Page 107 of A Lady’s Guide to Fae Kings

“Hellebore, bloody hell, stop,” Molly said.

Pippa pressed her palm against her wound and stepped into the iron circle. The Grendel sniffed the air, nostrils flaring alarmingly at the scent of blood. “Please don’t eat me,” Pippa said. “It will make this all so much harder.”

The Grendel grunted.

“Shall we?” Pippa nodded to the fairy ring. “And if you need to bite a few of them on the other side, I shan’t stop you.”

The ring took them back to the Fae hill fort. The perfume of roses was overwhelming. There was a standing stone in the fairy ring, decorated with more flowers. The air sparkled and shimmered as if stars fell between the revelers. Music braided with shouts of laughter.

At least until the screaming started.

A Grendel stepping into the Tithe festivities was unexpected. Unwelcome. Pippa did not even try to fight back a surge of vicious smugness. She had chosen to make a wish and risk becoming a Tithe; the Grendel had not.

“You asked for the Grendel’s head,” she announced. “But you never specified that her head should not be attached to the rest of her,” Pippa pointed out with grim satisfaction even as she sank to her knees, trembling with weariness.

She could not see Lachlan anywhere. Where was he? Had the curse claimed him completely? Was he sprawled somewhere in the Fae library? Was he gone completely? Had they found the Red Grimoire too late, after all?

Tears scalded the back of her throat when she forced them back. There were shouts of approval for a good trick, curses at wagers lost, a cacophony of magic thrumming through the air. It made her queasy. Grendel hulked forward, growling.

“She’s right,” Kerne said, the lightning flashing over his head daring anyone to object. “The bargain stands.” He turned to Pippa, ghostly hounds pressing all around him. The clouds turned into stags and winged horses. “The Grendel goes free and the wish is yours.”

Pippa might have expected to feel so many things at this point: excitement, pride, relief. Mostly, she felt exhausted. And concerned for Lachlan. She could not see a single owl.

“Make your wish,” Kerne urged her gently, offering his hand to help her stand. Mists billowed around him. Pippa’s witch knot prickled with warning.

But she was too slow, too spent.

And Kerne already had hold of her.

His smile died. There was pity in his green eyes, but it would do her no good. Not now.

He yanked her through the fairy ring.

They landed back on the hill in the center of the Labyrinth.

Mists clogged the fairy ring and Pippa knew no one would be following. Who could take on the leader of the Wild Hunt?

No one. The devouring mist belonged to him, the ghostly hounds, the Host.

“Why?” Pippa asked, mostly in the hope that she might come up with a plan if she kept him talking. Fire lashed between them, but he did not flinch. If owls were clever and cunning, the lords of the Wild Hunt could withstand almost anything. Magic barely touched the Hunt and its Riders. “Why are you doing this?”

His answer was a surprised gurgle of pain. Blood specked his lips. Lightning crackled.

Lachlan, pale and wreathed in mists and fury, had stabbed him in the side.

“Get the hell away from my wife,” he demanded, cold and lethal even as the mists clawed at him. Kerne turned, holding his side, snarling.

Pippa glanced around wildly for a weapon, but there were only green hedges and thistles and snow. Kerne’s shirt caught fire but he simply patted it out. Lachlan held a dagger stained with his blood, and a sword. But he was using the sword to hold himself up. “Pippa, run.”

“You’re weak, Thorn,” Kerne said quietly. “You should have stayed out of my way. I did try to warn you.”

“That wish is not yours, you coward.”

“I won’t let Elphame grow any weaker. Time was we took the humans we needed and our magic was stronger for it, but now it’s faltering. If war came again, we might not survive.”

“You’re not touching my wife again.”

“I’ll bleed her dry,” Kerne said with regret. “But hers will be an honorable death. Yours will be nothing. The curse has you now, my boy.”