Perfect.
At the press of Sonny’s lips against hers, Kelley felt the world around her-
“I love
With those words, tears spilled down her face.
“Oh, my heart,” he said, and gathered her into his arms, and Kelley wondered why she was weeping. It could have been with fear, or sorrow-fear of losing him, sorrow at what he had already risked for her…or maybe she just wept from pure, incandescent joy. She felt all of those things in that moment.
He held her close for an eternity that seemed like an eye-blink when they heard the approach of footsteps in the leafy forest passageway behind them. Sonny loosened his embrace but did not let her go, gazing down at her.
Behind them, Herne quietly cleared his throat. “Janus? I do not wish to disturb, but my doorman watches the skies of the mortal realm and informs me that there are Cailleach hovering over the park. Storm Hags. The time approaches for your departure, if you are to keep your appointment with the Darkling Queen’s representatives.”
“Thank you, my lord.” With a reluctance Kelley could feel, he gently disentangled his limbs from hers and stood. He slung his bag over his shoulder and held Kelley’s script out to her. She shook her head.
“Keep it,” she said, and folded his hands back over the rumpled pages. “Keep it for me. For luck.”
“Only if you promise not to forget that one line,” he said as he stepped close again.
Kelley glowed up at him. “Not on your life.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise.” Sonny’s eyes shone with a whole book of unsaid things-promises of more than just his return. “Wait for me.”
XXXII
Tyffanwy had gone so far as to tie a little red bow in Lucky’s forelock. He looked like a Pekingese dog fresh from the groomer.
“I figured I might as well give him the full salon treatment.” She snuffled a bit, and Sonny noticed that her lovely eyes were red-rimmed.
“Thank you for this, Tyff,” he said. “I know you know how important it is.”
“Yeah, well. You tell Mabh she’d better take care of him”-the Faerie sniffed fiercely-“or there’ll be hell to pay! I have a few favors of my own that I can call in, should I find myself so inclined.”
“I will,” he said-and made a mental note to stay on Tyffanwy’s good side. “C’mon, Lucky. Let’s get you home and end this.”
When Sonny pulled a slim rope out of his satchel and tied a loose loop around Lucky’s neck, he seemed to understand. The kelpie lifted his delicate hooves out of the tub, one by one, and stepped lightly out onto the bathroom floor. Sonny eyed the window skeptically. It seemed far too small for the kelpie to make his way through, but Lucky trooped obediently over to it and nudged the pane. Sonny edged past and lifted open the casement, and the faerie horse ducked his red-maned head and, impossibly, squeezed through, out onto the fire-escape landing.
Sonny followed, noting how the kelpie made his way with some haste down the iron stairs. From the street, Sonny waved to thank Tyff then, concentrating sharply for a moment, he drew upon his power and cast a concealing veil over Lucky, rendering the kelpie invisible so that he could lead him through the streets of Manhattan, toward Central Park. Where he would hand the creature off to Mabh’s Storm Hags.
He glanced nervously at the skies as he walked. In another few moments the sun would be down and it would be officially Samhain night. Scattered groups of costumed children and the odd bunch of party-going adults passed him on the street; there were more than a few carved pumpkins grinning at him from windows and stoops.
Mabh was cutting this awfully close, Sonny thought. Probably just to make him twitchy and satisfy her own perverse sense of humor. But none of that mattered now. Kelley was safe, soon Lucky would be back in the Borderlands, and he would be done with the threat of the Wild Hunt.
As he passed through the park, Sonny noted with dismay that there were a lot of humans in costumes wandering the pathways. He could see Belvedere Castle in the distance, lit up in garish shades of orange and purple. Some foolish millionaire had obviously decided to throw a great big Halloween bash in the park that year.
He followed his Janus senses to find the place in the park where Mabh’s minions would be waiting. In truth, as he walked shadowy trails leading the placid, invisible kelpie, he felt a wash of guilt. The poor creature probably didn’t even know the fate that awaited it. And if it did, it went to it with far more nobility than Sonny would have thought possible from a beast. He reaffirmed to himself his vow to Kelley that he would demand protection for Lucky.
In his mind, Sonny could sense three Storm Hags hovering near. He came out into a little round clearing by Turtle Pond, dominated by an enormous statue of a historic Polish king mounted on a warhorse. High in the air he saw the Hags circling like wispy gray vultures. He lifted the veil from the kelpie, and Lucky shimmered into view by his side. Sonny opened his mouth to call down the Hags, but suddenly his Janus senses jangled an alarm. A rift was opening nearby.
Very nearby. Right in front of him…
He took a step back and dropped into a fighting stance.
It was not a small rift. The tearing sent out a shock wave that hammered Sonny to his knees. Beside him, Lucky whinnied in panic and half reared, pawing at the air with his front hooves. Sonny sensed that the entire Janus Guard had been alerted to the breach, and he knew that those who were able would come running.
The sky rippled. Looking up, Sonny saw the Queen of Air and Darkness herself, lounging on the statue high above the ground as if it were a throne. Mabh was silhouetted against the sky, framed by the two massive swords held crossed in the air by the statue of the king. Just for fun, Mabh had conjured up a pair of glowing-eyed jack-o’- lanterns and jammed them onto the tips of the statue’s swords. They flared like torches, illuminating Mabh’s makeshift court with a lurid glow.
“I hope this meeting was convenient for you, Sir Guard,” she said in a languorous voice. “I was concluding a bit of business with a lady of my court, and we went a little over time.”
By the flaring light of the pumpkin torches, Sonny saw a ghastly sight. From the long, taloned fingers of Mabh’s fist, Chloe the Siren dangled like a limp rag doll, hanging by the knotted mass of her blond hair. Blood seeped from her mouth and the scores of small wounds that marred her sleek limbs. She moaned senselessly in pain.
“My lady Mabh.” Sonny struggled to keep his voice steady. “I was…unaware that you traveled the ways to the mortal world.”
“Ooh, diplomacy,” Mabh cooed. “How lovely. If you refer to the chains that Auberon and that witch Titania bound about me to restrict me to my realm, they are still there.” She swung one foot carelessly, and Sonny saw a snaking silver chain attached to a fiery manacle that circled her ankle. The chain disappeared back into the boiling rift in the sky behind the queen, and there were fresh, angry red welts scoring her pale skin where the shackle bit into her flesh. “I’m still tethered, little Janus. But mark my words, not for long.”
“My time is short, lady. I expected to meet only with your…emissaries.”
“My hags.” She cast a glance at the sky, but the Storm Hags were nowhere to be seen. “Oh, they’re about. Victimizing a partygoer or two, I should imagine. Never mind. Have you completed the task appointed you?”
Sonny glanced back at Lucky and said, “Obviously. First, the terms of your boon.”
Mabh rolled her eyes.
“You will take care of it.” Sonny ignored her disdain, his voice firm. “Once returned to you, it will not suffer at your hands.”
Mabh’s eyes narrowed. “You dare call my red-haired beauty ‘it’?”
“Insofar as your ‘red-haired beauty’ has incredibly destructive latent capabilities, I’d rather not elevate its
