“Scoot along now, child,” her companion replied, moving his hand in a shooing motion. “We’ve no pennies to spare today. Go do your begging elsewhere.”
Tiki moved on, scanning faces for someone who reminded her of Larkin. But she couldn’t see anyone out of the ordinary. Most of the people she passed in the park avoided her eyes, fearful that she would beg for coin or bread. She continued walking and searching, checking shadows under trees, until her legs were shaking.
Exhausted, Tiki sank onto a bench. Had Rieker been wrong? Maybe he’d just said he could contact Larkin here at the Ring to make her feel better. Her mind drifted to thoughts of Rieker, of Wills, his chiseled features so clear in her mind. How easily he had joked with Prince Leo and Prince Arthur. How comfortable he had seemed in their presence. And why wouldn’t he be? He’d known them since he was a child.
Images of those opulent rooms, the rich fabric of their clothing, the easy way they discussed the horses and houses they owned, skipped through her mind. A pressure in her chest built and twisted until the truth hit her with a sinking realization.
She was jealous.
Jealous that the princes and Rieker had a home, a family, someone who cared for them and took care of them. That was the reason she had gotten so mad at Rieker in the carriage.
She wanted what he had.
The discovery was unsettling, and Tiki pushed away from the bench, feeling the need to move again. To move away from these feelings that were making her uncomfortable.
But she did have a family, she told herself. Just a different kind of family. And she needed to focus on the reason she was here. To find Clara.
Tiki pulled a biscuit from her pocket and picked nervously at the edges of the hard bread. She was hungry, but the bread tasted like sawdust in her mouth. Her stomach was jumping with nerves. Part of her just wanted to shout Larkin’s name at the top of her lungs over and over.
Instead, she continued along the path, her eyes searching the shadows beginning to form under the trees as twilight settled. Should she just start asking everyone in the park? Was there a certain spot she should find? After another thirty minutes with no success, she spied a stone bench tucked away by itself under a hawthorn tree and dropped down to rest and think.
“I ’eard ye’re lookin’ for me.”
Tiki jumped to her feet. Larkin’s hair was wild and tangled together like a tuft of yellow grass, much different from the perfectly coiffed ringlets of the girl she’d seen in Charing Cross. There was something untamed about her beauty now, as though the forces of nature had collaborated to create her perfect features. But her blue green eyes reminded Tiki of the bottles containing poison in Mr. Lloyd’s shop.
“Wills’ been talkin’, has he?”
“L-Larkin?” Tiki stuttered. “He thought you might know something about … about a little girl named Clara who went missing from the Great Ormond Street Hospital.”
She inhaled, and the tantalizing aroma of dried summer grass mixed with the scent of earth baked hard in the heat of the sun filled her head. The smell reminded Tiki of her childhood and made her ache with longing.
“Did Wills send you?”
Tiki eyed the girl next to her. Larkin was without a coat and dressed in short sleeves as though it were summer, seemingly unaffected by the chill December air. She was a little taller than Tiki and looked several years older, but her skin was the color of fresh cream and her hair shone like a shaft of golden sunlight. She was as beautiful as any person Tiki had ever seen.
“Rieker didn’t know I was coming,” Tiki said.
“Ooch, ain’t you the brave one,” Larkin snickered. She moved with a fluid grace, as though her feet barely had to touch the ground to support her.
Tiki ignored her comment. “Do you know where Clara is?”
“Maybes I do and maybes I don’t.” Larkin danced a little jig next to Tiki, her long green skirts flaring with her movement, revealing her bare feet. The other girl put her face close to Tiki’s, her expression suddenly serious. “Have you got the ring?”
Tiki leaned away and fought the anger that welled in her throat. “Is Clara all right?”
Larkin shrugged and danced away in front of Tiki to twirl in a full circle, her skirt dancing with her. “She’s alive.” For a split second, Tiki could have sworn she saw wings on the back of the girl; then the fleeting impression was gone.
“Where is she?”
“I can’t tell you that,” Larkin replied.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s a secret.” The blond girl looked over at Tiki and gave her an innocent smile that did little to hide the malice behind it.
“What do you want?” Tiki asked in frustration. She wanted to shake the other girl. “Give her back to me. She’s sick, and someone needs to take care of her.”
“And I already told you, guttersnipe”—the words came out as sharp as a dagger—“I want the ring.” Larkin’s eyes were ice cold and hard as stone. Tiki sensed the very real threat.
“Why do you think I can give you the ring?” Tiki held her hands out in supplication. “What if I don’t have it?”
Larkin twirled away from her again, humming a soft tune, her wild mass of hair flying behind her, her bare arms held out to the side. She danced like a child at a summer picnic. The way Clara might, if she were well.
The blond girl stopped twirling abruptly, her skirts swinging one way and then back the other around her ankles, her eyes locked on Tiki. She snarled then, looking almost feral, her lips curled back from sharp white teeth. “Then you better find it.” In a heartbeat, Larkin’s face was mere inches from Tiki’s. “And tell my Wills I’m getting tired of waiting.” Something in her eyes, an emotion Tiki couldn’t name, smoldered. “Maybe he can help you get the ring.”
“Your Wills?” Tiki repeated.
“Bring me the ring.” Larkin twirled away and came to a stop. Her strange eyes were fixed on Tiki. “And I’ll bring you the brat.” Her flawless face was so beautiful that Tiki didn’t want to look away.
Tiki gritted her teeth. “Fine. Then where shall I meet you?”
“Bring the ring here.” Larkin’s lips curled in warning. “Meet me at twilight tomorrow. And there’s one last thing.” Tiki stepped back from the threatening gleam in Larkin’s eyes. “Don’t ever forget that Wills is mine.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
WILLS is mine. Larkin’s possessive words echoed in Tiki’s ears as she sat on a bench in Charing Cross the next morning. The dangerous girl who danced outside in December in bare feet was never far from her thoughts.
Tiki’s restless nerves had pushed her out of their room early. She needed to do something. To keep trying to find a way to negotiate with Larkin for Clara’s release. But there seemed to be only one answer. Trade the queen’s ring for Clara.
Now, the same question kept drumming through her head: How was she going to find a way back into the palace to get the ring? Rieker’s connection to Prince Leopold seemed like the only plausible way for her to get into the narrow alcove where the ring was hidden. Despite her mixed feelings, she needed him right now.
As if conjured from her thoughts, a low voice spoke in her ear.
“We need to talk.”
* * *
TIKI eyed the sky overhead, shivering with cold. The flat gray clouds were weighted with snow. By the cool bite of the air, there could be lots of it. She and Rieker were alone on the path along the lake in St. James’s Park, the weather too harsh for most people to wander outside. Rieker had been silent as they left the railway station, and Tiki debated which questions to ask him first.
“Tell me about Larkin,” she finally said. She glanced up at him. “Tell me the truth.” His dark hair hung long below his collar, and he seemed more distant than usual, walking with his shoulders hunched inside his coat. “How long have you known her?”
Rieker looked down at her, his smoky eyes a strange reflection of the sky. His defined cheekbones and strong jaw made Tik
i realize that neatly groomed Wills and wild, unpredictable Rieker had blended into one person in her mind. When she looked at him now, she only saw his handsome face. She understood why Larkin was in love with him.
He took a deep breath, as though gathering courage. “I have to start before Larkin.” His words were low and heavy, as if they were stones and it took an effort to force each one out of his mouth.
Tiki frowned, confused.
“Our fight the other day forced me to think about things I’ve tried to avoid for a long time.” There was something dark in his tone that made Tiki nervous, unsure of what was coming. “I shouldn’t have stormed out of the carriage like I did, but your words made me angry,” Rieker said. “It took a lot of walking and thinking before I realized that you couldn’t possibly know what an impact they would have on me.”
“Why is that?” Tiki asked in a small, guilty voice.
Rieker looked sideways at her, his eyes almost raw in their honesty. “Because you don’t know the truth.”
Tiki’s heart skipped a beat. “The truth about what?”
He slid his hands into his pockets and stared at the frozen ground as they walked. “My family was murdered,” he said. “I have lived alone now, for over two years.” His voice faltered and he lifted his gaze to the distance as he cleared his throat. “At first, I struggled just to find a reason to stay alive. Then I found a family of sorts, on the streets of London. Found a purpose again.” He turned to look at her with a strange intensity that seemed to envelop her, as if he had wrapped his arms around her. “And then.…” He paused. “I found you.”
Tiki’s heart skipped with an unfamiliar rhythm.
“The first time I saw you, you were picking pockets in Charing Cross. I had heard about you. The boy with hands so quick you’d never been caught.” He nodded at her surprised expression. “You have quite a name among pickpockets. I was curious, so I started watching you.”
Tiki swallowed hard. “You were watching me?”
“Well, following you, really,” Rieker admitted with a wry grin. “It was quite a shock when the bobby ripped your coat off in King’s Cross that day and I realized that the boy with the quick hands was really a girl.” He chuckled under his breath. “That was a surprise.”
He hunched his shoulders again. “The more I watched, the more curious I became. You weren’t what you appeared to be at all.” They walked in silence for a minute. “You’ve made me look at myself in ways I’ve not done in years, and I’ve come to realize that I need to rethink my own life.”
Tiki didn’t know what to say. Rieker admitted that he’d been following her. This was not what she’d expected from him. “I don’t know what you mean,” she said quietly.
“You’re not just a pickpocket with fast hands.” Rieker’s eyes locked on hers. “I found a girl caring for other orphans like a mother. A girl who’d befriended an old bookshop keeper who had lost his only daughter. A girl who can read and is helping others learn to read.” His voice softened. “And a girl so beautiful at times, you take my breath away.”
Tiki averted her eyes and hoped the dim light would shadow the blush creeping up her cheeks. “Is that why you were at the World’s End that night?”
Rieker nodded. “But I wasn’t the only one. Marcus was there, too.” His face darkened at the memory. “I’m not sure if it was when you tried to pick MacGregor’s pocket just to prove me wrong or after Marcus attacked you that I realized I had more than a passing interest in you.” He looked away as though suddenly embarrassed by his revelation.
Rieker had an interest in her?
“And now,” he continued, “I realize that I can’t go on as I have. Not trusting. Not caring. It’s time for me to regain my life and deal with the past.” He stopped and turned to face her, his eyes dark and fathomless. “I need to be honest with you and tell you the whole truth.”
Unsure of what to expect, Tiki waited, her heart drumming inside her chest as though it were a hollow kettle.
“It’s taken me a long time to figure it out, but I’ve finally realized that things started going wrong when Larkin came into my life several years ago.” Rieker put his head down and began walking again. “As you now know, I grew up in a moneyed family. We had a big house. My father owned land, and we were friends with those in power.” He gave a little shrug of his shoulders. “I took it for granted. I knew no other way of life.”
He took a deep breath and raised his gaze to the distance again. “I had two younger brothers.” He paused and the muscles in his jaw clenched as he fought for control. “Thomas and James.”
Somehow Tiki knew that he had never spoken of this with anyone before. Without thinking, she slipped her hand up under his elbow and gave his arm a squeeze, leaving her hand to rest there. She could feel him press his arm close to his side to hold her hand in place, and they walked on in silence.
After a few moments, Rieker cleared his throat and started again. “Two years ago, my entire family drowned as we crossed the Channel on our way to Paris for the Christmas holidays.” He didn’t falter, yet there was a brittleness about his words, as though they might shatter and break like a dropped piece of glass. “I’ve been running away from that moment ever since.”
“I’m so sorry,” Tiki whispered. A sadness pressed down on her chest. She had been wrong to think Rieker had so much more than she.
“Save your sympathy. I’ve found rather than helping, sympathy complicates things. Picking one’s self up and plodding through the next day is the only cure that seems to work for me.” He gave her a bitter smile. “Besides, I’m sure you’ve seen your share of sorrow.”
An image of her mother and father, always so close yet so far away, flashed before Tiki’s eyes. Rieker was right. It hurt to remember the life she’d had before.
“After the … a-accident”—Rieker stumbled over the word—“I couldn’t stay at home. Everywhere I looked, there were memories of my family. Especially my younger brothers. They were all around me, yet I was alone. So unbearably alone.” He threw back his head and took a deep breath, exhaling a cloud of white smoke before he plunged ahead.
“I wasn’t really old enough to take over running the estate. My father had employees who did that. There was no place I was needed. I was lost. I couldn’t stay home, but I had nowhere to go. Then one day I was in London and a filthy little boy tried to pick my pocket.”
Rieker’s lips curved at the memory. “My first thought was that it was my brother Jimmy. It was a game we played often as children. I turned, expecting to see his grinning face, and instead found this scrawny, dirty, frightened boy dressed in rags staring at me.” Rieker shrugged. “He ran, I followed and found a new life.”
Tiki was afraid to interrupt for fear he would stop talking. It was hard to imagine Rieker, so tough and resilient, ever being frightened or feeling lonely.
“At first, I came and went. It was a game. Something that took me away from the pain of being home. But then I began to see the need of these children. Some of them were literally starving to death. So I came home less and less, sleeping where these children did—in railway stations, in back alleys, abandoned buildings, under bridges. Helping them find food in a way that wouldn’t have them end up in jail. Sometimes I just bought the food and told them I had stolen it.”
Tiki nodded, pretending not to be surprised at his generosity. She was only too aware of her own constant struggle to find enough food for herself and her family of orphans.
“That’s when I met Kieran,” Rieker continued. “I thought at first that I had found him, but later I realized that he had carefully placed himself in my path to make me think that.”
Tiki stumbled over a tree root in the path and clutched Rieker’s sleeve. “Who is Kieran?”
“An old man. He’d been injured in a fight of some sort, and his wounds hadn’t healed. I suspect now that he knew he was dying. He was living on the streets and barely able to survive. I felt sorry for him, so I helped him.” Rieker pa
used. He gazed out across the park, lost in memories. “I think he came to warn me.”
“Warn you of what?”
“Of Donegal and his dark court. Of Larkin. Of the past.” Rieker’s voice was bitter. “Of the future.”
Tiki’s pulse quickened. “What are you talking about?”
“There’s a battle for control that wages within the world of the fey. Between the Seelie court and those that fell from grace and formed the UnSeelie court.” His voice was low and dark. “Eridanus was a formidable king of the Seelie court, but when Eridanus was murdered, the battle intensified.”
“Did you know about this war before your family…” Tiki’s words died in her throat.
“No.” Rieker shook his head. “Though in retrospect, I’d say my father knew. Some of the things he said, some of the things he did. I see now they were to protect us. But I had no idea until Kieran started explaining it to me. A lot of what he told me didn’t make sense at the time, but now”—he looked down at her—“now, more of it is tying together.”
Tiki pictured Larkin dancing in bare feet in the chill of December. Imagined the wild swing of emotions across the beautiful girl’s face last night. “So how does Larkin fit into all of this?”
Rieker took a deep breath. “Larkin was responsible for the deaths of my family.”
Chapter Thirty
THE words dropped like stones into a still pond, a wave of emotion moving like ripples across the surface of Rieker’s face.
Tiki jerked to a stop. “What did you say?”
Rieker’s eyes were as dead and black as a piece of coal. “Larkin is part of the UnSeelie court. The dark court. That’s one of the things that Kieran was trying to tell me. Trying to warn me about. But they murdered him, too.”
A wave of dread washed over Tiki as she imagined little Clara in the grasp of the beautiful girl. “But why do you suspect Larkin? I thought you said your family drowned.”
The Faerie Ring Page 20