by Tasha Black
They had traveled all night and risked their lives only to end up right back where they started.
“Is that…?” Jessica murmured.
“Yes,” he said through a clenched jaw.
“What do we do?” she asked.
“We make another bargain with the Queen of Silence,” he said.
“I don’t even know where she lives,” Jessica moaned.
“I think I know exactly where to find her,” Cullen replied.
6
Cullen
Cullen’s plan was taking shape by the time Nyx carried them back to the little cottage where Jessica had spent so many happy days.
He was no stranger to faerie bargains, and he hadn’t completely lost his ability to think like the folk. He just needed a way to free Jessica and exact his revenge on his traitorous brothers at the same time.
In the meadow, the effects of the Queen of Silence were already apparent. There was no birdsong among the flowers, and though the wind lifted the branches of the trees that surround the cottage, he could not hear the hush of dancing leaves.
“She’s here,” he told Jessica. “I have a plan.”
“What should I do?” she asked. Her voice was more wakeful now, he was grateful that she was coming back to him.
“I’ll handle it,” he said. “Just try not to speak. I don’t want you accidentally getting wrapped up in another of her schemes.”
“Ouch,” Jessica said.
“I’m not insulting you, believe me,” he said quickly. “I’m just saying she’s cruel and calculating and you’re still sleepy from Valeria’s grace.”
He didn’t mention that her anguish had giving him the power to resist the effects of the blossoms and defeat the hag.
“It’s okay,” Jessica said in surrender. “I’m not myself, I can feel that. I’ll stay quiet. No need to worry.”
He nuzzled her hair, wishing he could comfort her with promises that everything would be better soon.
But talk was cheap. He would win her freedom first, and help her recover herself when that was settled.
They dismounted and entered the cottage.
The silence inside was so profound it was palpable, as if they were covered in a blanket that dampened all sound.
The Queen of Silence stood by the stone fireplace.
She was tall for a faerie and beautiful. Her white hair was held back in a chignon that served to accentuate her exquisite silver eyes, which perfectly matched her gossamer cobweb gown.
“Cullen,” she said in a disgusted tone.
“So you’re the one who stole Jessica away,” he said coldly.
“Your brother took up with monsters,” she said crisply. “You have broken my midnight loop. And now you dare come here to steal my prize?”
She indicated Jessica, who was headed to a small table in the corner, eyes glazed and far away, as if she were not fully in control of her actions.
On the table, faerie fruit glistened on a large platter.
“Don’t eat that,” he called to Jessica just in time.
She drew her hand away from the tray, shaking her head to clear the spell and looking at him in confusion.
“The girl made a deal,” the Queen of Silence said. “You cannot break it.”
“But I can make a new bargain,” he said. “One to replace the deal you made with Jessica.”
“Not interested,” she replied.
“Never mind then,” he told her. “Come, Jessica. We’re going back to the woods.”
“You’ll never get out of my trap,” the queen laughed.
“We can live quite happily in the forest for now,” he said. “And I’m thinking this is really more of a bargain for the King of Chaos.”
He counted the seconds in his head, grateful that Jessica came to him immediately.
When he reached seven the Queen of Silence broke.
“What’s your bargain?” she asked, in a voice that said she was bored.
He knew better.
“I’m prepared to offer all three of my brothers, fae kings in their own right, in exchange for this one young woman,” he said.
Jessica’s eyes went wide, but true to her word, she didn’t speak.
“I’m listening,” the queen said.
“We’ll go back to my world and capture them,” he told her. “I’ll bring them back and close the loop behind them for good.”
“Why would you betray your brothers?” the queen asked.
“They betrayed me first,” he said, trying to keep the emotion from his voice. “They worked together to send me back here, trying to trap me in the very loop Dorian earned with his recklessness.”
“Interesting, but you will have to put something else on the line,” the queen said, examining a snow globe on the mantel. “What do I get if you fail?”
“If I fail, you get the girl,” he said, though it pained him to even voice the possibility.
“I already have the girl.” The queen turned to him, smiling a terrible smile.
“Fine, then if I fail… I will become your new King of Midnight,” he said. “I’ll take over the loop. For three times my brother’s sentence.”
“You don’t even know what his sentence was,” the queen scoffed.
“Nor do I care,” he said. “Do we have a deal?”
“The King of Pain will serve as the King of Midnight for triple his brother’s sentence if he fails to bring back the kings of Darkness, Light and the Wilds by the time this sand runs out.”
The queen held up a small hourglass on a chain, the sand inside frozen in place.
“How much time is that?” Cullen asked.
“It depends which side of the veil you’re on,” the queen said. “Over here it would be months, years, even.”
“Over there?” he asked.
“Days at least,” she said with a shrug. “You know how tricky time is between realms.”
He glowered at her.
But they both knew he had no choice. He had shown his hand, quite literally, the moment he and Jessica showed up with the vines around their fingers.
Besides, it was probably already known in faerie how the King of Order had tasted madness the first time he’d lost this mortal woman. They were already calling him the King of Pain. No one knew what would happen if he lost her again.
“Fine,” he said.
The Queen of Silence extended her slender hand and he took it, feeling the bond of the bargain secure itself around his arms.
“I want my memories back,” Jessica said suddenly, her voice bright in the heavy quiet.
“Yes, she wants her memories back,” Cullen echoed, cursing himself for forgetting to add that as a condition of the deal.
“We have already made our bargain,” the queen said, feigning surprise. “It cannot be amended now.”
“Please,” Jessica whimpered.
Cullen tried to block out the frisson of pleasure he felt at the sound of her distress.
“Did you think that I took them for myself? I have no need of such things,” the queen asked, turning to Jessica. “You asked me to take them when you first arrived. In fact, you insisted on it, my dear.”
“Well, I want them back now.” Jessica’s determination against the silvery queen was impressive. Most mortals would be trembling in their impractical shoes in the face of such power.
Cullen felt a wary pride.
“Well, good news for you, sweet one,” the queen said. “They’ll come back to you in time, once you leave this place. But a warning, woman to woman - you may not be so eager to have them back.”
“Thank you,” Jessica said wisely.
“Take it,” the queen spat, throwing the hourglass to Cullen.
He snatched it out of the air before it could be dashed to pieces on the stone floor of the cottage. As soon as he touched it, the sand began to flow, slowly, but inevitably toward the end of this ill-made bargain.
“Good luck,” the Queen of Silence whispered.
Suddenly, they were standing in a plain meadow.
There was no cottage, no flower garden, no willow with a table set for one.
And it was full dark, all around. The moon shone brightly on a sea of grass between them and the distant hills.
“What happened?” Jessica asked. “Where are we?”
“None of it was real,” Cullen told her. “It was all an enchantment.”
He whistled for Nyx, who came galloping toward them.
“It was a prison,” Jessica whispered, as if she were only now realizing it.
He swung them both onto Nyx’s back and urged the stallion forward, wrapping his arms around his queen to warm her, and to comfort them both.
Her body was racked with sobs, and he was ashamed of the way his blood sang at each and every one.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured into her hair over and over. “I’ve got you now.”
7
Jessica
Jessica awoke as the big horse slowed to a trot.
She must have fallen asleep in Cullen’s arms.
It was still dark, but the fiery pink of the coming dawn silhouetted a huge castle on the ridge just ahead.
The entire structure looked to be made from boulders of darkest granite. The massive edifice loomed over them as if it were about to eat them alive.
“Where are we?” she whispered.
“This is Ravenstone, where my brothers and I grew up,” he told her. “We need to stop here to pick up a few things before we go back to your realm.”
“What things?” she asked.
“Personal effects that belong to my brothers,” he told her cryptically. “It will make it easier for me to… convince them to return.”
That sounded a little sinister.
But he had explained that his brothers where the ones who had ganged up on him and sent him back to be trapped. That explained what he was doing in this realm, and how he’d found her.
But how did I get here?
She still had no answer to that question.
Cullen dismounted and offered her his hands.
Something about the castle was deeply foreboding, but it wasn’t like she had someplace else to be.
She put her hands in his and allowed herself to be helped down.
Nyx whickered and nudged her hip with his velvet nose.
“Hi, big guy,” she murmured to him, patting his warm cheek. “You must be hungry.”
“Wow,” Cullen said. “He’s not super friendly to people.”
“Of course he is,” Jessica scolded. “Don’t listen to him,” she told Nyx. “You’re very charismatic.”
The horse nudged her chest and she scratched behind his ears.
“Your majesty?” a refined male voice floated their way from the doors of the castle.
“Fuddleman,” Cullen called back. “Excellent timing. Nyx needs attention.”
The little man hurried their way, lit by the first rays of daylight as the sun crested the ridge.
Jessica could see that he was human shaped, but barely half her height, with enormous ears and bushy eyebrows. He wore a crisp suit of livery, tailor-made for his small stature.
“Right away, sire,” Fuddleman said. “And may I ask who the lady is?”
Jessica smiled as Fuddleman gave a deep bow that put him at about shin-height.
“You may not,” Cullen replied coldly. “You may attend to the horse. We’ll need him back again shortly.”
Jessica held in a gasp at his unnecessary rudeness.
But Fuddleman only smiled.
“Come along, Master Nyx,” he said to the horse.
Nyx snorted and half reared in complaint.
But the tiny butler merely placed a comforting hand on his foreleg and then headed toward the low stone building beside the castle. “Come along, princeling,” he told the horse in a good-natured way. “I’ve got oats waiting for you, and the grooms are going to spoil you with apples when they think I’m not looking. Just you wait and see.”
For all his bluster, Nyx trotted along, ears pricked forward so that Jessica almost believed he understood what he was being told.
“Why didn’t you tell him who I was?” Jessica asked, looking after them.
“The help always gossips,” Cullen said. “I want to get us out of here quickly, without attracting too much attention.”
“Couldn’t you have told him that?” Jessica asked.
He paused and looked at her strangely for a moment.
“Yes, I suppose I could. But I doubt it would have made any difference. Goblins love a good story.”
“I guess you know them better than I do,” she said, not entirely sure she believed it.
“Come, let’s get inside and grab what we need,” Cullen said. “Before he alerts the rest of the staff.”
They headed to the double walnut doors. The entrance was tall enough that it looked more like they were entering a museum than a home.
Once inside, she had to wait for her eyes to adjust to the gloom.
The foyer had a stone floor and a walk-in fireplace. A single chandelier hung from the vaulted ceiling, casting a dim light over the space.
“Upstairs,” Cullen said.
But there was an uneven patter of steps from the hall beyond.
“Cullen?” a quavering voice called out hopefully.
He sighed and waited.
A wizened woman appeared in the foyer. She was tall and slender, like Cullen, but bent slightly. Her hair was white as snow.
“Hello, nanny,” Cullen said patiently.
She beheld him with tears in her eyes. “Oh, my sweet boy,” she said in a low, intense voice. “You’ve come home.”
She held out her scrawny arms to him.
He went to her reluctantly, allowing himself to be embraced for just a moment before pulling back.
“I thought I would never see you again,” nanny said, sniffing a little. “Your parents said you would never return.”
“My parents were wrong about a lot of things,” Cullen said darkly.
“Not your old nanny though,” she said with a mischievous smile. “I always believed in you, boy. Even when you were knee-high to a sprite and gave me nothing but trouble.”
“I have to get some things from upstairs,” he said.
Jessica gazed up at him in horror. Was he really not going to ask a single question or share a kind word with this woman who had clearly raised him?
Something tickled at the back of Jessica’s mind, a memory trying to surface.
“Of course,” Nanny said, throwing her hands up in surrender. “I’ll wait here with your bride-to-be.” She smiled warmly at Jessica. “Maybe you’ll need a nanny for your own little ones before long.”
Jessica smiled back, wondering what this sweet woman would make of the mortal world. She could hardly picture her pushing a stroller to the Tarker’s Hollow tot lot. But she was practically family to Cullen, so Jessica was sure she would do her best to fit in.
“She’s coming upstairs with me,” Cullen said. “We really don’t have time.”
“Go on then,” the old woman said kindly. “I’m glad you had a moment to say hello. Keep safe in your travels, my dark angel.”
Cullen took Jessica by the hand and half dragged her up the stone stairs.
“Why didn’t you talk with her for a minute?” Jessica asked. “She misses you. She loves you.”
“No one in this place loves anyone else,” Cullen said flatly. “Everything in faerie is transactional. You only give in order to get. You of all people should know that by now.”
Jessica recoiled, and he seemed to take notice.
“Not between us,” he amended, his voice gentler. “But everything else. We need to get back to your realm. It’s easier there.”
She couldn’t help noticing he had said easier, not better.
But they had reached a hallway and he was dashing into the first door on their left.
She followed more slowly.
Cullen searched the shelves and pulled out a small, cloth bound book with a picture of a murder of crows imprinted on its cover.
“This is Dorian’s,” he said, tucking it in his pocket.
They continued back into the hallway and then into another door.
This room faced the courtyard and was filled with fiery dawn light, which reflected in the mirrors and transom.
A tiny crystal figure of an owl hung in the window, collecting the light and spreading it into the room in a thousand tiny rainbows. Cullen snatched it down.
She waited for him to remove a string, but she realized it never had one. It must have been hung using some sort of charm or enchantment.
“Tristan’s,” he said, shoving the figurine into his pocket and heading back to the hallway.
The third room overlooked a small clearing, surrounded on three sides by trees. Furs covered the single bed and a bird feeder hung from the window.
Cullen snatched a small stuffed deer from the bedding.
“And that’s Bron,” he said, putting the toy in his cloak. “We’re done here. Let’s go.”
“What about your room?” she asked.
“What about it?” he asked. “I don’t need anything of my own.”
“I’d like to see it,” she said.
He shrugged and they headed back to the hallway, where Cullen opened a fourth door.
This one had a view over a hedge maze. The single bed was made neatly. The shelves held a few books and a small carving of a fox. There were no toys or playthings.
A model of the planets hovered over the perfectly organized desk. When Jessica looked closer, she could see that the planets were rotating so slowly it was almost imperceptible.
“Let’s go,” Cullen said from the doorway.
She took one more glance around the room.
It was hard to know him from this tidy space. It felt like an adult had lived here, not a child.
“Time is short,” he said impatiently.
“Sorry,” she said.
She kept forgetting that they were on a timeline. Maybe this was why he was being so abrupt and unkind.