Wondrous Strange (17 page)

“T
yff?” Kelley asked as her roommate deftly pinned her hair up into a loose, artful cascade of curls. “How come
your
ears aren’t…you know?”

“For the same reason that I never let anyone photograph me from the neck up,” Tyff muttered around a mouthful of bobby pins. “Because I’ve been trying to pass for mortal for the last millennium and a half. I used to just cast a glamour or wear my hair down, but then I finally found this great cosmetic surgeon on Ninth. Used to be a Druid healer way back in the day, and he’s
very
discreet. Hey, do
you want me to set up an appointment for you?”

“Uh…I’ll think about it.” Kelley ran a finger over the tip of one ear. “They’re not
that
pointy, are they?”

“Oh, honey, no!” Tyff assured her. “Actually, on you, it’s sort of cute.”

“Thanks. I think. And for loaning me the dress.” It hung in a contour-hugging wave from slender straps to brush her ankles. “Are you sure it’s not a bit much?”

“What, you don’t want to look nice for your date?”

“Do you really think this is a date?” Kelley could hear the panic in her own voice.

“I think he’s trying to take you somewhere safe,” Tyff said. “I do.”

There, see? Not a date. Damn it.

Still. He was taking her to a safe house? Putting her under some kind of guard…Kelley really wasn’t sure how she felt about that. “Do you like him?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Do
I
like him?”

Tyff’s mouth bent up at one corner. “You’re going to have to figure
that
one out all by yourself, kiddo.”

Kelley sighed. “Okay, but—seriously—if this
isn’t
a date, then why am I dressed like I’m hitting the red carpet?”

Tyff chuckled and secured the last pin in Kelley’s artfully tousled updo. “The Green is a little more upscale than the burger joints you’re used to, Kell. Trust me. Sparkly apparel is
like a kind of uniform there.”

Kelley turned this way and that in the mirror. Shimmering, champagne-hued crystals caught and reflected the light, but the effect was still somehow subtle. Tyff draped a silky wrap over Kelley’s bare shoulders and gave her arm a quick squeeze.

“How do I look?”

“Fetching. But don’t ask
me
….” Tyff stepped aside so that Kelley could see past her—to where Sonny stood, waiting patiently in the living room. “Ask him.”

Sonny turned and his eyes went wide. The look on his face spoke volumes.

If it hadn’t been a date before that moment, it certainly was now.

“How was last night?” Kelley asked, as Sonny put out an arm for her to take as they crossed Fifth Avenue in the waning light of late afternoon. She had been making all kinds of small talk since they’d left the apartment—mostly to avoid having to notice the fact that Sonny had barely taken his eyes off her. “Guard duty, I mean.”

“Quiet, all things considered.” He shrugged. “For me at least. Maddox and the others did most of the heavy lifting. He still thinks I need mending.”

“Don’t you?” she asked, hazarding a quick look into his face.
He’s still staring at me. Maybe the dress really
is
too much.
…

Sonny smiled. “I need less mending than a regular mortal. I’m fine.”

“Really? Then why is Maddox worried?”

“He’s just being an old woman.”

“You’re his friend.” She gripped his arm tighter, feeling a bit precarious in Tyff’s high heels.

“I know. He’s still being an old woman.”

She looked up at him again. “You know, you
do
look a little…rugged.”

“I…oh.” Sonny frowned and looked away.

“It’s okay,” she assured him. “Rugged works pretty well for you.”

There were dozens of carriages lined up along the curb at the southeast corner of the park. Some were pulled by lean, neat-footed ponies, while others were powered by larger draft horses. Sonny cast his gaze up and down the line and made a choice. Grabbing Kelley by the hand, he approached a white buggy adorned with garlands of pink and purple silk flowers. The driver was a tall, broad-shouldered woman with a keen glint in her ice-blue eyes; the horse was a proud silver-white beast who managed to convey a sense of dignity despite the jaunty fuchsia ostrich plumes waving from his bridle and the sparkly purple paint on his hooves. Probably a tourist favorite for the pure kitsch value, Kelley thought.

The horse tossed his huge, noble head, butting her insistently with his nose once she got close enough.

“You certainly seem to have a way with horses,” Sonny whispered.

“Belrix likes you,” the driver said to Kelley. “He’s very particular.”

“He’s beautiful,” Kelley said, scratching his hairy cheek.

“We’d like to hire his services. And yours, if you are available,” Sonny said to the driver.

“We haven’t had many folk wanting a ride through the park the last few nights,” she said, her face a carefully composed blank.

“Due to the uncertain weather, most like,” Sonny suggested politely.

“Aye. Most like…Hard to tell one season from another these days.”

“Just so. Can you take us to the Tavern?” Sonny asked the driver.

“The Tavern on the Green?”

“You know the one I speak of.”

Kelley was confused. There was only
one
Tavern on the Green. It was one of New York’s landmarks.

But the driver nodded slowly. “I do. It will cost you extra to take
that
road.”

“I’ll pay,” Sonny said, pulling out a small red suede pouch. He tugged open the drawstring and chose several coins, which he dropped into the palm of her hand. “For both of us.”

“Fair enough,” she said, and gestured with the little buggy whip she held. “Up you get, then.”

Sonny helped Kelley climb into the cab and then sprang in behind her as the carriage began to move. The steady
clip-clop
of Belrix’s hooves echoed beneath the trees as they wound through the park, passing familiar landmarks and features. They were on a road that took them past the carousel at a distance.

Kelley remarked, “You know that particular carousel is the fourth one to stand on that spot? It’s burned to the ground twice in its history.”

The driver turned and glanced over her shoulder. “I’m usually the one who gives the guided tour, missy,” she said, sounding amused. “Are you trying to take my job?”

Kelley smiled. “No, ma’am. I just remember reading about the carousel in a brochure.”

“Aye, well.” The driver nodded and took over the narrative. “The story goes that the original merry-go-round used to be powered by a horse and an old blind mule that walked a circular track in an underground cavern beneath the ride. Indeed, old Belrix here gets touchy when I talk about the horse and mule.” The big animal’s ears twitched back and forth. “Seems to think that it wasn’t exactly fair work.”

Kelley shivered at the idea of those animals traipsing in an endless circle, one blind, led by the other, in sunless toil for the sake of other creatures’ amusement.

“The carousel that stands there now was found disassembled on Coney Island,” the driver continued. “They brought
it back here and refurbished it. Lucky, that. The park would be poorer without it, to my mind.”

“Yeah,” Kelley murmured, thinking about a horse of another kind. “Lucky.”

On either side of them the park vista passed.

“You know,” Kelley said to Sonny softly, “I was fascinated by the park when I first moved here. I felt kind of drawn to it. I guess that’s not exactly a coincidence, now. Seeing what this place really is. And who I…really am and all…”

“Well,” he said, as he thought about it. “I told you that I don’t believe in any such thing as coincidence. However, I also think that you may have felt drawn to the park for the simple reason that you just felt drawn to the park. A lot of people are, you know. People who aren’t…like you. Just because of what you are doesn’t mean that anything is predestined for you, Kelley. I’ll help make sure of that.”

“Would you say that even if I decided to embrace the legacy of my blood?” she asked, quietly, so that the driver wouldn’t hear her. “If I took up the mantle of a Faerie princess?” A tiny fist of panic lodged in her throat as she said the words, and she found it hard to swallow. The carousel had reminded her once again of just what it might mean if she allowed herself to become one of the Fair Folk. Although Kelley could not deny that there was a wily, seductive appeal in that notion, it terrified her almost as much as it thrilled her.

“Kelley.” Sonny looked her square in the eyes. He took her
hand in his. “I will help you be whatever you want to be. I promise.”

Her fear vanished, and Kelley found herself mesmerized. His hair that night fell in loose, dark waves on either side of his face, and Kelley couldn’t restrain herself from reaching out and tucking a stray lock behind his ear. His gaze deepened. Kelley felt suddenly breathless.

“Almost there,” the driver called, and they reluctantly broke eye contact. Kelley thought she heard a strange, almost inhuman quality to the woman’s voice. Belrix increased his pace to a trot.

Kelley sat up and looked around. The park appeared familiar and foreign at the same time. “
Where
exactly is it that we’re going, again?”

“I told you. I’m taking you someplace safe.” Sonny smiled at her gently.

“And you don’t have to, uh, work tonight?”

“Tonight, you are my work.”

“Oh.” She didn’t exactly like the idea of being some kind of assignment.

“What’s the matter?” Sonny glanced down at the tone of her voice.

“Nothing. I just thought…never mind. I guess being a princess means I get to have a bodyguard, huh?”

“Something like that,” he said. “The Janus all agreed. You should be protected.”

“I see. The Janus all agreed, did they?” Kelley pulled away
from Sonny, hugging her elbows tight to her body.

“Did I say something wrong?” Sonny frowned worriedly.

“No.” She sighed. “No…I’m just having a little trouble adjusting to all the fuss over me, I guess. I should have known…never mind. So where
exactly
are we going again?” He hadn’t answered her question the first time.

Sonny stared at the road ahead of them. “Somewhere where there are others who can protect you. In case I’m not there. I hope I am….”

“Why on earth wouldn’t you be there?” she said, laughing. “You’re always there. Even when I’ve told you to go away!”

Sonny took both of her hands in one of his. She could feel his long, strong fingers laced with hers, and felt her heart racing. Sonny laid the fingers of his free hand alongside her cheek and tilted her face up.

“Please be there,” Kelley whispered, suddenly afraid.

“Believe me, Kelley. If I’m not…it’s because I’m already dead.” He stroked her hair, and she could feel his breath warm on her forehead, like a kiss. “Because anyone that would seek to hurt you would have to kill me first.”

That is
not
exactly the comforting notion that he thinks it is
.

She shivered, and Sonny put an arm around her.

She thought about Auberon’s words to her in her dressing room. About how it wasn’t in Sonny’s nature to love what she might become. Whatever
that
was. In truth, Kelley knew so very little about the world she was heir to.

Just as she thought that, Belrix rounded a bend, pulling the
buggy up in front of the Tavern on the Green, and Kelley realized that she was about to find out a whole lot more.

Kelley had been to Central Park’s famed Tavern on the Green once before. In the first week after her move to New York, Aunt Emma had come to town—a rare thing, since she hated the city—and taken Kelley for dinner there. Inside it was a maze of mirrored halls, rococo stained glass, stag antlers mounted on chestnut-paneled walls, and fairy-tale murals. The main dining room was a glass gazebo festooned with a whimsical assortment of chandeliers of all colors and sizes, fracturing light into rainbows that danced across walls painted with cloud castles and winged horses.

Outside in the courtyard, every tree was wrapped with strings of tiny electric lights, and garlands of paper lanterns swung between the overarching branches. The bushes that surrounded the garden were trimmed into fantastic shapes—a prancing horse, a mermaid, even—with a New York sense of humor—a great, green, shrubby King Kong.

It had all seemed so fantastical.

At the time.

But on this night, Kelley knew she was in for something infinitely
more
fantastical. For one thing, there were no cars in the parking lot. There was, however, an old-fashioned coach-and-four that looked like a movie prop from Disney’s
Cinderella
.

Sonny swung himself down from the carriage, holding out
a hand so that she could step to the ground without injuring either herself or Tyff’s gown. Kelley wasn’t used to wearing shoes with such high heels. He stuck out an elbow, beaming, and Kelley took his arm. She felt as though she might actually be blushing so she looked away, in time to notice that the doorman in the green top hat and long frock coat wasn’t wearing pants. He didn’t have to—beneath the hem of his coat, his legs were shaggy with brown fur and ended in delicate, cloven goat’s hooves.

“Master Flannery,” he greeted Sonny. Kelley noticed that he raised a saturnine eyebrow at the Janus, a silent question implicit in the expression. “Long has it been since you have honored Herne’s house with your presence. And the lady…?”

“The lady is my guest. I would have her exceptionally well looked after. She is…important to me. To all of us, I think.”

“Then she is welcome here, of course,” the faun said as he swept his hat off in greeting to her. Kelley tried very hard not to stare at the tiny horns curling back from beside his tufted ears. The strange little doorman gestured them up to the front doors, which swung wide at their approach.

“Did he say
Herne’s
house?” Kelley whispered as they moved up the steps.

“He did,” rumbled a deep voice from beneath the archway. “I am Herne. Welcome to my Tavern on the Green…”