Hidden Crown

by Emma L. Adams

  “That’s if she survives.” My mouth tightened. “Are you hiding any secret tricks to dealing with the Erlking’s talisman, then? Etaina knows of it, and I’m taking a wild guess that she told you before you came to the Court. She knew the Erlking before he took over Summer.”

  “She did,” he confirmed. “As for the talisman, I’ve never set eyes on it, and know little of it aside from its power.”

  “You didn’t see the Erlking’s death coming?” I asked.

  “No.” He shook his head. “I didn’t know of the Seelie Queen’s betrayal before my arrival in the Court, either. I believe Etaina did, and that’s why I was sent in to gather intelligence.”

  “I wish you’d told me earlier, so I wouldn’t have suspected you of being involved in his murder.”

  “I was vow-bound not to tell you of my mission. That vow lifted the instant my sprite brought us here.”

  I tilted my head. “So you weren’t just being cryptic for the sake of it.”

  “Maybe a little.” The merest hint of a smile touched his mouth. “You were determined to press me for answers, and I have to admit, I wanted to know what you’d try next.”

  Heat seared my neck. He’d seen through my attempts to ply him with alcohol and lessons in resisting seductive glamour.

  “You didn’t mind?” I said. “Not even when I set off your glamour and almost revealed your secret? You could have… you could have done more than you did, couldn’t you?”

  His eyes darkened. “I don’t use that skill any more than necessary.”

  “You talked your way into Summer, didn’t you?” I went on. “No wonder they don’t mind someone from another Court running around their territory. That’s why they gave you the job and why nobody asks which Court you’re from. Am I right?”

  He looked away. “My talent comes with a cost. Namely, it’s difficult for me to get close to people. If they saw through the base level of my glamour, then I’d have to choose whether to risk them finding out the truth. It’s not permanent, and it would have been inconvenient to keep using it on you. Besides, people would have noticed if you suddenly started worshipping me.”

  Another wave of heat washed over my cheeks. “Why did you decide to train the Gatekeeper, then?”

  “It was the obvious choice of position for someone who wanted to keep an eye on the Erlking’s pawn.”

  His words smacked me in the chest. “Pawn? You still think I’m just a tool with no free will of my own?”

  “When I first came to the Court, I knew no better,” he said. “It wasn’t I who trained your cousin, the Winter Gatekeeper, and I hadn’t met your family before then. My opinion was based on rumour, not fact.”

  “And now?” Dammit, Hazel, who cares what he thinks of you?

  It shouldn’t matter, and yet a significant part of me expected to die today. Was it so terrible that I wanted confirmation that there was one thing I hadn’t screwed up?

  “Now?” he said, his voice soft. “I know you’re brave, strong and loyal, and you’re the most interesting thing that’s happened in my life in a long while.”

  I snorted. “You make me sound like some kind of freak accident or natural disaster.” Despite my flippant tone, my heartbeat kicked into gear.

  Especially when he leaned closer to me, letting his mouth brush mine. “Is it not obvious why I helped you?”

  There was a sharp rap on the door, and he broke away from me. “Who is it?”

  The door opened, revealing Etaina’s tall, angular figure. “I have come for the Gatekeeper. My fellow Sidhe and I have decided that we will allow her to return to the Summer Court.”

  “Oh.” I walked to the door and opened it. “What’s the catch?”

  “You will then come here to meet with me after the threat is dealt with, and we will discuss your options.”

  “You seem confident I’m going to survive,” I said. “If I don’t, the Vale outcasts might well come here next.”

  “That’s the only reason I’m giving you this.” She handed me a round stone. “This will provide protection against the effects of the Erlking’s talisman as long as you are holding it. I will send you directly back into Summer. Darrow will stay here until his injury has healed.”

  His aquamarine eyes looked into mine. “Stay alive until then. Think of it as your last Trial.”

  The Trials didn’t matter, not anymore. It was time to follow the outcasts right into the Grey Vale and get the Erlking’s talisman out of their hands. Whatever it took.

  20

  The light cleared, leaving me on the path outside the ambassadors’ palace. Pocketing the stone, I walked to the oak doors and opened them.

  Coral gasped, then she ran over and tackle-hugged me. “Hazel!”

  “You’re okay.” I hugged her back. “What are you doing here? I thought you were back at the Gatekeeper’s training grounds.”

  “I was looking for you,” she said. “The Sidhe said your mother is on the run from jail, and they think you helped her escape.”

  “They’re dead wrong on that one.” I should have guessed they’d come to that conclusion. “Mum escaped on her own when the Vale beasts attacked the jail. Have you seen my sister?”

  Her eyes widened. “The other human is your sister? I thought you looked alike. She ran out of here with a half-Sidhe about half an hour ago.”

  “Her boyfriend,” I explained. “River. His father works for the Court, so they came here to plead on my mother’s behalf. Have I missed anything else?”

  “Chaos,” she said. “Those… sluagh monsters got to the Gatekeeper’s base, but we managed to fight them off. I think the Sidhe killed the rest, but I’m lost on where they came from in the first place. I heard someone mention the Grey Vale?”

  “Yeah.” I grimaced. “Lord Veren opened a doorway into the Vale and framed my family for it. He’s the one who stole the Erlking’s talisman, and I need to go into the Vale to find him. If anyone asks, Darrow is recovering from his injuries and hasn’t deserted his post. I might not come back here for a while.”

  Lady Aiten and Lord Raivan had both been injured, but Lord Raivan ought to be back on his feet by now. I hoped so, because I needed a Sidhe to open a doorway into the Vale for me.

  “You can’t go to the Grey Vale,” she insisted. “Didn’t you say it’s where the outcasts who attacked Earth came from? There’s worse than sluagh in that place.”

  “I’ve been there before.” I scanned the hall for any signs of the Sidhe. “I’ll see if I can ask Lord Raivan to take me there, assuming he’s awake.”

  Her jaw dropped. “You’ve been to the Vale?”

  I nodded. “It’s how I became Gatekeeper. The Erlking sent Mum on an important mission to the Vale, and the Seelie Queen didn’t like that. She took my mum hostage and tried to use our gate to summon the Sidhe’s old gods to attack the Courts. The same gods whose power is in the Erlking’s talisman. Believe me, as long as Lord Veren has it, we’re all fucked one way or another, so I might as well go down fighting. You should warn the Sea Queen to prepare for a potential attack from the Vale. I don’t think this is going to stop with Summer.”

  Her mouth gaped open. “Hazel…”

  “Coral!” Her brother entered the hall, his dark cape swirling behind him. “I heard the Court was under attack. You have to come with me.”

  I looked between them. “Who told you that?”

  Cliff turned my way. “You’re alive?”

  “I assume I am, since I’m standing here.” Something wasn’t right. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be with your Queen?”

  “I thought my sister was dead.” His eyes narrowed at me. “You’ve done enough harm. Come, Coral.”

  She flashed me an apologetic look. “Cliff, it wasn’t Hazel’s fault. She’s about to risk her neck for all our sakes.”

  He walked forwards. “What happens in the Courts is none of our concern. Come back home with me.”

  I moved between them. “Hang on a second there. Clif
f, who exactly told you the Court was attacked? And why did you abandon your Queen during a time when the Courts are under threat from an outside force?”

  His body tensed, and out of the corner of my eye, a glamour flickered under his cape.

  “What are you hiding?” I took one step closer. Then my hand snapped out, grabbing his glamour, which shattered—revealing the bow strapped to his back.

  Coral gasped. “You stole our mother’s talisman.”

  “Of course I did,” said Cliff. “The Sea Queen uses it as an ornament, not the weapon it’s designed to be. You didn’t think I’d come here unarmed, did you?”

  “You expect me to buy that bullshit?” The Erlking’s words hit me. “You don’t need to breathe underwater, do you? You’re the one who shot him.”

  “No!” Coral shook her head. “Cliff, tell me you didn’t—”

  “The Erlking planned to absorb our Court into Summer,” said Cliff. “We would have been reduced to nothing. You would never have been Queen.”

  “Oh, don’t pretend you did this for unselfish reasons,” I said. “You wanted your mother’s crown for your own, didn’t you?”

  Coral shook her head again. “My brother wouldn’t do that. He’s loyal to the throne.”

  “Unless he was offered something better than a throne.”

  Something like a prime position in whatever Court the Seelie Queen planned to set up after she escaped jail.

  Cliff’s mouth thinned. “Get out of my way. I was told to leave you unharmed, but you’re trying my patience.”

  Told by who? The Seelie Queen wanted me alive, as far as I knew, but I didn’t trust her people one single bit.

  “Nobody said the same to me.” I pulled out one of my blades. “Easy way or hard way.”

  Coral gasped as her brother hefted the bow onto his shoulder, an arrow already nocked. “No—no.”

  “I claimed its magic long ago,” said Cliff. “Our mother, in her fragile state, didn’t even notice.”

  “And were you responsible for that, too?” I queried. “I find it a little callous that you left her unprotected to join a coup in another Court.”

  Coral’s expression turned from horrified to incensed. “You caused her sickness, didn’t you? That’s why you wanted me out of the Court. You supported me going to Summer because you knew I’d figure it out right away if I stayed at home.”

  His mouth opened and closed, his hands trembling on the bow. “I did this to protect both of us, Coral, I promise.”

  She raised her fist and delivered an impressive right hook to his jaw. He staggered under the bow’s weight, and Coral hit him again. The talisman slipped in his hands as he scrambled to adjust the arrow. If he fired it by accident, either of us might die.

  I blasted him in the chest with magic. The bow’s weight combined with the momentum sent him staggering back into the wall. At once, I directed my magic at the vines growing from the floor, which wound around his ankles, ensnaring him. He swore, fighting their grip, and I plucked the talisman from his hands and pointed it at his chest.

  “The talisman will never serve you, human filth,” he spat.

  “I don’t want a talisman.” The bow was heavy as hell and awkward to carry, but it made an impressive cracking noise when it collided with Cliff’s skull. He crumpled, the vines looping around his ankles like ropes.

  Coral let out a sob. “The Sidhe will murder him for this. What was he thinking?”

  The palace’s oak doors flew open and Ilsa ran into the entrance hall. “Hazel? What the hell is going on?”

  “We found the second traitor.” I indicated Cliff’s unconscious body. “He’s the one who shot the Erlking. With this.”

  Her eyes widened at the sight of the bow. “Damn. We need to hand that over to the Sidhe… but I didn’t know you were here. You just vanished into thin air. Is Darrow with you?”

  “He says he’ll be right behind me when I go after Lord Veren into the Vale.”

  Ilsa shook her head. “You aren’t going in there alone, Hazel. Have you seen Mum?”

  “I literally just got back, so no.” Wait. Please tell me she didn’t go into the Vale. I should have guessed Mum would never be content to let the murderer go free. “We need to make sure this guy faces justice and take the bow straight to the Sidhe.”

  “He claimed it?” Ilsa guessed, eyeing Coral’s grim expression. “Okay, I’ll take that bow. Lord Raivan was behind me, but he was staggering around with his injuries still half-healed, the idiot.”

  “Are no other Sidhe in here at all?” I asked Coral.

  “No.” Her lips trembled. “Hazel, if I let you go into the Vale, I’ll be breaking my vow to bodyguard you.”

  Dammit. Bloody Sidhe and their vows. “Then guard him.” I indicated Cliff. “If you stop him from coming after me, you’ll be keeping your word. And watching the bow, too.”

  Her gaze clouded. “All right.”

  “I’ll be back, as soon as I can.” I gave her a brief hug. “Is Lord Raivan close? I need a Sidhe to open a door into the Vale for me.” Getting out would be another battle entirely, but I’d confront that one later.

  Ilsa pulled out her own talisman. “I can open a way through with this—”

  “Not a chance,” I said. “I need you to stay back here and warn the other Sidhe that Lord Veren will keep attacking the Court until he manages to break the Seelie Queen out of jail. I’m going to find Lord Raivan.”

  “What is it now, mortal?” Lord Raivan entered the hall. He was pale and unsteady on his feet, and his gaze went from Coral, to the bow, to Ilsa, and me. “I thought you abandoned us, Gatekeeper.”

  “Not quite,” I said. “I need transportation into the Grey Vale. The Erlking’s murderer is there, and I’m going to kill him.”

  “I can make one trip,” said Lord Raivan. “But I cannot guarantee your safe return.”

  “I’ll risk it.”

  Lord Raivan unsheathed his own sword, which glimmered with green light. Despite the paleness of his iron-damaged skin, his features were regal and impressive as he raised the talisman and a flash of light sent me reeling back.

  The light turned grey, eerie, and I landed on my feet on an equally grey path bathed in silver and silence. I’d reached the land of the outcasts.

  21

  More paths extended on either side of me, flanked with silvery trees, bleached of colour. A faint glow streamed through the canopy, reflecting on the fallen leaves and wreathing the trees in a strange, misty light.

  Gone were Summer’s vibrant colours and fragrances. This was the realm to which traitors were banished, stripped of their magic and left to fight over any scraps they could find.

  What the Sidhe had failed to take into account was that the same gods they’d banished from their realm had left traces of their magic here in the Vale, and when that magic had wound up in the hands of Faerie’s worst criminals, Earth had paid the price for it.

  And now the Courts might, too.

  My footsteps made no sound as I walked along the path, rounding a corner. In the Vale, the world rearranged itself depending on whether the person in control wanted to be found or not, so I could guarantee Lord Veren wouldn’t be far off—along with the Erlking’s talisman. And while I’d like nothing more than to leave it to rot here in this empty realm away from the Courts, one day, a rogue Sidhe might successfully win it over. That weapon, in the hands of the outcasts, would easily do as much damage as a second faerie invasion. Earth and the Courts alike would crumble.

  I wouldn’t allow it.

  I reached into my pocket and touched my fingertips to the cool stone Etaina had given me. If she’d intentionally given me a dud, I was royally fucked. Putting my faith in strangers ran counter to everything I’d learned about surviving in Faerie. Mum would be pissed at me.

  Speaking of Mum…

  I rounded another corner and heard shouting up ahead. A human figure circled a giant beast—another ogre, by the looks of things—and wielded a sharp i
ron blade in her hands.

  I ran to meet her. “Mum, what the hell are you doing?”

  Her blade sank into the ogre’s padded chest. She might be vulnerable without her magic, but she was still holding her own. Not surprising, since unlike me, she hadn’t had her iron weapons taken away. The blade withdrew with a sharp noise, and blood fountained onto the grey-silver path. The beast collapsed into a bloody heap at Mum’s feet. “Hazel, you shouldn’t be here.”

  “You brought iron,” I said. “Wish I could say the same.”

  “Here.” She handed me her blade, then drew a second one from her belt. “It’ll be more useful than your magic in this place.”

  I didn’t doubt that. “Where is the Erlking’s talisman, do you know?”

  “Close,” she said. “It was Lord Veren who betrayed the Court.”

  “I know,” I said. “Ilsa figured it out. She saw he had no soul—or a damaged one. I think that talisman is slowly killing him, if it hasn’t already. You can’t go near the talisman, Mum.”

  Why had she come here? She knew there was no way out if you didn’t have faerie magic. Then again, so did I. If we both died here, Ilsa would use necromancy to find us in the afterlife to give us a tongue-lashing, I just knew it.

  “I could say the same to you.” Mum shook her head. “Hazel, I know this realm.”

  “And I have this.” I removed the stone from my pocket. “It will protect me from the talisman’s magic.”

  Her breath hissed out. “Where did you get that?”

  “The Aes Sidhe. I’ll tell you later.” I turned on the spot, my skin prickling. “I think we’re being watched.”

  Cold fingers trailed down my spine, and a cloud of darkness coalesced above the silvery path. Outlined in stark blue magic, it formed a vaguely humanoid shape.

  A wraith. The ghost of a Winter Sidhe, if its blue glow was any indication. When a Sidhe died in the Vale, they had no afterlife to move on to, so many of them remained trapped in the form of concentrated magic and rage, equipped with all the powers they’d had when they’d been alive. Unlike the sluagh, it held no physical form, so stabbing it wouldn’t be effective in the slightest.