Shadowspell (12 page)

“I’d probably had a little too much to drink myself,” he admitted. “I don’t claim to be a saint, but trust me when I say that two months dating Tiffany was about one month too long.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Yeah, it looked like you were hating every minute of being on the dance floor with her. If this is the best you’ve got, you might as well leave.”

To my surprise, Ethan actually blushed a little. “I can’t make myself not notice when a girl is sexy. When I first started going out with her, that was
all
I noticed. But I was with her long enough to know what she’s like underneath the pretty trappings, and it isn’t pretty at all. I can’t help liking the way she looks, but I have no interest in
her
. If I’d known you were going to be there…”

His voice trailed off, probably because my glare was ferocious enough to be scary. If Ethan thought it was okay to flirt with other girls just because I wasn’t there, it was one more piece of evidence that I was better off without him. Now, if only I could convince
myself
of that fact …

Ethan sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. He dropped the hangdog look, raising his chin and meeting my eyes with something that looked like a challenge.

“What about Keane?” he asked.

I blinked at him, startled by the change in subject. “What
about
him?” I asked. He gave me a knowing look, but I remained clueless.

Ethan shook his head, and a muscle in his jaw twitched. “I guess you never once noticed his looks, huh?”

“What?” I cried, my jaw dropping.

Ethan looked exasperated. “Don’t act so shocked. He’s a nice Seelie boy who comes with an automatic seal of approval from your father. And I know girls go for that whole bad-boy thing he’s got going on. You mean to tell me there’s nothing going on between the two of you?”

I honestly couldn’t think what to say. It had never occurred to me that
Ethan
might be jealous. I was too focused on my own jealousy to consider the possibility. And let’s face it, before coming to Avalon, I’d been such a loner that I wasn’t really used to boys being interested in me. This was uncharted territory.

“He’s just teaching me self-defense,” I said, but it sounded lame even to me.

“Uh-huh. Now compare how many hours a week you spend with him and how many hours a week you spend with me.”

My cheeks were heating with a blush. It was true that I spent a lot more time with Keane, but that was hardly my fault. Unfortunately, it was also true that I’d noticed more than once that Keane was a hottie. Maybe I wasn’t in a position to throw stones after all. That didn’t mean I was going to admit it.

“I spend even more time with Finn,” I retorted. “Are you going to get jealous of him, too?” The spike of guilt his words had caused started to recede. “Are you trying to tell me you started flirting with that Tiffany girl because you were jealous of Keane? So what, you did it to try to make
me
jealous? Even though you didn’t think I’d be at the party?”

I didn’t get a chance to hear his answer, because all of a sudden, the air filled with the deafening roar of motorcycles.

chapter ten

The Erlking must have been doing some kind of magic to muffle the roar of the bikes, because by the time I heard them, they were practically on top of us. Cries of alarm filled the air as the Wild Hunt effortlessly wove through the pedestrians and onto the patio as people scattered and scrambled out of the way. Ethan and I both knocked over our chairs leaping to our feet.

“Dana!” my dad shouted, and I saw both him and Finn sprinting across the short distance that separated us.

They were Fae, and therefore fast, but not as fast as the bikes. Before they could reach me, the Wild Hunt pulled its little circle trick again, the bikes barely an inch apart, surrounding my table, forming a wall between me and my bodyguards. Dad was shouting something, but I couldn’t hear it over the roar of the bikes.

Magic prickled over my skin, and I was pretty sure it came from Ethan. He was a magical prodigy, capable of spells no one his age should be able to cast, but I seriously doubted he was a match for the Wild Hunt.

A slight gap opened up between a pair of the circling bikes, and the Erlking strode through it. He was wearing the same frightening leathers he’d worn the last time I’d seen him, but he’d ditched the helmet. He smiled at me, but there was no hint of warmth in it.

My mouth had gone completely dry, and I think I was even shaking a bit. Without thinking about it, I reached for Ethan’s hand. His palm was sweaty, but I didn’t mind. The Erlking noticed the gesture and raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment.

I reminded myself that as scary as the Erlking was, he couldn’t hurt me. Somehow, that wasn’t very comforting when his Hunt had me trapped and he was looming over me. I clung to Ethan’s hand a little harder.

The Erlking bowed from the waist without ever taking his eyes off me. “We meet again, Faeriewalker,” he said.

“Am I supposed to curtsy when you do that?” I asked. The quaver in my voice undermined my attempt at sarcasm.

Ethan poked me in the ribs with his elbow, but the Erlking laughed like I’d said something absolutely hilarious. The laugh even reached his cold blue eyes, though his first smile had not.

“You may curtsy if you like,” he said, his lips still twitching in amusement. “However, it is not required.”

I looked longingly past the riders and caught the occasional glimpse of Finn and my dad, standing helplessly outside the circle. They couldn’t get to me without knocking the riders out of the way, and I suspected that would release the geis that kept them from attacking.

“What do you want?” I asked the Erlking.

“Don’t talk to him, Dana,” Ethan warned.

I didn’t exactly
want
to talk to him, but if it would make him go away faster, I was all for it.

“What do you want?” I repeated, ignoring Ethan’s dismayed groan.

The Erlking licked his lips like a dog about to chomp down on a bone. “I want the freedom to hunt like I did in the days of old,” he said. “The Fae are adequate game, but the Queens dole them out far too rarely. I am lucky if I am allowed a handful of hunts a year. And, too, I long for more variety.” The smile that stretched his lips now was pure evil. “Before Avalon seceded from Faerie, I could hunt the mortals here whenever I grew tired of hunting only the Fae the Queens allow me. I have not hunted a mortal for a century.”

Oh, crap. I did
not
like where he was going with this.

“So what you’re saying is you want me to use my Faeriewalker mojo to take you out into the mortal world so you can kill a bunch of people?”

He cocked his head to one side, looking puzzled. “If by ‘mojo’ you mean ‘magic,’ then yes.”

“Um, let me think about that a minute,” I said, tapping my chin. I didn’t know where I was finding the nerve to be such a smartass with him, especially not when my knees were so wobbly it was a miracle I managed to stay standing.

I shook my head. “Nope. Don’t think I can do that. Sorry.”

I thought being denied might piss him off, but he surprised me by smiling again. When he let that smile reach his eyes, he was a thing of beauty. Terrifying beauty, but beauty nonetheless. “Ah, well. There was no harm in asking.”

Somehow I didn’t think he was planning to give up that easily.

“I guess we have nothing more to talk about, then,” I said, trying to sound confident.

The Erlking’s smile broadened, and he looked me up and down slowly. A shiver crawled up my spine. His eyes said he was mentally undressing me, and I had to glance down to convince myself his magic hadn’t stripped my clothes away. My face burned with embarrassment as if I really
were
standing there naked in front of him.

“Stop it,” Ethan said, letting go of my hand and stepping between me and the Erlking.

Once again, I felt the prickle of Ethan’s magic. I didn’t like having the Erlking leer at me like that, but I didn’t want Ethan getting all protective and getting himself into trouble. Fae boys suffer from testosterone poisoning as badly as human ones do.

I reached out and put my hand on Ethan’s arm, giving it a little pull so he was standing beside me instead of in front of me. He gave me a startled look, but didn’t argue.

“Are you certain you can’t be persuaded to ride with me?” the Erlking asked, and his voice was strangely different now, lower and huskier. Sexy, even, though in a way that gave me the shivers. “You might find the ride more enjoyable than you expect.” He raised one eyebrow suggestively.

Beside me, Ethan stiffened, and his muscles went taut under my hand. It occurred to me exactly what the Erlking was doing, and it was almost a relief to see through it.

“Don’t take the bait, Ethan,” I said while keeping my eyes on the Erlking. “He’s hoping you’ll do something stupid so he can hurt you.”

The Erlking shook his head, making a face of exaggerated regret. “Alas, you see right through me, Faeriewalker. My wiles are wasted on you.”

He finished by heaving a big sigh. Then the expression on his face changed, turning cold and menacing once again.

“ ’Tis a pity we cannot reach an agreement,” he said. To my horror, he reached over his shoulder and grasped the pommel of the sword. “Faeriewalkers are born so seldom it’s a shame to waste one.”

The sword made an ominous hissing sound as it slid free of the scabbard. The metal shone as if there were a light inside it, and the blade was as long as my legs. It looked like it weighed a ton, but the Erlking held it in one hand like it weighed no more than a butter knife.

I shook my head, trying to hold on to my courage. “You can’t hurt me,” I said, hoping I sounded surer than I felt. “The geis won’t let you.”

He gave me another one of those cold smiles of his, the kind that didn’t reach his eyes. “Is that so?” he asked. Then he swung the blade toward my neck.

I screamed and ducked. Beside me, Ethan bellowed in what sounded more like rage than fear. Instead of ducking or dodging the blade as any sensible person would do, he was surging forward. I screamed again when I saw the silver knife in his hand. He and Kimber always carried hidden knives. Kimber said it was because their affiliation with the Student Underground put them in danger. I tried to grab Ethan’s arm to stop him, but my first instinct to duck made me too slow.

One corner of the Erlking’s mouth rose in a triumphant smile as his blade passed harmlessly over my head. It wasn’t because I’d ducked, either—he’d missed on purpose, had never had any intention of hurting me. But Ethan didn’t know that.

The Erlking winked at me, then raised his arm to stave off Ethan’s attack. He didn’t even wince when Ethan’s silver blade sliced through his leather jacket and drew a line of blood on his forearm.

I think at the last second, Ethan realized he’d been tricked, but it was too late and he couldn’t stop in time.

“Too easy,” the Erlking said, but he didn’t sound a bit unhappy about it. Putting the sword back in its scabbard with one hand, he casually backhanded Ethan with the other.

Blood flew from Ethan’s cheek as the blow knocked him back. He swayed for one moment, then his legs crumpled. I ran to his side as the Erlking examined the bloodied spikes on the back of his gauntlet.

I dropped to my knees beside Ethan, relieved to see that his chest still rose and fell with his breaths. How long that was going to last, I didn’t know. My mind churned frantically, trying to figure out how I could save Ethan without doing anything that would allow the Erlking to attack me. I came up blank.

But when the Erlking squatted down on Ethan’s other side, he made no hostile move. The smugness was gone, and when he met my eyes over Ethan’s body, I thought I caught a hint of something sad in them. His voice when he spoke was surprisingly gentle, and so soft that only I could hear it.

“He is mine now, Faeriewalker.” He reached down and plucked a strand of Ethan’s long blond hair out of the blood that marred the side of his face. “His wound will heal within the hour, but he will not be the same man you once knew.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks as he scooped Ethan’s limp body up and rose to his feet. I reached out, wanting to stop him, but not sure how.

He made a gesture with his chin, and the Wild Hunt quit circling us. They even left enough space between them for my father to slip through. I wanted to throw myself into my dad’s arms and sob, but I was afraid if I moved or took my eyes off the Erlking, he’d disappear with Ethan.

The Erlking just stood there, Ethan’s body completely limp in his arms, as my dad came to stand beside me. In one of his extra-demonstrative moments, Dad put his arm around my shoulders and gave them a squeeze. For a moment, I wondered if Dad was glad that the Erlking was removing Ethan from the field of play. Like I said, he’d never liked him. But that moment was fleeting.

There was a slight tremor in the arm that draped my shoulders, and I was able to tear my eyes from the Erlking to look up at my father’s face.

His jaw was clenched so tight you could see the outlines of his bones, and I’d never before seen such fury in his eyes. His cheeks were flushed with it, and I was half convinced there really was such a thing as a look that could kill.

My dad’s face isn’t what I’d call expressive, but he was so shaken by what had just happened that he was completely unguarded. Under that murderous anger, there was such a weight of pain and sorrow that my own chest ached with it. I didn’t know what that was all about, but I knew it couldn’t be just because of Ethan.

The Erlking gave my dad one of those chilly smiles that didn’t reach his eyes. “Will you fight me for this one, Seamus?” he asked. “Truly my Hunt would be honored to have one such as you in our midst.”

Dad’s arm slid off my shoulders, and both his hands clenched into fists beside him. “Leave my daughter alone, Arawn,” my dad replied through clenched teeth.

The Erlking—Arawn, apparently—frowned in feigned puzzlement. “I have done your daughter no harm. And this one”—he raised and lowered Ethan’s body briefly—“is no kin of yours.”