Sirensong (23 page)

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 to 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.

“Oh great,” I said as I tripped over yet another tree root. “I’ve always wanted to walk through the woods in a thunderstorm.”

The way my luck was going, I’d be crisped by a bolt of lightning.

The first drop of rain plopped on my nose just a few seconds later, quickly followed by another. When the lightning flashed, the thunder followed more closely on its heels.

“We’d better find a ditch or something to hole up in,” Keane said. “If we stay close enough together, I can stretch my shield spell to cover all of us. I don’t know if it will hold against lightning, but it’s better than nothing.”

“I don’t need your protection,” Ethan protested, all offended dignity.

“Fine,” Keane snapped. “Use your own shield spell. Or go climb a tree and play lightning rod. I don’t care.”

Even in the oppressive darkness, I could see the way Ethan’s eyes glittered, and I hoped he wasn’t going to start something with Keane. Judging by how the wind was kicking up, we didn’t have time for it. The temperature had dropped at least ten degrees in the last few minutes, and the rain that had at first felt almost refreshing now just felt cold.

“Let’s just find that low ground, shall we?” Kimber said, stepping between the boys. She gave her brother a quelling look. “Have you suddenly developed a shield spell I didn’t know about? Because if you haven’t, then you’re going to use Keane’s just like the rest of us.”

“I’m sure I can learn to cast one myself,” Ethan countered, and magical whiz-kid that he was, he probably could.

Kimber nodded. “Yeah, play around with learning a new spell when you’re in a life-threatening situation. That’s real smart. We’ll all be sooo impressed. Right up until you get yourself killed or maimed because you don’t have all the kinks worked out yet.”

Ethan scowled fiercely, but he had to know Kimber was right. He wasn’t happy about it, but at least he stopped arguing.

The rain came more heavily as we scanned the area for somewhere safe we could hole up. The prospects weren’t promising. The terrain was generally flat, and most of the places that looked vaguely shelter-like were actually the insides of trees. The harder the rain fell, the more tempting those hollows looked, but the escalating thunder and lightning reminded us that trees are nature’s lightning rods.

We were getting close to desperate when we found a huge tree that had fallen, pulling up a massive clod of dirt in its roots when it did. It must have fallen recently, since you could still see the hole in the ground where it must have stood.

It wasn’t much, more like a divot when we wanted a ditch, but we all agreed it was the best we could do. The sharp crack and crash of another tree falling somewhere in the darkness had us hurrying into the hollow’s questionable shelter. The wind was now howling, the tone almost musical. I hoped that wasn’t the sound of some bloodthirsty Fae storm-critter out for a hunt.

“Everyone stay close to me,” Keane said, and I felt the spark of his magic starting up.

I sat down beside Keane in the mud and tried not to notice the spark of jealousy that lit Ethan’s eyes. Kimber sat on Keane’s other side, and Ethan plopped down beside me and put a possessive arm around my shoulders.

“Closer,” Keane said, shifting until his hip and leg were pressed up against mine. I didn’t know if he was doing it because his shield spell didn’t stretch far enough, or if he was just trying to annoy Ethan. The tension in Ethan’s body told me how
he
interpreted the gesture.

Ethan got even more tense—which I hadn’t thought was possible—when Keane put his arm around Kimber and drew her onto his lap. Kimber couldn’t hide her surprise or her pleasure as she cuddled up against him, and I really hoped he wasn’t doing it just to get at Ethan. Kimber deserved better.

“Are you covered?” I asked Ethan, because he was the farthest away from Keane. To emphasize the danger, a heavy branch crashed to the ground just a few feet away from our hiding place. Every time the wind gusted, the raindrops flew parallel to the ground, and the trees were bent practically double. I hoped they didn’t have tornados in Faerie.

“I’m covered,” Ethan assured me through gritted teeth.

“Don’t be an asshole,” Keane said. “My shield isn’t reaching that far and you know it. Sit next to me and put Dana on your lap.”

At first, I thought Ethan’s macho pride was going to get the best of him and he was going to refuse—at which point I’d have had to resort to drastic measures to make him act like a sensible adult. (Don’t ask me what those measures would have been, because I’m nowhere near as good at bullying as the guys are.) Luckily, Ethan didn’t make that necessary, though he grumbled darkly under his breath as he pulled me onto his lap and shifted reluctantly closer to Keane.

The hail started coming down just then, nuggets the size of marbles pounding onto the ground—and onto Ethan’s right leg and shoulder, which apparently were still outside the shield.

“For God’s sake!” Keane snapped. “I don’t have cooties and I’m not going to bite.”

Ethan probably was going to snap right back, but Kimber shifted on Keane’s lap until she could reach out and put her arm around Ethan’s shoulders, pulling him flush up against Keane’s side. Figuring she had the right idea, I shifted my own weight and grabbed Ethan’s leg, dragging it under the shield. If it offended his manly sensibilities to sit so close to another guy, tough! Even the few hailstones that had hit me while I reached past the shield spell to grab him had stung like hell, and they seemed to be getting bigger.

Ethan was totally fuming, hating every second of being forced to accept Keane’s protection. Keane wasn’t exactly making things easier, but at least he hadn’t hesitated to offer that protection, no matter how he felt about Ethan. I rested my head against Ethan’s shoulder, and when that didn’t lessen the tension in his body, turned my head and brushed a kiss across his neck.

His skin felt warm and smooth beneath my lips, and I heard the way his breath hitched even over the howl of the wind and the pounding of the hail. I kissed him again, a little higher, and the angry tension he’d radiated moments ago dissolved into a different kind of tension altogether.

Yes, I was a little self-conscious with Keane and Kimber right there beside us, but Ethan needed the distraction, and I needed the comfort. I let my kisses travel up the side of Ethan’s neck while he conveniently lowered his head and turned his face toward me.

I was wet, I was cold, sitting outside in a ditch during a dangerous thunderstorm, but when Ethan’s lips came down on mine, it was like I’d been momentarily transported to heaven. I didn’t have a whole lot of experience with kissing, but I was sure Ethan was one of the best kissers in the universe. My traitorous mind conjured the image of the Erlking and the wild, ravenous kiss we’d shared under the influence of magic, but I shoved the thought away. That hadn’t been a real kiss, nor had my reaction been real pleasure, not like it was when I kissed Ethan.

Ethan’s tongue was teasingly licking my lips as his arms crushed me against him. I had no complaints, melting into his arms and kissing him back eagerly. His hand slipped under the hem of my shirt. It was a relatively innocent caress, his fingers touching the skin of my lower back, but I felt a little pang, knowing these innocent caresses were all we would ever have. I told myself to live in the moment and not think about it. But I’m not good at not thinking about things, and though the kiss still felt good, the thrill was suddenly dampened—no pun intended. No, Ethan and I weren’t going to get it on here in front of Keane and Kimber even if the Erlking’s bargain weren’t coming between us, but I couldn’t enjoy even this simple kiss without worrying about everything I
couldn’t
do.

I think Ethan sensed me cooling off, because he sighed against my lips then pulled away, tucking my head under his chin. My throat tightened and my eyes burned, but I refused to cry. Somehow, I was going to find a way to be happy with what I had rather than pining for what I couldn’t have, but I hadn’t managed it yet.

Ethan went tense under me again, and it was as if our whole little make-out distraction session hadn’t happened. From the feel of his chin on my head, I could tell he was looking at Keane, so I turned to look myself, ready to jump in and stop them from fighting again if necessary.

Kimber was cuddled in Keane’s arms in a pose very similar to my own, her head against his chest. One of his arms was around her shoulder, and the other rested lightly on her thigh. There was a little smile on her face that said she was happy to be there, and I knew she was probably thrilled that Keane was touching her like that. But Keane was barely paying any attention to her and was instead locked in a staring match with Ethan. I wanted to slap them both, but I kept my feelings to myself, because if I opened my big mouth I’d only make things worse. The storm might have been getting a little less savage, but the lightning was still too close for comfort, and I couldn’t risk that testosterone would make the boys do something stupid that might get us all killed. So instead, I took one for the team, grabbing hold of Ethan’s head and planting another kiss on him.

My valiant sacrifice did the trick, and Ethan and Keane didn’t try to kill each other. Considering the absolutely rotten day we’d just had, I chose to take that as a good sign.

By the time the storm died out completely and the clouds cleared, the first hints of sunrise were coloring the horizon.

Keane’s shield spell had more than likely saved our lives. The forest floor was littered with broken branches, some of them slim and harmless, some of them as big as small trees all by themselves. One of those big branches lay across the ditch beside us, where it had come to rest after bouncing off of Keane’s shield spell.

The shield spell had died before the storm had. Keane practically passed out straining to keep it up, but eventually he ran out of strength and we all huddled miserably together in the soaking rain and blustering wind. Luckily, the thunder and lightning had moved on, and the wind wasn’t ripping trees apart anymore.

It was tempting to just lie there in the mud and take a nap. It had been an exhausting night, and none of us had been able to sleep under the circumstances. But we were all too wet and miserable to sleep, and we had to take advantage of the daylight to get farther away from the Sunne Palace and the Queen’s forces. The storm had actually done us a huge favor, wiping out any trail we might have left, but it wasn’t like any of us felt even remotely secure. I didn’t know how far we had traveled in the night before the storm stopped us, but I
did
know it wasn’t far enough.

We dragged ourselves to our feet and started moving again, trusting that Kimber was leading us in the right direction. In some ways, the going was easier because of the light, but we were all a hell of a lot more exhausted than we’d been the night before, and that made even the Fae clumsy. It didn’t help that the ground was muddy from the storm, sucking at our feet and making everything slippery.

Keane in particular was struggling, having used so much of his energy shielding us last night. Being a typical male, he was unwilling to admit it—especially in front of Ethan—but we could all see the dark circles forming under his eyes, and he was even more unsteady on his feet than I was. By the time we’d walked for a couple of hours, his eyes had glazed over and he moved with all the speed and grace of a zombie.