Finding a gap leading into the maze, I ducked between the hedges. At once, magic blasted into me, sending me sprawling onto my back. The world spun like a merry-go-round, and the shadowy magic in my hands threatened to pull the threads of the illusion undone.
“Don’t you even think about it,” I growled. “I don’t like this either, but it’s my job, and that makes it your job, too.”
I walked around the maze’s edge, gripping the staff with both hands to restrain its shadows. An angry shout from the stands behind me told me that the Sidhe had noticed my intrusion and weren’t pleased about it. Tough shit. I was here to get rid of that wraith and I was damned if I let it get away with wrecking the trial.
Finding an undisturbed stretch of maze close to the wraith’s location, I pressed my hand to the hedge and sent in a jolt of Summer magic. The hedge didn’t budge, but it didn’t shove me out, either. I tapped into the Gatekeeper’s mark and fed more power into the hedge. “I am the Summer Gatekeeper, and I am here to ensure the task proceeds as planned. I’m not here to attack anyone. Let me in.”
The hedge began to unfold, a window-sized gap growing beneath my touch. I pushed, making the hole bigger, and climbed through. Branches scraped at my arms and tangled in my hair, but the maze’s magic didn’t react to me this time. I’d have to avoid using any more magic on the hedges if I didn’t want them to attack me, but the hard part was done. I hope.
Around the corner, I found a Sidhe trapped in the freezing spell, his body locked in position though someone had hit a pause switch on a remote control. Around him, threads of magic swirled from the hedge, tendrils waiting to ensnare anyone who got too close. This must be what the maze looked like to the Sidhe. But there was no sign of the wraith, and the path came to a dead end surrounded by hedges.
I turned back the way I’d come, but the path had vanished. Of course the bloody paths move. This is Faerie, it goes with the territory. The wraith had been on my left, so I took the nearest turn, dodging threads of hedge-magic.
Soft footfalls came from ahead of me, and a Sidhe glided around the corner, his angular face furrowed in concentration. He held no key—but he did have a weapon, a gleaming dagger which shone with the light of a talisman.
“Hey, there,” I said. “Don’t let me interrupt your test. I’m just here to deal with a little security issue.”
His gaze went to the staff in my hands. “You’re the human who stole the Erlking’s talisman.”
My grip tightened on the staff. “Don’t you have a task to be getting on with?”
“That,” said the Sidhe, “is mine.”
In a blur of movement, he was in front of me, and he reached out to grab the staff. Shadows lashed at him, cloaking him from head to toe. He had no time to draw breath to scream before the magic ate through his bones, leaving nothing behind but a fine scattering of ashes.
A hushed silence fell. Only then did I remember that the entire audience would be watching me from above. They’d have seen me use the Erlking’s talisman to kill another Sidhe and control its magic as though I were the king himself.
Dammit. Nothing to do but march on through the maze. Where was that damned wraith? I’d rather not have to leave a trail of bodies behind me before I found it, if just because there’d be nobody left to take the Erlking’s throne if the talisman’s magic disintegrated all of them.
A frosty breeze wafted overhead, bringing the chill of the grave. There it is. The wraith must be Unseelie, which at least made it easier to track. I quickened my pace, stepping left and right to dodge the threads of maze-magic beneath my feet. My talisman itched to devour them, but I’d sworn not to disrupt the task, so I held the staff high to avoid tempting fate.
Around a corner, the wraith hovered above the bodies of three frozen Sidhe—now frozen in a literal sense as the wraith’s icy magic formed a rippling blue wall around their bodies. Ice slid over their faces and sealed their mouths shut. If I didn’t kill that wraith, they’d suffocate where they stood.
“Hey, dickhead.” I raised the staff. “Catch.”
I threw a handful of shadows at the wraith, which dodged by way of throwing itself on top of the frozen Sidhe. At the last second, I ordered the shadows to move sideways, narrowly missing the captive Sidhe, and a jet of icy magic slammed into my shield, ricocheting off into the hedge. I backed up, cursing. The wraith was using the other Sidhe as a shield, knowing I wouldn’t use the talisman against them. How the hell was I supposed to draw it out without harming the competitors in the process?
A blast of green-blue magic flew over my shoulder, and the ice melted, freeing the Sidhe from its grasp. The wraith rose into the air in a blanket of shadows, dark tendrils reaching for the new arrival.
“Stop right there,” commanded a voice, and a tall, lean warrior ran to my side, his aquamarine eyes gleaming with magic.
Darrow.
4
Another blast of green-blue light ignited the air, sending the wraith flying backwards over the hedges. I darted over to the group of frozen Sidhe, gingerly pressing my talisman to the remaining ice encasing them. Shadows ate through the ice, releasing the Sidhe from its grasp.
Darrow stepped to my side. “Are they supposed to be frozen like that?”
“Frozen in every sense apart from the ice, yes,” I said. “Did you mean to put yourself forward as a contender for the Erlking’s throne?”
“Only if you did.”
“I was chasing a wraith.” I peered over the hedge, trying to see a way through to reach it. “I need to kill it before it disrupts the trial. What on earth are you doing in here? Who let you in?”
“Nobody.”
Meaning, he glamoured his way in. “Good. Let’s get this undead pest out of the maze. Also, try not to damage anything or anyone. This is a contest to determine the next ruler of Summer.”
“So I hear.” He walked down the nearest path on our right. “The wraith went this way, I think.”
“Nice aim, by the way.” I trod after him. “I’d have done the same if my magic wasn’t quite as destructive. I’m surprised the maze even let me in.”
A thread of magic lashed at him from the hedge, and he darted aside with effortless grace. How did he get in here? He couldn’t have glamoured the entire audience, surely. Sneaky bastard.
“This labyrinth is a creation of magic,” he said. “Perhaps it let us in because it sensed we were no threat to the results of the challenge.”
How had he even known the trials were happening today? It felt like an age since we’d last seen one another, though it’d been less than a day. If word of the trials had reached the Aes Sidhe already, wraiths were the least of the problems we’d face.
Pursuing the chill of the wraith’s magic, I followed the paths through the hedges until we came to a halt at the exit. The wraith hovered above the doors, preventing anyone from getting out.
“Hey, dickhead.” I hefted the staff. “Fancy a duel?”
Magic blasted from the wraith’s hands, aimed at Darrow. It knows not to hit me. It’d been sent here with instructions, which meant this was without a doubt the Seelie Queen’s handiwork.
I threw myself in the way and the attack slammed into my shield, ricocheting away into the hedges. An exclamation of pain came from somewhere behind, and two Sidhe ran into view. Or rather, one carried the other on his shoulders, his companion’s frozen hand still grasping the key.
At the sight of the wraith, the first Sidhe drew his blade, sending a wave of Summer magic rippling from the sword to the wraith. The transparent creature reeled back, then flew behind the Sidhe himself. Forced to divert his attack at the last second, Darrow sent green-and-blue magic crashing into the hedge.
At once, the hedges moved, threads of magic sweeping across the ground like vines.
“Shit, you pissed off the maze.” I backed up, restraining the staff from lashing out in retaliation. Shadows crept up and around my legs, prompting the Sidhe to back away from me. The frozen Sidhe wasn’t so
lucky. The hedge’s tendrils lashed out, dragging him into its leafy embrace.
In a flash of blue light, the wraith appeared in front of the doors once again.
“You asked for it.” I held the staff over my shoulder. “Everyone stand back.”
I ran directly at the doors, crashing through them and skidding out of the palace onto the lawn. Catching my balance, I whirled around and sent a wave of shadows at the wraith. Unable to hide in the brightness of the garden, it fell beneath my talisman’s lethal touch, evaporating into mist. The staff’s shadows sucked greedily at the pristine grass and bright flowerbeds, but I gave it a firm shake and the oozing darkness returned to the staff.
Darrow exited the palace behind me. “Is it gone?”
“Yep” I turned to him, my head spinning a little to see the vast arena contained within the palace while the back garden looked the same as ever. “Shit. I never did find the doorway it came from.”
Darrow stiffened as the doors opened again, but it was only the contestants. Two Sidhe halted in the doorway, facing the lawn warily as though unsure if another invisible wraith waited to ambush them.
“I killed the wraith,” I called to them. “It’s safe.”
The contenders left the maze in twos and threes. When they passed the threshold, the frozen Sidhe holding the keys returned to normal. Both the female Sidhe with the scaled armour and the male with the outfit decorated with crow feathers had made it out. A pale guy with a spiked hat and bark-like hair gave me a derisive look as he saw me assessing the surviving competitors.
When a large number of Sidhe filled the lawn, a ringing noise echoed from inside the palace, followed by a torrent of magic and noise which suggested the arena was returning to its former state. As the rumbling noise ground to a halt, a blast of magic shone from behind the palace doors, raising the hair on my arms and rippling across the lawns.
Time was up. The task was over, and half the competitors eliminated.
“Come back in,” Lady Aiten’s resonant voice called. “Your audience awaits.”
I gave Darrow a grim nod. “Time to find that doorway.”
The doors opened to reveal the entrance hall of the palace back to its former state, filled with carved statues, hanging tapestries, and a stage flanked by midnight-blue curtains. Lady Aiten stood on the stage with the Erlking’s sprite hovering over her shoulder, while the crowd drew back to clear a wide space in the centre of the room for the winners to assemble. No signs of any opening to the Vale remained in sight. They must have closed it. With the maze gone, spotting the source of the intrusion would have been a simple task.
As we entered, the crowd exploded with cheers. I knew they were cheering the Sidhe and not Darrow and me, but I couldn’t resist taking his hand and dragging it into a wave. He frowned sideways at me. “What are you doing?”
“It’s the closest we’ll get to being congratulated for our trouble,” I murmured to him. “Now that’s done, I really would like to know how on earth you managed to gate-crash the Erlking’s trials. How did you even get here?”
“I walked.”
“Ha.” His rare humour always disarmed me because his deadpan tone carried not a hint of irony. Something soft brushed my cheek, and I tilted my head back to see ruby red and bright gold petals raining down from the ceiling like confetti. Ducking around a large statue of a satyr in a suggestive pose, I found a clear spot near a tapestry to speak to him in peace. “Go on, tell me.”
“There are a fair few questions I’d like to ask you, too,” he said, “but your sprite is trying to get your attention.”
“He’s not mine. He’s the Erlking’s.”
His brows lifted. “He lived?”
“He escaped Lord Daival unharmed,” I explained. “Turns out the Erlking had a whole plan figured out to put the potential heirs through trials in order to pick the worthiest to rule. Apparently, the Seelie Queen took offence at being left off the guest list.”
“I thought so,” he said. “I heard the news of the trials, but only when I entered Faerie.”
“So you did go back to Etaina first.”
The leader of the Aes Sidhe had an iron grip on her subjects, and while Darrow had implied that he planned to walk away, everything he’d ever known lay within Etaina’s domain. Like any faerie, she’d offer you everything you wanted most in the world, and only reveal the price when you were already in too deep to go back. And what she desired above all else was to wield the Erlking’s talisman.
He drew in a breath. “Etaina is angry. She knows you claimed the talisman. I was unable to avoid telling her. For a while, I feared she’d come after you, but this morning, wraiths attacked our Court in a large number. There were causalities.”
“You mean to say the Seelie Queen knows how to get into your kingdom?” The Courts might believe the Aes Sidhe were extinct, but the Seelie Queen had witnessed Darrow use their deadly glamour against her when she’d set an army of the dead upon us. I should have guessed she wouldn’t hesitate to strike. The Seelie Queen was also Etaina’s sister, but I didn’t know if Darrow was aware of that fact.
“She knew of our survival after she saw me in the Vale,” he said. “It was inevitable that she’d figure out how to track us down. Etaina was enraged. At once, she ordered her soldiers to eliminate the Seelie Queen. She sent me here—”
“To kill her?” Her own sister? With the Sidhe, nothing should surprise me, but it was more noteworthy that Etaina hadn’t come in person. She’d struck me as the type who’d want the Seelie Queen’s death to be personal.
“Yes,” he said. “I searched for her in the Vale, but the moment I heard of this event, I knew what I’d find.”
“Me, causing trouble again.” I didn’t quite manage a smile. It was just my luck that he’d come back into my life because of Etaina and her never-ending quest for domination. Not that his company wasn’t welcome all the same. The upside was that we had the same goal this time, albeit from two vastly different places. If Etaina found out Darrow secretly supported my wielding the talisman, we’d both be royally screwed—yet my heart lifted at the knowledge that for a while, I was safe from Etaina using him to steal the talisman back for her.
“You, putting your training to use,” he answered. “I thought I’d have to use glamour on the guards to get in, but luckily, your friend Coral trusted I hadn’t come here to harm anyone. Given the events in the Court, it’s not unrealistic to expect her to show her face here.”
“Maybe not, but Etaina knows the Seelie Queen has a super-charged healing power, doesn’t she? Even my talisman can’t kill her. I suppose you could glamour her into walking off a cliff, but I bet she has other tricks up her sleeve.”
“I know,” he said, “but Etaina is confident I can overcome her.”
No doubt he held one of the stones that countered the talisman’s magic, so we’d be at a stalemate if we ever faced off, but the idea of Etaina sending him to eliminate me next made a cold fist clench around my heart. Nobody could fight a faerie vow. Not even Darrow.
“Did you know Etaina is her sister?” I asked. “The Seelie Queen’s, I mean?”
Shock blanked his face. “No, but it explains why she reacted so harshly to the attack. How do you know?”
“The Erlking’s family tree,” I said. “Etaina is there under the name Lady of Light, so it took me a while to figure out it was her. I don’t know anyone else who goes by that title.”
Darrow’s mouth pinched, and he glanced at my talisman. “Once I’ve taken care of the Seelie Queen, I won’t be able to stop Etaina from coming after you, Hazel. She wants that talisman.”
“Next you’ll tell me she also wants the Erlking’s throne,” I said. “Wait, she doesn’t, does she?”
One power-crazy queen interfering in the trials was bad enough on its own, thanks. Though with them being siblings, who knew?
“If she does, she hasn’t mentioned it,” he said. “The talisman is her priority, as it always has been.”
&nb
sp; “But she sent you to take down the Seelie Queen first,” I said. “If that’s the case, you can claim her super-charged healing powers made it impossible to accomplish your goal, and stall for time. Once there’s a proper monarch on Summer’s throne again, they’ll be more than a match for her. We only need to last until the end of the trials.”
“I can try,” he said, “but that won’t stop her from coming after you, and I might not be able to defend you.”
You mean, might not be allowed to defend me.
I gave myself a mental slap. Had I really expected any different? I should have seen it coming from the moment I’d learned we were from Courts with opposing goals. Everyone knew not to trust any faerie at all, for that matter, and I knew it better than most.
But I’d never fallen in love with one of them before.
“Gatekeeper,” said Swift, flitting out from behind the satyr statue. “I am sorry to disturb you, but Lady Aiten wishes to speak to you.”
I sighed inwardly. “Guess I’d better go and see what she wants.”
Darrow remained beside the statue, a preoccupied expression on his face, while I followed the sprite back to my stony-faced supervisor. Lady Aiten stood beside the stage, one hand resting on the blade sheathed at her waist.
“We found and closed the opening to the Vale,” said Lady Aiten. “It lay in the centre of the maze.”
“So they really did open the doorway in the middle of the task,” I said. “Someone made a deal with the Seelie Queen. Before or after being chosen as a contender.”
“Precisely,” she said. “There is a traitor among the contenders for the throne.”
Shit. Maybe electing a new leader won’t be the end of it after all.
“But did they make it out?” I said. “Half the Sidhe were eliminated, but the other half made it to the end. There’s no way to tell if the person responsible is still in the running or not.”
“It seems more likely than I’d prefer,” she said. “However, none of the Sidhe who made it to the end of the challenge have been seen to behave in a suspicious manner.”
The Gatekeeper's Trials: The Complete Trilogy Page 47