Wondrous Strange

The lead shuck’s massive black muscles bunched, and it leaped at her, snarling in rage.

Kelley shut her eyes tight and braced for death.

There was the sound of bone-crushing impact, and the snarl turned to a yowl of pain. Kelley’s eyes flew wide- open-in time to see the magnificent white King Stag throw the limp body of the first shuck into a tree with its massive antlers. The other two hounds didn’t hesitate but lunged for the stag’s exposed flank. The stag bellowed and bucked, shaking loose one dog and goring it with its deadly antlers. But the last shuck clung to the stag’s shoulders with its wicked claws, and blood flowed, silver, down the white hide as the stag’s front legs buckled.

Kelley leaped to her feet and screamed defiance.

A flash of darkling energy exploded out from where she stood and lit up the grove with a burst of indigo light. The shuck recoiled and fell to the ground, where it died beneath the hammering hooves of the enraged King Stag.

The stag turned its head toward Kelley. Its gleaming silver hooves were sullied with the black blood of the shuck, but it was still the most regal creature Kelley had ever seen.

The great beast pawed the ground and snorted, eyes blazing with white fire.

Kelley reached out a hand and waited as it approached her, fear a tiny tight knot in her stomach. If the stag did not accept her, all it had to do was swing its head and the dagger-sharp points of its antler crown would gore her.

The stag nuzzled her hand, nostrils quivering. Then it dipped its great head and bowed to her, bending back one long, graceful foreleg so that Kelley could mount up on its back.

She almost wept.

Climbing up, Kelley wound her fists tightly in its thick, pale mane. She hung on for dear life as her noble steed leaped into the sky. It bucked and plunged, waiting impatiently as she reached out with her power and tore another rift between the realms, then galloped through the hole in the thin air, back toward the mortal realm and the Wild Hunt.

As they emerged in the skies over Central Park, Kelley heard the Faerie hunters roar with unbridled joy at the sight of the white King Stag.

Here was quarry. Here was prey worthy of the Hunt. As she’d hoped they would, the hunters abandoned the terrified mortals below and spun their mounts on their haunches, entering the chase. The Black Shuck accompanying them howled madly and shot after her in pursuit.

Higher and higher Kelley led them, away from the world of mortals, so far that when she looked down she could see ragged clouds below. As the muscles of the Faerie animal beneath her gathered and released and gathered again, hooves pounding through the pale air as though it were a mossy forest track, Kelley felt a thrill of exhilaration like nothing she had ever known, greater even than when she rode with Herne’s hunters.

Close behind, the Roan Horse and its Rider were gaining on her. An arrow grazed her cheek, and Kelley knew she was running out of time. As Lucky and Sonny pulled almost parallel, Kelley drew her bare feet up underneath her, bracing them upon the stag’s broad back and balancing in a precarious crouch. She took a deep breath.

This is going to hurt.

Kelley opened up a rift in the King Stag’s path. She hauled on the stag’s silver mane, momentarily sending the creature veering to the right, and threw herself at the Rider-knocking him flying off the back of the Roan Horse.

Arcing through the air, the last thing Kelley saw before she started to fall was Lucky gather and leap through the rift, still leading the Wild Hunt and their hounds as they charged madly after the stag. The hunting party plunged after the Roan Horse before he transformed back into a kelpie-right through the gaping hole in the sky, back into Queen Mabh’s realm.

Good, she thought. Mabh made them; Mabh can damn well deal with them.

She sealed the rift with a thought and whispered, “Goodbye, Lucky.”

Then Kelley and Sonny fell.

They dropped like a stone through the night, plummeting back to earth.

Tumbling end over end, Kelley searched desperately inside herself for the strength that would save them-for the power of her mother’s magick. But the fearsome strength that had raged through her only moments earlier was gone, reduced to barely a trickle. Kelley was too new to this. Too tired. They were falling, and she knew there was nothing she could do to stop it. A sob of frustration stuck in her throat-it wasn’t supposed to end this way.

She felt Sonny’s arms and legs twisting about her and she realized that Sonny-mortal, human Sonny-was trying to turn them around in the air so that when they hit the ground, he would bear the brunt of the impact. With his arms wrapped tightly around her, Sonny cradled Kelley against his chest. She looked into his storm-gray eyes and saw that he stared serenely back at her, happy. Content to die if there was the smallest chance it could save her.

“No!” She struggled madly in the vise of his embrace. “Sonny-no…”

Behind Sonny’s head, far below, she could see the blackness of the unforgiving ground rushing up to meet them.

She remembered when they had danced. He had called her his Firecracker.

Kelley squeezed her eyes shut, tears of effort freezing on her cheeks, and called upon that image. At first, there was nothing-just a terrible emptiness-and then she felt her skin start to tingle. Electric sparks, drawn from the charged and stormy air around her, raced up and down her arms and legs. The wind screamed in her ears; bone- crushing impact with the earth was only moments away. Kelley gripped the front of Sonny’s shirt and opened her eyes to see him smiling gently back at her.

“You dumb-ass,” she muttered through clenched teeth. “You can’t break my fall.” She imagined her spine as if it were a lit fuse and-straining with an effort so intense it felt as though she would split her own muscles and flesh-she willed the firecracker to explode.

Her shoulder blades burned with sudden, dark fire, and Kelley’s cry of triumph ripped through the sky.

“Not when I can fly!”

The ground beneath them-mere inches away-blazed with sudden purple fire as Kelley’s wings unfurled, delicate as gossamer, yet strong enough to catch at the air and sweep her and Sonny back up into the sky.

She could see out of the corner of her eye as she flew that her wings were no longer silver. Those lacy, lustrous things were gone-taken by her father. These wings unfurled behind her as though she were an exotic butterfly, dark and sparkling, like an indigo starburst. The world around her shone amethyst, bathed in the deep violet light of her newfound wings.

Kelley was a Faerie princess.

In defiance of the Faerie king, she had taken up her destiny on her terms.

An expression of something that was almost awe suffused the features of Sonny’s face, and Kelley kissed him quickly before he had time to say anything. She felt his arms tighten around her as they spiraled up, borne aloft on wings that were dark as the night, bright as a new star.

XXXVI

Sonny’s boots touched lightly down on the solid ground. They crunched in the frosty grass, and so he knew he wasn’t dreaming. But the nightmare, it seemed, was over. He released Kelley from the crush of his embrace and gazed down at her lovely face. She dimmed the radiance that flowed from her, and the darkling wings flickered and faded from view. Putting a finger under her chin, he raised her face to his, bestowing another lingering kiss on her lips. Tyff’s beautiful dress was tattered and stained, and Kelley’s legs and arms were covered in mud and scratches. But her cheeks were flushed from the wind and her green eyes sparkled. Sonny had never seen anything so beautiful in his life.

Over her shoulder he saw the wooden carousel horses back in their proper places, painted eyes empty of fury, saddles vacant.

The sound of languid applause reached their ears, and they turned sharply to see Auberon standing on the path.