I blinked at him.
“He was worried about you, Mr. Landon. Very worried. You’d been gone too long without sending word.” He spoke to me, but he looked at Simone.
Evidently, telling someone you love that you can’t be their daughter anymore didn’t stop them from loving you. Or keeping tabs. Or worrying all to hell if you disappeared.
“Rude knows where I am now. He knows I’m okay,” I said.
“Next time, you might consider informing us sooner,” Nance said.
Simone turned the conversation back to the knife. “Did you bless a blade for someone?”
“I don’t want to talk about the girl with the cookies,” he said.
Simone glanced at me. “What?”
“The girl who came to his door last night,” I said.
Mr. Nance covered his face with his hands. “Please don’t make me talk about her.”
I leaned close to Simone. “Where are Malek and Beth?”
“Gone to search the rest of the place,” she said. “Just to be sure.”
I nodded. And extended a hand to her father. “Let’s go, Mr. Nance.”
He peered at me from between his fingers. “Where?”
“There’s a chair over here. You should sit down.”
“I can’t sit there,” he said. “That’s for royalty.”
Simone grabbed his arm and hauled him upright. “The Queen’s not here right now. She won’t mind.”
He followed her to the closest chair—the former King’s chair—or rather, she dragged him, his feet slip-sliding in his mirror-shined dress shoes. She planted him in front of the throne, whirled him around, and sat him down with a thud. She had to have used up half the strength she had to manhandle him like that.
She bent over, resting her hands on her knees, her wings pressed tightly together. “Did this girl tell you her name?” she asked.
He shook his head.
I walked over to him. “Ten years old, pigtails, dark blue dress with red polka dots?”
“Navy,” he said.
He meant the color. “Sure.”
He took a shuddering breath. “That’s her.”
“What’d she make you feel?” I asked.
He stared at me. “How did you know?”
I thought of my mom. Of that time in the kitchen, when everything had been all right with the world. “I got a small taste of it myself.”
“She made me think that you—” he glanced at Simone “—were at home in your room. There was music playing. You were singing. You were human. Thanksgiving dinner was nearly ready and I’d be calling you down to eat any minute. Turkey with all the trimmings, mashed potatoes that were mostly butter, cranberries, and English peas. You wanted them that year. I could feel the heat waves flowing off the oven and the padded mitts on my hands and there were potatoes in my hair because the mixer had jumped in my hand and splattered them. The horizon outside the kitchen window was painted gold with the sunset. Brown leaves crackled on the grass when the wind blew and I could taste barbecue in the air. The neighbors were cooking theirs like that, outside. It was so real. I got lost in it.”
Simone’s face had gone blank, as if she’d wiped the expression off of it. “I remember that Thanksgiving.”
“It was a good one,” Mr. Nance said.
“The peas were tasty.”
He showed her a shaky smile. “When I picked up the knife to carve the bird, the little girl said I should say grace then and there, that I should bless the blade before it cut flesh. That would keep everything perfect. Everything would stay just the way it was and you would never go away. So I did it.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “And then?”
Mr. Nance’s shoulders slumped. “She walked out the door and took my dream with her. I remembered everything, of course, and I felt so afraid that what I’d done would hurt you, S-singer.”
He never called her by her name, not since she’d begun the transformation from human to fae. She’d forbidden it, though she hadn’t stripped it from his memory.
“I called Mr. Davies,” he said. “I told him what happened. He poured me a double Scotch and tucked me into bed in my clothes, and I woke up here.”
“He sent you here,” Simone said.
Mr. Nance nodded. “Just so. At least it appears to have happened that way.”
“Did Rude say anything to you about what he’d be doing while you were gone?” I asked.
“No, Mr. Landon, he did not. But his face spoke volumes. He turned colors. Mostly red.”
I’d have to rely on my knowledge of my best friend and figure out his next move on my own, which I would do later. For now, we had an empty Faery Court to contend with. Malek and Beth wouldn’t find anyone. Simone had made that much clear.
“Mr. Nance, did you see anyone else after you arrived here? Anyone at all?” I asked.
He met my gaze. “There was a woman dressed like a knight.”
A knight? “Sword, armor?”
“Not metal armor,” he said. “Black leather. She had spiky silver hair and rings in her eyebrows.”
Silver. “Did she say anything to you?”
“‘Tell them I’ve gone to close the hole in my realm. They’ll know what to do.’”
“The hole in her realm?” Simone asked.
He nodded.
“There’s a hole in Faery.” She said it matter-of-factly, but with an are you crazy? lift at the end.
If there was a rip in one of the walls of the realm, it would leave Faery vulnerable to invaders, if anyone was of a bent to invade. After all, the realms butted up against each other—that much I knew. In theory—because I doubted a true map existed—all you had to do was have a little magic, concentrate on where you wanted to go, and step sideways from one world to your destination.
It wouldn’t be hard for someone like Famine to travel to any world she wanted. It might not be hard for her to punch a hole in the wall of a very sick, vulnerable realm like Faery.
All my thoughts about fate, about what Faery was, came rushing back to me. The kind of havoc Famine could wreak here if she were able to take over, say, Silver’s will—the thought made me want to throw up.
Silver had left the Court to protect the integrity of her realm and the safety of her people. If I were Famine, I’d have counted on that—on the Queen hitting the warpath and coming after me. I’d have counted on it so much, I’d have laid a trap.
I couldn’t see any other way for it to go down. Famine had set the snare, and Silver would run headlong into it. As far as I knew, Silver had no idea who Famine was. What she was capable of. She wouldn’t be expecting a Horseman of the Apocalypse.
One other thing bothered me just as much, if not more.
Silver had left the Court empty. She’d taken everyone with her, whoever was left to take. There was something else I couldn’t put my finger on, because I didn’t know the lore. And I was human, so why should I? But I’d been given an office that had some meaning in Faery, so I had some feeling for the place and its strange rules. If I had to guess at what felt so wrong, it would be that something crucial to the realm was here in this hall. Silver had left it undefended.
She’d had to have known that. She was the Queen. So to leave like she’d done, she had to have been terrified, with no other choice.
There was something here that could not be left defenseless. I felt that as strongly as anything I’d ever felt.
“This is very bad,” I said.
Simone’s violet eyes darkened to black. “Get Malek.”
CHAPTER FIVE
I FOUND MALEK and Beth in the furthest of the back rooms. We ran back to the hall, our footfalls echoing on the stone floor as we passed between the empty, decorated party tables. The smothering scent of the live roses in the tapestries on the walls filled my nose and mouth; the torches in their sconces along the walls played light and shadow over every detail, every corner. The hall suddenly seemed too hot. Stifling.
Sweat tric
kled down the groove at the small of my back as we skidded to a halt in front of the dais where the Singer sat on the King’s wooden throne with Mr. Nance in her arms, his salt-and-pepper hair sticking out every which way, his fingers clutching at Simone’s arms repeatedly, as if he feared to let her go.
The red and white ribbons that decorated the dais flapped all around them as if disturbed by a breeze. Over that gentle sound, I could hear Mr. Nance’s sobs. Simone met my gaze, her eyes unreadable. The corners of her mouth trembled.
With the two of them so close together, I could pick out the resemblance between them. The same set of their eyes, the shape of their noses, the same stubborn mouths. But that was all, because Simone’s fae nature lent an otherworldly glamour to her movements. She couldn’t move like a human anymore.
Her father had almost killed her. He leaned on her for comfort. The world—all the worlds—could end any minute.
I wanted time to stop. To gather Simone in my arms, breathe her in, comfort her. But there was no time. And I could hear Simone’s heart beating, fast and frightened.
I shouldn’t be able to hear that. Back in the In-Between, I thought it’d been because she was sick. Because she was dying. Mortal danger improved my hearing, after all, and maybe my abilities had branched out beyond thoughts to include things like heartbeats. Simone had said I shouldn’t be able to because I was human.
But I hadn’t always been only human. I’d been fae for a very short period of time, during the fight with the Demon. Rude had changed me back to my normal self—or had he? Had all the fae bled out of me? Or had something fae stayed with me? Had I kept something inside of me, like the feather Simone carried?
I took a deep breath and blew it out slow. It would have to wait. “The Singer and I have to go after Silver. She’s in way over her head.”
Malek looked at me as if he thought I’d be dead within the hour. As if he might even feel sorry if things went down like that. And you? What are you going to do? You have no offensive magic. Nothing to hurt Famine with. Nothing to protect the Singer.
“The Singer has to be the one to go because no one else can get to Silver in time. I’m not letting her go without me.”
“Letting?” Simone arched a brow.
“You know what I mean,” I said.
“I do. But Malek’s right. I’m sorry, Kev, but he is. What could you possibly do to help if we land in the middle of a fight?”
“Push you out of the way? Charge whoever attacks us? Act as bait?”
Beth snorted. “Completely reasonable suggestions.”
“Shut it,” Simone said to her. “Kev, you can’t possibly believe I’d let you be bait.”
“There’s that word again,” I said. “Let. It’s not up to you.”
Simone shook her head. “It is. I don’t have to take you.”
No, she didn’t. But if something happened to her and I wasn’t there to even try to stop it, I’d never forgive myself, and she knew it.
Famine wouldn’t be easy to kill—if she could be killed at all. If Simone couldn’t put her down, Famine would come after the rest of us, including me. Plus, there were still fae hunting me. What were the odds Famine had something to do with that?
I let my hands fall to my sides. “Keeping me away from Famine won’t keep me safe. If she doesn’t get me, the fae she sent after me will.”
“You think she did that?” Simone asked.
I nodded. “The simplest explanation is usually the right one. It’s possible that someone else sent those fae, that someone else could have cast a spell on the one who hurt you, but with Famine on the scene, do we really need to dream up some other big bad to throw in a monkey wrench?”
“I don’t like the way you argue,” Simone said. “There could be someone else. The realm’s upside down, Kev. But I think you’re on to something. I think it’s Famine all the way.”
“She told me she wanted to know everything about me. To use me. I think she was lying,” I said.
“What do you think she wants?” Simone asked.
“I wish to hell I knew. If she wanted me dead, she could’ve killed me as easy as looking at me back in the In-Between. If she sent those fae after us on a mission to kill, what changed between then and when I met her?”
Simone thought for a minute. “Unless she didn’t send them to kill you.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, Simone. Of course they were sent to kill me.”
“No.” She shook her head. “That last one—the fae girl with the blessed blade—we assumed that she’d been spelled to take your life because of the questions she asked me. I’m the one she attacked. Her blade was meant for me.”
“She stabbed me with it. The magic on the knife wouldn’t have hurt me, but cut me in the right place and you’ll kill me just the same.”
“You got in the way, Kev.”
“I didn’t feel in the way at the time,” I said. But I’d been fighting for my life. For Simone’s life. I hadn’t been in any position to think, only to react. “The fae girl could’ve bit me or scratched at me once I pinned her down, but she didn’t.”
Simone nodded.
“Shit,” I said.
Malek snapped his fingers to get our attention. You should stay here, Kevin. I should go.
“That seems like it would make the most sense,” I said. “But the best I can explain, there’s something here that needs to be guarded, and I don’t have the juice to do it. You do.”
What needs to be guarded? Malek asked.
I could feel it on the edges of my skin. I could feel it on the tip of my tongue. But I couldn’t name it. “It’s frustrating as hell. I think I can’t tell you what it is because I’m not fae.”
Simone narrowed her eyes. “I don’t feel anything.”
“I don’t know why that is,” I said. “I wish I did. I only know that I’m right. I feel it in my bones and in my blood.”
Malek signed. Your blood?
It whispered in my veins. No—it sang. It sang like Simone did when she wanted the feeling to penetrate to the core, only this felt more powerful. I’d never felt anything like it before. It was precious. It must be kept safe. Silver had left it. We couldn’t let it fall into Famine’s—or anyone else’s—hands.
“I’m not being metaphorical,” I said.
Blood calls to blood, Malek said.
I had no idea what that meant, only that I didn’t like the sound of it, and that with Malek, it was always about blood. “Whatever. I just need you to believe me.”
He gave me an appraising look. I do.
I’d been prepared for more of a fight. “You do?”
I trust you, he said.
“Okay,” Simone said.
That was all I needed to hear. More than that, it was what Faery needed. I didn’t have time to wonder how I knew that, because we didn’t have much time. We had to move.
“Malek, do you know where Silver is?” I asked. “You’ve worked on her—her tattoo. I’m guessing that counts for something.”
When I work on someone, it ties me to them. To who they are. To what they are. It’s not like the bond I have with Beth—it’s something else—but it is a kind of bond. I can tell the Singer while you deal with her father. He should go back where he came from.
Because telling me wouldn’t do as much good. I might have some sense of Faery, and I might know some things I shouldn’t, but I didn’t know the realm like Simone did.
“I can’t send Mr. Nance back to the Human world,” I said.
Beth will take him.
“Beth will totally not,” Beth said. “I’m not leaving you. We’ve been over this a lot of times and it never ends well and I don’t care whether you handled yourself for millions of years just fine without me, so don’t even go there.”
Malek sighed. Then you’ll watch him and swear to the Singer to keep him safe.
Beth clapped a hand across my back. “Fine. Introduce us. Is he really the Singer’s dad? How does a fae have a h
uman father?”
I moved forward enough for Beth’s hand to fall away. “It’s a long story and I’ll tell you later.”
I climbed the dais, Beth on my heels. I stopped suddenly at the top on purpose. She ran into me and backed away, flustered.
“Wait here a sec,” I said. I didn’t wait for her to reply.
I made my way over to the throne, to Simone and her father. Mr. Nance was still crying, quiet tears streaming down his cheeks. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and looked up at me.
I held out my hand for him to take. He let me help him up and walk him a few paces to the side.
“You understand what you need to do?” I asked.
He tried to smooth his hair back into its usual place, unsuccessfully. “I’m upset, Mr. Landon, but I’m not stupid. I’ll try to stay out of the way, and failing that, I’ll try not to die.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I’m sorry I accused you of hurting your daughter on purpose.”
“You did that,” he said. “But I don’t think you truly believed it. She did, however.”
I wanted to tell him that wasn’t true, but I didn’t see how lying could possibly help. “She was scared.”
A fae-shaped shadow slid over me before I felt Simone behind me in the air that moved before her wings, the warm brush of her breath, and the sound of her heartbeat that I shouldn’t be able to hear and didn’t understand.
Why could I hear it? How did I know about the thing that needed to be guarded? What the hell was happening to me?
Simone moved to stand beside me and looked at her father. “It’s actually not that complicated. You keep trying to find a way into my life after I told you I didn’t want you there. You keep reminding me of what I was when I was little. When I was fragile. When I had my whole life in front of me and the world was my oyster. You used to say that to me all the time.”
Mr. Nance blinked. “Just so.”
“I can’t afford for you to keep reminding me,” she said, every word spoken with a sharper edge. “I’m not that girl anymore and I never will be again, no matter what you wish for. You’d be happy if I could pretend, but I can’t.”
Faery (The Faery Chronicles Book 3) Page 8
