by Tara Maya, Elle Casey, J L Bryan, Anthea Sharp, Jenna Elizabeth Johnson, Alexia Purdy (epub)
He was silent for a long time. When he finally spoke, his voice was sober. “You lost. And not just the game.”
“No.” She made herself open her eyes, but kept her gaze fixed on the plum-colored upholstery. “The queen said a part of me was now forfeit to Feyland. She inscribed some glowing runes in the air, and there was this ripping cold. Next thing I knew, I was out of the game. I was really sick - spent a week in the hospital. The doctors called it ‘summer pneumonia,’ as if they had any clue. And…” Her voice trembled, but she had to say this next part. “I think Thomas must have figured out what happened. I think he went in to get that part of me back, and ended up trapped forever. Not only did I lose, I… I was responsible for his death.”
Grief hit her, hard and sudden, like a punch to the stomach. She curled up and gasped from it. Tears of regret, of blame and loss, etched down her cheeks.
“Hey, shh. Hey there.” Tam was suddenly beside her, his arm around her shoulders, his hand stroking her hair.
He didn’t tell her everything was all right - they both knew that wasn’t true. He didn’t tell her not to blame herself, or to stop crying. He just was there, accepting. Somehow that made it easier to bear.
Finally she pulled herself together and breathed away the tears. She sat up and pulled her sleeve across her face, trying not to think about how she must look - her eyes red from weeping, her hair stuck to her cheek with tears. Tam didn’t seem to notice, or it didn’t bother him. Either way she was grateful.
“Better?” His voice was gentler than she’d ever heard it.
She let herself lean against him and took a deep breath. He was solid and safe, and for a minute, she let herself believe that things were going to be all right.
“Yes,” she said. “Thanks.”
“Give me a couple days to sort all this out,” he said, dropping his arm and scooting a couple inches away. “Feyland is intense, and what you just told me, well - somehow it all fits together. But I’m not ready to go charging in quite yet.”
“Me either.” She wished he would hug her again. “Anyway, it’s okay. We can take a day or two off. There’s still time.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Tam slept late on Saturday. He was vaguely aware of voices - Mom and the Bug - before dreaming pulled him under again. When he finally woke, the house was quiet. Too quiet. No smell of coffee. No clacking of tools as the Bug messed with his hard-drive.
He kicked off his sleeping bag and scrambled to his feet. Mom had only been home a few days. Surely she hadn’t run off already? Worry clenched through him, but he forced it back. Maybe she left a note.
He checked the table three times, but there was nothing. With fear crawling up his throat, he stepped into Mom’s tiny bedroom. It was painted a soothing blue that did nothing to stop the worry hammering through him.
The inlaid box on the bookshelf, where Mom kept the money, was empty. God, she was gone again. But why did she take Peter? Or was his brother downstairs?
He pulled on his jeans and flew down the rickety staircase. The heavy metal door was locked. Finally the stubborn key turned and Tam heaved open the door. Empty, dark and quiet. No annoying little brother to be found.
Ok, breathe. Think. Mom loved Peter - she wouldn’t do something dumb like sell him for medical parts or turn him over to a gang boss.
So where were they?
His pulse roared. No, wait. That was some kind of motorcycle, the sound bouncing around from the street. It stopped outside the building. Tam went outside and locked the door, then looked around the corner.
A cop, in body-armor and a faceless helm, sat astride a cycle. The motor throbbed in time with Tam’s heartbeat. When the cop saw him, he cut the engine and glanced down at his hand-held.
“This 1329 Bittern Street?” he asked in a gravelly voice. He slanted a look up, at the shack they called home. The weak sunlight slid across his polished helm
“Yeah.” Tam shoved his hands in his pockets. This had to do with Mom and the Bug, he just knew it.
“You Mister Tam Linn?”
“I am.”
“Got ID?”
Tam lifted one shoulder. “Upstairs. What’s going on? Uh, sir.” It was like talking to the creatures in Feyland - best if you followed protocol.
“We got your family at the station. Your Ma’s in lockup, and your kid brother wants to come home. Got any more kin here? Anybody else responsible for you?”
“No. What happened?” He barely remembered to add, “Sir.”
“She tried a dump-and-run at the hospital. The orderlies caught her before she could get out. Most people do that with babies, though. Not bigger kids.”
“My brother is… different.” Oh Mom. What a stupid thing to try. He could figure out her reasons, though, and it made him feel queasy and heartsick.
“Well you gotta come up to the station and get the kid. Bring your ID.”
“What about my mom?”
“We keep her a few days. Counseling, all that.”
“But—”
“Station closes at three, and you don’t want the kid there overnight. Trust me.” Before Tam could say anything else, the cop fired up his cycle, patted his holster, and roared away.
Damn.
He trudged up the stairs. First thing to do was message Jennet and let her know their plans for playing over the weekend were dud. Then it would take a trip on three different buses to get to the station and retrieve the Bug. Would they let him see Mom? What would he even say to her?
Underneath the planning, part of his brain was kicking and screaming. How could she do this to him, to their family? How was he going to explain it to Peter? And how was he going to help Jennet defeat the queen when his own life was falling apart around him?
t dinner, Jennet sat quietly across from her dad and pushed her green beans around on her plate. Worry had curdled her appetite, and she didn’t know what to think of the terse message Tam had sent. :Life stuff, can’t come. See you at school:
He knew how close they were to endgame, how important it was. Whatever had happened, it must be serious.
“You’re quiet tonight,” her dad said. “Anything you want to talk about?”
Yes. No. But how could she possibly explain?
“I miss Thomas.” The words were out before she realized what she was going to say.
Dad’s face shuttered. “Me too, Jen. Me too.”
Well, that brought the conversation to a screeching halt. After a minute she pushed her plate away. “So, how’s work going?”
“Slowly.” He shook his head. “Without Thomas… well, we’re behind schedule. And the CEO is pushing us hard. She wants a release in time for the holidays.”
If only Jennet could get Dad in-game. She knew Thomas would convince him to drop the project altogether. But there was no chance.
Dad took another bite of meat, and then rested his hands on the table. “Isn’t your friend Tam coming over this weekend? George says he seems pleasant enough.”
Great. Her dad was grilling the chauffeur about Tam. She thought back - had they let anything about Feyland slip while in the car? Just because George was as quiet as rocks didn’t mean he wasn’t listening to everything they said.
“Um, Tam had something come up.”
She wished she knew what it was, or if there was any way she could help him. He seemed too used to dealing with stuff by himself. Did he even know how to ask for help? Or that it would be okay if he did?
Marie came in to clear the plates, and Dad nodded his thanks at her. Then he turned his attention back to Jennet.
“I’m sorry to hear your friend won’t be coming over,” he said. “I’m looking forward to meeting him. Soon.”
Marie let out a sniff, as if to say he’s nothing but trash, but Jennet ignored her.
“He should be around sometime this week. Or maybe next weekend.” He had to be - next Sunday was All Hallow’s Eve.
Halloween. The knowledge sat like a cold lump in the
middle of her stomach. One week. They had one week left to defeat the queen.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“Isn’t Mom coming, too?” the Bug asked. He gripped Tam’s hand as they walked down the wide grey steps of the police station.
“She has to stay a little while longer.” Tam swallowed, dark worry sticking in his throat. “They need to talk to her and stuff.”
It was bad news, the system noticing their family this way. They had made him talk to a family counselor before they had let him see Mom. Basically, if she didn’t get herself together in the next couple days and promise to take her meds regularly, he and the Bug would be put in one of the state-run Homes. The counselor lady had made noises about eventually being placed with a nice family, if the system decided Mom was too unpredictable to take care of them. Yeah, right. Who wanted a sick little kid and his screwed-up big brother?
Not that it mattered, since there was no way he was letting the state suck them in. Which meant he and the Bug would have go to ground for a few days, until things shook out with Mom. The only place they could do that was deeper in the Exe. At least the cops wouldn’t bother looking too hard for them.
The only problem was, how would Mom find them? Assuming they let her out. Assuming she even wanted to find them. That thought cut his chest like he’d swallowed broken glass.
Figure the rest of the day, maybe tomorrow, to find them a place to hide out, get it stocked with everything they’d need, and then disappear. Leave a note for Mom, reminding her of their old signal system. Red flag in the window - danger. Yellow - things were ok. Then he and Peter would erase themselves from the system like missing pixels, blank spaces where two boys used to be.
You can’t live like that, part of his mind insisted. What about food? What about school? What about Jennet?
One thing was clear. He sure as hell couldn’t help defeat the Dark Queen if he were stuck in a Home. But they still had time. Hiding out with the Bug - that was only temporary. Until….
Well, until whatever. Right now, he couldn’t see more than a day or two ahead. His chest ached when he thought about Mom, so he stopped.
He squeezed the Bug’s hand. “How about an adventure?”
“What kind? I wanna go home.” Peter was looking up at him with big, worried eyes. The kid was too smart for his own good.
“Yeah, home first. But then we’re going to go exploring and, uh, build a fort.”
“In the forest?” A tentative smile crossed his brother’s face. “Like, in camping stories? Can we make a big fire?”
“No.” There wasn’t a forest around Crestview. The stand of woods in the park maybe, but it wasn’t big enough for them to hide out in. Anyway, they had to stay close, in case Mom…. He shook his head. “We’ll find a place in the Exe.”
“But Mom said we should never go there by ourselves.”
Tam stopped and bent down, so he was eye level with his brother. “Peter. We live in the Exe. Not in the middle of it, sure, but I go to school by myself every day after putting you on the bus. I go through the Exe all the time, and it’s fine.”
Liar. He went along the edges, like where their place was, and even there it wasn’t safe. But staying safe wasn’t an option any more. Only surviving. He’d heard stories about the Homes, and there was no way he was letting them get hold of the Bug. Or him, for that matter.
“It’s just for a little while,” he said. “We can pretend we’re camping in the woods. I’ll even get us some marshmallows.”
Sugar bribery. Good thing he had hidden some of Mom’s cash stash. He and the Bug would get through this. They had to.
It took the rest of the weekend to find them a bolt hole that wasn’t dangerously deep into the Exe, but far enough that the system would give up looking. Their hiding place was a low-slung building open on two sides, but there was a corner that was dry and out of the wind. Yeah, it was sketchy, and Tam knew it, but he couldn’t find anything better. There was some rank, weird smell coming from further down the block, and at some point rodents had taken over the building, but they were long gone now.
The hardest thing wasn’t getting their stuff there, or rigging up a couple of low-tech alarms - wires and cans filled with rocks - it was getting the Bug to keep his voice down. He was excited about their adventure.
“I want to show Mom our fort when she comes home,” Peter said from his makeshift bedroll, his voice rising. “Do you think she would let us build a fire? Hey, Tam—”
“Sh. It’s time you were asleep.”
“But we’re on holiday, you said so. I don’t have to sleep because I’m not going to school tomorrow. Can we go someplace fun? What about the park with the fountain, or the—”
“Peter, shush. We’ll talk about that tomorrow.” Another marshmallow would shut the Bug up, but it would only be a temporary fix. The sugar would keep him up even later. Tam let out his breath in a low sigh. “I’ll take you someplace fun, but only if you stop talking.”
“Ok.”
His brother lay still for a half-second. He pulled in a breath, like he was about to say something, then stopped - remembering just in time that he was supposed to be quiet. Then he started wiggling again. His feet swished back and forth under his blankets, moving like wings.
Tam snapped off the thin beam of his flashlight. It was better if they were in complete darkness, anyway. Nothing to give them away. He scooted down in his sleeping-bag, then slipped his hand under his pillow. The cool plas-handle of their longest kitchen knife was comforting against his fingers. Not the best weapon, but at least they weren’t totally unarmed.
Would his sword materialize if he needed it, the way Jennet claimed her staff had? He damned sure hoped so. Even more, he hoped it wouldn’t come to that. They would spend a couple of nights here and the system would let Mom go. They liked keeping families together, didn’t they? She would come back and leave the signal that it was safe, and they would go home.
Sure. Because everything always got better in their lives.
Tam squeezed his eyes shut. No way was he giving in to that hot prickle behind his eyelids. He made his breathing soft, and listened to the Bug’s feet moving quietly back and forth under the covers. Finally the motion got slower and slower, and Peter’s breath deepened into sleep.
The Exe was quiet. Well, quiet as it ever got. Random yelling from somewhere, too far away to worry about. The low rumble of motors and machines, and behind that, the hum of the bigger, better town of Crestview, bypassing the Exe. Going about its business.
Up on the rich people’s hill, Jennet was probably going to bed, thinking she’d see him at school tomorrow. But she wouldn’t. He and his brother had to be invisible for the next couple of days. Tam didn’t even want to turn his tablet on - everyone knew you could be tracked that way. Though at some point he’d have to message Jennet again, tell her not to worry. Too much. He could do that from the middle of the park, right before they left. Yeah, that would work.
He knew she’d worry. He could practically see the frown hovering on her face, pulling her brows together above her blue eyes. She’d tuck a strand of pale hair behind her ear and press her lips together. If he were there, he could touch the softness of her hair, coax her lips back into a smile.
For now she’d just have to wait, and he was sorry for it, but there was nothing else he could do.
A low, shivering noise woke him. Keeping his eyes shut, Tam slid his fingers around the hilt of the knife. He gripped it hard, his whole body taut with listening. Was somebody there? Had their hiding spot been discovered? Nothing had tripped the alarms.
The noise came again, and this time, Tam knew what it was. There was no mistaking that mournful call. It turned his bones cold and made his mouth dry up. The eldritch horn of the Wild Hunt. Hell. How could the Hunt be here, in the real world?
He lay absolutely still, trying not to breathe as the sound swept over the Exe - the high yipping of dogs, the pounding of hooves through the night sky, the wild skirl of
bagpipes. The sound flowed through the air, filling it with shadows and things unseen. Images flowed, unbidden, into his brain.
A menacing, horned figure silhouetted against pale trees. The impudent grin of a sprite. A woman more beautiful than midnight stars, her eyes dark as sorrow.
Finally, the sounds faded. Tam exhaled, and it felt like the whole Exe breathed out with him. They were safe.
This time.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“Marny!” Jennet called as she caught sight of the big girl in the halls. “Do you know where—”
“No. I have no idea where Tam is this morning, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Jennet’s spirits sank. She had tried messaging him about a hundred times, but could never get through. “I just was hoping that you knew—”
“Look.” Marny crossed her arms. “It’s great that you and Tam are friends and everything. You probably know more about him by now than me, ok? So don’t bug me. Anyway, probably half the Exe is sleeping late. It was a crazy night.”
A chill crawled across Jennet’s skin. “A crazy night? In what way?”
“In a freaky-noises-echoing-around-the-sky-like-a-nightmare way. I should be asleep right now, if I had any sense.”
“Did it sound like… hounds baying and sort of screechy music? A low, deep horn? Like that?” Jennet’s throat was tight.
“Yeah, like that.” Marny narrowed her eyes. “What do you know about it?”
“It’s complicated.”
There, Marny’s warning not to pry, right back at her. No way was Jennet going to try to explain the Wild Hunt, here in the middle of Crestview High’s halls. Even if Marny believed her - and Jennet had a feeling she might - it was safer for her not to know.
“Marny,” Jennet said, “if you hear that again…”
She shivered, she couldn’t help it. The Hunt was loose in their world. And she and Tam were their prey. Please, let him be safe.
