The living host begin to break out tents. Some of the fey soldiers collect stones and dig fire pits. There is talk now and laughter. Fey armor is set aside for polishing. It’s a camp much like any other. It’s difficult to believe this many people could travel and stand as quietly as I’ve seen them do.
“My queen?” I turn to find the male with the falcon. His eyes are brown with flecks of gold, his hair as pale blond as my own.
“Alric, right?” I try the name that registered when I’d first spotted him
His smile is soft and as brilliant as the dawn sun. “You remember me?”
“Only your name, I’m afraid. What can I do for you?”
He clears his throat. “It’s the animals. The hounds and birds of prey. Typically, I set up a tent for them beside my own but with the approaching storms I was wondering if there is anywhere else I might keep them. Somewhere with better shelter?” A flush stains his cheeks all the way to the tips of his pointed ears.
“I have just the place. If you’ll gather them together.”
He whistles once, sharply and within seconds is surrounded by hounds on the ground and birds in the sky.
“Wow,” I breathe. I’ve seen well trained dogs, but never so many at one time, and never the birds. “You must have a way with wild creatures.”
“I’m a Spriggan. We have a unique connection to speak with all varieties of fauna. Shall we ride?” He gestures to his horse.
“Um, it’s not far. Just down the hill.” I point to the well-worn path towards the clinic. “So, when you say speak with them you don’t mean like having a conversation, like the way we are doing now?”
Alric falls into step beside me with the hounds trailing in our wake. “Not in the same way. Animals think differently from humans or fey. They aren’t bogged down by memories of the past or desires for the future. All they see is the now.”
“I envy them.” I sigh.
“As do I.” Alric again offers that radiant smile. “Try it.”
“Try what?”
“Talking to one of them. Swift, to me.”
A sleek black hound breaks formation and takes a place beside Alric. “This is Swift, the fastest hound in the Hunt. Not even your wolf can outrun her. She is a good breeder, has spawned two litters, but running is her joy.” Pride laces his every word.
“Oh, I can’t,” the protest bubbles up.
He raises one ash blond brow. “You are the Unseelie Queen. My powers are at your disposal.”
“Right.” Now that I am no longer in Underhill, hopefully I won’t experience any bizarre consequences from fumbling with magic. I turn to the dog and smile. She sits and waits, not panting or wagging, just staring.
Run. I think at her.
Nothing happens.
“Try picturing the command,” Alric urges. “Animals put together pictures, not just from sight but from sound and scent, the feel of the wind, the taste of the water. See in your mind what you want her to do and imagine the sensations that go along with it.”
I nod. After taking a deep breath, I try again, this time picturing Swift running down the hill to the door of the clinic. I see her ears flapping, her tongue out to taste the breeze as she runs full tilt, feel the impact of the ground beneath her paws.
She takes off at a sprint, charging down the hill so quickly she is nothing but a black blur. Alric, closes his eyes and a moment later the rest of our entourage follows Swift down the hill to the door of the clinic.
“Amazing.” My body tingles with the sensations Swift experienced on her dash down the hill. My heart pounds as though I had been the one running and my breaths are uneven, almost ragged. “Can you feel all of them at once?”
He nods. “Yes, I had to train to focus on one at a time though. When we go into battle, I must be able to filter out the different messages.”
“Battle?” I ask, but the thundering of hooves on pavement draws our attention away.
Freda and her daughter draw up beside Alric’s pack.
“Who gave you permission to leave camp?” she barks.
For a moment I think she’s talking to me, but then I see her gaze fix on Alric, who grows tense beside me.
“The queen said—,” he begins but she cuts him off.
“You do not break from camp in the mortal realm without direct permission from me or the Second. Is that clear?” she seethes.
His gaze flashes anger but he lifts his chin and says, “Forgive me, First.”
“We wanted to secure the animals before the storm hits,” I intervene. “I was showing him where. He was just doing his job.”
Freda blinks as though she forgot I am standing here and I can sense Alric’s gaze on me. I feel as though I’ve walked into the middle of a marital spat and stuck my nose where it doesn’t belong.
Freda squares her shoulders, eyes flashing, and I know I made a mistake. “The storm approaches. We best get to it.”
Training
“What exactly is this gauntlet I’m supposed to run?” I direct my question to Nahini, since Freda’s been chilly with me ever since the incident with Alric.
The entire afternoon has been chaos. First, Alric, appalled because I’d intended for him to put his beloved hounds and birds in cages the way humans do.
“Would you put a friend in a cage?” He’d asked as he strokes the white breast of a hawk.
I answered honestly. “I don’t have any friends, other than Aiden and there are times he needs to be restrained.”
He’d shut down entirely. In the end, I retrieved every linen and the spare cot Addy had sometimes slept on when she had a touch and go case and left him to hash the animal quartering out as he saw fit.
Freda awaited me outside, her gaze as stormy as the skies above. When I tried to apologize, she held up a hand.
“It’s your job to lead The Hunt, not mine. I have grown used to command with the queen issuing orders from the court. It won’t happen again.”
She turned and climbed aboard her steed and hasn’t spoken a word to me since.
Apparently, immortals sulk as often as mortals.
And when I invited her and Nahini to stay in the house with me, they exchanged an appalled look. “Only the royal consort, direct blood lineage and servants shares a roof with royalty.”
“Why?”
“Cohabitating is for lovers. The current ones and the honored ones that have yielded offspring.”
Great, more people who thought every invitation would lead to sex. What, did I have the reputation of being some sort of nymphomaniac in my last life?
“What about food then?” I ask. “Surely you’ll stay for a meal.”
That seems acceptable to them, until they realize I intend to do the cooking.
“Majesty,” Nahini’s dark eyes are wide. “You have a host of servants to cook for you.”
I find a veggie lasagna stashed in the freezer and peel off the aluminum foil to nuke it. “Actually, I don’t. It’s fine, I do this all the time.”
Another unreadable glance between them.
“Oh, come on,” I snap. “You were both mortal once, you know what it’s like. You have to fend for yourself.”
“But you’re the queen,” Nahini protests.
I am getting very tired of hearing that.
“It’s not really cooking. Just reheating.” I explain how the microwave heats things up.
“Incredible,” Nahini launches into a multitude of questions about how a microwave works, who created it and other bizarre inquiries I can’t answer.
“We should steal some,” Freda says to Nahini as I set the steaming lasagna on the table. “Carry them back across the Veil to the court. It will win us many favors with the province lords.”
Images of them looting a Best Buy flash through my mind. “You need electricity to make it work.”
Nahini frowns. “Where is Electra City? I have never heard of such a place.”
Mental forehead smack. “It’s not a place. Electricity is how we
power our homes now. Like the lights.” I point over at the Tiffany lamp on the sideboard.
They exchange another look. “But you still have candles, and fire places.”
I nod. “For when the power goes out.”
“Whose power?” Nahini asks.
“I need a drink.” It’s not something I ever thought I’d say. Sarah had liked to drink, more accurately she’d liked to get drunk. I’d always been her wingman, the straight arrow. Alcohol equals slower reaction times and poor choices, two things I avoid while hunting. But if I am going to make it through this meal without kissing someone, I need an assist. Besides, average my past and present lives together and I am well over twenty-one.
Chloe is a wine lover and she keeps several bottles of Rosa Regale in the fridge at any given time. I grab one, pop the cork and swig straight from the bottle, before passing it to Nahini.
Her eyes light up as she samples the bubbly red. “’Tis better than fairy wine.”
“Tell me about the gauntlet.” I repeat my earlier question. “What are the challenges like?”
“It’s different for everyone. The gauntlet exists in the catacombs in the very heart of Underhill. The tests are crafted to make you face your worst fears.” Freda finally looks me in the eye as she says this. “We are forbidden to speak of our time in the gauntlet. Suffice it to say, it finds your mental, physical and emotional limitations and then pushes you well beyond them. Many who enter never return.”
“It’s designed to ensure those who pass truly know what they are giving up. That they really want to be immortal and will sacrifice anything to attain their goal,” Nahini adds.
I snag the bottle from Freda and take another swig before passing it back to Nahini. Great, I’m not even sure I want to be immortal and the test is designed to weed out the lackluster applicants.
“How can I prepare for an unknowable test?” I fork up some lasagna but don’t taste it.
“We’ll do our best to see that you are both physically and mentally ready.” Nahini reassures me. “This is delightful, is there more?”
With a start I realize she’s polished off the bottle of wine. “In the fridge. Help yourself.”
She retrieves the remaining two bottles, passes one to Freda and keeps the other for herself.
“We’ll start your training in the morning. At first light.” Freda finishes her food and then rises, leaving the unopened wine standing on the table. “I should check on the camp, make sure all is as it should be.”
I watch her go.
“Did something occur?” Nahini asks tentatively.
Briefly I sum up the incident with Alric.
“Ah,” she nods as though that makes perfect sense. “She and Alric have a complicated history.”
“Who doesn’t?” I grumble, my thoughts on Aiden.
She smiles and pops the cork on the last bottle. “Alric’s father is part of the gentry, a province lord of Unseelie lands. He was Brigit’s consort for a time. One of his half siblings is even in line for the Fire Throne. They are pure fairy blood and Freda is an immortal human, not fey.”
“So?” I’m doing more drinking than eating, but it feels right. I go with it.
“Not all of the courtiers are as accepting of humans as you were. You are.” She corrects, her brows drawing together with a frown.
“I’m having trouble with the tenses, too. But that’s Alric’s father’s prejudice, not his.”
The beads in Nahini’s hair click together as she shakes her head. “It’s not so simple. Alric was assigned to do a tour with the Hunt. After his campaign is over he is expected to take his father’s place at court.” Her eyes seem to be willing me to connect the dots.
I flinch when it hits me. “You mean, to try and become a consort. My consort.”
She passes me the bottle. “Correct.”
“And when she saw us together earlier, she was jealous.” I shake my head.
I blow out a sigh. Maybe it’s the wine, maybe it’s because I know Nahini’s loyalty runs deeper than an underground river, but I decide to open up to her. “Do I have to do this? Can’t it go back to being what it was, me hunting on my own, capturing souls for the Wild Hunt? I’m not cut out to be queen.”
“Nicneven,” she pats my hand once, a comforting gesture. “You were born for this. You are needed on the Shadow Throne, needed to rule. There hasn’t been a winter Queen of the Elphame for almost two decades. The balance must be restored.”
“Why though? Why can’t Brigit do it all?”
“Because she is your opposite. All sun makes a desert. And because you are the leader of the Wild Hunt.” She shifts, clearly uncomfortable. “Freda didn’t want me to tell you this, but you should know. There has been talk at the court of disbanding the Hunt.”
“What? Why?”
“Brigit has never cared what souls we reap for the Hunt. She has used us more as her personal guard, which enrages the Seelie kings. Your leadership, your temperance kept the Hunt focused on seeking out damaged souls. Souls like my brother. Brigit just orders us to make quota at the same time she diverts us on personal errands, like tracking the wolf. Our resources are stretched too thin. We aren’t meant to ride in summer, but to rest. For everything there is a season and the Hunt was tied to your season. We haven’t had a proper summer rest since you left us.”
“Why was she after Aiden?” I ask, afraid of the answer but needing to know it anyway.
Nahini rises. “That is for him to tell you. I must away. Pleasant dreams, my queen.”
I watch her leave and then, ignoring the dishes, move to sit before the fireplace with the half empty bottle. The fire is dying so I turn and snag a log to add to the pile. A stack of newspapers is piled up neatly next to the kindling. I lift the top one, dated the day Aiden and I had left for Underhill. Addy always stacks the newest paper at the top, just a quirk of her OCD. So. Barely any time has passed in the mortal realm. I’m about to set it aside when the headline catches my notice.
Local teen killed in freak car accident.
I begin to read.
Sarah Larkin, age sixteen died Friday night after her vehicle was crushed beneath a tree during a torrential downpour. Funeral services will be held graveside Monday at 2 PM.
I fling the paper on the fire, tears welling in my eyes. Never have I felt like this before, like my best isn’t good enough.
“I’m sorry, Sarah,” I murmur and reach for the wine bottle. “I don’t know what else I can do.”
A LOUD CLATTERING JERKS me from dreams that fade away as soon as the light touches them. I look up to see Freda standing at the open door, a bold silhouette like a Viking girl pinup with the rising sun behind her “Time for training.”
My head throbs like an exposed heart, the light from the clear morning sending stabbing needles into my brain. My words come out as a croak. “Shut the door,”
She slams it and stalks inside, all restless energy, a predator waiting for her chance to strike. “We must begin if we’re to get you ready before Samhain.”
In contrast my head is full of fog, my brain fuzzy, my mouth tastes like the floor mat at the vet clinic. “Freda, about, Alric.”
“I don’t wish to speak of it,” she seethes. “He is nothing to me.”
“Okay,” I rub my eyes, hoping to clear the haze away. “But I still won’t sleep with him.”
She is pacing the length of the couch and casts me a disbelieving look. “When you become queen again, you won’t have a choice.”
“Then I won’t become queen again.” I struggle up, so I can meet her gaze.
That halts her in mid-step. “What? But you are the queen.”
“I’m as mortal as you once were. And I’m also asexual.”
She tilts her head, the gesture akin to something from Alric’s hawk. “What is that? One who reproduces like a plant?”
I groan. “No. I’m not attracted to other people. Or fey.”
“What of your wolf?” She sits in the chair b
eside me. “Are the two of you not involved again?”
“Not sexually. Not really. I have...feelings for Aiden. But they’re sort of a mess. I’m not sure if they are my feelings or my memories, you know?”
“No, I don’t.”
I didn’t really expect her to understand something I am still struggling with myself. “Look, all you need to know is I want nothing to do with this consort business. I’m not some brood mare for the Unseelie Court. If they want me to rule, then they get me, not my lineage. And whatever happens with Aiden and myself is our own business. No one else’s. Got it?”
She stares at me for a long time and then a smile splits her face. “And I thought you were formidable before. I believe you, Nicneven. You will be a queen for the ages. But not until after you train.”
“Give me a minute.” I stagger toward the bathroom, my tongue practically stuck to the roof of my mouth. The wrath of grapes indeed. The shower looks incredibly inviting, especially after days without. I can just imagine Freda storming in and dragging me naked and dripping out to practice, so I settle for brushing my teeth and popping two aspirin for the pain.
I’d slept in plaid pajama pants and a tank top, so I move to my bedroom to find something a little sturdier for whatever training involves. Judging from the muscle definition on both Freda and Nahini, it wouldn’t be a walk in the park.
I emerge fully dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt with sturdy boots on my feet and my hair braided back so it won’t get in my way. Freda is pawing through the fridge, much the same way Aiden did. I feel a pang at his absence and my hand rises to rub over the hollow spot in my chest.
“To think,” she muses. “All this food just steps away. Sometimes with the Hunt we ride days without food or drink.”
I feel immediately guilty for not offering more to the troops. “Did everyone eat last night? You can take whatever you need from the house to feed them.” Aiden said I shouldn’t leave but internet shopping could fill in whatever gaps there might be in the pantry.
Freda bows. “Many thanks. I will let the battalion commanders know.”
The Goodnight Kiss Page 26