Tempestuous

by Lesley Livingston

  If it had been anyone else urging him to flight, Sonny would have ignored them and stood and fought. Anything else would have been cowardice and dishonor. But so great was his respect for the forest lord, and so insistent was Herne that he follow his demands, that Sonny could do nothing but reluctantly agree.

  “Auberon,” Herne said rapidly. “Find Auberon. I cannot explain it all to you—perhaps he can. But you must trust me, Sonny. And you must do as I say.”

  Sonny nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Herne gripped his shoulder tightly once more. Then the Hunter brushed his hand against a mirrored wall that shimmered and disappeared at his murmured word, opening a hidden passageway that would lead back down to the aqueduct and the reservoir. Sonny stepped over the threshold and was several yards down the passageway when he heard the telltale thrum and whine of a bow shot.

  He spun back around in time to see that Herne had heard it, too. It had been enough warning that the Hunter was able to twist out of the way. The arrow did not pierce his heart, but it slammed into his shoulder, spinning Herne around in a grotesque parody of a dance.

  “No!” Sonny cried out, and bolted back toward the archway. He only got halfway before Herne reached back with a flailing hand and reinstated the barrier, cutting Sonny off from the Tavern. The hiss and whine of more arrows reached Sonny’s ears where he stood, balled fists hammering against the magickal wall. He heard a stifled grunt of pain from Herne that told him another of the missiles must have found its mark. But he could not see the Hunter.

  Fortunately, it seemed, neither could Jenii Greenteeth.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are . . . ,” the glaistig murmured in a singsong voice from somewhere very close by.

  Herne must have called up a veil to hide himself, Sonny thought. He desperately hoped the Hunter was not so grievously wounded that he wouldn’t have the strength to maintain it.

  “You should have made me promise to keep the peace, first, before letting me through your doors, Horned One,” Jenii called out merrily, her taunts echoing down the marble-and-mirror passageway. “But I’m glad you didn’t. I hate playing by the rules. Don’t worry—this won’t take long.” Jenii’s voice grew indistinct and wavering, as if she were moving away from the hidden archway where Sonny stood unseen, but her words were still loud enough to hear as she said, “Find him if you can. Although I doubt you will—the Hunter is as wily as an old fox. Don’t waste too much time. As soon as I get what we came here for, you lot can head down to help the others. As for me, I’m off to find a princess!”

  Sonny stiffened.

  “She’ll prove a charming playfellow for my brother once he regains his strength, no doubt.” The Green Maiden laughed, and it was a bone-chilling sound. “Maybe he’ll let me watch when he strangles her with that pretty, pretty necklace.”

  Chapter XIV

  “Cait?” Fennrys asked for what Kelley sensed would be the last time. “Where are the others?”

  “She’s not going to tell you anything.” Kelley sighed.

  “Why would you think that?” Fennrys didn’t take his eyes off the other Janus, who stood with her back to the subway tunnel wall. The satchel containing her weapons and spell-casting paraphernalia lay off to one side, just out of Cait’s reach.

  “Because I wouldn’t.”

  Fennrys smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant expression. “Why not? I asked nicely.”

  “Still.” Kelley shook her head. “Tone of voice is one thing. Holding a knife to someone’s throat is another.” She gently but firmly put a hand on Fennrys’s wrist and forced him to lower the blade. “I’m really sorry about that, Cait,” she said over her shoulder. “I like you. You’ve always been a friend to me and, as far as I can tell, an outstanding Janus Guard. I think my father would agree with that. I don’t want to see you hurt.”

  Cait put a hand to her throat where Fenn’s knife blade had drawn a thin line of blood. “Thank you, Kell—”

  “But if you don’t tell us what we want to know”—Kelley reached up under her hair and undid the clasp on her necklace; the sudden blinding flare from her wings lit up the tunnel like a supernova, and Cait shrank back from the crackling eldritch energy—“I’m going to make you wish you’d never heard of the Otherworld or my father. Or me.”

  It was hard for Kelley in that moment to ignore Fennrys and the mile-wide grin that split his face. Even though she had invoked her father’s name, Kelley was perfectly well aware that she very closely resembled her mother in that moment, and she used it to her best advantage. She tucked her clover-charm necklace away in the pocket of her jeans.

  “Are you listening to me, Cait?” she asked politely.

  Cait nodded, squinting against the fierce, dark light of Kelley’s wings.

  “Good. Now open the door, and then get out of my way.”

  * * *

  Cait had warned them that they were in for a fight if they went down into the Faerie sanctuary, and she’d been right. Fenn insisted that she accompany them—a good call on his part. Cait’s spell-casting skills were the only thing that kept the three of them from being horribly mangled by the screaming wraiths that guarded the tunnel, since she’d overheard what happened to the others after Maddox told her to stand guard outside. As Cait relayed the story, Kelley suspected that gratitude for Maddox’s act was one of the reasons she had agreed to help them—that, and the fact that she seemed genuinely appalled by Godwyn’s little “mission.”

  Chaos was in full swing when they emerged from the old Croton Aqueduct tunnel into the vaulting underground hideaway. The shadowy air of the upper reaches of the cavern was made darker by screeching clouds of smoke-winged birds. Below, Lost Fae of all shapes and sizes battled fiercely with a battalion of redcaps. And more—strange, horrid Fae darted here and there, wielding claws and fangs and weapons. There was blood. And bodies.

  Sonny. Where is he? Kelley thought, scanning.

  She didn’t see him—but she did see Godwyn, hacking the head off a tall, gray-skinned goatish Fae with a savagery that turned her stomach. She couldn’t hear him over the din, but she knew from past experience that he was singing.

  Distracted by the sight, Kelley stepped away from the mouth of the tunnel entrance, out onto the wide ledge and into the open. She’d furled her Faerie wings as she’d run through the tunnels with Cait and Fennrys. She probably looked just like any other human changeling, and she was in the company of two Janus. It was only natural that the Lost would take her for one of them and act accordingly. As far as they were concerned, the Janus were the enemy—and so Kelley couldn’t really blame the huge, hideous creature that came thundering up the path toward them, roaring and swinging mallet-like fists.

  Jeez! she thought, scrambling desperately out of the way. Harvicc must have been the runt of his ogre litter!

  The creature paused for an instant, sniffing the air, and swung his massive head in Fenn’s direction. Suddenly Fennrys was scrambling, too. If the ogre managed to connect with one of his wild blows, there would be nothing left of the Wolf but a fine red mist. Kelley gathered herself, but an explosion right beside her head sent her diving for cover.

  The Faerie girl attacking her was tiny, almost doll-like, but she had a wicked throwing arm. With the speed of an automatic tennis-ball cannon, the creature fished can after can of Dr Pepper and cream soda from the burlap sack slung over her shoulder, lobbing them at Kelley’s head wrapped in some kind of incendiary magick spell. Kelley frantically dodged the glowing aluminum missiles—which exploded when they hit the cave wall behind her, spewing hissing liquid that ate holes in the rock like sulfuric acid.

  The tiny creature threw her last can. Sprouting a pair of iridescent wings, she took to the air, zipping toward Kelley. Her slender wings flicked out from her shoulders, glittering like switchblades and—Kelley discovered—just as sharp.

  Bleeding from a long shallow cut on her forearm, Kelley spun away from the girl’s frenzied attack. As her assailant swept past, Kelley lashed o
ut with an angry indigo firebolt that stunned the naiad and sent her careening into a shallow pond. She hit the water hard with a pained shriek.

  The ogre, fighting both Fennrys and Cait, swung his massive head around when he heard the cry. He snorted like a bull in an arena, focusing all of his murderous attention suddenly, acutely, on Kelley.

  Tired of being intimidated—especially by people she was there to help—Kelley unfurled her wings, and the dazzling brilliance made even her own vision dance with spots for a moment. But she swallowed nervously and backed up half a dozen steps when she saw it didn’t exactly have the flash-blinding effect she’d intended.

  “He’s got no eyes, Princess,” said a voice from over her shoulder. “But nice try.”

  Kelley spun around and saw Maddox standing there, glowering down at her.

  “Madd! Thank God!” she gasped, almost weak with relief. Behind her, Fennrys charged the ogre again. “Where’s Sonny?”

  “What do you care?”

  Oh, right. Maddox was pretty pissed at her . . . and she didn’t have time for it.

  “Shove the righteous indignation, Maddox,” she snapped. “Fenn told me about the rogue Janus—we’re here to help!”

  “She’s telling the truth,” Cait said over her shoulder. She looked as though she was struggling to weave some kind of binding spell that would hopefully subdue the monster without hurting him, but even she didn’t seem to be having much success.

  Maddox looked back and forth between them for a moment. Then he seemed to make up his mind. He sprinted past Kelley and leaped for one of the troll’s hammer-fisted arms—holding him back while Fennrys attacked from the other side, punching the creature in the head repeatedly to no avail.

  “Oy! Careful!” Maddox called to his Janus compatriot. “He’s one of the good guys!”

  “Tell that to him!” Fennrys grunted in pain as the ogre heaved himself backward, slamming the Wolf hard into the cavern wall. Cait cast another bunch of binding strands—to barely discernible effect—and Kelley stood by feeling utterly useless. She had so much power roiling around inside her, but neither the skill nor the experience to wield it effectively. One panicked turn as a kestrel hardly counted for much—especially when she couldn’t seem to replicate the feat.

  “Thinking makes it so,” my ass, Tyff, she thought.

  The hulking thing swatted Cait into the air with a flailing backhand and she hit the ground heavily, all the air leaving her lungs in a whoosh.

  C’mon, Kelley told herself angrily. It’s just like performing. It’s just like that moment before the curtains slide open: you take a breath, you reach inside yourself, and you make something out of nothing.

  Magick, theater . . . was it really so different?

  She looked up at the ogre and thought of Caliban, the monster in The Tempest, and how the spirits of the island had subdued him—lulling him into sleep with sound. This monster might not have eyes, she thought, but she was pretty sure there was nothing wrong with his ears.

  In her mind, Kelley could see the lines on the page of her latest play script, and she concentrated on shaping those words with her magick, just as Shakespeare’s spirits had:

  Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

  Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices

  Kelley imagined Caliban’s rough voice, full of wonder and longing. . . .

  That if I then had waked after long sleep

  Will make me sleep again . . .

  She let the words flow silently through her mind like an incantation.

  . . . and then in dreaming

  The clouds methought would open and show riches

  Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked

  I cried to dream again.

  And then she gathered the sensation, almost like packing together a big fluffy snowball, and cast it out toward the ogre, imagining the ball bursting just above him. The sweet sounds of far-off music drifted around the great beast, and he shook his huge, lumpy head in sudden confusion.

  Dream, Kelley urged silently. Sleep and dream. . . .

  For a long, breathless moment, she didn’t think it would work. The creature had shrugged off even Cait’s most expert spells.

  But then she saw his great head nod. His tiny, tufted ears twitched drowsily, and then the ogre pitched forward onto his front and began, almost instantly, to snore.

  Cait struggled to her feet, looking back and forth from Kelley to the rumbling mountain of unconscious ogre. “Nice.”

  Kelley furled her wings. “Thanks.”

  Fennrys and Maddox were staring at her.

  “Satisfied?” she asked Maddox.

  He nodded.

  “Good. Where’s Sonny?”

  He was, of course, right where she expected him to be.

  Smack in the dead center of the chaos. And he wasn’t alone.

  Even from where she stood, on a ledge midway between the high tunnel entrance and the floor of the cavern below, Kelley instantly recognized the beautiful huntress at his side. Her name, Kelley remembered, was Carys, and she’d confronted Kelley in Herne’s Tavern all those months ago about the unsavory company she kept. Kelley didn’t exactly know what to think when she saw the Faerie woman fighting back-to-back with that very same unsavory company—Sonny Flannery.

  Working in effortless tandem, Sonny and Carys dispatched a trio of attacking redcaps. She saw Carys laughing breathlessly with excitement—and couldn’t help but notice Sonny’s answering grin.

  Camaraderie isn’t supposed to look that much like flirting . . . is it?

  At her side Kelley heard Cait draw breath in a hiss. She followed Cait’s gaze. Selene, another Janus, was hiding far up in the shadows, picking off Lost Fae one at a time with her deadly accurate arrows.

  “Traitorous bitch,” Cait snarled. “She’s mine.”

  Cait glanced over her shoulder at Kelley, almost as if waiting for her permission.

  Kelley nodded curtly. “Go,” she said.

  Cait pulled a pair of short, wicked-looking swords out of her bag. The blades gleamed with a subtle orange light when she whirled them through the air in a brief salute. And then Cait was gone—running along the narrow path that led up toward the alcove where Selene perched.

  Kelley watched her go. She knew that Cait and Selene had been good friends before that moment—but the look on Cait’s face made her glad she wasn’t Selene just then.

  Suddenly, Kelley found herself yanked backward through the air by the grasping talons of one of the screeching black demon birds. Fennrys and Maddox both made a desperate grab for her and missed as the bird released its grip. Kelley plummeted through the air. Her wings flared brightly—but not fast enough—just before she hit the surface of the dark pool below with a loud, painful splash. She sank beneath the surface, and something sinewy and scaly wrapped around Kelley’s waist and began to pull her down. The light from her wings flickered and died, and she was drawn into darkness.

  She was getting so damned tired of almost drowning—and she wondered if this would be the time that wasn’t “almost.” Her vision began to tunnel, a reddish-gray haze creeping in at the edges. But before the light disappeared completely, Kelley looked up and saw the silhouette of a head and shoulders appear, and then the silvery surface of the water was shattered as a strong hand reached down and grasped her by one wrist.

  With a heave, and the slash of a blade, Sonny had her out of the deadly pool and up onto the mossy bank, his body falling heavily onto hers as he interposed himself between her and the flailing water wight. Coughing and kicking, Kelley pushed herself back from the edge of the pool. Sonny kicked one last time at the creature with the heel of his boot and then scrambled back himself, half dragging Kelley with him. She was shaking hard enough for her teeth to rattle, and he wrapped her in a fierce embrace.

  Without thinking, Kelley lifted her face to his. Sonny’s lips felt as though they would devour her as his hands tangled fiercely in her hair. Kelley wrapped her arms a
round his neck and returned his passion in equal measure. He was there. He was real. He was kissing her, stealing her breath away.

  Chapter XV

  Sonny had thought for an instant that he’d been imagining things—that the flaring purple light he’d seen plummeting through the cavern like a falling star was just his mind playing tricks on him. But he’d run for the water anyway, diving in without a second thought, to find it wasn’t his imagination. She was here and she was in his arms. Kelley’s mouth opened hungrily beneath Sonny’s lips, and his arms tightened around her, crushing her to his chest. Water poured off them, pooling on the ground where they lay wrapped around each other, arms and legs entwined. Sonny kissed her lips, her eyes, the side of her throat. . . .

  And then he remembered.

  He pushed Kelley to arm’s length as the memory of her words came crashing down on him again like a tidal wave.

  “How can you kiss me like that?” he said, his voice husky, thick with choking emotion. “How can you kiss me like that when you don’t love me?”

  Kelley opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her shoulders heaved with each breath and she dropped her gaze, shaking her head from side to side.

  “Sonny, I . . .”

  She looked up at him, her green eyes shining too brightly, as if brimming with unshed tears, and he had to look away. He couldn’t bear to look into her eyes. If she really didn’t love him—and she’d already said that plain as day behind his back—then it would kill him to have her say it to his face. Sonny stared over his shoulder at the ruffled surface of the dark water he’d just dragged her out of.

  When Kelley remained silent and shivering, he said, “Are you hurt?”

  She just shook her head.

  Sonny rocked back on his haunches and pushed the dripping hair from his face, peering at her closely. She seemed almost as if she was in shock. “Are you?” he asked again.