To Catch a Queen

by Shanna Swendson

  “And what do you get out of the rides?” she prompted.

  “Enough of this!” he roared. With a gesture, he threw a ball of flame at her. It spattered against the magical barrier, which weakened enough to allow a few sparks through. The enchantresses countered the fire with ice, and Sophie strengthened the barrier with a gesture, refusing to let herself flinch. She was intrigued by the mention that the Hunt had been freed. That implied that someone—perhaps one of her fairy ancestors—had at one time managed to chain or imprison them. It would have been nice, though, if she had any clue as to how to go about doing that. She wondered if Nana might know, but she couldn’t ask for help in front of them without looking weak.

  “You take souls when you ride, don’t you?” she asked, trying to sound casual and not like the germ of a plan rested on this conversation.

  “That is correct,” the Hunter acknowledged. “Hunting gives us life.”

  Mentally crossing her fingers in case her theory was wrong, she said, “If you leave the Realm, you’ll die.”

  The lead Hunter’s horse reared, its monstrous hooves pawing at the air in fury. “Do you think you can slay us, little queen?”

  “I don’t have to. The people outside will take care of it. They don’t fear you anymore. They don’t believe in you anymore. Heck, most of them haven’t even heard of you. They’ll see or hear you coming and call it a thunderstorm. They’ll have a scientific explanation for it—air temperatures, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, static electricity, the speed sound travels. What happens to the fae without belief?” She felt like she was at a production of Peter Pan, but instead of asking the audience to believe in fairies and clap their hands, she was saying, “Don’t believe, and Tinkerbell’s toast.”

  She thought the Hunt might be faltering. The flames in their eyes dimmed, and the cloud around them diminished. Behind Sophie, Emily started softly singing “Ave Maria,” barely audible, but still enough to seep into the subconscious and possibly even deliver a double whammy.

  Sophie moved in for the kill, taking the risk of moving through the protective barrier and facing the Hunt directly. “The time of the fae has all but ended in the world above. The stories they tell children about fairies are cute and funny. Children aren’t taught to fear fairies. They dress up like them in butterfly wings and frilly skirts. Instead of running from you, they’d invite you to a tea party.”

  “Then we will ride within the Realm, where we are still feared.”

  “I can’t let that happen, and I will stop you.” She let enough of her royal power show to drive the point home. She wasn’t exactly sure how she’d stop them, but she’d find a way, even if she had to lock them in a room and pipe in recordings of church services.

  “What will we do if we do not ride?” It was hard to tell since she couldn’t read his expression, but she almost thought he sounded a little lost.

  “Maybe you should find a more productive use of your time,” she said. “What have you been doing since you last rode?”

  “We have been confined to the Borderlands—neither entering the Realm nor leaving it for the outside world.”

  That explained the cultists Michael had encountered. They probably went in and out of the physical entrances to the Borderlands and must have encountered the Hunt there.

  A crazy idea occurred to her. It was absolutely insane, but it felt somehow right. “What if I offered you a job? A real job, not just running around terrifying people.”

  “What job would you have us do, little queen?” The ominous voice dripped with disdain.

  “I need a royal guard, some knights to serve the throne and keep peace in the Realm.”

  “And why should we serve you, human queen?”

  “The fact that I’m queen isn’t enough?”

  He made a sound that might have been laughter, but that made her skin crawl. “We don’t serve. We do our will at the pleasure of the ruler.”

  Sophie felt like she was close to a breakthrough, but couldn’t quite grasp the one concept that would turn everything around. It was just there, but still out of reach. As she so often did when imposing her will on others, even before she’d realized she was using magic to do so, she tried switching viewpoints. What was in it for them, and how could she get them to see that?

  In this case, why would a band of soul-stealing monsters want to become the queen’s royal guard and be trapped inside the Realm? Did they actually like all that hunting, or were they just not able to see any other possibility? Maybe if they saw what could be, it would change their minds.

  She pictured the ultimate makeover, from hell fiend to Lancelot—change the dark armor to shining silver, add some color in a tabard. The horns might have to stay, but as proud stag horns that looked noble rather than evil. His hideous black horse could be a snowy-white steed, strong and healthy, with eyes like diamonds. She held the image in her mind until it was more real to her than what stood before her, then adjusted reality to fit it.

  She knew from the gasps behind her that she’d succeeded. The Huntsman looked like something on the cover of a paranormal romance novel—the kind of hot, not-entirely-human guy who’d fall madly in love with an ordinary human woman. If he had any self-esteem issues at all, maybe this makeover would change his perspective.

  “This is what you could be if you served me. Or, rather, if you chose to offer your arms in my service.”

  He couldn’t see himself well, but she could already tell he was carrying himself differently, and the other members of the Hunt were looking at him the way women side-eyed another woman who’d just had a spectacular makeover.

  The Huntsman raised his hand, signaling to his colleagues, who moved closer to him. Lights flashed and the clouds thickened, momentarily obscuring them. When the clouds cleared, the leader bowed his head and said, “We will serve you, my queen, if we may all take new forms.”

  “Agreed. I’m sure things will go much better for you this way.” She looked inward, gathered her power, and cast her will outward.

  All the riders and horses were transformed to match their leader. The dogs became sleek hounds that looked much healthier and less mean. They approached Beau and went through the universal canine sniffing ritual, then Beau turned back to Sophie, seemingly reporting that the dogs were on board with the changes, too. “There, that’s better,” Sophie said with some satisfaction. She turned her attention to the Hunt cultists, but they’d made themselves scarce. Apparently, the reformed Hunt wasn’t quite as interesting to them.

  “Wow, Soph, talk about a makeover,” Emily said, moving forward to join her once the enchantresses lowered their barrier.

  “That was an interesting strategy,” Amelia said, not sounding entirely approving.

  “I figured it was better to turn them than defeat them, since I wasn’t entirely sure how to destroy them,” Sophie said with a shrug.

  “Better you than me,” Jen said wryly. “I think it would have been pretty much widespread doom if I’d still been on the throne for all this.”

  “Nonsense,” Sophie said. “Remember, the same person was pulling the strings for all of you. The Hunt would have answered to you and made you look good.”

  “And I’d have sent them out into our world,” Jen said. Michael put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a reassuring squeeze. Sophie swallowed the lump that appeared in her throat and made herself turn away.

  “Good job, honey,” Nana said. “I’m proud of you.”

  “Now what?” Michael asked.

  Without looking directly at him, Sophie said, “Let’s get back to the valley. I want to finish this once and for all with Niall. Maybe my new guard will help. Then I’ll get everyone home. Emily’s got a show tonight, and I’m sure you’re ready to get back to normal.”

  “Yeah, that’ll be nice, right, Jen?”

  “Home, wow,” Jen said softly. She looked a little dazed by the idea, which was to be expected.

  Sophie raised her voice and addressed her followers.
“Okay, everyone, back to the valley,” she said. She reached for Michael and Amelia’s hands. Eamon took Emily and Athena, and Michael maintained his hold on Jen. Emily held Beau’s leash with her free hand. Nana didn’t seem to think she needed any assistance. The free fae humans and the Hunt came behind them. All of them stepped off together, and a few strides later they were back in that wooded area above the valley where the palace had been.

  Or still was. It was back, looking exactly like it had the first time they’d arrived in this place.

  “Didn’t you get rid of that?” Emily asked.

  Sophie stared down at palace and tried not to sigh in weariness and frustration. “I thought I proved that I was the real queen, so I don’t know what his game is now.”

  “Maybe he’s giving up the puppet idea and putting himself up as a potential ruler,” Michael said.

  “I guess we’ll find out when I show up,” Sophie said.

  The lead Huntsman rode forward and addressed Sophie. “Would you care to ride, my queen?”

  “It would be impressive,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

  “A good queen should know how to make an entrance,” Nana agreed.

  “Can you take the rest of our party?” Sophie asked.

  “Gladly.”

  Sophie gestured for the others to join them. The lead huntsman pulled Sophie up to sit sidesaddle in front of him. She was a little unnerved by being picked up by such a creature, but she told herself it was a lift in a pas de deux and comported herself accordingly.

  The others were also lifted, the men riding pillion behind warriors. Emily unclipped Beau’s leash and let him run with the Hunt’s hounds. One of the Huntsmen sounded a hunting horn as they began the descent into the valley. It was a stirring sound that made Sophie’s blood sing. Nana’s grin told her that it had a similar effect on her. Although they were riding to what was likely to be a major confrontation, for just this one moment, Sophie felt on top of the world.

  It seemed far too soon, then, when they reached the palace. Sophie waved at the doors to open them and signaled the Hunt to stop for a moment so that everyone in the throne room would have a chance to see what stood on the threshold. Taking a page from Emily’s book, she had the Hunt ride straight into the palace. When they were halfway across the room, she reached out and tweaked the fabric of the Realm, making the palace disappear entirely.

  Niall, who’d been sitting on the throne like he owned it, suddenly found himself sitting on a rock in a field, which was much less impressive.

  “I can’t leave you alone for a minute, can I?” Sophie said, looking down at the fairy.

  “You’re no William Powell, honey,” Nana added. “You may as well give up that act right now.”

  “And you are no true queen,” Niall said to Sophie with a sneer. “You may have fae blood, but it has been corrupted by human blood.”

  “The blood’s been good enough for the crown to work,” Sophie said. She gave him a too-sweet smile. “Care to give it a try, yourself?”

  “If I won the crown from you, I could wear it.

  “That sounds like a challenge to me,” Nana said. “How about it?”

  Sophie barely refrained from asking her grandmother if the Alzheimer’s disease had crept up on her again in the Realm. Instead, she gave her a questioning look.

  Nana signaled her rider to move his mount closer to Sophie. “We’re both of the lineage. Either of us could wear the crown. It’s two against one, and we’re the rightful rulers, so how can we lose?”

  “Okay, if you’re sure about this.” Sophie addressed Niall. “You want the crown and throne? I propose a contest. We each suggest three trials. The people choose the winner of each trial and the winner of the throne. If you can prove yourself more worthy of the crown in the eyes of the people, then I will give the crown to you and no longer question your right to rule.”

  Although she managed to sound perfectly calm and confident as she spoke, Sophie was trembling inside from the enormity of what she’d just proposed. The consequences of failure were dire. Both the Realm and the human world stood to suffer, based on what Sophie had seen of his policies when he was the power behind the impostor.

  But, strangely, Sophie felt utterly confident that she could prevail, with Nana’s help. She knew in her heart that she was meant to have this throne. In the real world, that wouldn’t mean much. Unworthy people were always inheriting or being elected to positions of power. But the Realm was the setting of fairy tales, the place where good won, evil was vanquished, and the most worthy would always win the crown.

  Niall pondered for a moment, probably weighing those same considerations. If he was smart, he’d back down, but then again, he wouldn’t have come to this point if he hadn’t believed that as a true fae, he’d make a better ruler. He smiled and said, “Very well, I challenge you for your throne. Let the contest begin.”

  Forty

  The Throne Stone

  Next

  Michael had to force himself not to cry out in dismay when Niall accepted the challenge. Was Sophie nuts? Of course she was, he realized. She was just the very particular kind of nuts that managed to pull off audacious things no one else would dare try. She waved the Hunt aside, and once the Huntsmen had taken up position around the competitive arena, Michael dismounted and went to help Jen down.

  “I don’t think this is such a good idea,” Jen said, her forehead creased with worry. “I saw what he was doing when he was making me front for him. We can’t let him rule the Realm. He was forcing all the humans out, as well as all the fairies who associated with humans.” Her eyes strayed to the crowd, like she was looking for someone. She sighed audibly in what sounded a lot like relief and smiled slightly.

  He forced himself not to read anything into this and refused to let himself try to find the target of her gaze. “I know. I saw some of the fallout from that. It wasn’t pretty.”

  She turned back to him, her eyes going wide with alarm. “Not pretty? How?”

  “It seems that although people don’t age in here, the moment they set foot in the human world, their real age catches up to them. If you’ve been here long enough, it can be fatal.”

  “Oh.” She glanced down at herself, like she was trying to imagine what might change.

  He put his arm around her and pulled her to him. “You shouldn’t have to worry. Seven years isn’t much time, and it’s the age you’d be now, anyway.” He grinned and kissed the top of her head. “People would think I robbed the cradle if you didn’t catch up.”

  “I’ve been gone seven years?”

  “To the day.”

  She reached up to touch his temple. “That explains this. You didn’t have any gray at all when I left.”

  “Gray?” he asked, faking dismay.

  “Just a hair or two. It looks very distinguished. I suppose I’m responsible for those.”

  “Only one. I think the thug with a gun can be blamed for the rest.”

  “You had an arm in a sling the last time you were here, didn’t you? I’m sorry, but that time is still a little foggy.”

  “Yeah, I got shot. But I’m better now.”

  “I always worried that your job was so dangerous.”

  “Actually, I’m a detective now, which is supposed to be safer than being a beat cop. I’m not usually the first one on the scene. But this one time, I knocked on a door and someone panicked.”

  “Is anything else new with you?”

  “Very little. I live in the same apartment, and I haven’t changed much at all. Things were actually pretty calm until the last few months. That’s when I got shot, then Emily went missing, and that’s how I got mixed up in all this and found you.”

  “How did Emily get you mixed up in this?”

  “She’s my downstairs neighbor. She moved in a few years ago, to the apartment where that girl—oh, you know, the publishing intern—used to live.”

  She knitted her brow. “Beth?”

  “Yeah, that’s it. S
he moved out, and Emily moved in. She sort of adopted me. I think she figured she’d found a good potential dogsitter. When Em went missing, Sophie showed up looking for her, and when I followed her one night, I saw you, and I learned that Hamlet wasn’t kidding.”

  “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” she quoted automatically.

  “See, you haven’t forgotten everything. It’ll all come back to you.”

  “I did make a fetching Ophelia, didn’t I?”

  “Very. Though I’m still not sure what they were thinking in setting that play on the moon.”

  For the first time since he’d last seen her back home, she laughed. “Oh, that was a crazy production, wasn’t it? But it was a job, even if it was so off-Broadway it was practically in a different time zone.” Her smile grew wistful. “And that was the job I was auditioning for when I met you.”

  “It was the first time I saw you act.” His throat grew tight at the memory. The show had been pretty awful, but he still fell in love with Jen while watching her play Ophelia in space.

  “Is there anything else I need to know?” she asked, her eyes flicking momentarily toward Sophie.

  “I’ve gotten pretty good at laundry. Not so much at cooking.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  He showed her the wedding band he still wore. “I wouldn’t have been able to free you if I’d fallen in love with anyone else. People have been telling me all along that I should give up and move on with my life, but I knew you were still out there, somewhere, and I would find you.”

  For a second, he thought she was disappointed, but then she smiled. That warmed his heart, assuring him that it had all been worthwhile. “You did find me.”

  “I had help. It’s good to be friends with the fairy queen, and she’s been working hard to find a way to get you out of here.”

  “Yes, she’s been visiting me, trying to get me to remember you. I’ll have to thank her.” She laughed a little. “It’s going to take time to get used to that again.”