A Fae in Fort Worth (11 page)

Both dwarves chuckled merrily. I don’t think either noticed how much that last sentence made me bristle. Could helping Donella escape be considered an act of treason? Probably, and in the Fae Realm, highly likely. It was only after the dwarves had turned their backs that I shot a worried glance at Mitch. As I was beginning to learn, there was little that could ruffle his feathers and this was no exception. He shrugged, looking completely unconcerned.

“Besides,” Brokk continued. “It will only require one of us to show you the way to the palace. Durin will wait here for our return.”

Well, that was something, but it did little to alleviate the nervous flutters in my stomach. Mitch nodded for me to follow Brokk as he brought up the rear.

The cavern led into a series of tunnels and underground caves. The ceiling lowered in some places, so much so that Mitch and I had to crouch low to get through. The farther we walked, the wider the passageway became until I noticed a light at the end. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Nearly there,” Brokk informed us as he navigated expertly along the path.

During our meeting, Avery had told us that the queen was holding Donella in a room on the upper floor of the Seelie Court palace. When she’d first been taken, Donella had been placed under guard to prevent Avery from getting to her. He was sure his mother wouldn’t keep her so heavily guarded after he’d been banished. Everyone in the Fairy realm was loyal to Orlaith so she’d have no fear of a Fae helping a prisoner to escape. Avery believed the very last thing the queen would expect was for a couple of hunters to try to rescue her. I hoped he was right, but the odds of us strolling into the palace then leaving with Donella without alerting the guards or the queen herself had to be pretty slim.

That morning before we’d left for the sanctuary, Mitch had given me one of two iron daggers he’d brought with him to Fort Worth. The Fae were highly allergic to the metal and even though they could tolerate being in its presence, if the iron were to pierce their skin, it would prove deadly. Mine was safely tucked into the waistband of my jeans, sitting against my hip. I hoped I wouldn’t need to use it. The Fae of the Seelie Court were supposedly benevolent, but we couldn’t afford to take any chances. If we were discovered, I had no doubt that the consequences would be dire.

“Ah, here we are,” Brokk said as a light shone at the end of the tunnel. It became brighter as we neared.

We walked on for maybe another hundred yards before the entrance to the cave came fully into sight. I hadn’t had any preconceptions about what the Fairy realm would look like, so when we stepped out of the cave into the bright afternoon sun on the side of a hill which overlooked the palace and a wide expanse of lake beyond, I wasn’t surprised. The palace was magnificent. It was built in the style of a British medieval castle with turrets and a moat. There was a small wood at the bottom of the hill which would lead us to the palace, but it was nothing like the rainforest illusion of the sanctuary so my heart kept beating at a steady pace when we approached it.

Mitch had never visited the Fae realm before, but he smiled reassuringly at me, took my hand and gave it a squeeze as we entered through a gap in the trees. This wasn’t too bad. I’d begun to regain my hope that we were going to make it home safely when we were confronted with our first test of the day.

“Who enters the boundaries of the Seelie Court?” A low, booming voice sounded around us, making me flinch and stumble over a felled tree trunk that I could have sworn hadn’t been there before.

“We are friends of the queen,” Brokk answered calmly. “We seek an audience with Her Majesty.”

Crap. This wasn’t good. This really wasn’t good. Mitch and I had told the dwarves that we needed to go to the Fairy realm to speak with Orlaith, but we’d hoped we’d be able to lose the dwarves when we got to the palace so that we could rescue Donella without their knowledge and without having to see the queen. We were one dwarf down, but it appeared the rest of our plan was already shot to pieces.

We had a plan B of course, but it consisted mostly of Mitch meeting with the queen and ‘winging it’. In retrospect it seemed like the dumbest idea in the history of dumb ideas, but we’d had little time and hadn’t known what we were walking into. Because of that, we’d been unable to formulate a rock-solid plan which we were certain would save our asses. Mitch, however, had assured me he worked better on the fly. He had the difficult task in my opinion. He had to meet with the queen and there was no telling how that would pan out. I just had to rescue Donella. How hard could that be?

The disjointed voice said no more and all too soon, when we came to the edge of the wood, the palace came into view. What I hadn’t seen from the hill—because it had been hidden from view by the wood—was the small hamlet of log huts we had to pass through to get to the palace. The hamlet appeared to be deserted, but as we neared its centre, a large group of pixies danced around a roaring fire. They whispered to one another as we neared then ran to us, tugging on our hands, their high-pitched giggles sounding childlike.

“Uh, where are they taking us?” I asked as the pixies pulled us along the path towards one of the huts.

Brokk’s face contorted with anger and he roared at the pixies. “Leave us! We have no time for your games.”

With offended expressions and murmurs of outrage, they let go of our hands and ran off into the distance, the wings on their backs fluttering. I watched them go until they’d disappeared then noticed an old man watching us from the open doorway of the hut they’d been leading us to. He was studying us intently with an intelligent gaze, although Mitch and Brokk didn’t appear to have noticed him standing there.

I started to follow Mitch and the dwarf again, but my attention kept getting drawn back to the old man. He was human in appearance, his face rugged and world-weary. Long, straggly, dark hair fell loosely over his shoulders. He wore a floor-length, brown robe tied at the waist with a piece of rope. I’m not sure what made me go to him, but I was drawn to his side by the most potent compulsion and I felt powerless to do anything but surrender to the desire.

When I reached his hut, I climbed the four narrow steps up to his porch until I stood in front of him. He bowed low then straightened. He stood just a couple of inches taller than me.

“I am Foster,” he greeted holding out his hand. “Guardian of the forest. Welcome to my home.”

I looked down at his hand and reached out to take it without hesitation. “Pleased to meet—”

“Ashley!” I jumped at the sound of Mitch’s loud voice calling my name. “Jesus, there you are.”

I tore my hand away from Foster’s and it was only then I realised that he had given me something. I looked down to see a pale blue crystal as big as an apricot in my hand.

“A gift,” Foster whispered. “You will need it to regain what was lost.”

I turned to ask him what he meant by that, but the Fae was no longer standing beside me and the door to the hut was closed.

“What are you doing here?” Mitch asked, climbing the stairs to the porch. The lines on his handsome face were etched with worry and I was touched that he was so concerned about me. He looked at the door before bringing his attention back to me. “I turned to talk to you and you’d gone. Frightened the hell out of me.”

I opened my mouth to tell Mitch about the old man when Brokk appeared at the bottom of the steps. I closed it again and shook my head imperceptibly.

“Come on, come on,” Brokk said. “The queen doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

I nodded and jogged down the steps, slipping the crystal into the pocket of my jeans before I reached the dwarf. When I turned to see if Mitch was following I saw him frown and gaze back at the door one last time before joining us. We made it to the palace without further incident, but Mitch and I didn’t get a minute alone to talk so I couldn’t tell him about the crystal.

The strange and brief meeting with Foster went out of my mind as soon as we’d crossed the bridge over the moat and neared the palace and I got my first look at it up close. The building was enormous. Tall and imposing, built entirely of grey stone, it loomed over us.

Movement overhead caught my eye as we walked to the palace door and when I looked up, I saw several large, winged gargoyles sitting on the towers, watching our approach, their intent gazes shifting between Mitch and I as their wings flapped. A sliver of fear edged up my spine as I stared at them, but then the loud creak of the palace doors opening drew my attention. A harried-looking elf appeared in the doorway.

“This way,” he said with a sweep of his hand. “The queen is expecting you.”

“I’ll leave you here,” Brokk said. “I’ll be waiting back at the village to escort you home.”

The hope in my chest swelled. That meant both dwarves would be out of the way. Now we just needed some time alone to snoop around the palace. “Thank you, Brokk,” I replied. “We’ll try not to keep you too long.”

He bowed low then took off in the direction we’d just come.

I followed Mitch into the entrance hall. “Actually,” I said to the elf, “it was Mitch who wanted to speak to the queen. I was hoping I might be able to take a look around this wonderful palace. It’s very beautiful. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

The elf puffed out his chest proudly. “I would be happy to give you a guided tour
after
you’ve met with the queen,” he returned. “She requires the attendance of all visitors to the palace.”

Damn and blast.

“Of course,” I responded, plastering a fake smile on my face. “It will give me something to look forward to.”

The elf beamed. “My name is Eldan. I’ll take you to see the queen now. She’s in the sun room. I’ll be waiting in the kitchen. Find me when you’ve finished your meeting and I’ll escort you around the palace.”

I chanced a glance at Mitch and when he looked back at me, it was with the faintest trace of a smile on his lips. If we were left alone to find the elf after our meeting with Orlaith then that would give us the perfect opportunity to find Donella. Still, I didn’t want to build up my hopes too much—we had to get through our audience with Orlaith first.

The entrance hallway was enormous. It had vaulted ceilings and a wide staircase sat in the middle, dominating the space. There was no furniture in sight or paintings on the walls. Nothing. It was like an empty shell and everything was white. The ceiling, the stairs, the walls, even the floor was a plain white marble. The harsh colour made the palace feel cold and uninviting. From the outside, the castle held a promise of luxury—antique furniture, thick rugs and rich tapestries. Inside, it went to the extreme of ‘contemporary living’. I couldn’t understand why the elf had been so eager to show me around. If the rest of the building looked like this then there would be nothing to see.

Eldan led us down a corridor then stopped in front of the first door he came to. He wrapped his knuckles on it once before pushing it open. Mitch and I waited outside.

“Your Majesty, your guests have arrived,” he announced.

“Show them in, Eldan,” the queen commanded. The cadence of her voice was deep and filled with authority. I could sense the strong buzz of magic in the air from our position outside the door.

Eldan reappeared and ushered us inside the room, taking off down the corridor before I could thank him.

“Your Majesty,” Mitch greeted smoothly. “It’s very good of you to see us today at such short notice.” His voice held a touch of reverence and when I turned to the queen, getting my first look at her, I sucked in a sharp breath.

Orlaith, the elfin queen of the Seelie Court, was breathtaking. I had never seen anyone who even came close to comparing to her beauty. It was ethereal. Fair-skinned like all elves, she had lustrous, white-blonde hair which fell in long waves down to her waist. Her ears were long and pointy and thin horns protruded from the hair on the top of her head. But it was her face which was the most spectacular. It was perfectly symmetrical with delicate features and her eyes were the same pale blue as a cloudless sky on a hot summer’s day. Her entire body shone with an inner light which made her appear as otherworldly as in fact she was.

Orlaith was standing in front of a large window, framed by sunlight which shone on her tall, curvy body as if it were a spotlight trained on her. I felt the need to curtsy or bow before her and offer my undying allegiance. I resisted the urge—but only just. “Your Majesty,” I said instead.

The queen ignored me, keeping her gaze on Mitch, and when the unmistakable heat of lust flashed in her eyes, I felt an irrational pang of jealousy.

“It is no inconvenience,” she told Mitch. “You are more than welcome to visit me at my home. If I had known you were coming, I would have dressed for the occasion. You must forgive my casual attire.”

I looked over her white floor-length silk gown which clung to her body, outlining her every enviable curve, and tried not to roll my eyes.

“You’re perfect just as you are,” Mitch replied. “Your beauty is incomparable.”

What? Well, isn’t that just charming.
My mouth fell open and I glared at Mitch, but he didn’t turn my way. He was enthralled with Orlaith, his face filled with rapture. It was then I realised that he was staring directly into the queen’s eyes. Crap. He was clearly under Orlaith’s glamour, or at least, I hoped he was. Mitch might be a terrible flirt, but I didn’t think he would normally be an insensitive jerk. I needed to do something and fast.

“We’re very sorry to bother you,” I began, taking a step forward. “And we don’t want to take up too much of your time. We’re very busy ourselves actually. We have all this work for the Hunters’ Council then we have our wedding to plan. It’s non-stop.”

The queen’s head snapped in my direction and her face, which had at first seemed unbearably beautiful, distorted with anger, giving a glimpse of some of the ugliness that was within. “Your
wedding
?”

I nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, we’re getting married soon, isn’t that right, honey?” I nudged Mitch hard in his side. “We’re trying to arrange the big day for before the baby arrives.” I patted my stomach and smiled sweetly at Mitch, willing him to get with the programme.