Dani Harper - Storm Bound

“Beautiful land,” Aidan murmured.

“And the queen wishes to announce it as a new kingdom for her people, a colony if you wish. It is her belief that we have outgrown our traditional home.”

“How can that be?” asked Rhys. “The fae realm is so much bigger than what lies above it.”

Brooke remembered that strange phenomenon from old fairy tales she’d read as a child. It had been remarked on by poets and storytellers throughout the ages that the faery lands beneath the ground outshone the mortal country overhead in both glory and sheer size.

“The earth magic that binds everything together is finite. There are too many of the Tylwyth Teg drawing on the magic beneath the Black Mountains of Wales, wresting every bit of power from it they can for position and false strength,” explained Lurien. “We have need of new horizons. It is the queen’s hope that spreading out will help to quell some of the unrest among us. It would have been done a long time ago, had we not been too busy fighting among ourselves.”

“Wait a minute,” said Brooke. “You’re telling me that the fae are going to live here ? In this country? Right under our feet?”

“They’re already here,” said Morgan. “Aren’t they, Lurien? You said the king negotiated with other fae tribes.”

“The ones who already lived here, yes. Vast settlements from many places in Europe have been on this side of the waters for a very long time. As for my people, few have made the journey except for a small group of Tylwyth Teg who invaded the land without the queen’s approval. Most of them are fugitives from our justice, but they have not mended their ways. Even now, they are spreading ever-increasing malice and mischief in the human world. By officially announcing Tir Hardd as one of her territories, the queen will have control of it. The Wild Hunt will be empowered to guard it, and our laws will be in force to govern it. More of our people—better ones, I hope—will make their home here.”

“So the plan is to take power away from the rogue fae who are already here,” said Brooke. “Almost like taming the Wild West by turning it all into states and diluting the criminal element with law-abiding colonists.”

Lurien gave her a grim smile. “It may remain the Wild West for quite a while before it’s tamed. But yes, something like that.”

“You’re not here to ask our permission,” said Rhys. “Why bother telling us?”

“I do not require permission. The endless realms below are not under mortal rule. But I do need someone to lead the Wild Hunt in this new territory for a short while. Until I can ferret out the conspiracies that threaten the realm, there is no one left to me in my world that I dare trust with the task.” He looked pointedly at Rhys and Morgan. “Some of you know what happens when the Hunt is not led by the just and the honorable.”

“How long?” Aidan asked suddenly, and Brooke turned to stare at him.

“I will return you to your world in six mortal months from this moment. You have my word upon it. And any protection I can give.”

Brooke put a hand on Aidan’s face and turned it towards her. “What the hell are you doing?” she whispered fiercely. “Are you honestly thinking of saying yes?”

“I vowed to kill Celynnen, to put an end to her evil, thinking all would be well if she were gone. Rhys made me realize there are many more like her, and they will be happy to cause as much suffering here as possible. For endless years I thought only of revenge, but I see now that I was shortsighted. You told me about the Code you follow, the good you try to do, and it made me think. There are three or four lines from it about guarding and balance, are there not?”

With a lump in her throat, she recited: To hold the Gift is to guard the helpless and to remove power from the cruel. To hold the Gift is to strengthen the just and to turn greed upon itself. To hold the Gift is to protect the balance in all things and to restore harmony.

“That’s the very thing. I see you working to make a difference in the world, to improve it for others, and I admire you for it. I didn’t know what I could do that might help, but I saw something in Olivia’s silver bowl that gave me the answer. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I think I do now. It’s about helping to restore balance. For all of us.” He leaned down and kissed her then, long and deep. “I need to do this, cariad . I love you. And I will come back to you.”

She shot a look at Lurien. “Unharmed?” she asked.

The fae nodded. “I will do all within my power to keep him safe. On my honor and my life, good lady. The queen has vowed her protection as well.” He touched his brow and vanished.

Rhys cleared his throat suddenly. “You’re going to need a good horse, Aidan.” He led Cygnus over. Aidan clasped the man’s hand and took the halter from him. The big white horse bumped him with his nose as if pleased with the arrangement.

Brooke wasn’t liking the arrangement much herself, although she was glad for Rhys’s gift. She looked up into Aidan’s gray eyes. Dear goddess, could she let him go? Yet how could she not, knowing what she did? “Okay, then,” she said with difficulty. “Okay. You help to straighten out the faery world, and I’ll keep working away at balancing this one. But—”

He kissed her again—and disappeared, along with the great white horse. Startled, she stood there with her suddenly empty arms.

“But I’ll miss you.”

As the coffee maker brewed, Brooke filled the cat dishes with Mighty Bites. Bouncer and Jade paused, sniffing it suspiciously, then tucked in as if they’d been eating it all their lives. Rory seemed positively offended, sitting back on his haunches and swatting the air over his dish as if the smell offended him. Then looked at her as if to say, “Nice joke. Now where’s the real chow?”

“I’m sorry, buddy, the grocery store was out of your favorite yesterday. I’ll have to try that new pet store on the other side of town, but I can’t do it till later.”

He wrinkled his black nose and stalked away, taking up a perch on the couch with his back to her.

Brooke sighed as she filled her cup with coffee and dressed it with cream. At least she’d slept through the night again. Her sleep patterns were almost back to normal now that the nightmares had finally ceased. Olivia had helped her a great deal with spells and potions and a charmed dream catcher—not to mention a listening ear and a wide shoulder—but Brooke had been haunted for the first few months by what she’d done to Celynnen.

“You had no choice, m’ija ,” her friend and mentor had reassured her, countless times. “That horrible faery would have killed my George. Perhaps even killed all of you. The Code calls for you to protect the helpless and remove power from the cruel. That is what you did.”

The Code had never said a damn word about having to use violent means. Brooke had decked Aidan once, but that was a far cry from effectively causing the death of a living being. Celynnen was very far from human, and she was as deadly as she was beautiful. Yet Brooke had been jarred awake for weeks by the thunderclap of sound as all those horseshoes obeyed her own command and slammed into the faery princess, maiming her horribly and revealing her true nature beneath the glorious facade. Would she have died of her wounds? Brooke wasn’t sure. Morgan explained that Celynnen’s fate had been the same as the other assassins of the king—their discovery had apparently triggered a spell that incinerated them from the inside out. It was a brutal but effective safeguard. Anyone captured would not live to be questioned, and the identity of the other conspirators would remain a secret. Although Lurien was certain to pay a visit to the king of the Draigddynion…