He loved Maggie and the pups totally. But for now, he was content with the daily visiting rights. Four puppies climbing and chewing on him at once was a lot to take on. I guess a little time with them at this stage went a long way.
Rose had two journals on the table. Yellow sticky post-it notes stuck out from various pages. She cleared her throat to let us know she was ready to begin. We all went silent and looked to her.
"As you know, I've been reviewing Mrs. Hunt's journals for any mention of the Fae." Another nervous glance at Dell. I noticed that she had moved the knife rack on the counter closer to the edge. She could easily reach it from where she sat. I started getting really worried.
"Taz, you said Titania implied that your parents took Shaylee in to raise for her protection, right?"
I thought back to my visit with the queen. "I'm not sure she phrased it that way. My parents probably didn't know she was faerie when they adopted her. I'm guessing they thought she was Benandanti. Especially since she changed when she was sixteen."
"Yes, well according to these journals—written in your mother's hand—she never adopted a child." Rose held up a hand to stop me. Then she picked up one of the journals and began reading.
"Last night I gave birth to my first miracle of a child. A little girl. Her eyes are mine, but her little dimples and sweet temperament must surely be Justin's doing. A little of both of us in that girl. Creator help her." Rose looked up at me. "This was dated two years before you were born, Taz."
My heart felt heavy. "I don't understand."
Now Jed was looking funny at Dell, too. His words, however, were for me. "In that book you read about the faeries, did it mention their habit of using Changelings?"
I frowned. "Yes, but what has that got to do with anything?"
Rose sighed. I looked to Dell but she wouldn't meet my eyes. Neither would MacDougal.
"Tazlyn dear, the one sitting next to you is a Changeling. A faerie switched at birth with a mortal child. She was raised as your sister, and I can understand your loyalty to her, but the bottom line is that nothing good ever came out of a Changeling switch. Ever."
Jed's lips tightened. "Then Taz's sister—her true blood sister—is in the Faerie Realm?"
Rose nodded. "If she is still alive. The faeries pay a tithe every seven years for their immortality and power."
"A tithe? Like what we pay to the church when we go?" I asked.
She rubbed her face, but I noticed she was still keeping a close eye on the faerie's movements. So far, they hadn't said a word, nor budged an inch.
"Yes and no. We pay our tithes to the Creator, and we pay in money." Rose swallowed. "The Fae pay theirs to the Destroyer, and they pay in human souls."
My blood ran cold. "Human souls?" My voice came out a full octave higher than normal.
"Human sacrifice paid to hell for their continued way of life. Every seven years." She paused. "It's probably why they started the process of switching out babies for Changelings."
"Only one of the reasons," MacDougal said softly. "Tis not a practice I condone, but 'twill be a long day hence when the rathers of a MacDougal will mean ought to the queen."
"What are the other reasons?" I asked, praying they weren't even worse and that my sister, my real one that is, was safe.
"We be an ancient race, the Fae," he said. "Our choices of mates similar to ourselves is growing slim to none. Especially if it be children we desire."
"They are stealing babies for mating purposes?" I was appalled. "Why not just steal full grown women they wouldn't have to wait for?"
"When ye take a grown woman from this realm—and make no mistake, the courts do that as well—they remember where they are from. It's a dissatisfied being you have on yer hands."
"But if they're raised in Faerie..." I trailed off nodding.
"Exactly right, lass," MacDougal said. "They know no other home and are content with what is."
I stared at him, a new thought rearing in my brain. "A Fae under bargain to tell the complete and accurate truth would have to do so, wouldn't they? Even if they were on a mission from the queen?"
He smiled slowly and inclined his head. The others just looked at me. Guess my brain was in the lead for once.
"When we asked you where my sister was, you said in the Seelie Court of Queen Titania. But Shaylee isn't my true sister."
"Twas easy 'nuff to tell the truth, child. Both Shaylee and the one that would have been called Dell reside there."
I swallowed. "You said she was safe—is that still true now?"
"Aye, she is a favorite of the queen and as safe as a human can be in the court." He grinned suddenly. "Safer than a lot of the Fae, in fact. Your sister is Benandanti through and through."
"I'm sorry, Taz," Shaylee said meekly. "Although none of you will probably believe me, growing up I didn't know. I swear it. Not until that night of the attack. I knew I was different, but all the books I read said all teenage girls felt that way, so I thought it was normal." She paused. She hadn't raised her eyes once from the table. "I fought with them you know. I truly thought they were my parents. I loved them."
I reached over and took her hand. The others may have their doubts, and Creator help me I probably should have doubts too, but I didn't.
"The only thing that's changed is your name," I said. "And the fact that I now have two sisters. One blood and one adopted." I raised my head defiantly to look MacDougal in the eyes. "And I want both of them."
MacDougal sighed and shook his head. "Sad to say, but the queen would never agree to let her go."
"Who said anything about asking?"
Chapter 20
WE ALL BENT TO THE task of reading through the journals, searching for some answer to our dilemma. Surely this was not the first time in Benandanti history that a Changeling had been placed in our care. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the case.
So with Shaylee and MacDougal's help, we started working on strategies for the rescue. According to MacDougal, she hadn't taken a mate. To add to our problem of rescue was the fact that she might not want to come. A queen's favorite would have advantages that people in this realm couldn't even dream of. But I was determined to get her here and let her make her own decision. Besides, sooner or later, the queen would grow tired of her. And I didn't like the sound of their seven-year tithe at all. No way was I letting my sister go to Hell.
Rose had insisted on coming to us for our now daily work sessions. So, after driving Lily to school, she would make the short trek to the Greenwood house. At the moment, MacDougal, Shaylee, and Jed were sitting at the kitchen table working on a map of Fae while Rose was helping me sharpen my mental messaging abilities. I wasn’t nearly as proficient as her at it.
When someone knocked on the door, I pretty much welcomed the break. Maybe that was why it didn’t hit me that I hadn’t heard a car in the drive.
The man seemed normal enough at first. He was turned to face the street, his back to me when the door opened. I saw long wild hair barely tamed into submission with a black tie. He was wearing jeans and a light brown bomber jacket.
Then he turned around and I took a step back, calling out to Jed. Even I could hear the panic in my voice.
The Erlking had found us.
He was minus his antlers, which was why I didn't recognize him from the back. He nodded politely to me as he brushed past into the house. So much for needing to be invited. At least he wasn't a vampire, I guess. I looked up over the doorway. We had grown too lax over the past week. The horseshoe was missing from the mantle over the door. We hadn't replaced it the last time MacDougal had come back in. The king glanced about the inside, nodding, then turned to Jed.
"A nice home you have here," he said. "Much nicer than the wolf's den." He smiled. "Although I did like the indoor hot tub. I haven't found too many of them in my travels of the past week."
He wouldn't. It had been a great expense, but worth every penny of it. Sometimes I needed the hot pulsating water to work out the s
oreness of an especially grueling night run. And sometimes, I just needed to relax. Not many things take care of both.
Jed stepped forward to shake the king's hand, just like he was a welcome guest. That's my mate. None other like him.
The Erlking, being a head taller than Jed, looked over his shoulder at Shaylee who was still sitting at the table. She looked like a deer caught in headlights. MacDougal was standing by her side, his hand resting on her shoulder. I noticed briefly that the map they had been working on was gone.
And Creator love Rose. She had retrieved her shotgun, which she carried with her pretty much everywhere these days, and was standing alertly beside the table waiting for the king to make an aggressive move. It didn't take long for the Erlking to notice her. And the gun.
"Ah, I believe you call that a shotgun, do you not?" he asked, smiling. For all the world like it wasn't a threat to him. For all I knew, it wasn't.
"Dear lady, I promise you no harm will come to my daughter or any of your pack in this realm. You have my word as king."
Rose swallowed but didn't release her grip on the gun. The Erlking dismissed her and turned back to Shaylee, spreading his arms.
"What?" he asked. "No hug for your father?"
"Are you here to tell us you've called off your hunters?" Jed asked. Ever hopeful, my mate.
The king laughed, the sound echoing through the large room. "Oh, I like you," he said. "I really do."
I was debating which of my forms could do the most damage when he made his move. It was a tough call, but I was betting they didn't have martial arts in Fae, so I stayed in skin and moved over to take Shaylee's other side. I never said a word, but my intention was clear. If he wanted Shaylee, he'd have to go through me.
The Erlking just smiled at us. That smile was starting to grate on my last nerve.
"Then why are you here?" Jed asked. "You've promised no harm to us. If you aren't here to offer terms, then why?"
In an instant, the smile changed to pure evil. "Why to open the pathway, of course."
The Erlking threw his hand towards Shaylee, but he underestimated the speed of a wolf, and his spell hit me instead.
WHATEVER SPELL HAD hit me, it was potent. Potent, but not deadly. When I regained consciousness, my entire body felt bruised. Like a Mac truck had hit me and then backed up and repeated the process multiple times. I went through the litany of moving each of my muscle groups. Everything responded, if slowly. So no damage, just soreness. That was good.
I opened my eyes and glanced around me. Glass walls formed a cell about six feet square. The walls shimmered with power. Not your ordinary glass, this. I looked through the walls on either side of me, not wanting to move too much and draw attention to the fact that I was awake.
One wall backed up to a more solid one made of black stone. I recognized that stone. The king had spelled me into Faerie. I figured I was in the dungeon area of his castle. The other see-through barrier showed two guards armed with crossbows. Looking up, I saw the same shimmering glass about six feet up. I moved my fingers slightly and felt cold stone beneath them.
Okay. Four walls, a ceiling, and a stone floor. So much for digging my way out. And I was betting heavily that the shimmering thing meant I couldn't just break the glass and escape.
Not that I would even know where to go, or how to get back home. MacDougal had said crossing the Faerie gate required the presence of a Fae. A single human couldn't do it alone. So I was stuck, even if I could get out of this cursed box.
I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to the guards. They were standing at attention. I moved just enough to find the doorway to my dungeon and saw the Erlking enter.
He noticed my eyes on him and smiled. The evil smile, not the polite one. "Welcome to my court, Tazlyn Hunt." His smile disappeared. "It should be my daughter in that box, not you. But you will learn to regret that inconvenience to me. It has been far too long since we have had a Wild Hunt. A Benandanti should make excellent prey."
I glared at him. "You should have left us alone. You don't know who you're messing with. My pack will tear you apart. Limb from faerie limb."
He gave a full-bodied laugh and the two crossbow-toting guards joined in. "You know my court could use a good jester. You and your mate have given me more fun than I've had in decades. I will miss you, but your fate is up to the Hunt."
For perhaps the first time in my life, I wished I'd spent more time reading. If only I had that e-reader that was loaded for faerie, maybe I could research my way out of this. The one book I had read—the one with more pictures than words—had mentioned the Wild Hunt only briefly. Basically, just to say that you never wanted to be on their bad side. I was betting that what the book really meant was that you never wanted to be hunted by them. The pictures were only hand drawings, but they were terrifying. I was hoping against hope that they weren't accurate.
I sat up painfully, in meditation style, and looked up at him. Standing was still beyond my aching muscles. How I was going to work them out for a run in a six by six box was beyond me. Of course, that just worked in the Hunt's favor.
He crossed the room to stand in front of the glass. Raising one finger, he tapped on it. It hummed.
"You haven't had a chance to try out your walls yet, have you?" he asked.
I shook my head. "I can see the spell wrapped to them, so I figured it would be painful."
He smiled, nodding. "You might say so. I've learned so much from your world. The idea of electricity fascinated me." He motioned to the glass. "Meet the faerie version. Charged glass."
I glanced around me pointedly. "Not much room to warm up for a chase, but then you don't really care, do you?"
He chewed his lip, thinking. "You are right." He lowered down to his haunches to better look me in the eyes. "I'll tell you what. I'll let you out of the box an hour before the Hunt, and you can warm up then. That should be plenty of time." He grinned. "I wouldn't want to disappoint the Hunt. It's been so long since I've been excited about one. I'd almost forgotten the feeling."
"You know what makes an even more exciting hunt?" I asked.
His head tilted and his eyebrows rose. "If you mean giving the prey a head start, that is a given. Remember the hour I promised you?"
I swallowed. "Nice to know, but not what I was talking about. A hunt or a race means more if you have something riding on it."
"Riding on it?" His brows cleared. "You mean a wager?"
I searched my memory for the few words that had gone with the horrifying picture.
"The Hunt always ends at dawn, right?"
He gave a silent nod.
"Okay, so it's a given that if you catch me before dawn I give up my life." Another silent nod accompanied by a slight smile. "But wouldn't it be more exciting if you had something to lose too?"
His eyebrow arched up. "Only one mortal has ever survived the Hunt, and that, my dear, was a fluke not to be repeated. We do learn from our mistakes, you know."
I shrugged. Brave little Benandanti, that's me. "What's the harm in making a wager then? Give me something to run for. A more exciting chase all around that way."
He leaned back, considering. "The Hunt is more fun when the prey has hope," he said finally. "What do you suggest?"
I considered my words carefully. How would Rose phrase this?
"If I am alive at dawn tomorrow, you—nor any of your court or subjects of your court—shall ever step foot into the mortal realm again so long as a Benandanti walks the earth." That should cover it.
He laughed. "And why would I make such an all-encompassing wager as that?"
I leaned back on my hands, going for the relaxed look. "Well, yeah, if you think there's a chance I'm going to win, you wouldn't."
His eyes darkened. "You have no chance. My Wild Hunt never fails to catch its prey."
"Then you have nothing to lose, right?" I didn't think my chances were good, but he had said one survived before. If I could guarantee the safety of my pack from t
his demon who called himself king, it would be something to truly give my feet wings. I looked at his guards who were watching with great interest.
He saw my gaze and realized that I had thrown the gauntlet. If he didn't take the wager, he would seem uncertain of winning, something I was betting he would be loathed to do in front of witnesses.
The Erlking stood and glared down at me. "So be it," he spat. "Should you live to see the rising of the sun, no member of the Unseelie Court of Faerie shall enter your realm while any Benandanti still exists within it." He lowered his face so I could not miss the deadly glare in his eyes. "But no promise is made that you will either."
I took a shaky breath and nodded. My life would be a small payment to keep my sister and pack safe. Now I only had to stay alive until sunrise.
A piece of cake.
Chapter 21
I DID WHAT I COULD to limber up my muscles. Boy, did I miss my hot tub. Hot water would be a good thing right about now. So would a massage. I did what I could with the muscles I could easily reach. Luckily, I'm short, so at least I could somewhat stretch in the box. I just couldn't raise my arms full length overhead without getting zapped.
Once I was as limber as I was going to get, I laid back down to try to nap. It's hard to do on solid stone. You just can't get comfortable. It hit me that if I kept lying on the slab, even if I did manage to fall asleep—which was doubtful—I'd be undoing all the limbering. I'd just wake up sore again.
I tried appealing to the guards' better nature but come to find out they didn't have one. No pillow for me. The Erlking really wasn't playing fair. But then what did I expect from the King of the Unseelie Court? A level playing field? He'd even doubled the guard to four men. All for little ole me.
Wishing, not for the first time, that I had gotten a chance to memorize the map that Shaylee and MacDougal were making, I tried to come up with a plan. Which didn't take long, because it was a very simple plan.
Run.
It's really all I could do. Run. I'm faster on all fours, not to mention the fact that I have much better maneuverability with four legs instead of two. Besides, if the Hunt truly does travel on flying horses like the pictures showed, being shorter would definitely be an advantage. If I could make them come down to me, I'd stand a better chance. Like I've said before, wolves are fast.
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