Michael went to put his shoulder against the door. “I know a thing or two about getting through doors,” he said, but she pulled him back.
“Trust me, you don’t want to do that.”
“So we’re trapped in here?”
“There’s always the kitchen. Come on.”
He could have used a rest and maybe a snack, but he wanted out of this place, so he followed her through the heart of the palace down to the lower level. The door through which they’d entered was closed, and Sophie’s gesture didn’t open it. Michael nudged her aside and gave it a good kick, but it didn’t budge and a shock went up his leg.
Sophie put her hands on her hips and glared at the closed door. “Okay, now we’re trapped,” she said.
Fifteen
Bethesda Terrace
1:25 a.m.
Emily tried not to panic. Even if Sophie had been kidnapped by the creepy fae gang that thought this Wild Hunt was a great thing, the ones she needed to worry about were the fairies. Sophie was probably more dangerous as a captive than as an enemy in open warfare. The last person to take Sophie prisoner was currently a slave in the fairy queen’s palace, and that happened before Sophie had much practice using her magical powers. Sophie loved both Michael and Beau, and she wouldn’t let anything happen to either of them.
That didn’t make it much easier for Emily to wait for the enchantresses to assess the situation and make a decision. “If we went now, we might be able to catch them,” she said to Eamon.
“We do not know where in the Realm they might have gone,” he told her somberly without turning his eyes from where the enchantresses and a couple of fairies who must have been guards or security officers were attempting to interrogate a prisoner.
The prisoner ignored their questions, instead singing an eerie song to himself. “Again, again, the Hunt will ride again,” he sang, occasionally interrupting the song for a shrill giggle.
When the waiting grew too much for Emily, she stalked over to the enchantresses, grabbed Amelia’s arm and said, “We need to help Sophie.”
“Her disappearance may have nothing to do with this,” Amelia said, her voice tight, like she wasn’t sure she believed it herself. “She and Detective Murray were likely to go into the Realm tonight, no matter what, to find Jennifer.”
“Well, even so, she’s going to need help. Saving Jen, finding and stopping this impostor, and making sure this Hunt thing doesn’t happen are a bit much to take on all at once, even for Sophie. You said this was your jurisdiction.” She gestured toward the prisoner. “Let’s do something, then. I know I don’t exactly qualify for Sophie’s role in your magical trio, but I can still help.”
“That may just be tradition,” Athena said. “We don’t know if virginity is actually a technical requirement. In the old days, they may have assumed that any adult woman would be married, and motherhood would be inevitable without reliable birth control methods, so any unmarried woman might work as a maiden.”
Even in the tense situation, Emily couldn’t help but smile. “I meant that I don’t have Sophie’s magical powers.”
Athena flushed crimson. “Oh, dear, apologies for the assumption.”
Emily really had to fight to keep from laughing. “So, let’s go into the Realm.” She turned to Eamon. “That would be your part in this. You can take us, can’t you?”
“It is possible. But are you sure it is safe for you?”
“Safe? Not likely, given the impostor and the Hunt. But I’m not jonesing for the Realm, if that’s what you mean. I’d rather not go, but my sister’s in there, and she needs my help. Look what she did for me.”
He addressed the enchantresses. “You agree with this?”
“This is our job,” Amelia said with a nod.
“Where in the Realm should we go?”
That was a real stumper. On her last visit, the Realm had been a dream—or nightmare—landscape that shifted and twisted around itself. It was impossible to map, and that made it impossible to know where to go. But thinking about her last time gave her an idea. “What about the free fae?” she asked Eamon. “Wouldn’t they be most resistant to a ruler?”
“That’s who we usually work with,” Athena said, nodding. “Their agenda fits most closely with ours.”
“I know of some common gathering places,” Eamon said.
“Then what are we messing around for? Let’s go!” Emily said, grabbing his hand.
“Not so fast,” Amelia said. “How prepared are you for an extended time in the Realm? Do you have food or other supplies?”
“Oh, right,” Emily said, resisting the urge to swear. Eating or drinking could trap her in the Realm, and she didn’t want to go through that again.
“We have some weaponry and herbs, but we’ll at least need water,” Amelia said. “We have supplies at the shop.”
Emily bit her tongue before blurting that it would take too long. Their shop was almost at the river, and cabs would be scarce at this time of night.
Athena turned to Eamon. “Do you know of a gateway in Riverside Park?”
“Yes, there is one.”
“Then you’ll come with us. You may not be able to go into the shop, but we won’t take long.”
The four of them trooped out of the park, and Amelia apparently had the same knack as Sophie for summoning a cab out of thin air. Emily waited outside the iron-laden shop with Eamon while the sisters gathered supplies. He hadn’t even made it to the steps before he started shaking and sweating.
“You think I’m nuts, don’t you?” she asked him.
“Plumb loco,” he agreed with a smile. “But I do not believe you are wrong. If there is an effort by any ruler to subjugate the fae, the free ones will resist. They are also more likely to have human mates who might be targeted.”
“Human mates? You mean captives?”
“Not every human in the Realm went unwillingly or stays unwillingly.” He glanced away from her. “Fae and humans do often find love with each other.”
“And I guess they’d have to live in that world. The Realm’s not too bad for humans if you don’t have anything to lose here, but this world would be rough for a fairy.”
He didn’t comment on that, and the sisters came out of the shop a moment later, laden with bags. Eamon and Emily took the two largest bags, and the party set off down the street toward the river.
“This is where Sophie would come in handy,” Emily remarked as Eamon sought the gateway. “She just goes into the Realm from anywhere.”
“Sophie is queen of the Realm,” Eamon said absently, his attention focused on his task. “I do not have her power.” He grinned abruptly. “Ah, here it is.”
They all held hands and stepped forward. Emily felt something shift. She remembered the sensation of falling between one step and another from the last time. She hadn’t realized that she’d closed her eyes until she opened them and saw that she was in a different world.
They’d gone from the middle of the night to a strange eternal twilight, but without a visible sun. The colors were so intense that they brought tears to Emily’s eyes, and the sound of distant music wafted through the air, like there was some kind of cosmic Muzak being played.
“We should probably head toward the music,” Emily said. “Wherever music is, that’s where fairies will be.” She was a little surprised by how much she wanted to reach the music so she could dance to it. Maybe she wasn’t quite as cured of the fairy craving as she’d thought. Or perhaps it was just that she was a professional dancer and this music was very danceable.
The party began heading in that direction. Amelia and Athena appeared in awe of their surroundings, which Emily found amusing. They knew so much, but they didn’t have a lot of experience with actual fairies in their Realm. Eamon also looked out of place here in his old-professor attire, even if he was the one native to the Realm.
They hadn’t been walking long when another sound drowned out the distant music—something that sounded like a mil
itary marching cadence. That was unusual in Emily’s admittedly limited experience in the Realm, and a glance at Eamon confirmed her suspicions. He was looking around anxiously. A squad of fae men in medieval-looking military livery appeared, and as soon as they spotted the humans, they headed toward them at an alarmingly rapid pace. Emily started to run, but in a heartbeat she and her party were surrounded, with no way out.
“More humans,” one of the soldiers said with a sneer. “Corrupting our Realm, are you? Well, enough of that!”
Sixteen
The Palace
Soon Afterward
Sophie was glad that Michael didn’t ask the usual useless questions that tended to come up in this sort of situation, like “We’re trapped?” or “How can we be trapped in your palace?” Instead, he stayed quiet and let her think, not even asking her what they could do. If she needed any additional reason to love him, that was one right there.
But this was no time to contemplate the merits of a man who was off-limits to her. She needed to find a way out of here. It came back to the crown, she was fairly certain. The first step anyone in her position would take would be to put on the crown that gave her control over the palace. Maybe that was what her unseen opponent wanted, for her to take the crown out of its protective bubble. That meant that option was off the table unless she got desperate.
“Is there anyone Beau could kiss?” Michael asked with a wry grin. A kiss from Beau, as Sophie’s mortal protector, had already broken one spell.
“Nobody’s asleep,” she said, and then she laughed out loud. “But you are a genius. A sleeping spell may be just what we need.”
“You’re not planning to wait for a handsome prince to come rescue you, are you?”
“I’m a queen, not a princess. But I have a feeling whoever trapped us is in here with us, hoping I’ll get out the crown and make it ripe for the picking. So if I knock out everyone in the castle but us, it might break the spell holding us, or at least weaken it while the caster is unconscious.”
“You don’t need the crown for that?”
“I don’t think so. We’re at the root of the palace, so it shouldn’t take much to spread it upward. I’ll exempt us, but I’ll need contact to do that. Can you pick up Beau and put him on the table here?”
While he shifted the grunting bulldog, she mentally ran through the information that had popped into her head. She placed one hand on Beau’s back and took Michael’s hand with the other, took a deep breath to center herself, and reached out to the palace around them.
The air grew heavy. Even though she was in control of the spell, she felt weariness spread over her, and Michael’s eyes blinked. Beau yawned, but that wasn’t unusual behavior for him.
She waited several minutes before saying, “I hope that does it. Let’s try the door.” Reluctantly releasing Michael’s hand, she went to the kitchen door. Much to her relief, the handle turned. “It seems to have worked. Let’s get out of here.”
He put Beau back on the ground, and they hurried out of the kitchen, through the kitchen yard, and out of the palace enclosure. From the outside, the barrier of vines was still visible, which meant that the magic creating it didn’t require constant maintenance.
“I don’t know how long that sleeping spell will hold, so we’d probably better get going,” she said, taking off away from the palace.
“I take it we’re going to pay this Fiontan and Niamh a visit,” Michael said, matching his stride to hers.
“Do you have any other ideas?”
“No, that would be my plan. I guess you know where to find them.”
“Not at all.”
“Then where are we going?”
“To find someone who does know. Directions are tricky in the Realm. Maps are all but useless. You almost have to know where you’re going in order to get there.” She stopped and turned to him. “You do remember the rules, right? No eating or drinking anything they give you, no direct thanks. If I tell you to do something, do it without arguing because you can bet I have a good reason for it. They can’t tell an outright lie, but that doesn’t mean that what they tell you is the truth. They may not be answering the actual question you asked, or they may be leaving out something important. Try to avoid owing them any favors. It’s best to do something that forces them to owe you something.”
“Like being kind to animals and old people.”
She smiled. “Exactly. We’re lucky that you’re a third son because that means that situation is likely to come up.”
“You make it sound like this is going to be dangerous.”
“It is. There’s a reason this isn’t a popular vacation spot for humans.”
“But you’re the queen of this place.”
“One more rule: Don’t ever mention that unless I’ve brought it up. If you’re the impostor, what’s the last thing you’d want around?”
“The real queen. So you want to stay under the radar. I was wondering about that at the market. It’s like you’re using some kind of cloaking spell.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You can see that?”
“Sort of. It’s hard to explain. It’s not bad that I can see these things, is it?”
“No, I don’t think so. But it is interesting.” Very interesting, indeed, if being touched by magic had left lingering effects.
“What’s our first step?”
“Find someone to do a favor for so we can make them give us directions. Keep your eyes open.”
Seventeen
Elsewhere in the Realm
Meanwhile
Emily kept her cool by imagining what Sophie would do. If Sophie were ever captured, she’d give the impression that it had been part of her plan and her captors had been foolish enough to fall into her trap. So, Emily kept her head held high and looked coolly down her nose at the fairies holding them prisoner.
The captors hadn’t threatened them yet, merely forced them to march. Emily figured the worst-case scenario would be getting booted from the Realm. If they were lucky, they’d be taken straight to the false queen.
A glance to her side told her that Amelia and Athena were behaving in a similar way and showing no fear, though instead of looking cool, they were regarding their surroundings with rapt fascination. Only Eamon seemed concerned, and Emily realized that exile for him might actually be deadly. Getting booted really would be a worst-case scenario.
The one thing she hadn’t counted on was rescue—at least, not until Sophie knew something had happened to her.
One moment, the forest through which they walked was eerily silent. The next, the air was full of shouts and battle cries as a wave of fairies rushed toward them, appearing seemingly out of thin air. They wore the natural-looking clothing of the wild fae, and they’d blended seamlessly with the surrounding trees.
One of them grabbed Emily’s hand. “Come with us,” he said, pulling her along with him as he ran. After noting that the others in her party were also being led, she joined him in putting on some speed. She didn’t know yet if she could trust the new people, but they didn’t seem to be holding them at sword-point yet, which she considered an improvement.
She wasn’t sure how long they ran before they reached a denser section of woods and their guides slowed. Amelia and Athena must have been in remarkably good shape for their age, since they were less out of breath than Emily was. She wondered if it was magic or if they’d been doing aerobics since the eighties. One guide shouted a phrase in a musical language Emily didn’t understand, and a voice from within the trees responded in the same language.
A gap appeared in what had appeared to be a dense stand of woods. Their guides ushered them through the gap, which closed behind them. Inside the walls was a great encampment of fae. Tents clustered around cooking fires, and a wild music skirled through the air, as always in any gathering of the fae.
The fairy who’d been guiding Emily gave her party a slight bow and said, “You are welcome to find sanctuary here among the others who would be ex
iled.”
“Everyone here is on the list to be kicked out?” Emily asked in dismay. There were hundreds of people, and most of them weren’t human.
“We’ve managed to catch most before they are ousted. Others come to us before the queen’s guards reach them.”
Emily opened her mouth to say that those weren’t really the queen’s guards, but Amelia caught her wrist and squeezed hard enough to make her gasp instead of speaking. “We’ll just sit over here beside this fire, if you don’t mind,” Amelia said, maintaining her grip on Emily as she led the group to sit in a cluster.
“We’ll learn more if they don’t know what we know,” Amelia hissed once they were all seated. “They already seem to trust us.”
“But they don’t know anything or they’d know the queen they’re hiding from isn’t the real one,” Emily protested. “If we could convince them that the queen is an impostor, we’ve got the makings of an uprising, right here.”
“You want to start a rebellion?” Athena asked, her eyes wide.
“The free fae live in constant opposition to rule,” Eamon said. “It would not take much to make them rebel. The difficulty would be in getting them to follow orders well enough to complete an uprising.” He glanced around at the camp. “Though I must say, they’re surprisingly well organized here.”
“I think they’ll do okay if they’re fighting for a common cause,” Emily said. “We just need to stir them up and make them eager to fight instead of hiding.”
“You believe we could do this?” Amelia asked.
“I spent six months in the chorus of a touring production of Les Misérables. I think I know a thing or two about stirring up a rebellion.”
“As I recall, that rebellion wasn’t too successful,” Amelia pointed out.
“That was France,” Emily said with a shrug. “The important thing is that if you do that show right, you have the audience ready to march out of the theater and take over the world. That’s what I know how to tap into.”
To Catch a Queen Page 9
