“Well,” he said, as he thought about it. “I told you that I don’t believe in any such thing as coincidence. However, I also think that you may have felt drawn to the park for the simple reason that you just felt drawn to the park. A lot of people are, you know. People who aren’t…like you. Just because of what you are doesn’t mean that anything is predestined for you, Kelley. I’ll help make sure of that.”
“Would you say that even if I decided to embrace the legacy of my blood?” she asked, quietly, so that the driver wouldn’t hear her. “If I took up the mantle of a Faerie princess?” A tiny fist of panic lodged in her throat as she said the words, and she found it hard to swallow. The carousel had reminded her once again of just what it might mean if she allowed herself to become one of the Fair Folk. Although Kelley could not deny that there was a wily, seductive appeal in that notion, it terrified her almost as much as it thrilled her.
“Kelley.” Sonny looked her square in the eyes. He took her hand in his. “I will help you be whatever you want to be. I promise.”
Her fear vanished, and Kelley found herself mesmerized. His hair that night fell in loose, dark waves on either side of his face, and Kelley couldn’t restrain herself from reaching out and tucking a stray lock behind his ear. His gaze deepened. Kelley felt suddenly breathless.
“Almost there,” the driver called, and they reluctantly broke eye contact. Kelley thought she heard a strange, almost inhuman quality to the woman’s voice. Belrix increased his pace to a trot.
Kelley sat up and looked around. The park appeared familiar and foreign at the same time. “
“I told you. I’m taking you someplace safe.” Sonny smiled at her gently.
“And you don’t have to, uh, work tonight?”
“Tonight, you are my work.”
“Oh.” She didn’t exactly like the idea of being some kind of assignment.
“What’s the matter?” Sonny glanced down at the tone of her voice.
“Nothing. I just thought…never mind. I guess being a princess means I get to have a bodyguard, huh?”
“Something like that,” he said. “The Janus all agreed. You should be protected.”
“I see. The Janus all agreed, did they?” Kelley pulled away from Sonny, hugging her elbows tight to her body.
“Did I say something wrong?” Sonny frowned worriedly.
“No.” She sighed. “No…I’m just having a little trouble adjusting to all the fuss over me, I guess. I should have known…never mind. So where
Sonny stared at the road ahead of them. “Somewhere where there are others who can protect you. In case I’m not there. I hope I am…”
“Why on earth wouldn’t you be there?” she said, laughing. “You’re always there. Even when I’ve told you to go away!”
Sonny took both of her hands in one of his. She could feel his long, strong fingers laced with hers, and felt her heart racing. Sonny laid the fingers of his free hand alongside her cheek and tilted her face up.
“Please be there,” Kelley whispered, suddenly afraid.
“Believe me, Kelley. If I’m not…it’s because I’m already dead.” He stroked her hair, and she could feel his breath warm on her forehead, like a kiss. “Because anyone that would seek to hurt you would have to kill me first.”
She shivered, and Sonny put an arm around her.
She thought about Auberon’s words to her in her dressing room. About how it wasn’t in Sonny’s nature to love what she might become. Whatever
Just as she thought that, Belrix rounded a bend, pulling the buggy up in front of the Tavern on the Green, and Kelley realized that she was about to find out a whole lot more.
Kelley had been to Central Park’s famed Tavern on the Green once before. In the first week after her move to New York, Aunt Emma had come to town-a rare thing, since she hated the city-and taken Kelley for dinner there. Inside it was a maze of mirrored halls, rococo stained glass, stag antlers mounted on chestnut-paneled walls, and fairy-tale murals. The main dining room was a glass gazebo festooned with a whimsical assortment of chandeliers of all colors and sizes, fracturing light into rainbows that danced across walls painted with cloud castles and winged horses.
Outside in the courtyard, every tree was wrapped with strings of tiny electric lights, and garlands of paper lanterns swung between the overarching branches. The bushes that surrounded the garden were trimmed into fantastic shapes-a prancing horse, a mermaid, even-with a New York sense of humor-a great, green, shrubby King Kong.
It had all seemed so fantastical.
At the time.
But on this night, Kelley knew she was in for something infinitely
Sonny swung himself down from the carriage, holding out a hand so that she could step to the ground without injuring either herself or Tyff’s gown. Kelley wasn’t used to wearing shoes with such high heels. He stuck out an elbow, beaming, and Kelley took his arm. She felt as though she might actually be blushing so she looked away, in time to notice that the doorman in the green top hat and long frock coat wasn’t wearing pants. He didn’t have to- beneath the hem of his coat, his legs were shaggy with brown fur and ended in delicate, cloven goat’s hooves.
“Master Flannery,” he greeted Sonny. Kelley noticed that he raised a saturnine eyebrow at the Janus, a silent question implicit in the expression. “Long has it been since you have honored Herne’s house with your presence. And the lady…?”
“The lady is my guest. I would have her exceptionally well looked after. She is…important to me. To all of us, I think.”
“Then she is welcome here, of course,” the faun said as he swept his hat off in greeting to her. Kelley tried very hard not to stare at the tiny horns curling back from beside his tufted ears. The strange little doorman gestured them up to the front doors, which swung wide at their approach.
“Did he say
“He did,” rumbled a deep voice from beneath the archway. “I am Herne. Welcome to my Tavern on the Green…”
“My lord.” Sonny bowed deeply to the magnificent figure standing before them.
Kelley felt her jaw drop. She sank into a curtsy, silently grateful for the semester of ballet classes she’d taken back in theater school. Herne was exactly as she had seen him in the vision Sonny had shown her, like nothing so much as a god from an old storybook of Celtic tales.
Herne the Hunter-in the flesh.
XXX
Herne wore a deep-green sleeveless tunic that fell in folds to the floor and was held together over his bare, muscled chest with a heavy gold chain. His breeches were of dark leather, with ragged unfinished hems over bare feet. His wrists were circled with thick gold cuffs, and around his throat he wore a heavy gold torc. His dark hair was swept back, and on either side of his head a pair of stag antlers arched from an elaborate headdress that circled his brow. His eyes blazed like a fire in a hearth as he welcomed them.
Sonny couldn’t keep from gazing at the shining girl at his side as she dipped gracefully in a curtsy of respect. Together they walked into Herne’s Tavern.
Sonny took the Hunter aside and spoke to him in low tones, informing him of his companion’s true identity, as he watched Kelley out of the corner of his eye. Her eyes tracked through the room, following the people-the
