“And I’m the old friend.” Warden trots out from the trees. “I asked him along. We could do with the additional muscle.”
“You might be as creepy as hell”—Reavely puts his hand on my shoulder—“and that’s coming from a creature who had an entire castle filled with a spectral family, but you helped me and my mate, and I should return the favour.”
“Thanks. I think.” I peer behind him. “The Wyrm isn’t coming, is he?”
I could do without being singed by the monster who has yet to master his flame.
“Who knows.” Warden shrugs. “I doubt it. His mate is with young once again and he ispreoccupied.”
“Ah.” Reavely sighs. “I know what that’s like.” He rumbles a deep, satisfied breath.
“Are we going to slaughter Tam Lin or not?” Warden growls. “Or stand around talking about mating?”
“I know what I’d prefer.” Reavely leans against a tree and picks at his teeth with a claw.
“Tam Lin,” I snarl.
“And it would appear Linton has chosen our next course of action.” He chuckles. “Nice to see your assassin abilities turned on someone else for a change.”
“If your mate wasn’t a friend of mine, I’d happily use my abilities on you.” I look him up and down, tucking my blades back under my wings. “And there’s still time, Barghest, now you no longer reap souls.”
“I do my occasional reaping when I have some spare time,” he intones.
I look over at Warden who snorts out a breath.
“It’s time for Faerie blood to be spilt for the first time in the Night Lands,” he growls. “And I am looking forward to it.”
I lift my head. Above us there are clouds high above the canopy, and they scud across the full moon.
“As am I. He took my mate, and he has to pay.”
Now I am back in the place I thought I’d never leave, the thin earth magic threads which run through it crackle like they are alive. They are everywhere, and my antennae quickly pick up the anomalies within them. The things which should not be here, like Warden, Reavely, and me. Like my Kaitlyn.
“Here he goes,” Reavely pants, his tongue lolling out. “The reason you always wanted a Bluecap on your team.”
“It’s this way,” I growl, beating my wings to gain height and to rise above the trees. “Keep up or there won’t be any Reivers left.”
Below me I hear the thump of hooves and the snarl of a great black dog as I fly on. My Kaitlyn is here, in the Night Lands, brought to this place by Tam Lin.
He will pay for his arrogance in Faerie blood. He chose the wrong Bluecap to mess with because not only am I driven by revenge, but I have a Brag and a Barghest to assist.
And if nothing else, I can use them as distractions while I get to my mate.
Tam Lin doesn’t know what’s coming for him.
KAITLYN
“You took your time, Olaf,” Tam Lin growls at the Redcap.
“The female wasn’t particularly compliant, boss,” the Redcap leader, Olaf, says. “What exactly are you to do with her?”
“She will be the conduit by which I can access the heart of the Night Lands,” Tam Lin says. “Once I have claimed her.”
“And then what?” Olaf asks, inspecting the hilt of his golden sword.
My blood is already pumping around my body at lightning speed at the wordclaimed. If Tam Lin means what I think he means by such a phrase…
If my experience of the Faerie is anything to go by, and I know it is, then it sends a shudder through my entire body. The Redcaps holding me tighten their grip, but they don’t need to. I’m half frozen in fear.
