Sure enough, the magic that had been steadily building since we got here had changed. It now had a purpose.
I felt it, all around me, crackling through the air as it coaxed and whispered, compelling those present to answer its call.
I looked at where the enforcers still fought.
“They can’t help you,” Jerry said, shaking me.“Soon they’ll be caught in its grasp too.”
I shook my head.“They’re powerful. They said they can resist.”
“Maybe the master can, but Liam has already fallen. Those with a link to him will succumb to its call too,” Jerry said impatiently.
As I watched, Liam stood, his face cold and aloof, the lines of it turning cruel. Magic circled him, on his head the faintest shadow of a crown beginning to form.
“The lord of the hunt,” I said softly.
Jerry nodded.“Yes. Tonight, he’s exactly that, and you’re his greatest obsession. His most difficult prey.”
That must be the other half of the riddle. What better way to choose a prey than to find what the hunter most wanted.
Along with choice. I could feel it on the air. If I chose to ignore the hunt’s call, I could, but Liam would be lost to me.
Niamh held out her hand, a lady of old with her knight. He walked past me as if I wasn’t even there, his gaze fixed.
“Liam,” I called.
“He can’t hear you; he won’t recognize you,” Jerry said.
Anton and Daniel turned from the golems they were fighting, following in Liam’s wake, the same fixed expression wiping out their personalities.
“What do I do?” I asked, never feeling more lost and alone than I did at that moment.
As much as I fought it, as much as I resisted, some part of me must have accepted Liam at his word. That he’d be there when I most needed him, thatI’d always have a place with his people.I’d been working toward some type of relationship with the other enforcers, odd though it might have been.
To be isolated now, no recognition on their faces, struck at the heart of me, making me remember what it was like to be the only one I could count on.I’d forgotten how desolate a place that was.
“Make your choice. Then run as far and fast as you can,” Jerry said. His face showed strain and I realized for the first time that Liam and the others weren’t the only ones caught in the magic of the Wild Hunt. Jerry was resisting for now, but I could tell it wouldn’t be long before he lost the battle.“The hunt lasts until the first rays of dawn touch the horizon. Survive the night and you’ll have the chance to undo this.”
I stared at him. All I had to do was survive until dawn—my greatest nemesis. That was just hunky dory.
The magic had built to a crescendo while we talked. Jerry had been right.I’d met whatever criteria the hunt required. It had chosen me to be that night’s prey. I could feel it in my bones, twisting along my veins, the need to run, the need to evade eating at my insides.
“Good luck, Aileen,” he said.
Then I was gone, running as fast as I could, my heartbeat thundering in my ears as Thomas’s cry followed me. I didn’t hesitate. I couldn’t be sure he’d resist the magic as well.
Panic and something else beat at me in time with my footsteps. The need to survive at all costs pricked me.
Trees flew by as I fled, the sound of a hunter’s bugle following me into the night.
The magic broke over the forest; the Wild Hunt had begun.
I ran as I never had before, with a single-minded focus as I dived deeper into the forest. It reminded me of another time, another forest whereI’d fled for my life. During that little adventure, only two wolves had chased at my heels, not more than a dozen spooks intent on my life’s blood.
I weaved through the trees, pushing myself harder, abruptly glad both Liam and Thomas had insisted on human and vampire blood over the last week. Had I been in my former state, this hunt would have been over before it began.
Now, power coursed through me, enabling me to run faster, longer.
Still, even with the boost, it wasn’t long before I heard the baying of hounds and the crash of the underbrush as the hunt followed.
