by Jenna Black
Ethan slowed down as we crashed through the underbrush, and because he had his arm around me, I was forced to slow down, too. Keane and Kimber both kept going full speed for a moment, then stopped and looked back at us with wide eyes.
“What are you doing?” Keane cried. “We’ve got to haul ass.”
Ethan shook his head. “You can bet they have a tracker who can follow the trail we’re leaving.” He pointed at a couple of bushes we’d just plowed through. It was dark out here under the trees, although the moon was bright and close to full. I had to be practically on top of the bush to see what Ethan was pointing at, but then I saw a couple of broken branches. If I could see our trail, then someone with superior tracking skills would have no trouble picking it up.
“Shite,” Keane muttered, and I couldn’t have agreed more.
“Well, we can’t just stand here!” Kimber said, and she was right, too.
Ethan’s brow furrowed. “I can create an illusion to hide our trail if we move slowly enough.”
“And by the time we’ve gotten a hundred yards, they’ll be on top of us,” Keane argued. “Trail or no trail, we’ve got to move.”
“No point in moving if they’re just going to catch up with us immediately,” Ethan countered. “We need to hide. They’re going to assume we’re running like hell for the Avalon border, just like Seamus told us to. If we can hide ourselves, we can let the pursuit go straight past us. Once they’re gone, then we can get moving again.”
“So you want us to just sit here and cower,” Keane growled, and there was that curl of his lip again.
I knew the boys were going to keep arguing if I didn’t intervene, and we didn’t have time for it.
“If you can hide us, do,” I said to Ethan, then turned to Keane. “We’re not cowering. We’re trying to be smart about this, and Ethan’s right. Leaving a trail anyone and their brother can follow is going to get us caught real fast.”
Keane didn’t like it one bit, and I thought he was going to waste more time arguing with me. But I guess it was easier for him to concede the argument to me than to Ethan, because he nodded tightly.
“This had better work,” he warned Ethan, giving him a narrow-eyed stare that would have been more intimidating if we weren’t running for our lives. If this didn’t work, Keane was going to be the least of Ethan’s worries.
“It will,” Ethan said, though I wondered if that was confidence, or arrogance. “I’ll run back to the road and do what I can to hide the evidence of where we veered off.” He looked back and forth between the three of us. “If I get caught, I’ll holler.” His eyes landed on Keane. “If that happens, it’ll be up to you to protect the girls.”
Kimber punched Ethan in the shoulder. “We’re not helpless damsels in distress. We don’t need protecting.”
Even in the darkness, I could see Ethan rolling his eyes. “Fine, you two protect Keane. Just don’t try to play hero if I get caught.”
“Don’t worry,” Keane muttered, “we won’t.”
Ethan pretended not to hear him, slipping away from us and heading back toward the road. Leaving the three of us alone and strung out on adrenaline in the darkness of the forest.
At first, I could hear the rustle of Ethan’s footsteps as he moved away. Then there was nothing but the sound of crickets and the occasional hoot of an owl.
My heart was still thudding in my throat, and I still felt like my lungs were coated with soot. I didn’t dare cough, not when the road was so close by, but the very fact that I didn’t dare cough made the urge even stronger.
Keane had taken a couple steps toward the bushes through which Ethan had disappeared, putting himself between Kimber and me and the road. He probably thought he was being subtle, but you could bet that if Ethan shouted an alarm, Keane would stand there to cover our retreat while ordering Kimber and me to run. What he could do to protect us when he was apparently unarmed, I didn’t know.
And that was when I remembered the gun my father had given me before we’d set out. Like every other mortal artifact I’d brought with me, it was in my backpack. I wasn’t sure I could shoot anyone, even in self-defense, and I doubted killing our pursuers would make my situation any better, but at least I didn’t have to feel completely helpless.
Moving as quietly as possible, I slid the backpack off my shoulders and lowered it to the ground. Keane jerked at even the small noise I made, turning to me and putting his finger to his lips. I ignored his furious look, digging through the backpack until I found the case at the very bottom.
When I pulled out the small silver gun, Keane gaped at me. I hadn’t told anyone I had it. Kimber looked at me with a raised eyebrow, but she seemed less shocked and more amused by my possession of a firearm. I stood up slowly, keeping the gun pointed at the ground and the safety on.
“Do you know how to use that thing?” Keane asked in a whisper so quiet you could almost mistake it for the wind.
I put my finger to my lips, happy to be able to return his gesture, then nodded. Hey, he only asked me if I knew how to use it, not if I was any good at using it. I think he read between the lines, based on the look of pure skepticism he gave me.
“Just don’t shoot me in the back,” he said, and this time both Kimber and I put our fingers to our lips. He shook his head and turned back to face the remnants of our trail.
We were quickly back to the oppressive silence, although soon an unfamiliar, high-pitched whine added to the cricket-and-owl chorus. I hoped it was just some harmless kind of Fae insect or frog rather than some terrifying night-stalking monster. I comforted myself that neither Kimber nor Keane seemed alarmed by it.
The quiet of the night made it easier to hear the pounding sound of horses’ hooves on the road, nowhere near far enough away for my tastes. Kimber reached over and took my hand, squeezing my fingers and biting her lip. I squeezed right back, my heart racing once more as the sound of hooves got closer.
Had Ethan had enough time to cast his illusion spell? It seemed like he’d been gone forever, but time tends to get sort of wonky when you’re in danger, so I wasn’t sure. I flicked the safety off my gun, though I was careful to keep it pointed at the ground and to keep my finger off the trigger. It would be ready for use if worse came to worst, but it would be my absolute last resort.
I couldn’t tell from the sound how many horses there were in the pursuit, but it sure sounded like a lot. I heard at least four distinct voices as the Fae search party called to each other. They were moving pretty fast by the sound of it. I hoped that meant they were moving too fast and wouldn’t notice any telltale signs of our passage even if Ethan hadn’t had enough time to cover us.
I held my breath and squeezed Kimber’s hand more tightly as the sounds moved ever closer … And then moved past, without stopping. The relief made me practically dizzy, and I could see Keane’s shoulders relax as some of the tension drained out of him.
We all listened intently as the search party continued down the road, but there were no shouts of alarm, and no indications that they were turning back. As the sound of the horses faded into the distance, I heard the rustle of undergrowth, and then Ethan appeared before us seemingly out of nowhere.
Keane jumped, and it was probably a good thing he didn’t have the gun, or Ethan would have gotten shot for the second time since I’d met him. Ethan smirked at his nemesis, and though it was too dark to see, I’d have bet anything Keane’s face was turning a uniquely angry shade of red.
“It’s just me,” Ethan said unnecessarily.
“You’re lucky I’m not armed,” Keane said, echoing my sentiments.
“I guess it worked?” I asked, hoping to head the two of them off at the pass.
Ethan made a face, but nodded. “It will keep them off our tail for the time being. I made sure the illusion covered any tracks we might have made near the road, but it only reaches about ten yards into the forest. It’ll hold during the night, but when daylight hits, it’s likely someone will start combing the
woods and see around the illusion.”
Ethan’s face looked pale in the moonlight, and he swayed ever so slightly on his feet. He’d probably expended more energy than was wise creating his illusion, especially after inhaling a ton of smoke and then running like hell. Not that he was going to admit it.
“So we need to put as much distance as possible between us and the palace before the sun rises,” Keane said, stating the obvious.
“Without getting ourselves hopelessly lost,” Kimber muttered.
“Or getting eaten by Bogles,” I added, because hey, if we were going to be so cheerful and optimistic, we might as well go all out. “Who has the best sense of direction? I know it isn’t me.”
All three of my friends stifled laughs at that. I’d have been offended if I’d been the least bit sensitive about my ability to get lost in a closet.
“Um, that would probably be me,” Kimber said, surprising me—and Keane, by the look on his face.
Ethan nodded. “No doubt about it,” he agreed, then grinned at Keane. “Unless you’ve got bloodhound in your family tree we don’t know about.”
“The only hound here is you,” Keane retorted.
Kimber and I gave stereo groans, and both the boys shut up, though not without giving each other macho glares.
“Lead the way,” I prompted Kimber, then flicked the safety back on my gun and stuck it in my pocket. Ethan noticed it for the first time, but though he gave me an inquiring look, I didn’t comment, and he didn’t ask any questions.
Trusting Kimber to keep us from straying too far from the road, we all fell into step behind her and started making our way through the darkened forest toward the impossibly distant Avalon border.
chapter fourteen
This may come as a shock, but traveling on foot through unfamiliar woods in the dark of night is not easy. The moon was high in the sky, and when there was any break in the tree cover, a fair amount of its light would reach the forest floor. We trudged onward, making painfully slow progress as we tried not to leave too obvious a trail and tried to avoid the houses that were so skillfully hidden in the trees.
My full-blooded Fae companions seemed to have better night vision than I did, although even they struggled as the night wore on and the moon sank lower in the sky, hiding its light little by little. We were all stumbling over tree roots and getting whacked in the face by unseen branches, probably leaving a trail that could be spotted from orbit, and there wasn’t a thing we could do about it. Obviously, we’d be able to move more easily in the morning; but then, so would our pursuit.
I tried really hard not to think about what might have happened to my dad and Finn once the rest of us had fled. I felt like a total coward for leaving them behind, and I kept halfway deciding that I had to turn back immediately. Then I’d wake up and realize that if I decided to go back, either my friends were going to stop me, or they were going to come with me. There were already enough people I cared about in trouble because of me. If I had a chance of getting my friends to safety, then I had to take it.
Who had really planted that bomb? I kept stumbling against the fact that for a bomb to work, it would have had to be in my presence continually since we’d left Avalon. The more I tried to figure out how I could have unknowingly carried a bomb—and how, if I’d been carrying it, it ended up under the princess’s chair—the more frustrated and stumped I became.
Stress had done a hatchet job on my brainpower. When the answer to the riddle came to me, it was so obvious I stopped in my tracks and slapped myself on the forehead. The bomb had to have been planted by a Faeriewalker. I hadn’t planted the bomb. Therefore …
“Duh!” I said as the others stopped around me. “I’m not the only Faeriewalker in the world after all!”
The boys both gaped at me, but Kimber just looked grim. “So it would seem,” she said, and I realized she’d figured it out on her own.
“The redhead,” Keane said, then said something Gaelic-sounding that I was pretty sure was a curse.
“What redhead?” Ethan asked.
“Elizabeth,” I said, remembering how jumpy she’d acted at the dinner, the apology that had come out of nowhere, and the way she’d refused to meet my eyes. And realizing that she—like most of the women in Henry’s entourage—always wore a bustle in her skirts. You could probably hide a whole suitcase full of mortal items in one of those things. Maybe she hadn’t been apologizing for what happened with the Green Lady after all. Maybe she’d been apologizing in advance for framing me.
“Who’s Elizabeth?” Kimber asked with a frown.
“The redheaded girl who served us wine at dinner,” Keane answered. “She was one of Henry’s servants, wasn’t she?” he asked me.
I nodded. “Yeah. She’s been with us all the way from Avalon.” Hers had been the only familiar face I’d spotted in the dining room, though I had to admit I hadn’t been looking all that closely. “But she can’t be more than, like, fourteen years old,” I said, appalled.
“She’s completely terrified of Henry,” Keane said. “I’m sure she’d do anything he ordered her to, even if she didn’t like it. And it would explain why she was serving at the dinner. I doubt Henry’s usually terribly anxious to share his servants.”
I remembered the terror in her eyes, and I remembered the abuse Henry had heaped upon her. The poor thing was thoroughly downtrodden. The evidence suggested she was the one who’d planted the bomb, that she was the one who’d tried to kill the princess—and maybe succeeded—while framing me for it. But there was no doubt in my mind that it was Prince Henry who was really behind it.
Kimber was nodding. “You said Titania claimed not to have been behind the threats against you. Can you imagine being a power-hungry asshole like Henry and having a secret Faeriewalker under your thumb? I bet you someone like him would do anything to make sure his was the only Faeriewalker in the world. So he sent those Knights to threaten you, figuring everyone would assume it was Titania who sent them. And as long as they didn’t kill you, there’d be no reason for your father to confront Titania and find out the Knights weren’t hers.”
“Guess he must have been thrilled when she sent him to invite me to Court,” I said. But I couldn’t be terribly satisfied by the thought of his annoyance. “We’re letting him get away with it,” I said bitterly. “By running away, I’m making myself look guilty. Guiltier than I already looked, I mean.”
“You have no choice,” Keane said. “I haven’t spent a whole lot of time in Faerie, but I do know that it’s not famous for its fair and impartial justice.”
“He’s right,” Ethan said, making a face to show how little he enjoyed agreeing with Keane. “You wouldn’t even be entitled to a trial if the Queen was pissed off enough not to give you one. If we hadn’t gotten you out of there, you might have been summarily executed. You could be dead already.” His voice went low and raspy, and he pulled me into an unexpected hug.
His words sent a chill racing down my spine. It was one thing to imagine myself locked up and subjected to the Fae version of a trial, but another to think about being judged guilty without being given a chance to defend myself. Not that I thought speaking out in my own defense would do much good—if we were right, it was the Queen’s own son who was behind the bombing, and she most likely wouldn’t want to find him guilty. I made a really easy scapegoat.
Ethan squeezed me tighter, and I burrowed my face into his chest, wishing I could hide there in his arms forever. His shirt stank of smoke, and the temperature was somewhere in the eighties, making it way too hot for cuddling, but for the moment, I didn’t care.
“We have to keep moving,” Keane said.
With a sigh of regret, I eased myself out of Ethan’s arms. Maybe if we managed to evade capture and get all the way back to Avalon, I’d be able to find someone who could help my dad and Finn. Dad was a citizen of Avalon, after all, and considering his political influence, the Council might want to negotiate for his release. Titania might even give in t
o keep the peace between Avalon and Faerie.
The hope felt fragile, and I wasn’t sure that even if things happened exactly the way I hoped, Finn would be released with my dad. I wasn’t even sure whether Finn was an Avalon citizen or not, and he certainly didn’t have my dad’s influence.
Of course, all of this would be a moot point if the Queen had already had them both killed.
“Should we try for the standing stones?” Kimber asked as we started picking our way through the darkness. “I know Seamus said not to, but it’ll take us ten times as long to get to Avalon if we have to walk the whole way.”
“I think I can work them, even if it’s daylight when we get there,” Ethan said, though his tone didn’t exactly fill me with confidence.
Keane shook his head. “It’s too risky. Even supposing you’ve got enough juice left to activate the stones and enough power to control them, you can be sure Titania will have already dispatched Knights to guard it.”
We absorbed that unpalatable reality in silence for a moment.
“The long way it is,” I finally said, and tried not to think about how slim our chances were.
* * *
I don’t know how long we traveled that night, though it felt like it was about twelve hours. We all held our breaths every time we had to sneak past one of the Fae houses, but no one spotted us, and eventually the houses petered out and the woods thickened. When the moon disappeared over the horizon, the only hint of light came from the stars. And as if that wasn’t enough to slow us to a crawl, clouds started coming in and the wind started to pick up. In the distance, there was a flash of lightning and a roll of thunder.