Wondrous Strange

expression became thoughtful. It was fairly easy to interpret.”

“Oh. Right.”

“But henceforward, around your own kind at least, you will probably want to learn to school your thoughts. Or at least keep them from showing so plainly in your visage. That is, if you intend to take up the legacy of your birth.”

“You think it would be dangerous for me to do so.”

“I think it is your blood right, and the decision is yours and yours alone,” Herne said. “But be warned, lady. There are those who might not be so eager for you to embrace that right. The Unseelie king among them.”

“My father? Why?”

“Only Auberon’s direct heir is able to inherit the throne after him. And the thrones of the Faerie kingdoms must remain occupied.”

“So without an heir, Auberon has no worries about having to ever give up his kingship,” Kelley said. “But I thought that the Fae were immortal.”

The Horned One held up a hand. “Yes, and no. Faerie are immortal only insofar as they do not age or sicken. They can still be killed.”

Right, Kelley remembered, that’s what Sonny does.

Her thoughts turned again to him and to what Auberon had said…

Herne was speaking. “That is the way of it for all of the rulers of the Fair Folk. The kings and queens of Faerie are protected by the power of their thrones. Without heirs, they remain utterly inviolate, and without deadly enemies.”

“So…I’m a threat to Auberon.”

“You could be. But you could also be a powerful ally, doubling the strength of the Unseelie Court.” Herne shrugged. “I do not know which way King Auberon perceives you. He is a deep thinker, and I would not presume to know his mind.”

“He offered to make me human.”

“That, in itself, says something. But again, whether he made such an offer for his own sake, or for yours…I do not know.” The Hunter’s gaze was warm, sympathetic. “Think hard on this choice, Kelley Winslow. As one who has lived a very long life tangled in the threads of Faerie webs, I would urge caution when dealing with their machinations. Friend and foe are sometimes indistinguishable. Or one and the same.”

“Can he do it?” Kelley asked. “Can my father make me human?”

“After a fashion,” Herne said. “As Lord of the Unseelie Court of Faerie, he can certainly take back the power of the Unseelie throne that you by blood right hold-but only if you give it willingly. He cannot force it from you.”

“I see.”

Herne stopped her. “Were you to ever do such a thing, lady, I would ask for something in return, if I were you. Such a gift should not be come by lightly. Even by a Faerie king.”

“I’ll try to remember that. Thank you.”

Herne paced slowly beside her.

“You are handling all of this really very well, you know,” he said, a smile in his voice, as if he’d sensed her thoughts once again.

“Oh, I am not,” she said. “I’m in total denial and pretty sure I’m dreaming.” She put her other hand on his arm and squeezed. “But it’s kind of a nice drea-”

Suddenly Herne the Hunter grabbed her by the shoulders and flung her hard against a mirrored pillar-out of the way of a flaming pumpkin that roared out of the night. The fiery gourd exploded into an orange ball of fire as it hit the flagstones of the Tavern courtyard.

All around her, Faerie were screaming-some in panic, but most in rage. The Green was sanctuary, and someone had just violated it.

“Where is my daughter?” shrieked the terrifying specter that appeared in the sky above the courtyard, dressed in a raven-wing cloak, with wild red hair and a flashing, green-eyed gaze. Something clicked in Kelley’s brain in the midst of the sudden, intense bedlam.

“You have your mother’s eyes,” Auberon had said.

Mabh.

The Queen of Air and Darkness was her mother.

“To the princess!” Herne bellowed. “Protect the girl!”

All around her, the Lost Fae shimmered and shifted. With a rush of invocations, weapons of all kinds appeared, gripped tightly in graceful, fine-boned hands. Kelley saw things heaving themselves out of the depths of the fountains-creatures with claws and teeth, wielding cudgels and axes; and other creatures that didn’t need weapons.

The place erupted into chaos, and it was all Kelley could do to get out of the way and avoid being trampled by those trying to protect her.

In the sky above Mabh’s head, she saw cloaked and hooded wraiths, screeching curses and flinging lightning- lashed tempests at the Faerie warriors with devastating effect. She knew suddenly what these were.

Mabh’s Storm Hags, Kelley thought, terrified. They’re here for me.

Something must have gone terribly wrong with Sonny and Lucky.

She ducked and ran for the safety of the arbor that led to the shore of Avalon’s lake. But there were so many twisting passageways in the Tavern that she quickly became hopelessly lost. Bursting through a set of double oak doors out into the cold night air, Kelley found herself suddenly standing in the car-filled parking lot of New York’s Tavern on the Green, back in the mortal world.

A group of costumed revelers poured out through the doors of the tavern behind her. “Happy Halloween, missy!” one of them slurred, tipping a pointy wizard’s hat in her direction.

Kelley watched, stunned and horrified, as something that resembled a bat-winged howler monkey leaped from the trees onto the unwitting reveler and tore the hat to shreds. Before its claws could rend flesh, Kelley screamed at the people to run for their lives and ripped the clover charm from her throat with one hand. She flung out her other hand without stopping to think, willing the horrible creature to be gone.

Brilliant light flashed in a corona all around her.

There was a pop! and the thing disappeared with an extremely surprised look on its face. Kelley fell to her knees, her brightness diminished, winded by the amount of effort it had taken to do whatever it was she had just done.

In the distance, she heard sirens and screaming.

She stuffed the charm into the tiny purse that dangled from her wrist and ran.

After falling on her face for the third time, Kelley finally kicked off Tyff’s ridiculous heels, heedless of cold or the sharp gravel of the path. In the distance, she heard more screaming-terrified cries from human throats. She ran up the rise of a low hill and looked out over a panorama that could have come from a Hieronymus Bosch painting-of demons torturing the souls of the damned in hell.

The Janus must have been overwhelmed, fending off Mabh and her minions, thought Kelley frantically, and so the Samhain Gate had swung wide, undefended. All manner of horrific creatures from the Otherworld poured out through rifts. Anyone unlucky enough to be caught in the park was being chased and tormented by beings that none of them could have imagined. Kelley saw spiny things and fiery things and pale, bony things with too-large eyes spreading out across the park with malicious intent.

All around her now, she could hear sirens in the air. Kelley knew that New York’s Finest would be no match for the swarming Faerie monsters-the police would be nothing more than fodder against such creatures. She had to do something, and she had to do it fast. She had to find Sonny. Or, barring that, she had to find the one other person who she knew had the power to help her.

As her strength returned, the light started to flare from her skin once again. Kelley concentrated, and her brightness dimmed as she pulled every ounce of power she could grasp at into herself and stretched out with her awareness to try to find her father.

When his presence struck in her mind, it was like the impact of a hard-flung snowball. Suddenly she knew where he was-she just had to get there. Fast.

Half embarrassed to do so, Kelley turned and glanced at the lacy, shining wings that floated out from either