Wondrous Strange

  “It keeps doing that….” Kelley sighed. “You’re going to leave soon.”

  Sonny nodded mutely and helped Kelley to her feet. He stood looking down at her and then took her face in his hands. Turning her head slightly, he ran his fingers through her hair, lifting back the loose auburn curls that fell around her cheeks. “You have his ears,” he said, running a fingertip over one subtle point.

  Kelley shivered. “And my mother’s eyes, apparently.”

  “Did he say who—”

  “No. And I didn’t ask.”

  Sonny lowered his hands and they stood there, inches apart, for an awkward moment. Suddenly he gathered her into his arms and held her in a tentative embrace. Kelley felt her heart swell. “I have to go now,” he murmured into her hair. “But…please be careful tonight. While I can’t be there to protect you. Be careful.”

  XXVI

  “I only need to know two things,” the Fennrys Wolf growled, stalking back and forth in front of the other Janus. “Where do you want me, and how do I kill whatever needs killing?”

  “Well, that’s just it, Fenn,” Sonny tried to explain. “The answers to your questions are: We don’t know, and we don’t know.”

  The Wolf rolled his eyes at that and retreated to perch on the back of a bench. The thirteen Janus had gathered after daybreak and a successful night’s hunting at Sonny’s request in a tucked-away bit of the park that offered enough seclusion for the Guard to assemble without the police thinking they were some sort of gang.

  “By now, all of you have been made aware of the possibility that someone is trying to wake the Wild Hunt, right?” Sonny looked from face to face. “The likeliest suspect, of course, is Queen Mabh, although a visit I had from one of her Storm Hags seemed to indicate that it may have been a mistake on Mabh’s part to release the kelpie into this realm. Or maybe she’s had a change of heart.”

  “Mabh doesn’t have a heart,” Ghost said quietly.

  “Good point,” Aaneel agreed. “I can’t help but think that she’d just laugh and kick her feet with glee if such a thing were to come to pass.”

  “Well…whatever game she’s playing,” Sonny said, “we’ve got more pieces on the board to worry about than just the Queen of Air and Darkness.”

  Maddox snorted. “I’ll say. Tell ’em whom we stumbled across, Old Sonn.”

  Sonny took a deep breath and said, “The stolen child.”

  The circle of changelings stared blankly at him, as if he’d suddenly spoken in an incomprehensible language.

  “Auberon’s daughter?” Sonny prompted. “The lost princess. The reason the Gates were shut. The reason for us. I know where she is.”

  “Who is she?” Aaneel asked.

  “She’s…seventeen,” Sonny said. “An actress. Sweet. Happy. And up until—well, up until I told her—she had absolutely no idea of what she is. Let alone who.”

  “How is that even possible?” Bellamy glanced back and forth between Sonny and Maddox. Beside him, his sister’s brow was creased in a frown.

  “She’s been kept well hidden with the help of a powerful talisman,” Sonny explained.

  “Does Auberon know?” Beni asked.

  “I didn’t tell him—”

  “Don’t.” The interjection came from Cait.

  “Why the hell not?” the Fennrys Wolf snapped, his pale eyes fierce.

  Cait ignored him. “The poor girl! If Auberon finds out about her, he’ll want her back. The Unseelie Court is such a cold and joyless place.”

  “Cait’s right, Sonny,” Camina agreed, the frown still shadowing her brow. Her eyes were troubled. “Don’t tell him.”

  “Have you two gone insane?” the Wolf asked, pulling out a thin-bladed dagger from his boot and testing the sharpness of the edge against his thumb. “It’s the king’s bloody kid. Unless you’ve all forgotten, we serve at the pleasure of the king.”

  “We’ve never had much choice in the matter,” Cait said, her cheeks coloring with emotion.

  The Wolf scoffed at that. “We might not like it much, but that’s the way it is. Serve or die. I say let the bastard take her. Maybe it will end the nonsense of guarding this damnable Gate. And then we can all go home.”

  “Home, Fenn?” Maddox suddenly rounded on him. “What is that exactly? Where is it? And when? We’ve none of us homes now but this. This here and this now. We had our homes taken from us.” He turned to face the rest of the Guard. “I’ve seen this girl, and she belongs in this realm. Would you have the Faerie king take her away from everything she has ever known?” He turned back to the Fennrys Wolf. “Would you honestly wish our fate upon her?”

  There was a murmur among the circle of Janus, and Fennrys spun the knife in his hand and returned it to his boot. “All right, all right,” he said. “It wasn’t a serious suggestion. Bunch of whining—”

  “Shut up, Fenn,” Godwyn said, fixing the muttering Janus with a warning stare.

  “But what about the king?” Selene asked. “He’ll take his daughter back to the Otherworld, whether she wills it or no.”

  “He hasn’t yet,” Maddox said. “Auberon knows about her—he already went to the theater where she works and spoke to her—but she’s still here.”

  “Why?” Bellamy asked.

  “Because he probably wants to make her think it’s her own idea when she does finally go,” Aaneel said.

  “She’s not going anywhere!” Sonny snarled, surprising himself by the vehemence of his reaction. The one place Sonny did not want Kelley, he realized, was the Otherworld. He did not want her living her life among the Fair Folk, constantly exposed to their casual cruelty, their capriciousness and selfish nature. Sonny did not want Kelley to learn what it was to be like them, to become one of them. Especially not if he was still stuck in the mortal realm. Because, no matter what Fennrys might think, Sonny was not so convinced that Auberon would reopen the Gates and allow free passage between the realms if Kelley were to return with him—he too much enjoyed the tight control he had wielded ever since their closure.

  Sonny took a deep breath. “Look, Auberon’s in for a surprise if he thinks this girl will meekly put her head down and fall into step.”

  Beside him, Maddox chuckled. “I’ll say.”

  “Even if he thinks what he’s doing is for her own good,” Sonny murmured, almost to himself.

  “And why would it be that?” asked Aaneel.

  Sonny hesitated; it was just a theory he had been mulling, but—as he’d told Kelley—he didn’t believe in coincidences. “I don’t think it’s just happenstance that the Wild Hunt is stirring at the same time as the king’s daughter makes a sudden reappearance. Queen Mabh has her spies in this realm. And she holds a pretty serious grudge against Auberon. What if she caught wind somehow that Kelley was alive—that she’s living in New York, but Mabh doesn’t know exactly where. Well, what’s the easiest way to eliminate one person in a crowd?”

  “Eliminate the crowd,” Beni said grimly. “That’s harsh.”

  “Not to mention messy,” Bryan agreed.

  “Mabh likes a good bloodbath every now and then. She hasn’t had much opportunity to wreak havoc since Auberon locked her away. Now here is a perfect opportunity for a little fun and a lot of revenge.”

  “It’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility,” Godwyn said.

  “Seems your little actress is in a world of trouble, Irish boy,” Fennrys laughed.

  “Maybe we could stand a guard around her,” Percival suggested.

  “We’re going to have our hands full as it is,” the Wolf protested. “Especially if this threat of the Wild Hunt comes to pass.”

  “But we’re supposed to be watching out for people,” Percival said, bristling. “Keeping them safe. And none of this is her fault.”

  “Perry’s right,” Aaneel said, rubbing at his chin. Then he turned back to the rest of the changelings. His next words were as good as orders. “We are a poor excuse for guardians if we sacrifice the few for the sake
of the many in the course of our duties. The girl is blameless. She should be kept safe, if at all possible.” He turned to Sonny. “Hide her again, Sonny. And hide her well.”

  “Where?” Sonny asked. “How?”

  Aaneel thought about it for a long moment. The rest of the Janus stood by patiently and waited until he spoke. “Take her to the Green. She’ll be safe there. She can hide out until the threat of the Hunt has passed, and then it will be up to her to decide if she wants to go with Auberon. And if she doesn’t, then we’ll at least have the time to figure out a way to keep her hidden permanently.”

  Sonny frowned but nodded. Aaneel was right. “I’ll need passage.”

  “I can set you up,” Cait volunteered immediately. She flipped open the top flap on her leather messenger bag and began rummaging in its depths. “I have enough payment for two safe passages. I was going to go there myself for my next birthday but, really? The last time I went, I didn’t have such a very good time.”

  “Why not?” Maddox asked. “I’ve never been, but I heard it’s something else.”

  Beside Cait, Selene laughed. “One of the waiters there is an overfriendly garden gnome. Wouldn’t leave her alone.”

  “The little fiend,” Cait muttered, and blushed crimson.

  “He kept trying to look up her skirt and lick her ankles!”

  “So anyway…” Cait glared at Selene as she handed over a red suede pouch jingling with coins. “Here you go.”

  “Thank you, Cait,” Sonny said.

  “Don’t mention it.” She smiled. “But do me a favor: If you see a gnome in a floppy orange hat carrying a tray of drinks about while you’re there?…Trip him.”

  “Just for you.”

  Back at his apartment, Sonny grabbed several hours of restless sleep, forcing himself to stay in bed long enough to recharge his weary muscles.

  When he got up, he took a long, hot shower, only to find a surprise awaiting him. He saw, written in steam on his bathroom mirror, a time and place—instructions from Mabh on when and where he would have to deliver Lucky to her minions, the Storm Hags. Wiping the mirror clear, he shaved and changed his shirt three times, trying to decide on something that—if he was honest with himself—he thought Kelley would like. Then he set out to find his wayward Faerie princess.

  XXVII

  T here was a knock on the door.

  “Just a sec,” Kelley called, and put aside the old hairbrush she’d been using to try to comb the tangles out of Lucky’s mane, with little success. The Faerie horse butted at her, and she affectionately scratched his nose.

  There was another knock, more insistent this time.

  Kelley got up and headed for the door. “Tyff?”

  The door swung inward as Kelley gave it a pull, and she saw that it wasn’t Tyff.

  The largest bouquet of roses she had ever seen obscured the features of the person standing there holding them. The bouquet lowered slightly, and Kelley saw Sonny’s eyes over the tops of the peach-colored blooms.

  She was thrilled and simultaneously horrified. She hadn’t been expecting visitors and was wearing yoga pants and a faded hoodie. She was also covered in reddish strands of horsehair and Lucky Charms sugar dust. Yelping, she jumped behind the door.

  “Sonny! What are you doing here?”

  “I came to see you.”

  “You can’t.”

  “You’ve learned the art of invisibility?”

  “What? No!” She blinked, and stayed behind the door. “Wait. Can I do that?”

  “Probably.”

  “Oh…”

  “May I come in?”

  “No! I’m a mess! I mean—the place is a mess.” She glanced behind her shoulder to the obviously immaculate apartment beyond.

  She could hear the smile in Sonny’s voice as he said, “I happen to think ‘the place’ looks absolutely wonderful,” and stuck the bunch of flowers around the door. “May I come in?” he asked again.

  “Yes,” she answered. Surrendering, she plucked the bouquet from his fist.

  He followed a few steps as Kelley went into the kitchen but stopped as a high-pitched whinny sounded from the bathroom. “Is that…?”

  “The only horse currently residing in my apartment?” she said, filling a vase with water. “Yup. Go say hi. Just, you know, watch out for the fangs and flaming eye beams.”

  “The what?”

  “I’m kidding.” She laughed. “Go. He’s harmless. You’ll see.”

  Sonny shook his head. “You’ve obviously forgotten that, in my line of work, fangs and flaming eye beams aren’t necessarily uncommon.”

  As he edged into the bathroom, Kelley clipped and arranged the roses; she counted more than two dozen of them. She took them out into the living room and sat on the couch, placing the vase on the coffee table. Then she pulled the elastic band from her hair and raked hasty fingers through it. She heard water running in the bathroom sink and then Sonny came out into the main room, drying his hands on a guest towel.

  “He sneezed on you, didn’t he?”

  “Yes. Yes he did.”

  Kelley tried to pull a straight face. “But I also notice he did not try to strip the flesh from your bones.”

  “I’d almost rather he’d tried that,” Sonny said ruefully.

  Kelley laughed, fidgeting with her placement of the vase. “They’re beautiful,” she said, failing “casual” miserably.

  He shrugged and said, “I just thought—after the past few days you’ve had—that you could use something…”

  “Nice?” she finished, remembering their first encounter. “Are you going to disappear again before I have a chance to thank you?”

  “No.”

  “Thank you.”

  “For the flowers? Or for not leaving?” He smiled and sat on the arm of the couch. “Kelley…I have to take Lucky back to the Otherworld. To the court of Queen Mabh.”

  Kelley stared at him, a cold sensation spreading through her chest. “Mabh. Isn’t she the one who is probably causing all these problems with Lucky in the first place? No. I’m not giving him to her.” Kelley crossed her arms, prepared to fight.

  Sonny put out a placating hand. “She sent one of her minions, a Storm Hag, to see me. The Hag said that the whole thing was a mistake. That it—that Lucky—should never have been brought to this realm.”

  “Couldn’t this Storm Hag have been lying?”

  “Faerie don’t lie. They may not always be the most forthcoming with the truth, but they do not lie outright. Kelley, I know how fond you are of Lucky.” Sonny moved from the arm of the couch to sit beside her and took one of her hands in his. “But he can’t stand in your bathtub forever, can he? If he stays, he poses a grave danger to the whole mortal realm. He will be destroyed. He’ll have to be. Otherwise he will become the destroyer. I know you don’t want that.”

  “I just hate the thought of sending him back to that place….”

  “Mabh granted me a boon if I return him, and what I will ask is that she will see to it that he is well cared for, and that she will not subject him to further enchantment.”

  Kelley raised her gaze to meet his. “You’d do that? When you could ask her for anything?”

  He nodded, and she could see in his clear gray eyes that he meant it. “He’s important to you. So that makes him important to me.”

  Kelley rose from the couch and went to the bathroom door, leaning on the door frame. Lucky flicked his tail at her and blew a soap bubble out of his nose in greeting. He’d figured out how to do it on command and seemed to take great delight in the ability now. Kelley bit her lip, trying not to cry. It was silly. Sonny was right. She couldn’t keep him standing in the tub.

  “He’ll sure be missed, and not just by me.” Kelley sighed. “Tyff actually went out and stocked up on all his favorite cereal.”

  “Who’s Tyff?” Sonny asked.

  Before Kelley could answer, the front door swung wide and her roommate appeared in the doorway as if summoned. Sonny t
ook one look at her and threw himself off the arm of the couch, sinking into a defensive crouch.

  “Seelie witch!” he cried, striking a menacing en garde pose.

  Tyff’s eyes blazed like comets. Her beautiful face twisted in an expression of pure hatred. “Faerie killer!” she spat.

  “One toe over that threshold and you die,” Sonny snarled, interposing his body between Kelley and the door. “Go back to the Otherworld and tell Titania this girl is under my protection. You seek her at your peril.”

  Tyff blinked. “What?”

  “Or is it Mabh you work for, harlot?” Sonny’s voice was a low growl in his throat. “Your kind have slippery allegiances, I know. Well, the Darkling Queen can no more have her than can Titania. Kelley is no pawn!”

  “What exactly are you talking about, you deranged lunatic?” Tyff shrieked.

  “On my honor as a Janus Guard, I tell you I will not let you harm one hair on her head!”

  “Sonny, she’s not—,” Kelley tried desperately to interject.

  “It’s all right, Kelley—you’re safe.”

  “‘On your honor as a Janus Guard’?” Tyff said sarcastically. “Oh, that’s rich! Janus have no honor. Otherwise you wouldn’t be standing in the middle of my apartment uninvited!”

  “You lie. This is not your place—”

  “She doesn’t!” Kelley interrupted loudly. “It is her place.” She turned to her roommate. “And he’s not uninvited. I invited him in. Tyff, come inside and close the door. Mrs. Madsen down the hall is going to call the cops if you two don’t pipe down!”

  Sonny’s eyes narrowed. “Kelley, she’s more dangerous than you know—”

  “Oh, stow it, fleshling.” Tyff stepped over the threshold and slammed the door behind her. “You know what I am and so you know perfectly well that I am incapable of lying. Why the hell would I hurt her? She pays me outrageous rent!”

  “What?” Sonny straightened slightly, looking utterly confused.

  “She’s my roommate. Wait a minute…are you the creep who’s been stalking her in the park?”

  “Yes—no!” Sonny protested. “I’m not stalking her!”