Hidden Crown

by Emma L. Adams

  “Mum!” I shouted. “Get back.”

  A wave of magic hurtled towards me, ricocheting to the side and slamming into a tree. Thank god. My magic-proofed shield worked on the dead. I blasted the wraith with a handful of bright green energy, but my magic alone was no match for a living Sidhe’s, let alone a dead one.

  I bared my teeth and drew on every ounce of the Gatekeeper’s magic I possessed. The circlet’s light grew to a blinding greenish white, pushing the wraith out of range. My hands glowed, forming a shield around me.

  “Stay back,” I snarled. “Get out of my way.”

  The wraith’s magic hit my shield and ricocheted away into the trees. I beckoned to Mum. “I’ll hold up the shield. It can’t hit either of us.”

  I hope. I found myself wondering if the Erlking’s talisman would have any effect on it. While its magic destroyed the living, not the dead, it also targeted magic, too. Not that I’d seen any sign of it yet. The wraith pummelled my shield, over and over, drifting behind Mum and me like an angry shadow.

  “Wonderful,” I said. “We have a ghostly stalker. Where the hell is that Lord Veren? I thought he was desperate for me to come and find him.”

  “Hazel.” Mum pointed ahead. Fog wreathed the path, peeling back to reveal a large stone construction which blended into the surrounding grey.

  “Why is it always castles?” I remarked. “I mean, it might be an idea for the next power-crazy Sidhe to make their palace out of a tree house or a tent, just for variety. Like the Sea Queen’s ship. Castles are so… medieval.”

  I had zero doubts that the place would be booby trapped halfway to hell, but I relished the challenge. Hefting my iron blade, I stalked forwards, ignoring the chill breath of the wraith on my back.

  Mum swore under her breath. “Hazel, the talisman isn’t inside the castle. It’s a magical creation.”

  I stopped walking. “Shit.”

  The Vale had led us in the wrong direction. But the stone castle clearly belonged to someone. And since there were no friends here, I’d go with ‘foe’.

  Sure enough, a Sidhe stepped out in front of the castle. Tall and lean, he had blue-black hair and pointed features that looked oddly lifeless. His eyes were pale, leached of colour. Most outcasts had no magic, but the castle hadn’t sprung up out of the ground.

  Frowning, I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. At once, his glamour peeled back, revealing a face mottled with bruises. “You touched the talisman, didn’t you? Where is it?”

  “It’s mine,” he said, his tone monotone, his eyes glassy.

  “Uh-huh.” A chill settled between my shoulder blades. “Listen, I’m in a rush. I’m also being stalked by a wraith, so it’d be really helpful if you dealt with that. Where is the talisman?”

  “It’s mine,” he repeated.

  “Right. We already established that.” Given his appearance, he was well and truly addled. “Never mind. We’re leaving. Enjoy your… castle.”

  The Sidhe gave a cold, empty smile. “But you haven’t met my pet. Let me introduce you.”

  A deafening boom shook the path, and Mum and I raised our blades. A gigantic troll shambled around the corner, its skin grey and flaking. Half a chain hung from its ankle, suggesting someone had unsuccessfully tried to chain it up like the other troll which had attacked the Court. Just wonderful.

  “Pleasure to meet you, but we’ve gotta run.” I whirled around, and the wraith loomed in my way, icy magic chilling me to the bone.

  “Do you mind?”

  The wraith’s icy magic coasted straight at us, bouncing off my shield and hitting the troll in the face. The troll staggered under the assault, icy shards flying in all directions. With a furious bellow, it charged.

  Mum spun to the side, avoiding the troll by a hair’s breadth. I, meanwhile, ran straight through the wraith. A chill of icy energy shot straight to my core and I staggered on the other side—but the ogre’s charge didn’t slow. It hadn’t quite grasped that its target was incorporeal.

  Mum lunged at the ogre, dealing a vicious cut to its thigh. The chain swung around, knocking Mum clean off her feet.

  “Dammit!” I ducked another attack, forced to the side to avoid the troll’s charge. The wraith’s icy magic sent the beast reeling. I’d much rather leave the two of them to fight it out, but Mum had landed right in their path.

  I dove at the troll, my blade sinking into its meaty thigh. The troll bellowed but didn’t slow, its fist swinging at my head. I ducked and rolled, forced to let go of the blade to avoid the chain. Mum had backed up, slowly, but she was bleeding from a nasty-looking cut on her forehead.

  I gave a lunge in an attempt to retrieve my blade, but it remained lodged in the ogre’s thigh. A beefy hand caught my shoulders and lifted me into the air, holding me in the way of the wraith’s attack. The fucker was using me as a shield.

  “Hey!” I kicked out, my boots making the same impact as a pebble against the troll’s thick arm. Another icy attack from the wraith bounced off my shield, striking the nearest tree. “Mum, run!”

  Breaking free of the troll’s grip, I landed on my feet in time for the chain to swing directly at my head.

  22

  I flung myself onto the leaf-strewn path. The chain grazed my shoulder, missing my head by a hair’s breadth. The troll’s foot came down, and I rolled onto my back to avoid being struck by the blade wedged in its thigh.

  Raising my arms, I snagged the blade’s hilt with my fingertips and gave a tremendous heave. The blade came free with a spray of blood, but the troll hardly seemed to feel it. It turned on me, having decided to abandon the wraith in favour of live prey.

  A wave of magic slammed into the ogre, green-blue tendrils sending me flying head over heels. I landed on my feet, the impact jarring my knees. Ow. What the fuck?

  Only one person’s magic could get through my shield.

  “Darrow.” I straightened upright. “I told you not to follow me here.”

  Instead of answering, he ran into the fray, magic sparking from his hands, a combination of both Winter and Summer. The wraith reeled back, while the troll bellowed in rage.

  As it charged, I leapt at the troll from behind, grabbing the back of its chained arm. Climbing one-handedly, I pulled myself onto its shoulders. With a wild lunge, I sank the point of my blade into its neck.

  The ogre threw back its head and roared, and I held on grimly. Darrow whirled to the side in time to avoid being crushed, but not far enough away to avoid being splattered from head to toe with blood.

  “Oops.” I yanked out my blade and jumped off the dead troll’s shoulders. “First mud and now blood. You’re welcome, by the way. Did you kill that wraith?”

  He wiped blood from his face with his sleeve. “I don’t think so. I just stunned it.”

  “Wonderful.” I scanned the undergrowth in search of Mum. She was still on her feet, but blood matted the side of her head. “Mum, are you okay?”

  “I’ll be fine, Hazel,” she said. “The wraith disappeared.”

  “Told you they were bastards,” I added to Darrow.

  “How did you kill them last time?”

  “I didn’t. My sister did.”

  Laughter echoed through the trees, drawing our attention to the male Sidhe standing unsteadily in front of his castle. “You make an admirable fighter, for a human.”

  “Go away.” I waved a hand at him. “We’re not interested in you. We’re looking for Lord Veren.”

  “Him.” His manner switched from manic to furious in the blink of an eye. “The thief. His blood will turn to ashes and his skin will rot from his flesh. I will take the talisman from his decaying fingers—"

  Darrow’s magic lashed out, knocking the Sidhe off his feet. “Tell me where he is,” he demanded. “I want that talisman, and I’m going to get it one way or another.”

  Shock punched the air from my lungs. He hadn’t come back to help me at all, but because Etaina had sent him to bring the talisman directly to her.
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br />   Idiot, Hazel. Had I seriously thought he’d risk his life in the Vale if there was nothing in it for him? Etaina might have given me the stone, but she’d sent Darrow in to ensure the talisman ended up in her hands no matter the outcome.

  Perhaps she did know more about the Erlking’s talisman than I did, but if the Erlking had taught me one thing in the short time we’d known one another, it was that none could truly claim to understand the power of the gods.

  Someday, you’re going to thank me for this, Darrow.

  “You know what, let’s just leave them to it.” I took Mum’s arm and pulled her off the path into the trees. “Come on, Vale, sort your shit out. Take me to Lord Veren and the talisman he stole.”

  The tree’s branches rustled, and a group of Sidhe emerged with silent steps. They must have been watching our fight from the woods, unseen by anyone, even Darrow. His eyes widened in alarm, and Mum’s grip on my arm tightened.

  Fuck. I can’t fight all of them at once.

  “Move aside,” Mum said sharply. “If you’re conspiring with the Erlking’s murderer, you’ll face the wrath of the Court and the Gatekeepers alike.”

  “We have nothing to fear from you, Gatekeeper,” said a female Sidhe with ice-white hair and oddly pale eyes. “Take them.”

  I raised my blade in warning, but the Sidhe didn’t seem afraid of the iron at all. Hands grasped my blade—rotting hands, half-dead. I gripped tighter, slicing off a Sidhe’s hand, but he made no sound. They must have all stepped within the talisman’s orbit, and the Erlking’s staff had turned them all into something beyond death.

  Darrow spat out a curse, his blade sinking into a Sidhe’s chest. Mum grappled with another, but his hand closed over the edge of her sword, but he didn’t bleed when he yanked it away from her and pointed it at Darrow.

  The Sidhe spoke in a raspy voice. “If you don’t stop fighting, he dies.”

  Darrow paled, the light of his magic fading. Why did you come here? I already knew why, but while he might have ulterior motives, I didn’t want him to die in the land of the outcasts.

  “This one isn’t human,” said another Sidhe. “What is he, then?”

  Darrow replied in the faerie tongue with an epithet which implied one of the Sidhe’s parents had fornicated with a troll. I choked on an unexpected laugh which turned into a gasp when the Sidhe struck him over the head with the hilt of Mum’s iron blade and pressed it to his neck. “Hand me your weapon, Gatekeeper.”

  I extended my sword, turning it at the last second and severing the Sidhe’s wrists. Mum’s blade clattered to the ground, and she grabbed it, beheading the Sidhe who held Darrow. He pulled himself free and regained his balance, but the iron’s touch had leached the blue-green shine from his eyes.

  “That’s enough,” came a cold voice. The Sidhe parted to allow Lord Veren to walk through. “Are you incapable of subduing a simple human, even after I gave you a taste of the talisman’s magic?”

  “What did you expect when you turned your allies into zombies?” I said to him. “You should know, I have two necromancers as siblings. Chopping body parts off dead people is second nature to us. What did you do with the Erlking’s talisman?”

  If he carried it, I’d be able to sense its life-sucking magic. Had he seriously left it lying around where anyone could pick it up?

  “The talisman has no wielder anymore.” He stepped over the beheaded Sidhe, uncaring of his fate. Mum and I raised our iron blades in unison, while Darrow gave Lord Veren a defiant stare.

  “Take care of these two,” Lord Veren told the Sidhe. “I will handle the Gatekeeper myself.”

  “Like hell you will.” I plunged my blade into a Sidhe’s throat. Blood gushed out, yet his hands grabbed me, unfeeling and oblivious to the iron I carried.

  The other Sidhe swarmed between our group, circling Mum and Darrow and cutting me off from them. Darrow’s face was bleached white, while Mum’s hands trembled on her weapon. I have to do something—but the Sidhe were beyond fearing death. They’d fight until they fell apart.

  Lord Veren faced me, and I glared into his dull eyes. “I hope you know nobody in the Court will actually care that you’ve captured me. If you think you can use me as leverage against Summer, you’re dead wrong.”

  “Oh, I’m not under any illusions that you’re of value to anyone, Gatekeeper,” said Lord Veren. “Except, perhaps, for the Seelie Queen. You’ll have the honour of serving as the first Gatekeeper in the new relationship between Sidhe and humans.”

  “I’d rather eat dirt.”

  His hand moved blindingly fast, striking me across the face. Blood filled my mouth where I’d bitten my tongue, and I spat at his feet.

  “You will speak with respect.”

  “Nobody respects zombies where I come from.” I leaned out of the way of his putrid stench. “Besides, why settle for less? You have the most powerful talisman in the realms at your disposal, yet you still want to bow to someone else.”

  Unfortunately, I’d be that’s why the outcasts had lasted this long without murdering one another. They were united in the belief that the Seelie Queen was the rightful leader. But they wouldn’t live long enough to see her plans come to fruition.

  “The Seelie Queen has earned the crown by right,” he said. “She will lead us to greatness.”

  “I hope she’ll also lead you to a bath. You smell like a rat that’s been dead for a week.”

  He gave me another slap. “If it were up to me, I’d hang your corpse at the entrance to our new Court as a warning.”

  “But it isn’t.” Question was, why did she want to keep me alive? “Is she afraid the vow binding me to the Court will rebound on her if she kills me?”

  Her fears might not be unfounded. Usually when a participant in a vow died, the vow winked out of existence. But the vow binding my family to the Court had endured through generations and survived even the Erlking’s passing. There was no stronger form of magic the Sidhe possessed. Perhaps the Seelie Queen feared that if she killed me, the backlash of the broken vow would ricochet straight back into her face.

  “When we rule the Court, the old vows won’t matter,” he said. “We will live free of obligation, and it is a great honour for you to be invited to join us.”

  “To be honest, you lost me when you shot the Erlking dead and set that talisman loose in the world,” I said. “You left me with no choice but to kick your arse into next week.”

  The circlet’s glow bathed my face in light. Magic blasted from my hands into his decaying face, and his skin peeled back from his skull. He staggered, and I elbowed him aside, running through the trees.

  My feet pounded against the earth, heedless of the Sidhe giving chase. With any luck, they’d leave Mum and Darrow alone in favour of pursuing me.

  I sent a silent plea to the Vale. Take me to it. Take me to the Erlking’s talisman.

  The path warped and changed before my eyes. I skidded to a halt at the edge of a clearing. The entire area was barren and lifeless, trees reduced to husks, and in the centre stood the Erlking’s staff. Power curled around its base, threads of shadow stirring the leaves on the ground. The talisman had even eaten through the meagre threads of magic remaining in the Grey Vale, leaving nothing but emptiness behind.

  Gripping the round stone Etaina had given me in one hand, I walked towards the staff, and my own fate.

  23

  The Sidhe’s footsteps faded into the background. Magic rippled outwards from the talisman, and I gripped the cool stone in my pocket, hoping it wasn’t a dud.

  Either way, it was too late for me to turn back. The staff’s magic brushed against my skin, bringing the scent of earthen tunnels and empty landscapes bare of any hint of life—and beneath that, something that called to me, promising power. The lure of a talisman wanting to be claimed.

  “Stay away from that, human.” The Sidhe’s voices sounded further away than they should. I risked a brief glance over my shoulder, where the group of Sidhe had halted outside th
e clearing.

  Aha. If they took another step, the talisman’s magic would hit them… which meant I was already within its orbit. The protective magic of the stone had kept me from harm.

  With swift steps, I closed the distance between me and the staff. The talisman came up to my shoulder, carved from wood that would never break, and wisps of magic clung to its base. My fingers curled around the middle of the staff, and magic tickled my skin, tingling with static. Okay. Don’t fail me now.

  The sound of footfalls came from my shoulder. Wheeling around with the talisman in my hands, I raised it as a shield before me.

  The Sidhe who’d crept up on me reached out a hand almost bare of skin, muscle and sinew gleaming beneath. His face was sunken, his eyes unseeing, his legs decaying as he walked.

  “I really wouldn’t,” I told him.

  The talisman’s magic tingled from my hands to my arms, wisps of smoke encasing the Sidhe’s outstretched arm.

  His hand dropped, lifeless, his body decaying, and the talisman’s light grew brighter, as though it drew strength from the lives it took. Bile coated the back of my throat. If not for the stone in my pocket, the talisman would have eaten the skin off my bones and peeled the Gatekeeper’s mark from my forehead until the vow winked out of existence.

  I held the talisman towards the other Sidhe. “Last chance to run. All of you.”

  Magic rippled out from the talisman, and the Sidhe recoiled. Threads curled up my arm, and a gasp escaped as the sharp tingling sensation grew stronger. Too strong.

  Shit. Does the immunity have a limit?

  Darkness poured from the staff, encasing me like a cloak. My heart kick-started with a jolt. The talisman thought I was trying to claim it. Since it couldn’t destroy me, it wanted to own me instead.

  “Stop that.” I held it at arm’s length, willing the shadows to go away. Two Sidhe dropped where they stood, their skin peeling off their bones, blood evaporating, organs shrivelling to nothingness.