With the failing sunlight, her pack had lit their own torches, great fiery things scented of pitch. In their flickering light, her dress shimmered like flame, ready to burn.
And still he wanted to reach out for her.
He prowled away, out of temptation distance. This was not the time to confuse their people. Or himself. But as he skulked just beyond the firelight, still his awareness of her tugged at him.
Hands clasped in front of her, she stood in the empty parking lot. On the other side was the lake, dark now and reflecting the early stars in its stillness.
The first toadstool sprouted as the evening chill snaked across the pavement.
The circle appeared just outside the ring where Beck had burned the last one with iron, and he realized the mushrooms must have left spores he hadnt seen. He hefted his spears, one in each hand. Next time, hed be more thorough.
Merrilee did not move as the Lord of the Hunter strode from the circle, on foot this time, a myriad of phae behind him with their pale corpselights, and a line of his black-winged hunters behind them, as if in silent reminder about how the phae made corpses.
Becks muscles tensed, itching to throw the spear. But did they really want a war?
While the rest of the phae halted, the Lord of the Hunt approached Merrilee. Well, Queen of Mutts, where is my alchemist? At his voice, the evening chill seemed to spread in half-visible streamers across the parking lot.
We found him, she said.
An ember glinted deep in the phae lords stare. And his treasure?
She inclined her head. Also found. And I am claiming him and his prize as my own.
The phae stalked toward her. You have no notion of what you are doing.
That has never stopped me before. From somewhere in the folds of fiery silk, she produced two blades. The iron was rudely cast and brutal-looking, but the knives floated in her hands like dark flowers as she crossed them over her white-wrapped breasts.
The phae halted. You move fast. The humans are never so quick to believe.
She smiled. You should see me when Im mad. The smile vanished, like a torch doused, leaving only cold determination. We are not human, old hunter. You call us mutts? Maybe. We run through the night and the day with the same pleasure, creatures of both worlds. She took her own step toward him. And iron has never bothered us.
The phae lord stiffened. Though his booted feet held firm, his antlered head canted back, away from the approaching blades. What the alchemist has unleashed is not a thing of this world. It should be returned to our realm. For a moment, his tone sounded almost plaintive.
Where you can use it to open the way back here at your whim? I think not. She took another step.
Beck swallowed a shout of alarm and sprang after her, flanked by a handful of his people on one side and a handful of hers on the other.
Their arrow of iron forced the phae lord to retreat. But if the lurking black wings took to the air, there werent enough werelings to contain them.
The phae shook his antlers with obvious dismay. If you think our Queen will be stopped by mere threats
Not mere threats. She strode toward the phae, spreading her arms with blades at the ready. And definitely not alone.
She pointed at the lake.
From the water a bubbling circle appeared, rapidly widening with arching sparks, an algae bloom of silver and violet unfurling across the dark surface.
And from the middle burst a horse and right behind a confusing clash of black and white wings so it almost seemed the horse was flying.
The phae lord reeled back at the sudden appearance. His scream was piercing. Traitor!
The hunters behind him launched skyward, their leathery pinions battering the air like a sudden storm.
Beck and the other werelings raced to Merrilees side as the newcomers emerged from the lake, shaking off mere speckles of water as if theyd only come through a drizzle, not a mountain lake. A dozen phae were led by the traitorVaile, Beck guessed, the rogue hunter, with a white-winged woman behind himplus the rider who fired a stinging round of buckshot toward the phae lords circling killers.
Beck smelled the iron burning the air even as one of the killers screamed in pain, wing-pierced; Orson must have brought the human Josh Reimer along. As if his name had conjured him, Orson and the rest of his quartet lumbered from the lake, already in the midst of the verita luna, their grizzled hides gleaming with diamond droplets.
The phae lord and his followers milled, caught between the iron-armed werelings and the new arrivals whose spore-sprouted entrance had been hidden by the dark waters.
The phae lord and his followers milled, caught between the iron-armed werelings and the new arrivals whose spore-sprouted entrance had been hidden by the dark waters.
Beck caught Merrilees arm. You were laying the spores in the lake. Why didnt you say anything?
Nally wasnt sure it would work, if Vaile would be able to find the portal from his valley. She shrugged him off. I might have gotten pulled into the phae realm instead.
His heart thrashing in his chest, Beck grabbed for her again.
But the Lord of the Hunt was not finished, even as Reimers rifle boomed again and another killer spiraled out of the sky while the werelings advanced with their spears. Ill take you back with me, traitor, he shouted. The Queen will have her way.
Not here, Beck growled. This is our valley.
He charged the phae lord. He needed damned opposable thumbs to wield his spears, but the speed and ferocity of the wolf sizzled inside him. He called on the verita luna, feeling the crazed shift of bone and skin and fury. Muzzle gaping wide, he howled, caught halfway between in the il-luna.
He heard Merrilee cry out and knew he had crossed a line, revealing the ugly darkness at the heart of the beast, worse than any burn or scar. But he would not let their place, their chance, be stolen by thieving phae.
The Lord of the Hunt, focused as he was on Vaile, spun only at the last moment, stunned by the attack.
Beck raised the spears high above his head and brought the points slicing downward.
The phae lord shrieked as the iron carved through the antlers at his brow. The gleaming bones fell, smoking from the severed ends. The phaes wail seemed to shiver the stars and the corpselight torches of his followers went black. No preternatural blood spurted, and Beck realized the antlers were part of a helm.
But whatever authority the helm had given the lord was gone. He stumbled backward, clutching at his head. His followers fell back around him, crowding toward their toadstool gate.
One of the killers swooped low, reaching for the severed horns.
Beck snarled and leapt, his jaws snapping at the leathery wings. The phae veered off, wobbling with a piece torn from his pinion, though he swiped with a vicious claw that didnt quite reach.
Beck!
He turned with a frustrated roar, spears rattling forgotten in his own clawed hands.
Merrilee watched him, empty hands outspread. Beck, enough. They are fleeing.
He stepped over the horns. Mine. The word was garbled, ugly in his half-shifted throat.
She smiled around the fear in her eyes, fear that made him want to howl again, howl until the stars fell down. Antlers do make good chew toys.
He shifted back on his haunches to kick at the horns. Not. Not these. He hissed out the words. You. As mangled as his thoughts were, he could not stop them. They twisted past his reluctance to be rejected, past his understanding of her reticence, determined to be freed. You. Are. Mine.
Around them, the rogue phae and the werelings had forced the invaders back to their circle. Even the killers dropped from the skies as the toadstool ring glowed a sickly pale green and began to collapse. The werelings pierced each mushroom with their spears, and oily smoke spiraled up.
Merrilee didnt glance at any of it. Her gaze was fixed on him even though he wanted her to look away from the il-luna monstrosity hed become. Where was the gallantry here?
But instead she walked toward him, silk shifting around her long legs. When she was bare toe to clawed foot with him, she reached up to grab his muzzle. No way.
He sank to his knees as the il-luna passed, and she was right there beside him, cradling him with her bare arms strong around his shoulders.
She kissed the shaggy hair at his temple and whispered, You are mine, too.
Chapter 11
Merrilee took them all back to her cottage. The great room had never held so many peoplepeople, werelings and phae. Luckily she had enough wine, though not enough glasses, so she shared her bottle with Beck.
Nally blinked at the rogue phae, Vaile, and his white-winged wife, Imogene. The two had brought with them the strongest of their kin who had escaped the phae realm. The portal worked? I thought maybe, but... It really worked.
Beck glared at him. You may never give your Alpha a maybe again, ever.
The professor ducked his head. Yes, sir.
Merrilee nudged Becks shoulder. Or maybe not. Theres a lot we have to learn about what the spores can do.
He turned his glare to her. Or should do.
Imogene shook her head. Spores that open pathways between the realms in ways weve never dreamed and into the secret magic inside all of us and humans as well? She sent an apologetic glance to Josh Reimer and Babette who was seated very close to Orson. This is...disquieting.
Things change, Merrilee said. Cant do anything about that. She felt Becks golden gaze on her, and as much as she was enjoying this impromptu partythe first of many, she supposedshe wished everyone would go away.
Vaile flipped the broken antlers between his fingers. When I was one of the Queens hunters, I wondered at the power in these bones. I suppose things will be changing for me too.
Imogene stroked the arch of his black wing. From foundling to Lord of the Hunt. Our hunt.
We will need our own army, said the quietly exotic woman who sat beside Josh with emeralds winking in her strangely restless hair. The Queen will not be gracious in defeat.
Merrilee stood. So were lucky we arent alone anymore, and we have each others backs.