Shadowspell

Dad and I ended up going to his house while Finn escorted Kimber home. Dad deposited me on the living room sofa, then headed upstairs to release my mom from her guest room/prison cell and tell her what happened.

I was out of tears by then, and a kind of numbness had settled over me. Unfortunately, the numbness didn’t stop the guilt from gnawing away at me. The Erlking had used me to provoke Ethan into attacking him, and that made the whole thing my fault. Worse, I couldn’t help thinking that the Erlking’s interest in Ethan was entirely because of me in the first place.

I heard my mom and dad come downstairs, but I was too miserable to bother looking at them. Dad came to join me in the living room, and I could hear my mom clattering around in the kitchen, which meant she was making tea. Ugh. If I never saw another cup of tea again, it would be too soon.

No one said anything for a long time. I pried off my shoes, then put my feet on the sofa and hugged my knees to my chest. Dad sat on the love seat, staring at his hands. My mom brought in the tea tray and poured three cups in silence. I ignored mine.

“Tell me about Connor,” I said to my dad when the silence became too much to bear. The fact that I had a brother I’d never even known about hadn’t sunk in yet, which was maybe just as well.

Dad sighed heavily and shook his head. At first, I thought that meant he wasn’t going to talk about it, but he surprised me.

“My firstborn,” he said, his eyes fixed on the steam that rose from his tea. His voice was scratchy. He cleared his throat and took a sip of tea, but he didn’t sound any better when he continued.

“Long ago, when the Erlking hunted unchecked through Faerie, I was Titania’s consort.”

I gasped. My dad had been described to me, before I’d met him, as “one of the great Seelie lords.” I knew that meant he was an important figure in the Seelie Court—though technically, as a citizen of Avalon, he wasn’t supposed to owe allegiance to the Court—but it had never occurred to me that he had once been the Queen’s consort.

“She rarely keeps a consort more than a century or so, but those who have provided her with offspring tend to last longer. I know she was tiring of me near the end, was already looking for my replacement. But then she had Connor, and I rose in her esteem once more.

“My son won me another century by Titania’s side. But then she decided it was time to put a stop to the Erlking’s marauding. She sent a contingent of Knights, led by Connor, to hunt him down and kill him. Only, as I’ve told you, the Erlking cannot be killed. He and his Huntsmen killed all the Knights in Connor’s army, but he decided to send a more … powerful message to Titania by binding Connor to the Wild Hunt. It was Connor’s abduction that finally convinced both the Queens that they had to make a deal with the Erlking.”

“A deal that didn’t include letting Connor go?” I asked, my voice rising despite the numbness. I would have thought freeing her son would have been Titania’s primary motivation in making a deal with the Erlking. Then again, the Fae are not human, and the ones who live in Faerie don’t even make a pretense at it.

Dad closed his eyes in obvious pain. “I know she tried to get him back,” he said. “But the Erlking wouldn’t give him up.” He opened his eyes and looked at me, and although I could still see the pain in his expression, there was sympathy as well. “It is a point of pride with him never to release anyone he has captured.”

My throat tightened, and my eyes stung, hinting that maybe I wasn’t all cried out after all. “There has to be a way…” I started to say before the tightness of my throat stopped my voice.

“Titania herself couldn’t find a way to make him release Connor,” my dad said, shaking his head. “Ethan is gone, too, and there will be no saving him.”

I swallowed the protest that wanted to rise to my lips. Maybe the Seelie Queen hadn’t had the kind of leverage I had with the Erlking. After all, she wasn’t a Faeriewalker. She couldn’t give him access to the mortal world.

My thoughts came to a screeching halt. Yeah, I might have something the Erlking wanted. But I’d already determined it was something I could never give him. I’d seen how easily and remorselessly the Erlking killed. I couldn’t unleash him on the defenseless humans of the mortal world. Not even to save Ethan.

“I know what he wants from you, Dana,” my dad said, and I supposed it wasn’t hard for anyone who knew I was a Faeriewalker to figure that out. “You mustn’t give it to him.”

Anger welled in my chest, and I’d probably have said something I’d later wish to take back if my mom hadn’t startled me by putting her arms around me and pulling me into a hug.

“Give our daughter more credit than that, Seamus,” she said, and she sounded about as angry as I felt. “I can’t even believe you would consider the possibility that she would help the Wild Hunt enter the mortal world.”

I felt my dad’s hand briefly touching the top of my head, though I hadn’t heard him move from the love seat to the sofa.

“The Erlking is an ancient evil,” he said, and I think he meant the words for both of us. “He is a master at getting what he wants, and a sixteen-year-old girl—no matter how sensible she might be—is no match for him.”

I pulled away from my mother’s arms and glared at him. “Just stop it, okay? I don’t want to be sensible right now! Can’t you at least wait until tomorrow to try to convince me you’re always right about everything?”