I growl under my breath. “Be ready, my mate. I will be with you in a second, once I have dealt with the creature who thought he could take you.”
“Linton, wait.” She turns her back on me and splays out a hand. “What is he doing?”
I growl again but look to Tam Lin. A blue light is glowing from the altar.
“He is opening a portal,” I reply. “He shouldn’t be able to do that, even with his magic.”
“It has long been said Tam Lin has strange magic,” Warden says in my ear.
He dances to one side as I swing a blade at him.
“Is this your mate?” Reavely is looking over at Kaitlyn.
“Do not look at my mate,” I growl.
“I cannot believe you got a mate.” Reavely comes up to my other side, also dodging my dagger. “I mean, I was also surprisedthe Wyrm got a mate, but this goes beyond surprise. You…with a mate.” He shakes his shaggy head.
I ignore him, concentrating on Tam Lin. “What is he going to do with a portal?”
My question is answered as something shrieks out of the light.
“Fuck!” Warden curses. “He’s opening a portal to the Underrealm. That’s why he needs a soul.”
Another thing spirals out of the portal with a bloodcurdling scream.
“But why Kaitlyn?” I snarl. “Why my mate?”
“Because her soul is the purest I’ve ever seen,” Reavely snarls back. His habits as the Reaper’s second have not left him, even as the newly crowned king of the Yeavering. “It would have to be, in order to accept you.”
A third rises into the dark sky.
“Selkies,” Warden growls under his breath. “Tam Lin expects something to die tonight.”
“The only thing which will die is Tam Lin,” I growl. “He doesn’t get to use my mate’s soul for anything. It belongs to her alone.”
“Linton!” Warden hisses as I beat into the sky. “Don’t enter the…”
His words are pulled into nothingness, the final part of the sentence disappearing as I cross the threshold. I feel the pull, strangely familiar, but at the same time I feel a burning sensation on my skin. I shake it off and land next to my Kaitlyn.
Or where she should have been. Instead there is her empty dress and no Kaitlyn.
“The Bluecap joins us!” Tam Lin snarls.
He has Kaitlyn, his arm around her neck as she struggles against him. All his glamour is going and instead he revealshis true form. The form all Faerie have beneath their magic. Twisted, rotting, and foul.
“Give me my mate,” I rasp. “I won’t ask again, and you won’t like the consequences if you do not comply.”
Tam Lin lifts his head from where he’s staring down at the glowing altar, and his eyes are filled with fire.
“You’re too late, Bluecap,” he snarls, reaching out a hand.
“Linton!” Kaitlyn shrieks as she’s pulled by an invisible force into the air and across into his clutches.
I have daggers in both hands as I swoop after her.
Only to slam against something so solid it may as well be a castle wall. It flings me back, not quite outside the circle but close to the biggest stone.
Long Meg.
