Arawn closed his eyes without answering.
Calan gave Arawn one last glance, then urged Death into a gallop and left his fortress and father behind. Calan’s home awaited him on the human realm, and he would fight for Harley because nothing would make him abandon her or turn her into a martyr.
She was his choice.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Harley stared at the caller ID of her cell. Unknown. She knew the number by heart, however. Raul often called her. How he kept getting her supposedly untraceable number, she didn’t have a clue. Usually, she ignored him and ditched the phone. Today she fought the temptation to answer it.
The ringing stopped, and she breathed a sigh. She tossed the sleek phone onto the bed. It bounced, and she resumed her pacing. Tonight’s battle and the encounter with Raul had troubled her. So had Calan’s words. She’d allowed Raul to play on her emotions. He’d known she would want to protect Allie, and he’d used her empathy to ensure Calan didn’t kill him.
She felt like a damn fool for falling for his game, but what she’d told Calan was true. She didn’t have the right to choose one life over another.
The cell started ringing before she could take the thought further. She picked it up, looked at the ID and answered. “Raul?”
“Meet me in ten minutes at the greenhouse if you want to save Trevor. Dar has ordered me to bring him in. He wants to make him into…what I am.” The line went dead.
Oh God. Trevor.
The phone slipped from her fingers and hit the floor. The screen cracked. She left it and ran out of the room, skidding down the hallway to the service stairs. When the home had been built, servants had used them to access all the floors so as not to disturb the family of the house. The outside door at the bottom was what she headed for. It opened onto the path leading to the greenhouse.
She grabbed the handrail and ran down the worn treads. The bulbs in the rear section of the house were burned out. She didn’t need them. Her fairy genetics gifted her with heightened senses, but the darkness and the closed space of the stairwell triggered her fears of being locked away.
She stumbled halfway down the steps. The tightness in her chest and racing pulse warned she was close to an anxiety attack.
No, dammit! I don’t have time for a breakdown.
Memories of her time spent in the basement of her house and the bunker, a plush apartment deep under Ian’s security company, returned anyway. No matter how comfy either place had been, she’d hated them. Without windows to let in the sun and breeze, it had felt like a tomb.
Breathe, Harley. You’re not locked away. You’re fine. So is Calan. He’s free of that horrible cell he’d been confined to.
“Calan.” She stopped with her hand on the door handle at the bottom of the stairs.
He’d told her to reach for him. She opened her mind to him, but her muddled emotions left her thoughts hazy. She couldn’t focus on anything beyond the need to save Trevor. He couldn’t die. Ian loved Trevor. It would crush her brother if something were to happen to Trevor, exactly as Ian’s death would destroy her.
Eyes squeezed, she groaned. There had to be another way to reach Calan.
The hounds. Of course, they were linked to him. She flung the door open and scanned the backyard. One of the male hounds lay in the grass near the driveway. Harley whistled. The dog trotted over.
She crouched and looked into the animal’s intelligent eyes. “Tell Calan I need him. Now.”
The dog didn’t move. Harley waited a moment more, then pushed to her feet and ran. She’d have to hope the animal would understand and obey her. She didn’t have time to wait any longer. The clock was ticking.
The greenhouse stood on the other side of the butterfly garden, opposite the lake. She skidded down the driveway and turned at the overgrown area. Harley bent under the drooping limbs and smacked into a hard chest. A yelp escaped her, the sound muffled behind a large palm.
Harley inhaled. The scent of a campfire invaded her nostrils. The tension she hadn’t realized had seized her muscles dissipated. She glanced into Calan’s face.
“Be calm. It’s just me.”
The tiny brush of butterfly wings danced across her mind. She didn’t resist the yank of her anxiety. She shoved the debilitating emotion at him.
He slid his fingers to the column of her neck and massaged gently. “What has happened?”
“Raul, he called, said Dar wanted to turn Trevor into a redcap.”
“Why didn’t you wait for me?”
“He said I had ten minutes, and I…”
What? Jesus, what had she been thinking? She’d played right into Raul’s trap.
“Do not endanger yourself again. It is my job to protect you.”
She nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
He kissed her neck and stepped back. “Follow my lead. We end this tonight.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Calan crouched in the woods just out of reach of the redcap’s senses. He and his hounds had been hunting the fairies and their creatures long enough to have narrowed it to a science. At the distance his dogs sat surrounding the greenhouse, the fairies or their creatures wouldn’t sense them unless they spotted them. Unfortunately, at nearly one-hundred-fifty pounds, each of the beasts could blend in only so well. Still, they provided valuable information and could hunt without rest night after night.
Harley squatted behind him, one hand on his lower back. Bringing her along had been a gamble. Even if Raul couldn’t sense the Huntsmen, he would know she was here. He’d always know, and he’d always be able to find her. Unless Harley turned Unseelie and completed the ceremony, making Raul her redcap, she wouldn’t have the same advantage, however. No way would Calan allow that to happen.
Raul needed to die.
Using his mental link to the newly initiated
