by Anthea Sharp
He couldn’t just stand there, or he’d freeze to death. Hunching his shoulders, he headed in the direction from which the queen had come. Misery edged his thoughts, clear and brittle as frost on a fallen leaf. He’d had a chance to save his brother… but it was an impossible choice. The cost was too high, for everyone.
The knowledge didn’t keep his heart from breaking.
A faint sound caught his ears, and he stopped, jerking his head up to listen. The whistling wind drowned everything out, even his own ragged breathing. Nothing. He waited until shivers racked his body, then bowed his head and trudged on, into the blankness.
The sound came again, and his heart bumped with sudden hope. The clear notes of a guitar, plucked in melody. Rising, falling. Barely breathing, he turned to the right and followed the trail of music.
The notes grew louder, and the fear wrapping him began to unravel. Ahead, the monotony of fog was broken by something on the ground. Tam stumbled forward, teeth chattering. Transparent mushrooms grew in a circle, an insubstantial faerie ring made of mist. His passage home.
A freezing blast shredded the ring into nothing but cloudy wisps, and Tam fell to his knees.
“No,” he whispered.
Still, the music did not fail. Tam kept his eyes fixed on the place the ring had been. He felt lightheaded. It had to reappear. Please.
The faintest suggestion of mushrooms wavered in the air. The melody grew insistent, and he rose to his feet, his pulse crashing desperately in his veins. Holding his breath, he flung himself into the ghostly faerie ring.
Cold gripped him, the midnight ice of the Dark Queen’s smile. He ached, as if his whole body was a bruise.
“Tam?” Jennet’s voice, tight with worry. Her hand on his forehead, stroking back his hair. “Can you hear me?”
Music still dripped into the air, stronger now. He was so tired, and everything was black. Or maybe his eyes were closed. He pried his eyelids open, each one weighing a hundred pounds. Jennet stared at him, her face pale. Above her shone the white-barked trees of the Realm. He lay on his back in the middle of a faerie ring, moss as soft as velvet under his head.
“Thank god,” she said, leaning over to press her lips against his.
At first he could barely feel the kiss, then heat began to spread through him, little sparks flaring painfully to life. He lifted his arms and encircled her, holding her close.
“Ahem.” Roy Lassiter tapped Tam on the shoulder. “Enough with the happy reunion. Don’t we have some fighting to do?”
Tam sat up, his hands and feet burning as circulation returned. Bard Thomas stood playing his guitar at the outskirts of the circle, and Puck hovered cross-legged in the air beside him. Thomas nodded at Tam, his fingers stilling on the strings.
“Thanks,” Tam said. “I wouldn’t have made it without your music.”
“I am glad you heard it well enough to follow it back to us.” The look in the bard’s eyes suggested he knew where Tam had been. And who he had seen.
Jennet grabbed his hand. “When I returned without you, we were so worried. Thomas thought you’d gotten sucked elsewhere.”
Midnight shadows whispered through Tam’s mind.
“Yeah, I did.”
He wasn’t going to talk about the Dark Queen—not when they were still within her Realm. Maybe not ever.
“So, what went wrong?” Lassiter asked. “Are you going back in now?”
“No,” Tam said. “We’re done.”
“What?” The other boy tipped his head. “You were only gone like ten minutes. How can you be done?”
“Time moves differently between the worlds,” Thomas said. “What seems a minute to us is much longer in the Twilight Kingdom. Tam and Jennet have succeeded in waking the Elder Fey.”
“So, now what?” Lassiter asked. “Puck here seems to think we’ve got an epic battle ahead.”
“Indeed,” the sprite said, his expression sober.
Tam gave Lassiter a questioning look and the other boy folded his arms. “Thomas brought me up to speed. The Twilight Kingdom, the courts joining forces. Lots going on. You could have told me.”
“We did,” Jennet said.
“Yeah, after the fun was over.”
“Trust me, it hasn’t been fun.” Tam scrubbed his hands through his hair. “And it’s not over. We have to get my little brother out of the Dark Court.”
“The three of us?” Lassiter frowned and glanced over at Puck and Thomas. “Five of us?”
Thomas shook his head, his eyes weary. “I cannot oppose the queen—I serve her. And Puck is not able be part of your battles, either.”
“It might work.” Jennet looked from Tam to Lassiter. She lifted her hand, clenched around a silver scabbard. “I have this.”
“No,” Thomas said. “The three of you cannot prevail against the combined powers of the Bright Court and the Dark, even if you carry the Blade of the Elder Fey.”
“Then what do we do?” Frustration burned Tam’s tongue.
“Gather your allies,” Puck said. He made a slow cartwheel and regarded Tam, a touch of his usual mischief showing in his eyes.
“But—”
A low, eerie howl echoed through the night, and Thomas looked up into the star-strewn darkness above them.
“The Wild Hunt,” he said. “You must depart, quickly.”
Lassiter offered Tam a hand up, to his surprise. His bones ached as he stood. It took a moment to find his balance before he followed Thomas down the fern-lined path weaving between the trees. It ended at a clearing where the usual white-spotted red mushrooms formed a circle.
“See you out there,” Lassiter said, leaping into the center.
Jennet kissed Thomas on the cheek. “Thank you.”
“Guard each other well,” the bard said. “This is not ended yet.”
Another howl shivered the night.
Much as Tam’s heart begged him to stay in the Realm and storm the Dark Court to rescue his brother, he couldn’t. Yet.
Swallowing bitter impatience, he caught Jennet’s hand, and together they stepped into the faerie ring.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - THE TWILIGHT KINGDOM
Jennet braced herself as golden light whirled about her senses. When her vision cleared, she was sitting in the sim-chair at Roy’s, the guys on either side of her. She sat forward and slowly removed her gloves. Heart thumping with hope, she lifted her left hand.
The red burn scars she had borne since All Hallow’s Eve were gone. Her palm was still pink, but the shiny, seared flesh running the length of her fingers had disappeared. She drew in a deep breath and rubbed her thumb over her hand. The new skin tingled, the whorls of her fingerprints restored.
Still, they hadn’t won yet. She and Tam had succeeded in waking the Elder Fey, but the Bug was still trapped in the Realm. Other than fixing her hand and giving her a deadly blade, it was impossible to tell if the Elder Fey had actually done anything.
“Whew.” Roy pulled off his helmet. “You two have some freaky experiences in-game, I have to say.”
Tam stripped off his gear. “You should have seen the Twilight Kingdom.”
“No thanks—I’ll leave the crazy stuff to you.”
“Now what?” Jennet said, looking at Tam.
His expression grim, he held her gaze. “Now… we have some explaining to do.”
Roy nodded. “Thought so. I’ll tell Spark.”
“Tell her what?” Jennet asked.
“You have the hardest part,” Tam said to her. “You have to convince your dad to sneak the beta team into VirtuMax late tonight.”
“What?” Shock made her blink.
“Puck said we had to gather our allies. That means the beta-test team.”
“With the exception of Coranne Smith,” Roy said. “She’d never go for it.”
“No kidding,” Tam said. “Last thing we need is the company whistle blower.”
“Wait.” Jennet couldn’t wrap her mind around it. “So, you’re saying the
plan is to get the rest of the team to come in-game with us?”
“In-Realm,” Tam said. “We can’t defeat the fey monarchs without the team. Zeg will come. Even if he doesn’t believe me, he’ll love the chance to break into VirtuMax headquarters after hours, just to say he did.”
“I can convince Spark,” Roy said. “I’ve got the vid of Korrigan, after all. She might not buy the whole story until we get in-game, but she’s always up for a challenge.”
“Which leaves your dad,” Tam said. “Jennet—you can do it. It’s ok to stand up to him. He’ll still love you tomorrow, I promise.”
“Can’t we do it without him?” Jennet shot Roy a pleading look. “You can get us into the building, right?”
He folded his arms. “Give me a few days to hack my mom’s access codes, sure.”
“We don’t have a few days.” Tam flung his gloves down on the sim-chair, his face tight. “We have to go in tonight. The Dark Queen knows what we did, that the Elder Fey are awake. My brother isn’t safe.”
“My car is approved for The View’s gate access until midnight,” Roy said. “I’ll take you into Crestview to get Zeg, Tam. Then we’ll swing back by Spark’s VIP digs and fill her in. Jennet, you and your dad can meet us there. One hour.”
“But…” She swallowed.
She’d never been able to convince her dad the danger of the Realm was real. Why would he believe her now?
Tam’s messager beeped as he and Lassiter swooped out of The View in the red grav-car. He dug in his pack and pulled it out, hoping it wasn’t Jennet with bad news. To his surprise, the message came from Zeg. Tam scanned it, stomach tightening, and let out a quiet curse.
“What?” Lassiter said, taking a corner too fast. Good thing he liked to speed.
“Change of plans—we’re heading to my place. Zeg’s there. Marny called him when she and the changeling were attacked.”
“Attacked?” Lassiter asked. “The hell. They okay?”
He ran a red light, and Tam braced his feet on the carpeted floor.
“I hope so. Zeg didn’t say much. I’m telling him we’re on the way.” Tam’s fingers flew over the messager.
“Why didn’t Marny message you?”
“She knows how crucial our game-play was this afternoon.”
Tam didn’t mention how faulty reception was in the Exe. She might have tried to message him, with no luck. He leaned forward, willing the car to go faster.
“Did evil faeries track them down?”
“No. The changeling is an evil faerie, remember?” His messager beeped again, with Zeg’s reply. “Damn. It was the smoke drifters down the street.”
All the activity had drawn too much attention to his place. Leaving Marny with the changeling had endangered her, and it was his fault. He shouldn’t have ignored that prickle between his shoulders. In the Exe, disregarding the danger signals left you dead.
He wouldn’t discount faerie involvement, either. It would be easy enough to stir the drifters up, then point them in the direction of his house—and it seemed like exactly the kind of thing the Unseelie would do. Especially if the queen commanded it.
“But the drifters are gone, right?” Lassiter said. “Defeated?”
“They might have backed off for now, but…” Tam shivered.
Smoke drifters were unpredictably violent once provoked. He had to get everyone out of his place and lock it down tight before the drifters returned. Tomorrow, he’d go back and keep a low profile until the drifters calmed again.
“You ever think of moving?” Lassiter asked.
“No.” As if his family had anyplace else to go.
“Well, you should.”
Lassiter seemed blissfully unaware that people didn’t choose to live in the Exe.
“Turn left here,” Tam said when they got to Stark Way. They’d made it to the Exe in record time.
“The city ought to replace these streetlights,” Lassiter said as the grav-car slipped into a wide pool of shadow.
“They ignore this neighborhood,” Tam said. “Go right at the next street.”
His block was quiet—but it was an aftermath kind of silence, thick with tension.
“Stay with the car,” Tam said as they slid to a stop behind Zeg’s battered guzzler. “I’ll go get them.”
“Here.” Lassiter rummaged beside his seat, then handed Tam a small black object. “It’s a taser. Just in case.”
Trust Lassiter to have a weapon—not that it would do much good against crazed smoke-drifters. Tam pocketed it and nodded his thanks.
“Be right back.” He hoped.
The cold night air carried the smell of rot that permeated the Exe. Tam carefully mounted the stairs. They creaked under his feet. When he got to the seventh tread, he stopped, heart twisting. The stair was gone—just a hole where something, or someone, had crashed through. Fresh gouges splintered the railing, testimony to violence.
The landing showed more evidence of the fight. The door was dented, and the glass in the living room’s wire-webbed windows was broken, crushed bits hanging together around the rusted wire. Somebody could get through that shattered opening, if they wanted to. He hoped there was a big enough sheet of metal to cover it downstairs in the abandoned auto shop.
“Guys?” He tapped the door. “It’s me, Tam.”
The peephole slid open, and he caught a glimpse of frizzy beard. Then the locks snicked, and Zeg opened the door.
“Tam,” Marny said. She jumped off the couch and gave him a rib-cracking hug.
“Good to see you, too.” Alive and unhurt, thank god. “What happened?”
He pulled back and spotted Korrigan crouching in the corner, his ugly face fierce, his claws bared.
“A couple hours after you and Roy left, we heard someone coming up the stairs. The smoke drifters. They said if we gave them all the money we had, they’d go away. Then they tried to batter down the door.”
“We fought them,” the changeling said. “Mistress Marny laid about with her club, while I sent poisonous crawlies to bite and torment.”
“Club?”
“Yeah,” Marny said. “One guy started coming through the window, so I bashed him with the lamp. Between that and Korr’s bugs, we drove them off. Then I called Uncle Zeg.”
“They haven’t come back?”
“Yet,” Zeg said from his place by the door. “But they will. Grab anything important, Tam, anything you want to keep for good, and bring it down to my car. We’re clearing you out of here.”
The pit of his stomach felt empty and cold. “This is my home. I can’t just leave.”
“Now that you can accompany me, we may leave.” Korrigan scrambled into the kitchen and began piling up protein bars. “We must take these, and the screenie system.”
“Tam.” Marny set a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not secure here any more.”
“But what if my mom…” He swallowed, hard, forcing his voice not to tremble. “What will Mom think, when she comes home?”
“You can’t stay here.” Zeg moved to the net system and began winding the cords. “I’ll take this down. You get your stuff.”
Numbly, Tam gathered a few items of clothing for both him and the Bug. His brother’s favorite book. The tattered bald teddy bear that had been Mom’s when she was a girl.
Marny put the belongings in the middle of one of the Bug’s blankets. It made a pitifully small heap. “Anything from the bedroom?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Picture album, jewelry box.”
“Go get them.”
In the bedroom, Tam also grabbed Mom’s favorite dress, the one with the green flowers, and her last bottle of meds. Nothing else seemed worth saving.
Zeg came inside, bringing the chilly air with him. “Hurry,” he said, his voice tight. “There’s something going on at the end of the street.”
Korrigan went to the door, dragging a plastic bag full of protein bars behind him.
“Let us away,” he said.
Mar
ny shouldered the blanket bundled with Tam’s possessions. “Anything else?”
“No.” Tam thought a moment. “There’s a brand new Zing system downstairs.”
Zeg shook his head. “Hopefully the drifters won’t think of the shop—or be able to break in. We’ll come get it tomorrow.”
“Once we repair the window, we can bring everything back,” Tam said.
Marny gave him a doubtful look, and Zeg stayed quiet.
“Come, come,” Korrigan said, his voice high and impatient.
“Marny, ride with me.” Zeg held open the door. “Tam, you and the changeling go with Roy.”
“But—”
“Git ’em!” a rough voice cried from the street. “They’re taking the loot!”
“GO!” Zeg shouted, pulling Marny with him down the stairs.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - THE TWILIGHT KINGDOM
Zeg and Marny leaped over the broken step, with Tam and Korrigan right behind them. Half a block away, torches smeared the air with oily light as the nest of smoke drifters advanced. Skeever was in the lead, and Tam prayed he’d forgotten his gun.
“Hey!” Lassiter stuck his head out of the grav-car. “What’s going on?”
He shot a glance at the torch-bearing drifters and went pale.
“Start the car!” Tam called, clearing the last step.
Marny reached Zeg’s guzzler and wrenched the door open. It emitted a loud screech, and Skeever’s head went up, his crazed eyes wide.
“Over there, idjits!” he yelled, shaking his torch toward the cars.
The drifters surged forward.
“Get in.” Zeg gave Marny a push. “All of you, go!”
“Tam, hurry!” Lassiter yelled, sliding the passenger-side door open.
Tam dove for the grav-car, then stopped. Movement on the street behind the drifters caught his eyes. A frail, familiar form, in a yellow coat he knew too well.
“Mom,” he whispered.
They had to get her out of there. The drifters hadn’t noticed her yet, but they were primed for violence. When they did… Tam shuddered. He couldn’t think of the consequences.
