Silver Hollow (26 page)
Amie would have been terrified on her own. This forest wasn’t anything like the thick piney woods of East Texas or any other forest she could remember visiting for that matter. It was older, darker
,
and if her protector were anyone less threatening than Emrys she might have been scared anyway. Amie took to mimicking h
is movements
to avoid touching him more than necessary. For now she could brush aside their issues and her newfound attraction to him and concentrate on surviving.
“Do you actually have a plan besides leading me into the middle of the forest?” she asked. Amie cl
ut
ched Emrys’ arm as she kicked at a stray clawing root. Stomping her feet in frustration
,
she turned on the offending tree. “What did I do to you? Huh? Is there a sign on my
back that says
‘trip me’
or something?” When she turned her glare to Emrys
she
silently
dared him to laugh out loud.
“Look,” he said, after turning to the wood, “we’re here.”
Amie jerked her head
up and stared at a thicket identical to the one they
had
already passed
. Crossing her arms over her chest
,
she came full circle then looked up at her companion. Emrys stared at the dark glade with twisted rapture, eyes gleaming all the brighter in the darkness. What light managed to break the tops clung to Amie.
“Is this it?”
s
he deadpanned.
“You have to actually look, ye ken…”
With a shrug Amie turned down her grin and obeyed. Almost instantly her eyes caught the details she’d missed. Frozen rain had given the leaves a crisp curl and this was not just a creepy enchanted forest. There were laye
rs to this place, Amie decided
,
which
,
if studied carefully,
turned into a natural cathedral.
As if they had been called by magic, they came with the sound of bells. Faeries, tinier than the ones from Periwinkle’s garden suddenly appeared flying in swarms so thick she could feel the pulse of their
nixy
.
“Emrys?” Her voice sounded distant to her own ears. Was it the effect of the rains? The air was much cooler than it had been even yesterday. Amie hadn’t expected autumn to come so quickly, especially as the leaves were always
an
unnatural black shade of green. When she turned her head to find him she bit her lip and called out, “Emrys?”
The faeries scattered at the sound of her voice, winking out of existence
,
and one thing was for certain. She was alone.
He can’t be too far away. I swear if he’s just trying to freak me out, I’m going to nix his pale arse back to America.
With a forced laugh, she called out, “Okay, very funny! I’m convinced. You’ve got some wicked awesome Robin Hood skills.”
Amie paced through the underbrush, almost tripped on a stray root and kicked it back. “Stupid trees
,
”
s
he grumbled
,
then noticed the endless ring of faerie lights dancing in the distance. Shivering, Amie
sought for
shelter. She stepped cautiously around a perfect ring of silvery mushrooms. Twisting her father’
s
ring around her finger in a nervous gesture, she tried not to panic.
“It’s all good
,
Wenderdowne. This is all just a test, a
really
stupid, cruel test!” The last she spoke loud and clear in case he was nearby. He had to be nearby, hadn’t he? He was her protector and a
whole string of explicatives
Amie wouldn’t bother naming out loud. Her anger grew with each passing cadence of the faeries’ song.
With every step she took off the path Emrys led her through, her panic increased. Amie knew too well how easy it was to get lost in the woods and how dangerous. People went crazy in places like this. Already Amie could see herself in a shabby version of her dress, skin caked with mud and twigs in her hair, scavenging for berries. She gripped both sides of her head and breathed. “Whoa, not helping…”
During the following hours, as teatime and lunchtime passed with the turn of the sun, Amie tripped at least twelve times.
Not because I’m a vampire-loving awkward chick with a marble fetish.
Only her pride kept her from shouting out threats at Emrys. By this point Amie was so mad she loathed herself for trusting him. Had he orchestrated this whole thing? Was he playing them all along? What for? To lead her out in the middle of the woods after supposedly helping her, so he could leave her to fester with the mulch at her feet.
“Wait till I get a hold of him…”
Whatever romantic notions Amie had imagined in those charged moments their
nixies
clashed was washed away by the reality of a hard rain currently soaking through her flexible corset and shift beneath it. Amie had the luck of finding a hollowed
-
out tree trunk big enough to squeeze inside of. It was oddly devoid of the usual insects. Back home she would have run into a hornet
s
’ nest, a mound of fire ants or worse a rattlesnake’s den.
But here in jolly old England we have the finest bug-free accommodations money can buy!
She laughed to herself, mind replaying the events of this past week to forget her body was going numb with cold and throat swelling with unbroken sobs. Beyond the natural shelter, the clouds broke loose their fury till even the forest couldn’t shield the world below. The faerie lights had dimmed, their songs faded and without a doubt she knew she was totally alone.
I can’t believe I came here without telling anyone!
Amie blinked through the haze of her thoughts and the constant drum of the rains. A golden light swung back and forth in the distance like a pendulum and every second drew closer.
Finally, Amie could tell it wasn’t a faerie light but a lantern, carried by a small green-cloaked person.
She held her breath, uncertain as to why she should be afraid. Her trembling fingers clutched her skirts in a bone
-
white grip and she wondered if she should stay hidden. The mysterious figure found her first. Lantern light blinded her eyes, its enclosed warmth suddenly at her feet
,
and the voluminous hooded creature watched on. She could feel those piercing eyes even if she couldn’t see what hid inside the cloak.
A strong clear feminine voice called out with a crook of a finger. “You are soaked to the bone, dear. Come, before it is too late!”
Amie saw a flash of aquamarine orbs as the lantern revealed its mistress again. When Amie crawled out of her cave, she stood at least a head taller than the strange little woman. Momentarily lost to the ache and chill of her bones, she was surprised to see the creature didn’t wait for her to keep up.
“Come!”
the woman
beckoned.
A bushel full of fresh questions filled her and might have escaped if
Amie’s
jaw wasn’t clenched to keep from chattering. Most upsetting was no matter how quickly she walked, Amie could barely keep up. The thought crossed her mind more than once.
What the heck is this chick walking alone in the woods at night for?
As if she could hear Amie’s thoughts the woman said, “You are the Lady of the House, are you not?” The crystalline voice sounded disembodied, echoing off the trees, the rain itself. “I have heard much of your coming as the trees created quite a stir.”
She added
, “My name is Dameri.”
A strange feeling passed over Amie as she listened to
the
smooth, almost familiar voice.
Dameri twisted the lantern to hover betwixt them, continuing, “I already know your name. I told you we heard of your coming, yes? You should not be wandering these woods alone
,
Jessamiene Wenderdowne.” With grave
foreboding,
she
said
,
“He did not tell you what dwells in the shadows. It was
the
ring that marked and saved you…and your eyes
,
of course.”
Of course
.
Amie rolled the aforementioned eyes.
Amie didn’t recognize any of the paths they took. She was too exhausted by this point to care if the woman led her off the edge of a cliff. Dameri paused the moment the trees began to
thin and something of the countryside could be found again. Amie turned to face her, shivering
,
and the strange woman laughed.
“You know you
w
ould feel better if you would simply fix it
. Y
ou have the gift. I thought you might have used it by now.”
Amie didn’t want to think about Emrys and his
teachings
at the moment, but she was sort of dealing with the effects of hypothermia by this point. Seeing as the idgit tried to kill her
,
the least she could do was use his own lessons and thwart his plans. Closing her eyes, she concentrated until she could almost see
the
burning coal smoking deeply within her.
Amie plunged herself in
its
warmth, felt it grow from a coal into comforting flames and felt immensely better.
Dameri’s next statement nearly threw her train of thought for a triple loop. “Tonight is the perfect night to catch gremlins, so I’ll be off now. Keep walking straight until you reach the edge of your pasture lands
,
milady.”
Opening her eyes and her mouth to thank her new friend, Amie found herself standing alone at the edge of the clearing and threw up her hands. “Doesn’t anyone come and go normally here?”
…
The chill was melted with each pound of her heart as she broke the cursed tree line and ran to the stables. Eddie’s nightly watch had already begun, with his lantern, a beacon Amie gravitated to gladly.
On every other occasion their paths crossed, she
had
avoided his blue
-
eyed stare. Now Amie willingly dashed into the cavernous structure of his domain. Like every other time
,
he sat on his short stool, working on some odd but necessary project, dressed in breeches, oversized boots and a brown overcoat.
Slaine must not have brought him his dinner yet,
was her fleeting thought as she tripped and braced her fall with her mud
-
stained hands. Amie had a strong idea of how she must look, a heap of rain
-
plastered clothes, her mane featuring more leaves and twigs than hair. After her evening spent in the hollow of a
tree
,
she was enough a stranger
that
Eddie leapt
up
in alarm, faster than she had seen him move the entire visit. Boundless energy charged the air before Amie lifted her chin to look at him.
Eddie’s arm was reared back, his hammer in hand and a cry on his lips.
“Don’t shoot!” Amie threw up her hands, stumbled and landed smack on her derrière. “I mean…wait! It’s me, Amie!” She choked on her own words, flung her hair off her face in time to watch the steel hammer pause mere inches from her cheek.
The lantern above them swung on its hook, cast peculiar shadows over his strong features. With his cap pulled over his mop of ginger hair, it had been difficult to note his features before. His nose was straight and long but not overpowering his round
,
evenly spaced blue eyes. His strong golden eyebrows twitched then relaxed.
Now
that
Amie could see him up close she realized he couldn’t possibly be younger than her. Perhaps it was his slightly curling hair
which
made him look so much younger? It fell into his eyes, squashed down by his gray weather
-
stained cap. His shoulders were square and sharp beneath his coat, broad in the way hard labor broke a stone figure of a man’s mold. His frame shivered with the effort to knock back some of his adrenaline rush. No one with such a young face should have such cold, ancient eyes. The fire in those eyes dulled considerably the moment he recognized her. A flicker of annoyance passed through them for her appraisal.
Without a word his lips pursed together. Hooking the hammer to his belt, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her up against him. Amie gasped at the burn his touch sent straight to the scar on her chest. Eddie grimaced but continued to lead her past his scattered work station and deeper into the stables.
On a quick glance, she spotted her horse, Jellybean
,
in his stall beside Ambrose. Horses, cattle and a few small sheep brayed from this well-known part of the stables. But then Eddie walked right up to the wall,
the wall
, where she often saw lights shining from its high windows and heard the oddest of sounds on rainy nights. Pressing his palm to a jutting piece of wood
,
he twisted it. The snap and shift of locks and gears filled their ears. Transfixed by the sliding door, she didn’t see Eddie observe her reaction with the faintest trace of bemusement. The moment the door cracked open he pushed through, hand still supporting Amie’s waist.
