Heir to the Underworld

by Walker, E. D.

  Wreathed in smiles, his manner gracious, the stag-man's eyes glinted in malicious delight like sharp green jewels. "Lord Polydegmon, such a pleasure."

  Deg clenched his fists but nodded to the other man. "Well met, Lord Cernunnos."

  "You two know each other?" Freddy gasped under her breath. Deg gave a tight jerk of his head to signal her to silence, and her cheeks heated in embarrassment. Right. Not the time to talk, Fred. Wrapping her arms around herself, she slid closer to Deg, mentally willing him to convince the stag-man Cernunnos to call off his goons.

  The fairy lord bowed, his antlers lowering as if he meant to gore Deg. "And who is your lovely companion?"

  Deg gave a vague wave of his hand, dismissing Freddy. "A plaything to amuse me while I dawdled here waiting for you. She is of no consequence."

  She bit her lip and shot him a sidelong look. Deg was trying to protect her, but she was pretty sure that wasn't going to work. The trick was transparent to her, were the fairies naïve enough to fall for it and let her walk away? And what would she do if they did? Run for her dad?

  Deg stepped between the stag-man and her. "Let the girl go. Haven't you embroiled enough innocents in your infamies?" Deg's voice sharpened at the last, and Freddy thought of his sister. She hoped the stag-man didn't have the girl. He probably ate sweet young things like that--like me--for breakfast.

  "This girl may be of no consequence to you, Death-son, but I find any warrior in this day and age as doughty as she to be of keen interest. Should I recruit her to join my Hunt?" Cernunnos grinned back at his huntsmen, and the nightmare fiends laughed with him, jostling each other at the joke. Their antlered leader stepped closer to Deg, and Freddy cringed back, shameless as she sheltered behind Deg's solid bulk. "For now," Cernunnos said, "it is enough she be the means to buy your cooperation." With a deft flick of his wrist, four of the massive huntsmen rushed forward.

  Freddy clung to Deg, squeezing her arms around his middle, and locking her hands together behind his back, but Deg made no move to hold her, his body remained limp against hers. The huntsmen reached Freddy and Deg, solid weights thudding into Freddy's side. One fairy dug at her hands, and painfully crooked her fingers apart, grabbing her forearms to yank her arms away.

  As they broke her clasp on Deg, Freddy's insides stirred with a panicked frenzy. No. No. No. The fairies loomed, seeming overlarge to her frantic, panicked eyes, as if they'd swallow the world. A fairy looped his arm around her waist, dragging her backward. She kicked and lashed out, the sole of her sneaker thudding into one fairy's face and making his nose bleed. She bashed her head backward into the fairy holding her, hard enough her own head rung with pain--she could only imagine how he felt. Three more of the fairies pounced, the stench of their bodies, blood, sweat, and foulness, choking her.

  One pressed hard on her back while another kicked her legs out, and Freddy fell forward to the ground on all fours, the grass prickly under her palms, dew soaking through her jeans to chill her knees. One fairy cranked her arm back with a tight, tearing pain until she cried out. Her hood fell off and a huntsman tangled his paw in her hair, her skin crawling at the contact. He pulled her head back to expose her neck, and the skin there seemed over-sensitive, too thin, as if the mere whisper of the wind across it was enough to kill her.

  Freddy's pulse pounded hard, the drumming louder in her ears than the rasp of the fairy's excited pants. The ruffian yanked a knife from his belt. She set her teeth, trying to flash freeze the fear that ratcheted through her, tearing her insides up like machine gun fire. The blade's curves caught a spark of moonlight and reflected it into her eyes. She blinked and flinched away from its bright sting.

  The huntsmen laughed at her. Mean, dirty laughs.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Deg struggled against his captors. "You don't need her. Hunt me. Ride me down. Just release her."

  The huntsmen laughed harder. "We'll let her go once we've had our fun."

  "You're welcome to what's left after, Death-son."

  Her body throbbed in fear, shaking and clammy with sweat. She was scared out of her mind, but enough in command of herself to know if they were going to kill her she didn't want to die sobbing. Corny as it was, she didn't want to give these assholes the satisfaction. Freddy ground her teeth and defiantly glared at her tormentors.

  As the knife moved toward her throat, she did close her eyes. I can still be brave without having to look at the psycho whack-job about to slit my throat, right? The blade touched her skin, cool and smooth, gently pressing until she flinched as a warm dribble of blood trickled to stain the neck of her T-shirt.

  "Frederica," Deg screamed.

  Her torturer laughed and licked the blood away. His tongue was slimy, his breath putrid. Bitterness rose in the back of her throat, acidic in her mouth. She swallowed, fighting not to puke.

  Her eyes flicked open at a rustle of movement. Someone seized her guard by the shoulder and tossed him through the air, right across the clearing. She looked up into the face of the Hunt's leader. He pushed his other huntsmen away, but didn't make any move to touch her. The stag-man's face as he stared at her seemed confused, fearful even, his eyes pinched tight with tension, the skin around his mouth white.

  She didn't get it. The stag-man had decided to play this sadistic game with her and Deg in the first place…why end it now?

  She stared back at the strange man, taking his antlers in with disbelief, trying to figure out how he had attached them. Cernunnos stared at her face, his eyes rapt. He hauled her to her feet, scrutinizing every inch of her. He took in her no-doubt tousled hair, her face, her eyes as they met his.

  Deg stood still, swinging his head anxiously from Cernunnos to her, his jaw tight, his nostrils flared.

  Cernunnos jerked her to him and gave her a head-rattling shake. "Who are you?"

  Since she was a dead girl walking anyway…Freddy's lips quirked. "Jane Jones."

  For a second she thought Cernunnos would hit her. Instead he gritted out, "Do not play games with the Lord of the Hunt. Tell me your name."

  Deg's rough whisper floated to her on the wind. "Do it."

  She frowned in confusion, but she trusted him. "I'm Frederica Fitzgerald." She proclaimed it in her loudest voice so it carried to every last huntsman in the grove.

  Cernunnos hissed a breath in. Roughly, he twisted her body around, fumbling to lift the hem of her shirts. Freddy's nerves prickled with fear, and she tried to break free. The stag-man held her tight, but he only lifted her shirt a little, then ran the pad of his thumb over the silvery scars that had dotted her back for as long as she could remember. Souvenirs of a childhood fall on broken glass, her parents told her, but Freddy didn't remember the accident.

  She went cold, as if someone had shot ice water into her veins. How does this guy know about my scars?

  When Cernunnos whipped her back around to face him, he seized her chin, but with surprising gentleness, and turned her face from side to side. Tilting her head this way, then that to dissect her features in the moonlight. He even traced the line of her cheekbone with his fingertips. At last, his eyes wide in something that might have been shock, he pulled his hand back. "By the gods…it is you…it is. How remarkable to find you tonight without even trying." A strange happiness washed over his face, and she frowned. Anything that made this monster happy couldn't be good.

  Cernunnos grinned. His teeth were white and well kept but, somehow, a shade too sharp. He maintained a firm hold on Freddy's arm and dragged her along behind him toward Deg. She wanted, so badly, to run to Deg and get away from here, but Cernunnos' grip was too strong. The Hunt had the place ringed round anyway. And, lest she forget, a dozen of the white dogs strained on the ends of their masters' leashes, ready to track them down if she and Deg did manage to escape. And then the dogs would eat Deg.

  At Cernunnos' approach, Deg drew himself up with scruffy dignity.

  "Spawn of the Olympian scum," this Cernunnos said to Deg, "I grant you safe passage through my land
s to carry a message to your father. I think we may yet be able to reach an accord."

  Deg's jaw twitched. "You will return my sister?"

  Cernunnos guffawed. His gaze raked Deg head to toe with contempt. "I do not negotiate with undersized whelps. Tell your father to meet me."

  Deg's captors released him. He hesitated. "My lover?" He jerked his chin toward Freddy. Despite her terror, something fluttered in her chest and thrilled deep in her stomach at the word "lover."

  "This delicious trifle?" Cernunnos fingered a lock of her hair, rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger. She longed for a shower as Cernunnos smirked at Deg. "I shall keep her. You will not need her to divert you, after all, now you are going home."

  Deg's face hardened, his fingers wiggled, probably aching to have a sword as much as Freddy's were. "It will go ill with you if this innocent comes to harm by your hands."

  "So the cub has claws?" Cernunnos laughed. "Grow some hair on your chin, then try your strength against Cernunnos. For now, run home with your tail between your legs like a good whelp and give your sire my message."

  Deg looked at her once more, then to Cernunnos. "Allow me to say a proper goodbye." He inclined his chin toward Freddy.

  Numb all over at the thought of being left alone with the Hunt, her mind became a curious blank, absent of fear, absent of any thought at all. What a time for her brain to go into hibernation mode.

  Cernunnos narrowed his eyes at Deg. "I doubt you and I have similar ideas on what is proper." With an amused smirk, the stag-man stepped away and allowed Deg to approach her.

  Deg drew her to him, holding her close, his arms warm and tight, the last bit of safety left in the world. Freddy clung to him, bunching her hands in the fabric of his tunic, shaking as her body pressed against his. The frantic, panicked chanting in her head had started again, rising to a high, wailing whine that echoed through her skull. No. No. No…

  On the pretext of kissing her ear, Deg whispered, "He won't hurt you. I swear it. I'm going to get the watchdog. I'll not let them keep you a moment longer than I must." He looked at her face. His lips pressed against hers with gentle fervor, but Freddy stood stiff, trembling too hard with fear to kiss him back.

  The huntsmen jeered and offered to show him the right way to kiss a wench.

  Deg remained focused only on her. "Be brave, my Amazon."

  "Don't leave me alone with these things." A tide of panic coursed through her. Against her will, her hands still gripped his tunic, refusing to let him go. She might puke if she moved.

  He smoothed her hair back with trembling fingers. His hands cupped her face, and a bone-rattling shiver passed through her. "I will not leave you for long. I won't. Trust that. Trust me." He kissed her with a rough desperation, and this time she kissed him back, seeking frantically for his warmth, wanting to steal some of his surety for herself.

  Deg pulled away too quickly and she gave a small cry of loss. Deg was shaking now, too. "Cernunnos will protect you. Stay by him." Deg traced the planes of her face with his fingertips, forehead to chin in a feather caress. She closed her eyes, amazed how calming those caresses could be to her nerves.

  Deg stepped away, and she let him go. Her heart constricted as he disappeared into the dark and left her, alone and unprotected, with Cernunnos and his Wild Hunt.

  Chapter Nine

  Freddy moved a step closer to Cernunnos, suddenly wanting to call Deg back to tell him not to drag her dad into this.

  Cernunnos turned toward her. "Can you ride?"

  She frowned at him, her insides blazing with anger, but she nodded.

  He grinned, and for the first time, his expression held no menace, only genuine satisfaction, his features softening, his eyes warm. "Then the Wild Hunt will escort you home."

  That was the end to this crazy evening? A ride home from the bloodthirsty RenFaire rejects? Shocked, she blinked stupidly. "Home?"

  "Yes, child." His eyes glittered. "For from this night until the end of time, you are going home to live with me and mine."

  A sock in the gut couldn't have taken her breath away better. "What?"

  He tugged her along and threw her onto his massive horse, air whooshing around her, startling and chill. She struggled to stay on, tilting and tipping in the saddle, her nerves sparking hot inside her with fear, the ground seeming very far away now. The pommel was hard and smooth beneath her fingers, an anchor as terror thickened in her throat.

  Cernunnos swung up behind to ride pillion, his body a massive wall at her back, heavy with the smell of leather and the musk of horses. His bulky arms locked around her, and all thoughts of escape died stillborn.

  Her eyes stung with tears of frustration and fear. "Wh--what are you going to do to me, you bastard?"

  "Such language." He squeezed her in rebuke. "Fear nothing from me, child, nor any of my men. You will be treated as a princess." He chuckled. "And no one will harm you. That I swear."

  She turned to face him, despair and horror duking it out in her heart. "Just take me home."

  The look on his face was smug, his eyebrow half-raised, his lips curled in a smirk. "My world will be your true home."

  "No. It won't. You asshole." She wanted to punch his satisfied grin to a pulp, her fists clenching in eager readiness at the thought.

  His antlers moved as his forehead furrowed in a grimace. "Your manners are not much better than your language."

  "So find someone else to kidnap, shit-head." She walloped Cernunnos on his massive shoulders with both her fists.

  He let out a puff of pain and grabbed both of her wrists. He encircled them with one massive hand, pinning her wrists together, pinching the bones painfully. "Quiet and behave yourself, or I will become angry."

  The easy, casually brutal strength of Cernunnos made fear clot in her throat, but damned if she'd show it. "Fuck off and die."

  ~~~

  Polydegmon approached Freddy's house with acute discomfort lodged in his belly. Unused to guilt, it took him some moments to identify this was, in fact, the particular emotion burdening him, weighing him down with an aching anguish.

  The last few days had wretchedly upset the idle routine of his life. He was accustomed to spending his days very much as he pleased, certainly at times being called to perform some duty at his father or mother's request, such as recovering Kore. Polydegmon did nothing for anyone else unless it pleased his whims.

  But he had promised to protect Freddy, and, though he half-regretted his glib oath to the watchdog, he had sworn it all the same. Polydegmon was bound now. Blood and bone.

  Carrying the stag-god's message to his father in a timely manner was vitally important. But the leaden worry rolling inside his body allowed Polydegmon no peace. Not until he'd rescued Freddy from the mess he himself had tangled her in.

  What to say to her parents?

  Your daughter crept out to find me and has now been captured by a pack of fairy cutthroats…

  No.

  I meant to use your daughter to find Cernunnos so I could find my sister but now Cernunnos has found Freddy because of me…

  No.

  I am a worthless, feckless, disgusting bit of pig offal, please forgive me?

  No. His throat tight with sticky dread, he decided to improvise, and knocked decisively on the front door before his will failed him.

  Colin answered, yelling before the door had even opened, "Frederica, where have you--" He blinked as he opened the door all the way and found, not his daughter, but Polydegmon. He looked over Polydegmon's shoulder. "Where is she?"

  "Cernunnos has taken her." The words were out, and a sick weight settled into his gut. Polydegmon waited, clasping his empty hands behind him, straightening to stand with what dignity he could on the doorstep.

  Time stretched while Colin gaped in a mixture of blank-faced shock and dawning horror.

  Then, in a dizzying rush, the man barreled into Polydegmon's midsection, knocking the air from his lungs with a raw gasp.

  Falling flat o
n the pavement, Polydegmon grunted at the bruising pain in his back.

  Colin's fist connected hard with Polydegmon's face, knocking his head to the side, his cheek landing on the grainy hardness of the ground. Polydegmon's face throbbed, and as he opened his mouth in a low groan, blood leaked out to dribble in a bright puddle on the gray concrete.

  Knotting his hand in the front of Polydegmon's tunic, Colin yanked him upright. Polydegmon stiffened, and met the other man's glittering gray-blue eyes.

  I deserve this.

  Again, Colin's fist sank into Polydegmon's face with a sick, meaty sound, but Polydegmon did not fall back, as Colin's other fist still held him by the tunic, pulling the sweat-soaked fabric taut against Polydegmon's back.

  Freddy's mother ran out and pulled Colin away, hooking her arms under his armpits and hauling back with all her dainty weight. Colin only shook her off and went for Polydegmon again.

  Polydegmon, licking his split, stinging lip and tasting copper, held his hands up in supplication. "I give you leave to beat me, Hound. Gods know I deserve it, but this does Freddy no good. Please." He looked at Colin, and fatigue settled into his bones, turning them to a syrupy ooze--all he wanted was to slump back down to the bloody ground and never rise again. You are the son of Olympians, and you swore to protect her. The thought braced him, and he pushed himself painfully to stand, planting his feet and meeting Colin's livid rage unblinking. "I will go back for her alone if I must."

  Colin's eyes cleared. "They're still in the canyon?"

  "He would hardly let her ride the Hunt with him."

  "Let me get my weapons." Colin turned to Freddy's mother. "Abby, get the car keys."

  She gazed at him a moment, then rushed inside.

  Polydegmon, meanwhile, followed Colin to the garage to arm himself.

  When Abigail found Colin in the garage with the keys, she made to take a sword for herself, but the guard dog stopped her.