Silver Hollow

by Jennifer Silverwood

  Amie trailed two decadent strangers with her eyes. For once Faye was not working the crowd. She simply flitted from Lord to Lady with an elderberry goblet between her fingers and a red-painted smile at hand. Her short hair had been slicked back against her head and up into spikey wings. Rubies and garnets clung to the net which clung to her head, threaded with fresh roses to match her long blood-red dress. How Faye had managed to throw together such an ensemble was once again a credit to her ingenuity.

  Amie knew Ginuog would be outside somewhere, preferring to keep an eye on the perimeter. She wasn’t surprised to see her childhood bestie, but seeing Faye made her worry about Jo. She still could not believe they were who they said. It all seemed so impossibly possible Amie knew there could be no other explanation. Currently, her Unseelie friend was speaking with an older portly gentleman with pointed ears, long whiskers and a half-dozen medals hanging from his bronze coat.

  Something else Amie was not used to yet was how alien these people looked. She might have been able to write the whole thing off as a hoax before she put on her father’s ring. Not only had she changed, but her new family and friends had as well. Her father’s people were generally slimmer and made up of richer hues and sharper angles. The hobgoblin servants were rounder in the face and in shape.

  Tonight’s ball celebrated the preservation of their once-great peoples. Gryphons danced with Centaurs on the other side of the glass walls within another hidden garden. People with hooves and fur, stunted wings, fangs and claws congregated with the wilder guests beyond the glass. Uncle Henry had disappeared there what felt like hours ago and few Gray Folk dared to follow him.

  No humans had accepted Henry’s invitation, however. Underhill claimed too few remained in the Vale to be trusted. Henry mentioned on their walk downstairs that the beasts still remembered the taste of human flesh.

  Amie knew what Ginuog had warned her would happen tonight, but she held onto the secret hope in spite of everything, another human trait. As far as she knew, neither Henry nor Emrys was aware she had fully claimed her birthright. With her inner eyes she could see and feel everything about the castle and through her ring it whispered back. There were secrets Amie felt on the borderline of her conscience, things no one had told her about and others not even Henry knew. For the house knew its true master was the one marked by the shade of her green orbs.

  Stop it with the inner monologuing already, Wenderdowne!

  Amie tightened her grip on the worn-out banister. It was imperative she keep her focus tonight. She needed to be in absolute control.

  “You look good enough to eat.” Emrys’ warm breath hit the back of her neck, his arms trapping her between the banister and his perfectly tailored form. Amie stiffened and her control slipped.

  What is it about this guy that calls to my inner bad-girl sensibilities?

  “Going Hannibal on me? At least you’d be admitting you were crazy. Maybe you should wear a face mask and strait jacket, to warn them ahead of time. You know, before you earn their trust and screw them over?” Satisfied with her comeback, Amie returned to her spying.

  Laughing, he breathed her in, nose to the curve of her neck, and said, “Jessamiene, you will never cease to be the most delightful creature of my acquaintance.”

  She tried not to shiver, or let her inner nixy respond to the flux of the shadow engulfing him that desperately wanted to swallow her whole. They were two creatures of the night, her and him, unstable and changeable as the moon. If she was the lighter half, then Emrys was her shadow. And in spite of everything he had done, she could not help the darker part of her soul that answered his call.

  “Who are you looking at?” He wrapped his arms securely around her waist. Amie surprised herself by leaning into his embrace.

  What are you doing? You don’t even like him!

  “They’re all so beautiful,” she whispered, shivering when his lips found the base of her neck.

  “None of them hold a candle to you, love.”

  Rolling her eyes, she retorted, “Oh yeah? What makes me so different from them?”

  Pulling away, Emrys gently turned her round with his hands. Amie released a shaky sigh as he stepped closer, stripping away the space left between them. With the cool caress of his long fingers he tipped her chin to meet his gaze, onyx eyes shifting a dull red.

  “Your eyes are not only the loveliest of your features, but the key to your inheritance. Did ye not know? This is why they came here tonight, to see their future ruler for themselves.”

  Amie blanched, hands grasping the balcony edge. “What? What do you mean ruler? I thought I was just a Lady, not a Queen. That ended like a thousand years ago. They don’t do kings and queens anymore.”

  A smirk tilted his unremarkable features into something dashing and alluring. “Do they not? For a newcomer ye sure are certain of your grasp on things, love.”

  “So maybe I don’t know everything yet. But just wait, someday I’m going to catch up to you.” She was rewarded with a rare genuine smile. For a moment Amie remembered the Emrys who taught her who and what she was.

  Of course, he ruined any good feelings she felt by his next statement. “Do not think I have forgotten what you did in the library.” The joy in his face was still present, only clouded by his mercurial emotions. “And I sense you’ve learned to harness yer power from someone other than me.” His brow arched and studied her reaction. “But if it is with that Freargde, I must ask something dire of ye.”

  Amie threw him a saccharine grin and really hoped Puck had rejoined his other faerie friends. He would never let her live this down otherwise. “Of course, my liege.”

  He paused, giving it some thought before saying, “I rather fancy the sound of that. But concerning the Cutterworthys, never fully trust them. They’re about as reliable as a Rumplekin, doing their best to erase their family history, but it’s in their nature to deceive. Second, absolutely never trust a Rumplekin, while we’re on the subject.”

  Clasping her hands together she feigned despair and said in perfect imitation of Underhill, “Oh twix whiskers! And to think I was going to invite him to tea.”

  Emrys grinned. “I’m bloody serious, you know. Grimwich acts harmless, but he’s been cozying up to Hogswillow too long to stay untarnished by her corruption.”

  “I know. You’re never anything but serious.”

  Throwing his arms up and clasping the back of his neck, Emrys paced away in a frighteningly human gesture. “You drive me stark raving mad sometimes, you know? I am trying to help you but ye try and thwart me every twist and turn!”

  Before she realized what she was doing, she moved to stand beside him and gently placed her fingers on his hand to trace his scars. “You aren’t wearing any gloves.”

  He took in a deep and shuddering breath and said, “What of it?”

  “Showing off our scars tonight, are we? Where did you get them?”

  He hesitated and this was all Amie needed to reach inside and place a veil between their bond, to pull back and at last make up her mind. She had to get rid of him. Emrys held a grip over her she did not understand, even with her own nixy. But when the time came, if he was truly the enemy like Ginuog and Dearg claimed, could she do what was necessary?

  The crowd was slowly trickling in together, gathering in a flamboyantly dressed hub of the Grey Folk as had not been seen in a generation. Amie had missed Henry’s entrance at the head of the foray, but he was hard to miss now, gleaming like the sun. Beasts and wilder things on the other side of the glass wall pressed against its panes to listen in. The dull roar of voices faded to a dim hush.

  “Friends and distant relations,” he began, “beasts and beings of the Borderlands, it is my delight and privilege to welcome you all to Wenderdowne. Admittedly it has been too long since our last gathering. Too long we have dwelt in the darkness of our past. Tonight…”

  Emrys pulled her to face him rather than the events below. Catching her chin with his hands, he pressed his forehead
to hers and said, “Jessamiene, there is something ye must know, before anything happens tonight. I have not been an honorable being for over a thousand of your human years.”

  “Won’t argue with that.” She tried to pull away but he maintained his firm grip.

  “Please hear me. Do ye remember what ye saw when I healed ye? When I brought ye to life, did ye see Nimue?”

  “Who was she?” Amie’s voice quivered, remembering his initial mistrust of her and his test.

  “Those images ye saw were memories, from another life I can hardly remember. All I recall from it is darkness and pain. Many of my scars were from the dig of their claws in my skin. My hands were not the only part of me they marked.”

  Passion exuded from his being as he spoke, poured through his eyes and into her so she could not help but to feel it too.

  “Nimue was my greatest bane, Jessamiene. She kept me in the shadows and betrayed me when I needed her most. Ye look so much like her. I believed ye were a ghost, another one of her tricks to lure me to join my ancestors. But now I know ye are everything she should have been and more. I know ye are the one who can at last end my curse.” He grasped her, pulled her nearer with desperation.

  Bloodletting pixies, she thought when their lips connected. Flashes of his life filled her mind, ripping aside the veil she had put between them. Once more she was seeing through his eyes as he remembered the black-haired, emerald-eyed beauty who glowed with the brilliance of the sun to his eyes. But Amie had no recollection of living another life hundreds of years ago and was certain she would have remembered Emrys if she had.

  Amie gasped when he wrapped his hands around her waist to drag her closer and crushed his mouth to hers in a dangerous dance. Her heart was spiraling faster and faster out of her control and Emrys too seemed caught up in frenzy, in something greater than the both of them. Each time she tried to pull away his lips returned to hers. A bold emerald light began to glow from the center of his black eyes.

  “Jessamiene…” He laughed breathlessly. Emrys smiled. “Ye have no inkling of how you make me feel. Your kisses I shall carry with me to the grave, though I am certain ye shall be my undoing.”

  Amie meanwhile had forgotten everything, the flames surrounding her heart which belonged to Dearg, her friends, the tiara on her head and the fact Henry’s speech was winding down. This was what Emrys would always be, an eat-you-up-and-swallow-you-whole force of nature. Amie loved the wild things he sparked inside of her, the part of her nature that wasn’t human.

  With a fond trace of her jaw he smirked and said, “Much as I’d rather steal you away to continue this conversation, we wouldn’t want you looking disheveled for your guests, now would we?”

  Amie crossed her arms over her chest and, leaning over the balcony to tune in, tried to quell the racing of her heart.

  Get a grip! Don’t let him control you again…though you might have enjoyed that a little too much, chica.

  “Fine, I wasn’t enjoying it that much anyway,” she said.

  A growling hiss began deep in his throat and he wrapped his arms around her from behind. Forcing her backside tightly to his front, he whispered into her ear, “This tells me otherwise.” He pressed his mouth to her pulse and she silently cursed.

  I’m going to kill Dearg for letting me be alone with him.

  Amie fluffed out her dress and hoped for the best when Henry’s voice rose in volume and vivacity.

  “For sixty years our gate has been left without its true keeper, this house without its true mistress. With her return we have come back to life. And it is my belief that with her shall return the true golden age. Once the usurper sought to ruin everything the ancients before her built. Today the lost queen has returned to us.”

  “’Tis our cue,” Emrys said into her ear.

  “What?” Amie couldn’t believe Henry would ever ask him to escort her to meet her potential kingdom. “No way are you taking me down there! I’m supposed to do this solo, Princess Diaries style, not with you dragging me.”

  Yet he had already snatched her arm and was leading her to the head of the stairs like a perfect gentleman. “Iudicael asked me to escort you, foolish lass. Besides, who’s to say I do nay honor you by my presence? Did you really think I could get away with my trolling ways unless I was royalty?”

  “Royalty?”

  “Shh! You’ll spoil the effect.” Emrys faced firmly ahead, a smile twitching on his face. Amie wanted to nix him so badly her silvery energy laced over her arms and through her clothes.

  “Face forward and do try to look regal instead of royally pissed,” he commented.

  Gritting her teeth, she schooled a classic Scarlett pose and swished her hips for extra measure. “I know how to do it.”

  “…I present my niece, Jessamiene Nimue Wenderdowne!” Henry’s voice thundered over the roar sweeping the hall. Voices fought one another to toast to her, eyes of dazzling blues, greens, pinks and startling milky white fastened to hers.

  Once they found the foot of the stairs their voices came together as one, saying, “Creator empower our Queen.”

  Chapter 41

  All That Glitters

  ‘I’m going to kill you.’ Amie mouthed to Emrys in the pause before the music began. His sharp white teeth bared into a maniacal grin.

  Sick sadist, you’re enjoying this.

  She wanted to stab him with her tiara. As it was, her entrance, dressed as a replica of the ancient royals, had been enough to dazzle her guests. Now they watched on from the ring they had made around the starlit couple with adoring eyes.

  Emrys mouthed back, ‘Bite me.’

  All it took to tame her was one look from Henry. His eyes were filled with familial love and pride. Part of her rebelled against that look, wanted to withdraw into herself, wanted to punish him. How could he have allowed her to leave all those years ago? Even worse, how could he allow her to believe all the lies Drustan planted in her head? Yet unlike Drustan, Henry was here and Amie realized she wanted him there for everything in her life. Her anger ebbed along with her decision.

  This is where I belong.

  “Left foot first,” Emrys said between clenched teeth and Amie rolled her eyes as he led her into the first steps of the dance. Obviously they had rigged the dances to match her limited repertoire.

  “You’re trying to make me trip over my feet, aren’t you?” She narrowed her eyes subtly at him. The shake of his head was her cue to sway to the right, pause as he picked her up by the waist and twirled her in the air. Amie couldn’t help her gasp of delight and smile once he returned her to her feet. She was surprised after executing the second twirl he drew her closer, dragging her scandalously closer. “What are you doing?” she hissed, hoping her voice was low enough for inhuman ears.

  Emrys grinned, keeping her near for longer than necessary. “It terrifies them to see our affection, love. For once I fought against them, made them suffer for what they did to my people. So now I make you even more powerful.”

  Amie pretended to ponder over this as he pushed her out, spun her in mad circles and released her to dance on air alone. Tapping into her nixy, she unleashed a fine layer of silvery dust from her skin which shimmered then faded onto the floor.

  With wide eyes she doubled over, hands outstretched. “Okay, that was weird.” And then a new pair of hands had clasped hers. Righting herself, she was turning in circles with the man from the village, the man who had watched her watch Faye dance, a familiar man. Once more he was dressed in a costume mash up of Errol Flynn and D’Artagnan. She knew instinctively this must be the one Emrys called Grimwich.

  So this is Morcant’s lap dog.

  Blue eyes laughing and shining with an elderberry wine glaze, he exclaimed, “Pardon the intrusion, my dear, but you are simply too irresistible!” Linking their gloved fingers, they each stepped back in time to the music, during which time his eyes spent the vast majority roving over her outfit. “This creation is simply too divine!” He flashed a devilish grin at
her. “I realize this may seem sudden, but no other lass has been able to hold a cup to you, dearest. I do hope you’ll consider my proposal.”

  “Proposal? Are you kidding me? We don’t even know each other!”

  That I can recall at the present anyway.

  And from the smile Grimwich gave her after bringing her back into his embrace, she could tell his thoughts were steered the same way. Amie turned to the rapidly crowding dance floor in her search for her missing partner. Where had Emrys gone off to now?

  Grim’s laughter interrupted her concentration, “Oh, slippers of glass! This is too rich!”

  “What are you talking about?” Amie grumbled upon spotting Emrys flirting with a new, bejeweled partner.

  “You are completely unspoiled by the ravages of your human life. Don’t look so surprised, dearest. I know everything that goes on in and out of the Borderlands. I make it my business to know the affairs of every House, particularly.” He smiled again and she saw through his pleasant, blond and blue-eyed mask of perfection, to a darkly appealing creature beneath.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” she said, averting her gaze and trying desperately not to give away her surprise. He wasn’t supposed to know she was half human, none of them were.

  “In spite of meself, I like you, Jessamiene Wenderdowne. It is for this among other reasons we are protecting the estate from those wild rebelling murderers outside.”

  Had she not been diverted, Amie might have paid more heed to his words. But she was too busy currently aiming daggers at Emrys’ partner, after the woman leaned in to kiss him softly on the lips. Morcant Hogswillow was the most beautiful creature Amie had ever seen. Her brown eyes burned yellow as candlelight, her voluminous curls were the luster of chestnuts and piled high on her head in their sapphire net. Peacock feathers sprung from this nest of hair and adorned her tightly bound dress. Skirts of purples, blues and greens swished around her tiny frame in sync with every musical sweep of strings.