“But do you think they’re good?”
“Good is relative. Look at you.”
She stood on her tiptoes and brushed her fingertips over the horseman leading the procession and thought of Calan. It wasn’t him. The rider in the sketch was a distorted creature that looked like a cross between a horned demon and a dog. Her leader of the Wild Hunt could be the one to stop the fairies, though. Calan only needed to be freed from his prison.
She glanced toward the sliding glass door and the deck that offered a perfect view of the lake. He’d told her she could find him there.
Harley had to go to him and discover, once and for all, if he’d told her the truth.
She touched Ian’s arm. “I really need to rest. I’m tired.”
“Okay.” He bent and kissed her forehead. “Call if you need me. The phone still works.”
He walked away. The front door closed with a click. The rumble of his car’s engine reached her moments later. She waited a heartbeat more, then ran to the bathroom. If Calan was real, she didn’t want to meet him looking like a homeless person.
A quick shower later, she made her way across the acreage separating her from the lake where Calan told her she could find him. The closer she got to the still water, the surer she was that he’d told her the truth about his location. Her skin tingled, but not with the itchy burn she associated with her darker fae side. Warmth infused her, fueling her steps, exactly as it had the night she had first laid eyes on Calan. By the time she reached the edge of the butterfly garden, she ran, hopping over fallen logs and rocks.
He was there. Impossible or not, Calan was there, waiting for her. She just had to find him, exactly as foretold in her dreams.
Her hero.
Calan wasn’t, though. At least he wasn’t her hero. He was a Hunter who had vowed to rid the world of the Unseelie Fairy Court. If she believed his tale, anyway.
Her steps faltered, and she stumbled at the edge of grassy area surrounding the lake’s shore. Thoughts of Calan’s true nature didn’t break her stride. The sight of the lake she’d gazed at over the course of her childhood did. Where murky water once hid the view of the deep bottom, a shimmery veil of bluish-silver stretched over a sinkhole.
She approached the illusion, because that was what it had to be. She’d gone swimming in the lake many times. The familiar landmark had been replaced by one out of a nightmare. Below the shrouded top, a rocky slope led down. Darkness masked the bottom. She couldn’t see how far it went.
Into Hell, maybe. She pushed the thought away before her fears took hold. Her sweaty palms and racing pulse warned her how close she was to a full-blown anxiety attack. She conjured Calan’s eyes, her crutch. The memory of his pale blue orbs calmed her as it always did.
She knelt at the edge and peered into the pit. Wisps of sulfur-scented smoke seeped from cracks in the rock walls, and heaved earth pinpointed where shifts in the ground had altered the hole, changing it from a smooth drop to a staggered decline. She studied the niches, then chuckled. The ledges formed a crude staircase. Jutting roots along the path offered something to grip too.
“I guess I found my entrance.” Would it lead her to salvation or damnation?
Harley didn’t have an answer, but nothing was going to stop her, not even the fear of being below ground. A flash of the basement in her family home filled her vision. Sheets of iron lined the walls, ceilings and floors. A shiver raced down her spine. It had been her solitary cell, but only when Ian hadn’t been home. Otherwise, he’d stayed with her, playing games and watching movies.
Experience had taught her that she’d been sent there for protection, not punishment. Her childhood self hadn’t known that, though. And that young version of herself hated it. Harley would never allow anyone to lock her up or control her ever again.
To a point, she could understand why her mom had kept the secret of Harley’s tainted heritage from her. As a child, she wouldn’t have been able to comprehend the danger. As a teenager, though? She never would’ve violated the rules had she known the reason behind them, and her family would still be alive.
Harley clenched her hands and fought the anger threatening to take hold. The past couldn’t be changed. Her mom had treated her like a puppet, an object to be led, not as a person who deserved the truth.
And a ghost man saved her, finally giving her the knowledge she should’ve had all along.
Maybe Calan had only given her the information so she’d live long enough to release him, but no matter why, he’d left a lasting impression on her. Harley hadn’t been able to let him go. He starred in her sexual fantasies, and his eyes were the first thing she pictured whenever she was afraid or angry. In a twisted way, he’d become the center of her life.
One way or another, it needed to stop. Either he’d be the answer to her problems or the one who’d finally succeed where the fairies’ creatures had failed. She’d reached the end of her rope. Living sucked when death followed her everywhere.
Harley swung her legs over the side of the pit. The veil vanished, giving her an unobstructed view of the sinkhole and its seemingly endless bottom. She scanned the space, looking for an entrance to where Calan was held. A flicker of light flashed deep in the depths of the pit as if someone had lit a candle for her, welcoming her. She stared at the dancing flames, and her fears rushed up. She swallowed around the lump in her throat and let go, dropping to the first ledge. Her future was waiting for her.
He was waiting
