The Steward (54 page)

I exhaled loudly, trying to joke a little to lighten my mood. “This better work.”

He grinned at me.

“Of course it will. It is my idea after all.”

I knew he was sugarcoating it because he didn’t mention the prospect of meeting another Aetherfae—a real possibility that had both of us worried. I drove to the abandoned road and pulled as close to the boulders as possible. Billy put his hand on the hood, and my pink Thunderbird quickly transformed into a large gray blob that shrank and solidified into a boulder.

“Is that
really
necessary?”

“Yes. You wouldn’t want anyone coming down the road to see it—but I’ll change it back, better than new, I promise.”

“Well, better than new? I’m holding you to that!” I felt the smile spread across my face despite my nerves.

The moon had been full the night before. It was waning tonight, and huge clouds floated beneath a starlit sky. Moonlight cast a blue glow on everything, but the dark shadows stole my attention. I went back through the charade of being scared—it wasn’t hard, honestly. My voluntary shudder turned real halfway up the hill and the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
This totally sucks.
As we headed up the hill I searched with my mind, but I didn’t sense any Fae above me at the
Seoladán. Billy didn’t either—I could tell by the concerned look on his face.

My nerves took over when I saw the greenhouse above me. It was so quiet, too quiet—not even a breeze blowing. In fact, there wasn’t any sound at all, except crunching as we walked on dead leaves. It unnerved me, so I extended my mind and blew the leaves out of our path all the way to the fountain.

Glancing at my lucky watch, we were still a few minutes early. I had focused on Chalen during the previous visits and never noticed the details before. The situation was creepy, but I considered how beautiful the gardens must have been fifty years ago.

The journals said that the flowerbed around the fountain had been a moon garden, completely filled with white roses and other white flowers. I ignored the dead weeds and imagined it that way—stunning, I bet. For the first time, I realized that the beds were in the shape of a huge triquetra,
with the
circular moon garden in the middle, and all of it set inside the circular perimeter wall.

The cottage was in a terrible state of disrepair, but I
could see its past
beauty
hidden under the filth and weeds
. Mom really had captured every detail of how it was supposed to look. Seeing it like this, with cracked panes in the small second floor window, and missing roof slates, was profoundly sad. The stucco walls were cracked and stained and the gingerbread along the soffits was rotted and hanging down in a few places. In this state, it was more a childhood nightmare than a storybook cottage.

Billy walked a
r
ound the perimeter of the wall, to the well, and studied it. Next, he checked the abandoned cottage and grabbed something—a paper maybe—from the front door.

Billy was agitated when he returned.

“What is it?”

“Chalen doesn’t want you to deliver the answer here
,” he said, staring at the torn paper in his hand.

“Then where?”
M
y voice trailed off as I knew, without seeing the note, exactly where
—t
he island. Chalen stacked the deck again. It was the Unseelie cycle.

“You are not going. He can learn of your answer when the Council does.” Billy said adamantly.

I thought about what Billy suggested and shook my head.

“That’s not possible, Billy. How many Unseelie are on the island right now, a hundred, a thousand, more? ...an Unseelie Aetherfae?”

“Exactly, Maggie, you are not going there. No, out of the question! If you get into trouble on the island, the Council will not risk it to come to your aid—this is their time. The island is the most dangerous place in the world for you right now.”

Classic Fae stubbornness—so predictable.
“Billy, please
!
Y
ou have to think about something else. My family and friends are all down at the bottom of the hill—they’re in danger if I
don’t
go. Do you really think Chalen has set this up just to wait to be informed by the Council? No! You know it, and I know it! If I don’t show up, he’ll do terrible things—they all will. Even if the Seelie in the garden help us, there are only eight of them, and what ... maybe two or three more close by
?
With you and Sara that makes maybe thirteen—if we’re lucky. They’ll kill all of us. I know in my gut I have to do this, and I’ll be alright.”
That last part is a fricken’ lie.

He shook his head. “There has to be another way
.
”

“I don’t think so. He planned this, he knew you were guarding me and my family, he knew I wouldn’t come up here until the last moment, and he knew you or Sara would be with me—he’s given me no choice.”

I grabbed the note and read it.
“
It says to meet him on the second island—now!
I’m
going
!
”

“You are the most stubborn, intransigent, obdurate, mule-headed human being I’ve ever known,” he snapped.

“But you know I’m right
.
”

He paused, exhaled, and then nodded. “I’m going with you. I can stay offshore—you must not leave the shore—promise me!”

“Yes, if I can avoid it, I promise.”

“Maggie!”

“No, that’s the best I can do. This is in his hands now.” I exhaled. “Do you think he knows I’m Water inclined?”

“I don’t think so. You’re right about him—he’s arrogant. I believe he thinks you’ll be too terrified to refuse him. He is clever, yes, but I think—no, I hope—he intends to do nothing more than scare you into submission—and he will scare you for the entertainment of all of them. Maggie, please reconsider. I can go get the Council right now.”

That might just work.
“Where are they?”

“Spread all over
. T
hey’re convening here tonight at midnight, but Sherman and Victoria are close
. T
hey can find the rest of
the
Council
within the hour.”

His plan was much more attractive than a suicide mission. But as I considered it I heard a thunder clap in the distance
,
and the wind picked
up
almost immediately. To the west, along the horizon, a storm
blew
in. I knew what that meant—trouble.

“I don’t have time.”

He studied the clouds.
“No, we don’t. Dam
m
it. Go down to the dock and get the boat ready—don’t leave
!
I’ll go let Sara know what’s going on and I’ll meet you
at the dock
.”

Billy popped out and I felt him streak down the hill. I turned and ran back towards the driveway. My heart
pounded
when I crossed the drive and headed down the tiny road towards Sara’s old cottage. In a little ravine
,
I turned left and followed a dry stream bed towards the end of the cove, just down from the dock. I stumbled in the dark over logs and rocks, and my mind flashed back to the night when Gavin left.
Not now, idiot.
I pushed harder until I found the path.

I untied the boat and worked on all the fasteners to get the cover off. When I climbed behind the steering wheel I realized that I didn’t have the keys.

“Crap! I can’t go back into the cottage and grab the boat keys—hey Mom, Dad, just going for
a
midnight cruise—by myself—in December. Crap!”

I studied the key hole.
It’s just a connection, right? Electricity.
I felt the battery and traced the wire, sensing the energy back to it. There were three wires connected to the ignition. I made the connection, arcing
an electrical
current through the wires until I smelled melting plastic. I forced them together until the starter turned slowly. I generated a little more energy through the battery
,
and the starter spun faster. The engine came to life.

I looked for Billy, but he wasn’t back yet.

He’ll catch up.

I motored past the dock towards the center of the cove where I knew I wouldn’t hit anything. Up the hill, the Christmas lights lit up the cottage, and light poured through the big windows on the back. People were moving around inside. I hoped that none of them would look down at the lake and see me. It was dark,
so
they probably wouldn’t.

The storm
edged closer,
and it was cold. My hands
felt
numb when I made it past the point and gunned the engine. Billy still wasn’t back when I passed the first island. There weren’t any Unseelie on it. The second island, however, was full of them. Not nearly as many as I had feared, but still, I counted fifty. I shuddered again—cold and terrified. The waves grew bigger, and water
slapped
the side
s
of the boat, rocking me
from
side to side. After piloting the Chris Craft around to the north side of the island, I glanced up at the sky.
The storm isn’t here, but it’s close—just a few minutes.

I wanted to wait for Billy, so I sat off shore, motoring and steering to keep the Capri in place. As I struggled, the water
grew still ahead
of me—as still as bath water.
They
were inviting me
to come
closer, and it wasn’t an invitation I could refuse. A wave, like a watery hand, pulled the Capri into the calm area, and even though it frightened me, I didn’t fight it or try to speed away. Instead, I cut the engine, letting the connection under the dash fall away. As the motor sputtered to a stop, I searched for Billy one more time. Nothing.
Billy, Please...
Silent begging didn’t matter, though. The Fae on the island drew me slowly toward shore.

My heart
pounded
in my throat, as fast as a hummingbird’s. None of them were visible on the beach or in the black tree line, but I knew where each one
waited
. The boat drifted up
to
the shore, and I felt exposed when the hull made
the
gentle thud of contact.
Sitting will drive me crazy for sure—I need to be moving
.

I climbed over the windshield and lashed the rope to the rock outcropping. Being tied to the island made me feel like an animal caught in a hunter’s trap.

I took a long deep breath.

Okay, game on.

“Chalen?”

No answer.

I waited for a few seconds. “Chalen, I’m here ... with a decision.”

Still no answer.

One of them flitted past me in the darkness, probably as an insect. I didn’t look, and wondered if they knew I could sense them. I had kept that secret since the Air trial. But if a member of the Council
worked
with them, they knew it too. It got closer this time and I heard the humming of tiny insect wings streak past my ear. There were a couple more of them on the next pass, then a dozen. They weren’t hitting me but they were harassing me. I threw up my barrier, forcing them away several feet.

That’s what they wanted
.

Chalen had been inside my barrier at the Water trial and he knew it deprived me of my senses—or at least it had. Billy had taught me to feel past it. I didn’t do it yet
—in
stead, I did exactly what I thought they expected. I acted like I couldn’t hear anything and twisted my head around, spastically.