Shadowspell (2 page)

“Sure,” I said. “As long as you keep your hands to yourself.”

He raised one eyebrow, and I remembered how badly I’d enforced that rule tonight. I think I blushed again, but I met his challenging gaze as boldly as I could.

Mischief twinkling in his eyes, he winked at me, tweaked my nose like I was a little kid, then headed out into the rain, not seeming to care that he had neither a coat nor an umbrella. I watched, unable to turn away, until he’d rounded the corner at the end of the block.

chapter two

Ethan spelled trouble for me, but if he were the only trouble I had to deal with now that I lived in Avalon, I’m sure I could have dealt with him a lot more smoothly.

I’d come here under the mistaken impression that life with my father would be closer to normal than life with my mother. What a joke! I’d been in Avalon only a handful of weeks, and already I was looking back at the days when I’d been my mother’s keeper with something almost like longing. I’d really thought it sucked at the time.

I’d been a total loner at school, not because it was my natural inclination, but because my mom made us move every year or two to keep my father from finding us, and because I couldn’t risk letting my classmates/potential friends find out my mom was a drunk. I’d learned that the hard way at one of my least favorite schools, where I’d been ridiculed relentlessly.

I’d also had to act as the adult in our family, because my mom was often too drunk to bother with little things like paying bills or buying groceries. And let’s not even talk about how closely I had to watch to make sure she didn’t get behind the wheel when she was plastered!

Never in a million years would I have imagined myself looking back on that life with nostalgia. But then, there wasn’t a single aspect of my life in Avalon that met the hopes and expectations I’d had when I decided to come.

Instead of living in a nice, normal house in the beautiful city of Avalon, I lived in what was basically a glorified cave, located deep within the mountain. My safe house had all the modern conveniences, such as electricity, running water, and an Internet connection. It was nicely decorated, and if you could get over the total lack of windows, you might even say it was comfortable. But it still felt like a prison to me, complete with a guardroom that was situated between my suite and the front entrance.

I think my dad would have preferred it if I stayed in my safe house twenty-four/seven, but—thank God—he seemed to understand that I would go nuts if he didn’t let me out on a regular basis. I never got to go out alone—I always had to have either my dad or Finn at my side—but at least I wasn’t a full-time prisoner. I still spent half my time feeling completely stir-crazy, though. I understood Dad’s caution, and I didn’t want to risk getting myself killed, but I hated living in such isolation. Sometimes it was hard not to hate my father for it, no matter how well I understood.

Mixed feelings or not, when my dad showed up unexpectedly one Sunday at noon to take me and my mom out for brunch, I was so happy at the prospect of going out I could have hugged him. I restrained the impulse, though. He carried himself with the typical icy reserve of the older Fae, which meant a pat on the shoulder was a gushing display of affection in his book. He might not have known what to do with a hug.

My mom was another story. The moment she saw me, she threw her arms around me and hugged me as if she hadn’t seen me in years. It had actually only been three days since the last time she’d visited me, but my mom was as much my dad’s prisoner as I was, seeing as how he’d bribed or manipulated the courts of Avalon into declaring her legally incompetent. It had been one hell of a dirty trick, but there was a definite upside. As long as my mom was under my dad’s thumb, he wouldn’t allow her access to alcohol. This was the longest she’d been sober for as long as I could remember, and I found it hard to be mad at my dad for what he’d done.

He took us to one of Avalon’s best restaurants, having secured us a table on the balcony. For once, it was a clear, beautiful day in Avalon, and the view from our table was spectacular. At least it would have been if I were willing to look at it. Because I’m a Faeriewalker, when I look out across the borders of Avalon, I see a disorienting, nausea-inducing double image—called the Glimmerglass—of both the English countryside and the forests of Faerie. I therefore kept my gaze strictly within the borders, which was pretty enough as it was.

The picturesque streets and houses of Avalon stretched out below me. The main road that spiraled from the base of the mountain all the way to its peak was a very modern asphalt, but almost all the side streets were cobblestone. The street lamps were made to resemble old-fashioned gas lights, and many of the buildings had existed in more or less their current form for centuries, giving the city an ancient feel despite the occasional chain store.

The mountain was densely populated, the residents of Avalon having crammed as many buildings as possible into the limited space, and yet it still managed to be lush and green. Everyone here seemed to have window boxes overflowing with flowers, and ivy took advantage of every unpaved spot to take root and crawl up the façade of the nearest building. Practically every inch of the city was a postcard waiting to happen.

Because of my unimpeded view, I was able to see clear down to the moat that surrounded Avalon, crossed by the bridge that led to the Western Gate. From up high, the moat looked as picturesque as anything else, despite its muddy brown color. However, a few weeks ago, my Aunt Grace had thrown me into that moat, and I’d discovered it was inhabited by Water Witches—nasty, malevolent monsters. I’d never be able to look at the moat again without remembering the feeling of being grabbed and dragged under. I don’t think Aunt Grace was actually trying to kill me when she threw me in. She’d hatched some kind of crazy scheme to use my powers to assassinate Titania, the Queen of the Seelie Court, and when her plans were foiled, she threw me in the water as a diversion while she fled into Faerie.

My dad had great taste in restaurants. The food was fantastic. The conversation … not so much. I knew my parents had loved each other once, but that was a long time ago. Although Dad understood why my mom had kept me secret from him, he couldn’t seem to forgive her for it. And Mom couldn’t forgive Dad for any number of things, not least of which was her enforced sobriety. At this point, they couldn’t agree that the sky was blue, much less agree on anything important, like the current topic of debate.

Mom wanted me to go to school like a normal girl in the fall. Dad decreed that school was too great a security risk, and that I should be homeschooled. Neither one of them seemed to care what I thought—they didn’t even bother to ask—but I knew that, in the end, my dad’s word would be law. He was my legal guardian, after all. Not that Mom had any intention of conceding the point.

I tuned them both out, trying to enjoy the meal, the weather, and the view. I kept finding my eyes drawn to the moat, and to the bridge that spanned it, despite the unpleasant memories it dredged up. I kept forcing myself to look away, but my gaze always seemed to return.

I was once again staring at the moat when I caught sight of someone running away from the gatehouse at a frantic sprint. It was a Fae man, dressed in a green tunic and tights like an extra in a Robin Hood movie. Even from this distance, I could see the terror on the guy’s face, and the blood that streaked his forehead. The sight made me gasp, and others around me must have followed my gaze, because a low murmur started up among the diners on the balcony.

The Fae was about a third of the way across the bridge, still running headlong, knocking slower pedestrians out of his way, when I finally saw just
why
he was running. A tall door in the gatehouse flew open, and a nightmare figure burst through.

He was dressed entirely in black, his face hidden under a grotesque black mask with a leering, fanged mouth and wickedly sharp antlers. His whole body was covered in shiny black armor peppered with vicious spikes. He rode an enormous black horse, also covered with plates of armor. Maybe it was some kind of optical illusion, but I could have sworn I saw the occasional glow of flames bursting from the horse’s nostrils.

All around me, chairs were scraping back as people leapt to their feet, and the murmur had risen to a loud buzz of alarm. The horseman drew a gleaming sword from a scabbard draped over his back, and the buzz got even louder.

“Oh no,” I thought I heard my father say, although it was hard to hear him over the steadily rising voices of the other diners.

Behind the man in black, several more riders emerged from the door—which I belatedly realized must be the entrance to Faerie—each dressed in a slightly toned-down version of their leader’s attire. They fanned out into a V and galloped across the bridge behind him. There were several cars on the bridge, but the Fae riders didn’t seem to care, their horses dodging around them at supernatural speed, or just leaping over them as if they were toys, as brakes squealed and horns blared.

“The Wild Hunt!” someone shouted.

“The Erlking…” someone else said, voice cold with dread.

I was on my feet, clinging to the balcony rail without remembering having stood up. I was aware of my dad calling to me, but I was too riveted by what I was seeing to answer.

The leader of the horsemen was steadily gaining on the fleeing Fae. Everywhere, people leapt out of his way, and there was no sign that the border patrol was making even a token attempt to stop him or the rest of the riders. The man in black pulled even with the Fae. He rose up high in his stirrups, easily keeping his balance despite his horse’s breakneck speed. Someone screamed as the sword flashed in the sun and began to swing down at the Fae man.

I didn’t see what happened next, because my mom came at me from behind and slapped her hand over my eyes. But the screams and gasps around me gave me a pretty good idea without having to see with my own two eyes.

Mom turned me around so my back was to the railing. Dad threw a handful of cash on our table, then grabbed both my mom’s and my arms and began dragging us away.

“We have to go,” he said urgently, and I can’t tell you how terrifying it was to see the fear in his eyes. As far as I could tell, my dad wasn’t afraid of anything, and if he
was,
he was a master at not letting it show. What did it mean that I could see the fear in him now?

People from inside the dining room were pushing their way out onto the balcony to see what was going on. My dad shoved his way through the gathering crowd, using magic of some sort to knock people out of our path. I might have objected to the rough handling, but remembering that black rider with his sword raised made me want to run and hide.

*   *   *

My dad made about a million phone calls as he frog-marched me back to the safe house. Mom walked at my side, her arm around my shoulders. Her face was deathly pale, and her eyes a little too wide.

“What’s going on?” I asked her as my dad continued with his calls. “Who were those guys?” I really hoped they’d turned around and galloped back into Faerie after they’d … I tried not to think about what had happened.

My mom shook her head. “That was the Wild Hunt,” she said in a breathless whisper, as if saying the words aloud would somehow make them appear out of thin air.

I waited for her to explain, but she didn’t. Maybe I was supposed to know off the top of my head what the Wild Hunt was, but there was a lot I didn’t know about Faerie. Mom was born and raised in Avalon, and sometimes she forgot that Avalon wasn’t like other places.

“What’s the Wild Hunt?” I asked.

We’d entered the tunnel system to begin the trek back to my safe house, and I guess Dad must have lost his signal, because he finally put his cell phone away.

“They are the nightmare of Faerie,” he said in a tense, clipped tone. “A pack of horsemen who live only to hunt Fae and mortals alike. Their leader—the Erlking—is the only man the Queens of Faerie are said to fear.”

“That would be the guy with the sword?” I asked in a small voice.

Dad dipped his chin in a curt nod. “Yes. All the Huntsmen are dangerous, but none more so than he.”

I frowned, belatedly hearing the nuances of what my dad had said. “Wait a minute. You said the Queens of Faerie fear him, plural. But he’s Unseelie, right?” All of Faerie is divided into two Courts, each with its own Queen. The Seelie Court had the reputation of being the good guys (though since Aunt Grace was Seelie, it’s obvious the reputation doesn’t always hold true). The Unseelie Court is the Court of monsters and bad guys, but that was a generalization, too. Ethan and Kimber were Unseelie, and they were pretty decent most of the time. The Erlking seemed to fit the Unseelie stereotype to a tee. “If he’s Unseelie, surely the Unseelie Queen isn’t scared of him.”

“He is neither Seelie nor Unseelie,” my father said. “He is outside the Courts altogether, a power unto himself. He considers himself a king, although he has no actual kingdom.”

“And he’s allowed to just ride into Avalon whenever he feels like it and kill people in broad daylight?” I’d seen evidence before that the border between Avalon and Faerie was dangerously porous, but I had at least hoped that it was better defended than
that
.

“No. He is not allowed to hunt in Avalon. It’s just that if someone he’s hunting in Faerie comes over the border, he’s allowed to pursue.”

We were moving so fast I was beginning to be a little short of breath, so I decided to hold my questions for the moment. When we passed out of the populated section of the tunnels and into the lightless path that led to my home, Dad cast some kind of spell that created a ball of light, which hovered over our heads and showed us the way. My neck kept prickling, and I kept looking behind me. Not that I really expected to see the Erlking bearing down on me on his fearsome black horse, but I was completely freaked out. I’d never have admitted it, but I was glad my mom had covered my eyes. I’d already seen enough things here in Avalon that would haunt my sleep. I didn’t need one more.