Wrenn’s boss’s wayward wife, the other royal fae with enough raw magical ability to pop in and out of any situation at any time she wanted: Titania, Queen of the Fae, now stood on the sand between Ed and his son.
The Queen showed up on this particular Texas beach in the gloom and all the bloodsucker doom after the vampires had probably given Ed’s kids deep psychological traumas. After Red had destroyed Ed’s house and hurt those werewolves. After the Heartway had cut Wrenn with Victor’s ghost.
After how many sprites had been trafficked by Ranger’s brothers?
Wrenn swore under her breath. Queen Titania helped only herself, which meant she was about to make this entire situation significantly worse.
Wrenn yanked her Royal Guard star off her belt. “Queen Titania of the Fae!” she called out, more so that Ed would understand just who it was into whom he’d smacked. “I am Wrenn Goodfellow of the Royal Guard. This kelpie is under arrest.” She knocked Ranger. “The mundane and his children are under my protection.”
Not that her protection would count for much if Titania was in a mood.
Ranger gulped. “I’m sorry, Queen Titania!” he wailed as he fell to his knees. “I didnae heed yer call an’ I am so very sorry for my misdeeds!”
Under the antlered helmet, the Queen frowned.
“As Royal Guard and the King’s Paladin, I serve the fae,” Wrenn said. All of the fae, Wrenn thought. Not just the royals and their whims.
Because this was about a whim. It had to be. Why else would Titania show up after all the fun was over? She was here to collect the spoils for herself.
Which meant someone here was about to pay and no one anywhere would get justice.
Titania’s frown turned to a wry grin.
We bind thee, Fenrir! Red called out in an increasingly uneven and pained way.
Wrenn’s eye twitched. Part of her wanted to run to the sword and to offer comfort. But all of her understood that Redemption wasn’t her problem anymore.
The Queen was.
“I’m here for my stallion,” Titania said.
“Yes,” Wrenn said. “I figured.” She didn’t release Ranger.
The Queen pulled off the antlered helmet and tossed it to the side, then thought better of it. “You, Royal Guard woman.” She pointed at the helmet. “I need you to take that and this—” She waved her hands disapprovingly over the dryad’s armor she wore. “—back to my husband’s lackeys.”
“I would be happy to do so, my Queen, once I take in this kelpie for processing.”
The Queen rolled her eyes. “They’re naughty. I know. But we have to give them some leeway or they won’t be able to keep their worst behaviors under control. Such is how we contain the dark among us.”
Wrenn gave Ranger a shake. “Your stallion is part of a blood syndicate run by the kelpies from your stable,” she said. “They’ve been trafficking victims to the Gulf Coast vampires here in the mundane world.” How is that “naughty”? she thought. She didn’t dare say it out loud. Not to the Queen.
Titania’s nonchalant annoyance turned into what looked to Wrenn to be actual concern. “Is that true?” She stared at Ranger. “Answer me.”
Yet she obviously knew what the kelpies were doing. Maybe she hadn’t realized the true depths of the naughtiness. “An exsanguinated sprite washed up on the banks of the Titan River a few days ago,” Wrenn said. Maybe she could get the Queen on board with completely shutting down the syndicate.
Titania’s expression changed. She hadn’t known about the sprite.
“The vampires turned one of your kelpies,” Wrenn said. “Robin Goodfellow dusted him in a tavern’s kitchen Samhain evening.”
That she definitely had not known. Royal anger spread in spikey waves through her red and green magic.
Ranger sniffed. “I wonder what kind o’ panic we’d have ourselves if th’ regular fae folk kent about vamped kelpies,” he drawled.
Titania’s eyes narrowed.
The desire to punch the side of Ranger’s head almost overcame Wrenn’s control. Punch him and haul him down the beach to Red so she could run him through.
We bind thee! Red called.
Because everyone involved would see using an unstable elven sword to end one of the Queen’s stallions as justice, right? Even if they did, it wouldn’t make good politics.
It’d get Wrenn banished. Or executed.
Titania winced and looked as if she wanted to glance at the sword.
Did she hear Red, too?
Ed’s boy looked at the sword, then up at Queen Titania, then back at the sword. “Ma’am,” he said, “there’s a glowing sword and I don’t think we should be standing this close to it.”
Titania inhaled and the anger abruptly froze. It didn’t leave her magic, just stopped spiking.
She smoothed the lovely swirls of her dark blonde hair away from her face. “And who are you, my dear handsome young mundane?”
She knew who she was talking to. Who Ed was, too. She had, for some reason, decided to be polite to Ed’s son.
The kid somehow kept his composure. “My name is Gabriel Martinez. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Queen Titania of the Fae.”
He offered his hand.
Ranger hmphed. “The vamps were mutterin’ somethin’ about American Chosen One lore,” he whispered.
Wrenn looked down at the kelpie.
“What?” he said. “I can respect a couple o’ bairns if I want tae.”
Ed stood there in front of Titania utterly stunned and looking as if he were about to grab his kids and run. Which, honestly, he should have done already.
Titania put her hand on her chest as if Gabriel had just offered her the loveliest pearl in all creation. She leaned toward the kid, then looked at Ed and his Sheriff’s Department uniform. “Are you the elves’ lawman?” she asked. She slapped her thigh. “You are! And you’re his son?” she asked the boy.
He continued to
