Shadowspell

The Fae are usually blond, with a few redheads thrown in for variety, but the Erlking’s hair was a deep, glossy black and reached halfway down his back. His eyes were of deepest blue, framed by thick black lashes, and his mouth should be in the dictionary beside the word sensual. A striking blue tattoo in the shape of a leaping stag curved around the side of his face from just above his eyebrow down to his cheekbone.

Like all the Fae, the Erlking was ageless, his face belonging to someone in his mid-twenties, but there was something about his eyes that made him look … ancient. There were depths of knowledge in those eyes that made me feel like I could drown in them.

I forced myself to remember the sight of him raising his sword to kill an unarmed, fleeing man. The memory didn’t make him any less gorgeous, but it did stop me from staring at him in what I suspect was an embarrassing state of awe.

“Dana, daughter of Seamus,” the Erlking said in a voice that blended with the rumble of the bikes. “Well met.”

He put his hand over his heart, then bowed from the waist. The gesture should have looked awkward while he was straddling his bike, but it didn’t.

I figured keeping my mouth shut was the best option when facing malevolent creatures of Faerie. The Erlking’s eyes twinkled with humor for a moment before he turned his attention to Finn.

“And Finn, of the Daoine Sidhe.” He didn’t bow this time, but he did nod his head with what looked almost like respect. “A worthy guardian for Avalon’s most precious jewel.”

I wasn’t surprised that Finn also chose to keep quiet. Like I said, he’s the strong, silent type.

I expected the Erlking to greet Lachlan in some way, as he had me and Finn, but he dismissed the troll with no more than a cursory glance and a curl of his lip. As I’d discovered from my father, the Sidhe were notoriously classist, and trolls were considered lesser beings. It pissed me off, but I wasn’t going to try to teach the Erlking manners.

The Erlking fixed me with a stare that felt like an icicle piercing my heart. My breath froze in my lungs, and my fight-or-flight instincts urged me to run. My whole body was trembling with the need to flee for my life, sweat breaking out on my forehead and under my arms as my blood turned to pure adrenaline. When I managed to drag in a breath, my lungs wheezed with the effort. I think if Finn hadn’t been holding my arm, I might not have been able to resist my body’s desperate instinct to get away. Not that I could have gone anywhere with the Huntsmen surrounding me.

“Leave her alone!” Finn barked.

The Erlking smiled and looked away from me. The need to run faded instantly, and I knew that he had used some kind of magic against me to upgrade my general fear to full-out terror. I fought to keep myself from shivering as I tried to calm my frantic heart rate. Whatever magic he’d used, I hadn’t sensed it in the air.

The Erlking met my eyes again, but this time he didn’t try any tricks. “It is rare for a person with mortal blood to be able to withstand my gaze. Even a full-blooded Fae can be made to feel the effects, though only under the right circumstances. It seems there is more to you than meets the eye.”

Nightmare Man then proceeded to wink at me, like he and I were in on some great joke together. I swallowed hard. I don’t know how, but I was sure he knew about my affinity with magic. Perhaps it was the magic that had prevented me from surrendering to panic. He was dangerous enough without him knowing my secret.

The Erlking smiled at me. On someone else’s face, that smile probably would have looked friendly. But not on his.

“I am not your enemy, Faeriewalker,” he said. “I can’t in all fairness claim to be your friend, either. However, I will offer you a token of…” He tapped his chin and furrowed his brow as if thinking hard, though I got the feeling he was just putting on a show. “… good will.”

He looked at me expectantly. I still thought keeping my mouth shut around this guy was the smartest move. However, I didn’t want to leave him with the impression that I was a frightened little rabbit, quivering with terror and hoping the big bad wolf wouldn’t eat me.

“Thanks,” I said, and I managed to get some sarcasm in my tone, though I sounded scared even to my own ears. “But no thanks. Somehow, I don’t think accepting tokens from you would be such a hot idea.”

The Erlking laughed, and his Huntsmen echoed him in eerie unison. The Erlking was terrifying, but his Huntsmen were just plain creepy.

I had no clue why what I’d said was so funny, but despite my resolve to appear unaffected, I knew blood was rising to my cheeks. Mockery is something I’ve never taken well.

The laughter stopped as abruptly as it had started. The Erlking picked up his helmet. I hoped that meant he and his buddies were about to leave.

“I’ll give you the token whether you wish it or not,” he said. For the first time, he turned his full attention to Lachlan, who had been so still and quiet I’d almost forgotten he was there.

“Things aren’t always what they seem, now, are they?” the Erlking asked Lachlan with a grin.

To my surprise, Lachlan paled and took a step backward, as if he was thinking of running. The Erlking had suggested that his power of terror didn’t work so well on Fae unless they had some mortal blood in them, which I was sure Lachlan did not. I didn’t even know if trolls were capable of breeding with humans.

Finn was giving Lachlan a funny look, too. “Lachlan?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”