Even with the talisman still serving me, the knowledge that Etaina might end Darrow in a heartbeat made me feel cold inside. Darrow was valuable to her even after his betrayal, but that didn't mean I wanted him near her when the battle broke out.
“Yeah, I know how that feels,” said Coral.
“I should have looked for your talisman, too,” I said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see it, but…”
“It sounds like you were lucky to get out of there in one piece.” She released a breath. “Besides, I’m glad to see the back of it. I just feel like I’m betraying my mother’s memory by even saying that.”
“Don't be,” said Willow. “If my mother is anything to go by, she doesn't have the right to dictate your choices.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Here's to breaking tradition and kicking arse.”
“Thanks, Hazel,” Coral said. “Great speech back there, by the way.”
“Exactly.” Willow leaned closer to me and whispered, “The crown is safe. Cedar has it in hand.”
I hope she’s right.
I'd said my goodbyes, done all I could to prepare for the upcoming fight—and now it was time to find my ancestor.
As I moved to descend the steps, Darrow caught my arm. “Hazel, I know what you’re going to do.”
“I’m not going to Etaina or the Seelie Queen,” I said. “I’m going after someone else instead.”
Namely, Thomas Lynn. Assuming he forgave me for kicking the crap out of him, anyway. With Etaina ready to go to war, the last thing she'd expect was for me to sneak back into her home so soon after my narrow escape. I wouldn’t have a better chance to find out how my family’s curse tied us to the fates of the Sidhe who’d placed it on us—and how to use my Gatekeepers powers to bring the scheming queens’ power play to a screeching halt.
“She’s here!” came a shout from outside the gates.
“Which ‘she’?” I hopped down the steps after Darrow, my heart lurching in my chest. “Where?”
Bells rang out, followed by the sound of hoofbeats, and the forest came to life with noise. Flashes of green light sprang up among the trees as Sidhe rode past the palace on horseback, led by Lord Raivan and Lady Aiten. Even Lord Niall sat astride a magnificent white steed, his silver-white hair glowing as bright as the ornate sword in his hand.
Behind them, the contingent of half-faeries followed Cedar and Raine into battle, and Coral and Willow ran to join them. I gave Darrow a nudge. “Go on. I’m right behind you.”
Ilsa, Mum and Morgan ran out of the palace gates alongside us, following the army into the forest. A riot of noise surrounded us, as Sidhe on horseback trampled undergrowth, rearranged paths or made trees and other obstacles move out of their way.
“Vale beasts!” Ilsa called over her shoulder, pulling out her talisman.
It’s the Seelie Queen.
A blast of coldness rushed overhead, bringing a cloud of wraiths descending on the armies of Summer. Armoured Sidhe fought back with magic, flashes of bright Summer energy clashing with the wraiths’ shadowy forms and blades of bone and branch dealing deadly wounds to the trolls and other Vale beasts that fought on the ground.
Raine stood back to back with Cedar, fighting off a swarm of wraiths. Her sceptre seemed to terrify them, its bright blue glow standing out among the Summer Sidhe. Cedar fought equally hard, his bow firing a volley of arrows into the midst of the enemy’s forces.
“Hey,” I said, cutting down a sluagh as I made my way to his side. “Do you still have the crown?”
“It's safe, don't worry,” he said. “Will the Seelie Queen come after it?”
“Last time, she made her own crown, so probably not.” The sluagh writhed beneath my blade, its translucent skin peeling away as the iron bit into the part of it that was still solid. “I think the crown’s beyond our reach now.”
Cedar swore, firing off an arrow at another oncoming sluagh. The arrow passed through the sluagh, but Cedar’s hands glowed, the light mingling with the flow of Winter magic radiating from Raine’s talisman to turn the sluagh into nothing more than dust.
The other half-faeries put up a fierce fight, Summer and Winter both. I’d lost sight of my family, so I dropped back to search for them. The glow of River’s talisman caught my eye as he dealt a killing blow to a troll. Close by, Mum sank her knife into a sluagh’s head, which popped like a balloon, raining semi-transparent gore onto the path.
Ilsa’s glowing talisman drew the wraiths like a magnet, but none of them could touch her through our family’s shield. The Sidhe were a different story. Wraith after wraith cast chilling shadows over their glowing forms, and their magic, for all its power, couldn’t destroy the dead. One warrior fell from his horse into the brush, and the wraith descended on him. Clouds of icy magic billowed outwards, pinning the Sidhe to the earth.
As the wraith closed in on its living prey, the cu sidhe leapt at it, sinking his teeth into the wraith’s transparent form. It flailed and writhed, unable to reach its target.
“Told you he can deal with ghosts,” said Morgan, firing a blast of necromantic power that knocked the wraith away from his captive, allowing the Sidhe to free himself.
Despite my siblings’ best efforts, the wraiths refused to relinquish their grip on whatever tenuous grasp of life they had left. Ilsa might have her Gatekeeper’s book, but the gates of Death weren’t accessible from here in Faerie, and without them, she couldn’t banish the wraiths permanently. For each one she destroyed, another took its place. The Seelie Queen must have called every Sidhe who’d ever died in the Vale to her side.
Dammit, I need my talisman back.
A tremendous blast of cold energy shot overhead, stripping the leaves off trees and rocking even the Sidhe’s powerful steeds. I gripped the nearest tree, my nails digging into the bark as the storm tore through the battlefield.
Then the forest folded outwards, revealing a path that hadn’t been there before. At the end, the Erlking’s territory lay wide open, and in front of the gates stood the Seelie Queen.
All around her, wraiths floated like living shadows. Trolls and ogres wearing chains accompanied the ghostly sluagh and tentacled death stealers, skin-eating beasts and all manner of other monstrosities.
“I have had enough of being defied,” she said. “I will take these lands for my own. They are mine by right, after all.”
“Like hell.” I stepped forward onto the path leading up to the open gate to the Erlking’s territory. “You don’t have a right to a single inch of this realm.”
She regarded me with a cool expression. “What did you do with my late husband’s talisman?”
“Lost it.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You… lost it?”
“Yep,” I said, in cheery tones. “Shit happens. Tell you what, we can go back to the Vale and talk about it.”
She drew a blade. “You will pay for your insolence, Gatekeeper.”
“I don’t think so.” I bared my teeth in a smile. “My family curse is still active. In fact, I saw my ancestor himself earlier today, and I was on my way to speak to him when you so rudely interrupted me. This is your last chance to go into the Vale and take what you can get. Otherwise, you might end up losing your last remaining territory to another monarch.”
“The Vale is not my territory,” she said. “And the Queen of the Aes Sidhe is nothing compared to me.”
“I beg to differ,” said a cool, melodic voice.
Shit.
Etaina strode through the forest, the staff in her hand. Silence fell over the treetops as the two faerie queens looked at one another for a few long moments.
“I confess, I hoped never to set eyes on you again, sister,” the Seelie Queen finally said.
“Likewise,” Etaina responded. “In answer to your query about who took Hazel’s talisman, it was I.”
“But you still haven’t claimed it, have you?” said the Seelie Queen. “No… I thought not. As before, you are nothing more than a plain imitation, like those g
lamours you adore so much. Allow me to take it off your hands.”
She reached for the talisman, and the world slowed to a standstill. I grabbed my knife—too slow—and felt the chill of a wraith at my back. Shadows whirled around my wrists, as though aware they held the fate of the realms in their hands. Or rather, my hands. Yet the shadows didn’t leave, didn’t flow to the enemy’s side.
The Seelie Queen gave a smile. “There you have it. The talisman claims neither of us. Even in the centuries you’ve had to devise a revenge scheme, you had to wait for me to act before you dared to strike.”
All eyes turned to Etaina’s face, which glowed as though lit from within, bringing the overwhelming conviction that she was all-powerful, beautiful, and that I wanted nothing more than to declare myself her worshipper.
Then the sensation passed, leaving me reeling on the spot. “That was a mere taste of my power. Who would you rather serve, me or her?”
“You can’t use everyone as puppets, Etaina,” I called to her. “Yes, including the gods. Or whatever was left of them after people like the two of you ripped out their magic and drove them out of their own lands.”
“You understand nothing of the nature of the gods,” said Etaina. “You are not worthy to wield this talisman.”
“Apparently, you two aren’t either.” I strode behind Etaina, revelling in the shadows unfurling around my hands. “Perhaps it doesn’t like power-hungry despots who are weaker than they’d like to pretend.”
The other Sidhe remained silent, perhaps still stunned by the aftermath of her magic.
“You think the Erlking stole the talisman from you?” I went on. “You’re wrong. It chose him, the same way it chose me.”
Etaina’s mouth twisted. “If that’s the case, you will be my wielder. Your hands will hold the talisman on my behalf, or my soldier’s life will be forfeit.”
She raised a hand, and a gasp tore from Darrow’s mouth as his body flew backwards against a tree, pinned by the impact of her magic. From her pitiless expression, she was prepared to make good on her promise to erase him. Yes, she’d mourn him if she did, but she didn’t value his life higher than the talisman. Nothing mattered more to her than her revenge on the Erlking.
I crossed to her side, my pulse racing, my steps as slow as I dared. I had one idea, but I didn’t know the full extent of Etaina’s power over Darrow, and if I guessed wrong, he’d pay the price for my mistake.
His eyes locked with mine, and he mouthed three words. I trust you.
I stopped beside Etaina. Her breath whispered on my cheek, and I felt the chill of unfamiliar magic. Something more than the stones protected her from the talisman’s touch. Something dark, ancient. An Invocation. She’d marked herself, too.
“Has Thomas Lynn ever tried to escape?” I asked. “He seemed lonely in there. Couldn’t you have used your glamour to create him a friend to play with? Or were you scared he’d use them as a decoy to help him escape?”
Darrow caught my eye. I willed him to understand what I needed him to do—win me time. Five seconds would be enough. After all, in the kingdom of the Aes Sidhe, time was relative.
“I don’t think you’re taking your situation seriously, Hazel,” she said. “Perhaps if I unravel your lover inch by inch, it will be enough.”
She raised her head, and Darrow vanished. Several Darrows appeared where he’d stood, all of them fanning out to surround the two queens. All identical down to the last feature. Etaina’s eyes narrowed.
“Hummingbird,” I whispered. “Take me to—”
A flash of light ignited, and the world vanished, to be replaced by the realm of the Aes Sidhe. Two guards appeared on either side of me, weapons out. I punched one of them and kicked the other’s kneecap, sending him sprawling into the dirt.
“Who are you?” the guard demanded, as I grabbed his collar and clenched my fist.
“I’m Hazel Lynn,” I told him. “And I’m here to see Thomas Lynn, my ancestor and royal pain in the arse.”
I gave him a swift punch, knocking him out cold, and stepped over his body.
Thomas. I’m coming for you.
21
When I neared the room of my captivity, the plucking of harp strings reached my ears, forming an eerie melody that made the hairs stand up on my arms. Only the lack of any magical side effects distinguished it from faerie music.
Inside the room, Thomas Lynn sat on a tree stump, playing a harp. His face still bore the impact of the kick I’d delivered to his face, and blood streaked his face on either side of his nose. While it didn’t look broken after all, I’d probably given him a serious headache.
“Hey,” I said. “Sorry for kicking you. Etaina didn’t punish you for my escape, did she?”
“You shouldn’t have come back,” he said.
“I need answers,” I told him. “My Gatekeeper’s position is making me into a pawn between Etaina and the Seelie Queen and frankly, it’s annoying the crap out of me. It all started with you, so I’d really appreciate it if you told me how to use my magic to stop those two queens in their tracks.”
He shook his head. “It’s not that simple.”
“No,” said Etaina. “It isn’t.”
Shit. I’d assumed Darrow’s clones would keep her busy for a while, but she must have abandoned her armies to come after me. Time would hold still as long as we were here, after all.
“Really?” I said to her. “Were you that desperate to avoid the humiliation of failing to claim the talisman you’ve spent centuries looking for in front of an audience that you left your armies behind?”
Anger tightened her expression. “If I had known the advantages you had in that curse of yours, I would have taken you out of the picture sooner, Hazel Lynn.”
“What advantages?” I said. “Waking up to piskies in my underwear drawer every morning? Being threatened at knifepoint on my first day as Gatekeeper? Please elaborate.”
“I find it difficult to believe your time in the Summer Court didn’t teach you better manners.”
“Ah, see, I’ve only had people like you to learn from, and you don’t set a good example.” I glanced at Thomas Lynn, who stared slack-jawed at both of us. “I thought you seduced or kidnapped him, but he’s been here an awfully long time, hasn’t he?”
“This man is the reason for your family’s predicament,” she said. “He was a diversion, once, a passing fancy. Mortals are only good for a short while, then they wither. As you will, Hazel.”
The talisman’s magic coiled around my hands, and I looked her in the eyes. “You once tried to get me to give you my talisman for information on my past. Now you have it, right from my hands. Won’t you do me the honour of telling me the truth? If it’s your fault my family is cursed, you owe us.”
“Your family is cursed because Thomas begged me to spare his life,” she said. “He offered to serve me for seven years, and I accepted because he amused me. And then he conspired with Oberon against me. He stole both the talisman and the Gatekeepers from my clutches.”
The world tilted under my feet. “Thomas helped the Erlking?”
“Oberon desired my talisman and my power,” she said. “He asked Thomas to steal the talisman from me, and in return, he would see to it that he escaped Faerie alive. Little did Thomas know that Faerie still owned his soul, even in his escape. I should have taken better care when I advised him. You see, he swore to my Court, not to me. When my Court left Summer, the curse was left behind.”
Then it passed onto us. If Thomas had bound himself… there was no way the Erlking didn’t know the consequences of that binding.
“He escaped, and procreated,” she went on. “Meanwhile, the Erlking expelled us from Summer, and with that, the Aes Sidhe were no longer welcome in the faerie lands.”
“I thought you said you left Summer on purpose.” It sounded like she’d been chased off instead, and the Aes Sidhe had gone into hiding. Then again, this was Etaina’s version of the story, in which the Erlking was the vill
ain who’d stolen her talisman in order to gain power. But it seemed clear from my interactions with him and from what I’d seen Etaina do with the talisman that the Erlking had known she would abuse its power. Just like his wife.
Perhaps he’d felt Thomas Lynn’s soul was a worthy trade to keep her from claiming it. After all, what was one family’s future compared to the fate of the Courts?
“Leaving the Courts was the only course of action,” she said. “If you had not allowed the talisman to claim you, you would have been safe.”
“Don’t look at me,” I said. “It’s the Seelie Queen who killed the Erlking and started this. I’m surprised you’re not the one who got him, but I guess you’re not really that powerful without using your glamour.”
She’d been waiting for him to drop dead for centuries, hiding underground and making those stones to repel the Erlking’s power in the hope of one day getting the upper hand.
“I really wouldn’t test me, Hazel,” she said. “I am more than the talisman’s equal. It sees you as a pawn, nothing more.”
“Why are you so obsessed with it?” I said. “I’d have thought you’d be flaunting that second talisman you stole, the weapon that actually did murder the Erlking. Unless you’re afraid that talisman will reject you, too.”
“The bow?” Her lip curled. “I had my people destroy it.”
“You’re—” No. She couldn’t lie. “Talismans can’t be destroyed.”
“Anything can be destroyed, mortal. Even him, though it amuses me to see him suffer for his sins.” I followed her gaze to Thomas, who hadn’t said a word in my defence. “Many times have I wanted to destroy him, but he is immortal, a consequence of his own meddling. Thomas stole what was not his and gained curses and gifts in equal measure.”
He can’t be immortal. Not like the Sidhe, anyway, surely. Their immortality source had been wiped out, and its origin, the blood of the Ancients, was all but impossible to obtain. The closest thing to a god inside this room was the talisman.
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