushed, feeling more embarrassed than usual with the faery eavesdropping.
Aislinn stopped, bent down, and pulled off her shoe as if there were something in it. She glanced back: Deadgirl and her wolf lingered in the shadows of the alley across the street. Humans walked past—oblivious as always—talking, laughing, completely unaware of the unnaturally large wolf and its feral rider.
“Bet you could be more.” Rianne linked her arm through Aislinn’s and urged her forward. “Don’t you think, Les?”
Leslie smiled, slowly and deliberately. “From what I hear, he’s got enough experience to be a prime candidate for the job. Trust me: for your first, you want someone with finesse.”
In a throaty voice, Rianne said, “And I hear Seth’s got finesse.”
Carla and Leslie laughed; Aislinn shook her head.
“Sheila said that when she was in Father E.’s office, she saw the new student who’s coming this week, some orphan,” Carla said as they stood at the crosswalk. “Said he’s definitely a hi-cal dessert.”
“Orphan? She really said orphan?” Leslie rolled her eyes.
Glad the conversation had drifted away from her, Aislinn only half listened, more concerned with her faery stalker than new students. The faery stayed precisely even with them as they walked. From the way the faeries that passed treated Deadgirl, she was special. None of them approached her. Some bowed their heads as she passed. She, however, didn’t acknowledge any of them.
At the corner of Edgehill and Vine, where they usually split ways, Carla asked again, “You sure? You could bring him.”
“What?” Aislinn shook her head. “No. Seth’s helping me study, umm, for government. I’ll call you later.” The light changed, and she started across the street, calling back, “Have fun.”
Deadgirl didn’t follow.
Maybe she went away.
“Hey, Ash?” Leslie called, once they were far enough apart that she had to yell, far enough that everyone would hear. “You do know there’s no test in there this month.”
Rianne shook her finger. “Naughty, naughty.”
The people walking by didn’t pay any attention, but Aislinn’s face still burned. “Whatever.”
Aislinn cut across the park toward the library, thinking about Seth, about Deadgirl following her. She wasn’t paying much attention to her surroundings until someone—a human someone—grabbed her arm and pulled her against his chest, holding her securely immobile.
“Well, if it isn’t a nice little Catholic girl…Nice skirt.”
He tugged her pleated skirt, and the other two guys with him laughed. “Whatcha doing, baby?”
Aislinn tried to kick him, but her foot made little impact on his leg. “Stop it.”
“Stop it,” his friends mocked. “Oh no, stop it.”
Where is everyone? The park wasn’t usually deserted this early. No people, no faeries, no one at all was in sight.
She opened her mouth to scream, and he clamped his other hand over her jaw, his index finger between her half-open lips.
She bit down. It tasted like old cigarettes.
“Bitch.” But he didn’t remove his hand. He squeezed tighter until the inside of her cheek was pushed so tightly against her teeth that it bled.
The guy to her right laughed. “Guess she likes it a little rough, huh?”
Aislinn felt tears in her eyes. The arm around her was bruisingly tight. The hand over her mouth squeezed again, and she could taste fresh blood in her mouth. She tried to think, to remember what she knew about self-defense.
Use whatever you can. Scream. Go limp. She did, letting her weight droop.
He just shifted his hold.
Then she heard a growl.
Beside her was Deadgirl’s wolf, teeth bared. He looked like a big dog, but Aislinn knew what he was. Plainly visible to everyone and looking deceptively human, Deadgirl stood holding the wolf’s leash, letting him close enough to the three losers that it wouldn’t take much of a lunge to draw blood.
Her voice was frighteningly calm. “Remove your hands.”
The two guys who weren’t holding Aislinn backed away, but the one holding her said, “Not your business, blondie. Keep walking.”
The faery waited for a moment, and then she shrugged and let go of the leash. “So be it. Sasha, arm.”
The wolf—Sasha—ripped a gash in the guy’s wrist.
He shrieked and let go of Aislinn, clasping his bleeding arm. She dropped to the ground.
Without another word they ran, all three of them. The wolf sprinted behind them, nipping at their legs as they went.
Deadgirl crouched down. Her expression was unreadable as she asked, “Are you able to stand?”
“Why did you…” Aislinn flinched away as Deadgirl reached out toward her chin. “Thank you.”
Deadgirl winced at the words.
“I don’t know what happened.” Aislinn stared in the direction they’d run. Huntsdale wasn’t a bad city, maybe a bit rough in the late hours; maybe the lack of jobs and excess of bars made it wise to skip too many shortcuts through dark alleys late at night. Still, any sort of attack in the park…it was beyond odd. She caught the faery’s gaze and whispered, “Why?”
At first Deadgirl didn’t answer, then—avoiding the question—she reached her hand out slowly. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner.”
“Why were…” Aislinn stopped, bit her lip, and stood.
“I’m Donia.”
“Ash.” She offered a shaky smile.
“Come then, Ash.” Donia started toward the library, staying beside her, not touching, but too close for comfort.
Aislinn stopped in front of one of the columns that stood on either side of the door. “Shouldn’t you go find your, umm, dog?”
“No. Sasha will come back.” Donia offered what would be a comforting smile were she a human. Then she motioned toward the door. “Come.”
Aislinn opened the ornate wooden door, starting to calm down. The door to the library, like the columns, was at odds with the nondescript architecture that dominated Huntsdale. It was as if some city father had decided that they needed one beacon of beauty among the otherwise dingy structures.
She felt like laughing, not in amusement, but at the growing sense that the rules she’d lived by were suddenly off. It wasn’t faeries that attacked her, but humans. Rule #1: Don’t ever attract faeries’ attention. She had, though, and if she hadn’t, what would’ve happened outside?
Aislinn’s feet felt heavy; her stomach lurched.
“Do you need to sit?” Donia was gentle, steering Aislinn toward the hallway where the restrooms were. “It’s frightening, what they did.”
“I feel foolish,” Aislinn whispered. “Nothing happened, not really.”
“Sometimes the threat of a thing is awful enough….” Donia shrugged. “Go wash your face. You’ll feel better.”
Alone inside the tiny bathroom, Aislinn washed the blood from her face and felt her side. She’d have a bruise where his fingers had dug into her skin. Her already-dry lip had split. All things considered, it wasn’t bad. It could have been, though.
Aislinn washed her face again and straightened her hair. She tugged off her uniform, balling it up and shoving it into her bag, and slipped into a well-worn pair of jeans and a long tunic-cut blouse she’d found at the thrift store. Then she stepped back into the seemingly empty hallway, letting the bathroom door close softly behind her.
Donia stood, invisible now, talking to one of the bone-girls. Like the rest of the bone-girls, this one was ghastly white and so thin that each of her bones could be seen under her almost-translucent skin. The fact that she was mobile seemed to break some basic law. Surely things that looked so frail should have trouble moving? But the bone-girls glided over the ground without any visible effort. Despite their cadaverous mien, they were eerily beautiful to watch.
It was Donia who was terrible to behold: her white hair whipped around as if a storm surrounded her, and only her. Tiny icicles clattered to the ground beside her. “Find them. Find out why they attacked the girl. If anyone compelled them to do so, I want to know. Aislinn is not to be harmed.”
The bone-girl’s voice was a dry whisper, as if the words had to rush over something rough before they found form. “Should I tell Keenan?”
Donia didn’t answer, but her eyes darkened to the same oil-black sheen they had in Comix.
The bone-girl stepped back, hands held up in supplication. And Donia stepped around the corner, away from the bone-girl, and out of sight.
Momentarily, though, she came back around that same corner—plainly visible to humans now—and smiled at Aislinn. “All better?”
Aislinn’s voice wasn’t much louder than the bone-girl’s had been when she answered, “Sure. I’m fine.”
She wasn’t fine, though; she was confused about so many things. They—Keenan and Donia—had some reason for following her, but she couldn’t ask. Are they just bored, toying with me to pass the time? There were lots of old stories like that, but Donia seemed livid about the guys outside, seemed to believe someone could have sent those guys to hurt her. Why? What’s going on?
“I was just reading while I waited. I wanted to see if you have someone to walk you home before I leave.” Donia tilted her head, smiling. Her whole posture seemed friendly, safe. She walked back toward the rows of tables. “Ash? Are you…well?”
“Yeah.” Aislinn followed Donia around the corner to a table with an open book and a ragged bag.
“Is there someone you can call?”
“Yeah. I’m good.”
Donia nodded. She stuffed her book into her leather bag.
The door opened, and a mother with a couple kids came in.
Behind them was a group of faeries, invisible to the other patrons. All six were beautiful—moving like models, wearing clothes that looked like they’d been tailored for their willowy bodies. If it weren’t for the flowering vines slithering across their skin, they’d look human. The vines, though, were like living tattoos, moving of their own volition, crawling on the girls’ bodies.
One of the girls spun across the floor, in some old-fashioned dance. The others giggled and bowed to one another before following her.
Then the first one saw Donia. She murmured something to the others, and they stopped. Even the undulating vines stilled.
Several moments passed.
Donia didn’t say a word; neither did Aislinn. Since we’re both pretending not to see them, what could we say?
Finally Aislinn said, “If you hadn’t been there…”
“What?” The expression on Donia’s face was pained as she looked away from the faeries.
“Outside. If you hadn’t been there…”
“But I was.” She smiled, but there was a drawn look on her face, making her seem anxious, eager to leave.
“Right. I need to find my…someone.” Aislinn motioned toward the stairs that led to the library basement. “Get something, but I wanted to say thanks for everything.”
Donia shot a brief glare at the faeries, who were giggling again. “Just be sure to keep your someone with you when you leave. Will you do that?”
“Sure.”
“Good. I’ll catch you around sometime. Under better circumstances, I’m sure.” Then Donia smiled. The faery was beautiful—stunning—the way a storm is when you wake up and see lightning streak across the sky.
And probably just as dangerous.
CHAPTER 8
A Cornish woman who chanced to find herself the guardian of an elf-child was given certain water with which to wash its face…and the woman ventured to try it upon herself, and in doing so splashed a little into one eye. This gave her the fairy sight.
—Legends and Romances of Brittany by Lewis Spence (1917)
Aislinn stood motionless, gazing in the direction of the vanishing faery. In that brief moment Donia had been so devastatingly lovely that Aislinn had felt near tears.
Seth came up behind her. She knew it was him before he slipped his arms around her, but she wasn’t sure how she knew. She just did. There were a lot of things like that lately, knowing stuff without any reason why. It was kind of creepy.
He whispered, “Who’s she?”
“What?” It was hard to whisper back to him when he stood behind her; he was almost a foot taller than she was.
“Her. The one you were talking to.” He inclined his head in the direction Donia had gone.
She wasn’t sure how to answer. But when she turned, Seth saw her face, and he no longer seemed to care about his unanswered question.
“What happened?” He stared at her swollen lip, reached out as if he’d touch it.
“Tell you everything at home?” She hugged him. She didn’t want to think about it, not now. She just wanted to leave, go to Seth’s, where she could feel safer.
“Let me grab my notes.” Then he walked away, right past the group of faeries headed toward Aislinn.
One of the faery girls circled behind her. She’s the new one.
A second one stroked a hand over Aislinn’s hair. Pretty thing.
Another shrugged. I suppose.
Aislinn tried to keep her face blank. Focus. She concentrated on the rustling of the leaves against the girls’ clothes, not the strange sugary-sweet scent that seemed to pervade the air around them, not the too-hot brush of their skin as they inspected her with their hands. It wasn’t comfortable—at all—but after the fiasco outside, their touch seemed somehow less awful. The violence of the three guys…She shuddered.
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- Жанр: Детская проза, Детская фантастика
- Язык: Книги на английском языке
- Объём: 270 стр. 1 иллюстрация
- ISBN: 9780007349890
- Дата выхода книги: 28 декабря 2018
- Версия: 📚 Электронная книга
The clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in this cool, urban 21st century faery tale.Rule #3: Don’t stare at invisible faeries.Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world, and would blind her if they knew of her Sight.Rule #2: Don’t speak to invisible faeries.Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.Rule #1: Don’t ever attract their attention.But it’s too late. Keenan is the Summer King and has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost…Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working any more, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.
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