Beguiled (35 page)

“I am listening.” He tipped his head and looked down at her. Those black eyes watched. Waited.

“The human queen,” she said with a sneer, “has taken up residence in the castle.”

He snorted and dismissed her plan without even hearing the entirety of it. “The magical wards around the palace will keep us out.”

“But only the palace itself is warded, my friend.” Mab smiled and the eager glint in her eyes must have caught his attention. He looked directly at her as she added, “There is a child. . . .”

Eileen told herself she wasn’t breaking any rules.

After all, the palace
gardens
were still pretty much the palace, right? Sighing, she walked along a silver bricked path that wound through acres of flowers and bushes and small fruit-bearing trees.

She looked around. No one was there, so she reached out, pulled what looked like a tiny, yellow apple from the closest tree and looked at it. Not so long ago, she’d looked up
Faery
on the computer and she remembered telling her aunt Maggie that if she went to Otherworld, she shouldn’t eat anything. Because if she did, she would be trapped there for like a hundred years or something.

Of course, Bezel said that was a big lie, just like mostly everything else the human world thought they knew about the Fae. But still . . .

“Guess it doesn’t matter if I eat it now, anyway,” she told herself. “Since we live in Otherworld, it doesn’t matter if I’m trapped or not.”

She took a big bite and the flavor of the fruit exploded in her mouth. A mix of apple and pear and weirdly, almost a banana taste, the fruit was soft and juicy and totally good. Grinning to herself, she kept walking, munching on the fruit as she went.

Eileen thought she could get used to being here all the time. The palace was great and Quinn had used magic to make her room exactly the way she wanted it to be. Which was completely awesome. And there were so many Fae wandering around asking her all the time if she wanted anything or needed anything, she could get totally spoiled. Except that Mom and Aunt Maggie would probably still make her do things like make her bed and go to school—

She stopped. “Do they even
have
schools in Otherworld?”

Was it weird that she hoped so? She’d always liked school. She and her best friend, Amber, always had a great time in English class because the teacher was completely clueless and didn’t pay any attention to what they were really reading, so Amber and Eileen read whatever they wanted to and—

“No more Amber,” she whispered, looking around again at the lush garden, the twin suns shining overhead and the incredible crystal palace behind her. “Who am I supposed to talk to?”

A twist of sadness wrung at her insides and she felt . . . alone. Bezel was off visiting his friends, so she didn’t even have him to hang out with. She hadn’t had time to meet any Fae her age yet and the only one she
did
know, nobody would let her see.

“Which is completely unfair,” she muttered, and wandered over to a bench tucked behind a low hedge bursting with violet flowers. There was a fountain with a waterfall flowing into a huge tub that had red fish swimming in it.

She wished she could see Devon. He never treated her like a kid. He would understand how mad she was at being told that she couldn’t explore the new world her mom and Aunt Maggie had dropped her into. “But no, can’t have Eileen making friends. Talking to boys. Don’t want her to be normal or anything.”

Disgusted, she walked on, nearing the edge of the palace gardens. Beyond them, the Fae city stretched out in front of her, crystal towers sparkling in the sunlight. Ancient trees with windows cut into their trunks stood like soldiers, lining the streets. And she knew that way beyond the city, there was an ocean kind of like the one at home. She wondered if there was a lighthouse. Or a pier. She wondered what people did here for fun. And wondered when she’d get to have some.

“Eileen!”

Her head whipped around at the sound of that hushed, but familiar voice. A smile broke out on her face as she scanned the surrounding flowers and bushes; then she laughed in delight when Devon stepped out from behind a tree and waved to her.

“How did you get in here?” she asked, already hurrying toward him. She hadn’t seen him since the day he’d shifted into Bezel’s tree house to surprise her.

He shrugged as if it had been no big deal, and Eileen’s heart did a funny little spin and drop. He always made her feel strange. Her tummy would jump like there were thousands of butterflies inside and her throat got all tight like if she tried to talk, she’d sound like a frog or something.

But she was so glad to see him, she didn’t even mind the weird factor.

When she was close enough, he spoke again. “It was not difficult. Only the palace itself is warded. The gardens are for all Fae. Well, not the rogues. They can’t get in at all.”

Eileen laughed again and it felt so good. Suddenly she wasn’t alone. She did have
one
friend in this strange new world and she wasn’t going to let her mom or Aunt Maggie stop her from talking to him.

“So cool. At least we know you’re not a rogue.”

He frowned briefly, then shrugged again. “I am a warrior. We are not rogue. We serve the Queen.”

“I know,” she said. “I was just kidding.”

Devon smiled and Eileen’s heart did that funny, squeezy thing again. “You make me smile. It’s good that you’ve come to live here now, Eileen. That your aunt has accepted being our Queen.”

“Yeah, I think so too. . . .”

“But you are not happy,” he said, bending his head a bit to look into her eyes. “Tell me why this is.”

“It’s just, I don’t know anyone and I don’t really have any friends here yet. . . .”

“You have me,” he said quietly. “I will protect you. Let no harm come to you.”

“That’s so sweet.” Eileen sighed a little dreamily. He was
way
cuter than Jensen Ackles.

Devon straightened to his full height and squared his shoulders proudly. “My father says it is the privilege of all warriors to defend the Queen and her family.”

“Your dad? Is he a warrior, too?”

“Yes. He is Chieftain. Culhane.”

Surprised and excited, Eileen grinned. “Seriously? Culhane’s your dad? I know him really well.”

“I know,” he said softly.

“You’re lucky, you know,” she said as they started walking along the silver path toward the city that lay in front of them. “I never see my dad.”

She didn’t really think of him much anymore, either. She used to, back when she was a little kid. Eileen used to dream that he’d come and move back in with her and her mom and they’d be happy. But then as she got older, she remembered that they’d never really been a happy family to begin with. Her dad had always been mad about something and her mom had cried a lot back when they were together. So slowly, she’d just accepted things the way they were and really, she didn’t miss having a dad so much most of the time.

Especially lately, since Bezel and Culhane were always around. And Quinn was really nice, too, and he was sort of like a dad since he was married to her mom and stuff—even though her mom didn’t think so . . . but she didn’t want to be sad right now, anyway. Or even to think complicated things. She just wanted to walk with Devon and have him tell her all about Otherworld.

Devon took her hand in his and Eileen’s heart started beating so hard, she was sort of afraid he might hear it. But his hand was big and warm and it felt . . . special to be with him. Where no one could see them. Where no one could make her feel like a little girl.

“My father,” he was saying, “is not around much, either. I live with the training warriors, so I do not get to see him very often. He is very important to our people.”

“What about your mom?” she asked.

“She does not see me anymore,” he said with another shrug, as if it didn’t matter to him at all, but Eileen could tell it did.

“Bummer.”

He looked at her and smiled a question. “What does that mean?”

“It means, that’s too bad.”

“Ah.” He nodded and smiled again. “Yes. It is. But I am happy. You are here in Otherworld now and that makes me glad.”

Oh my God.
If only she could tell Amber about this!

“Me, too,” Eileen said, then asked, “So, where are we going?”

“My father says I am to stay away from you. That the Queen would not be pleased to have me here.”

Frowning, Eileen threw a glance over her shoulder to the palace, glittering in the light of twin suns. “They don’t have to know.”

“We will ‘sneak’?”

“Sure.”

He smiled. “Shall I take you to the city?”

She wanted to really bad, but . . . Eileen turned and looked back at the castle. If anyone in there found out she’d sneaked out with Devon again, they’d lock her up until she was dead. But if she went back right now, she’d still be in trouble for leaving, she told herself. So, as long as she was already in trouble, she might as well really enjoy herself, right?

“Okay,” she said, and was rewarded with another of his great smiles.

“There is much I want to show you,” he said, walking faster now, as if eager to get where they were going.

Eileen laughed out loud because it just felt so good to be there. With him.

Then everything changed.

A creature, dressed all in black, with long, snaking arms and dark gray skin, shifted into place directly in front of them. One moment he wasn’t there. The next, he was.

Devon jumped in front of Eileen to protect her, but the
thing
picked up the young warrior and threw him as if he weighed nothing at all. Devon’s body slammed into the trunk of a tree and then dropped to the forest floor without a sound.

Terrified, Eileen tried to run.

Tried to scream.

But in the blink of an eye, the thing grabbed her, covering her mouth with a scaly hand. Eileen looked up at the castle and realized that no one there would even know she was missing.

Then the creature holding her shifted and they were gone.

Chapter Seventeen

“Don’t tell me to be
calm!
” Nora shrieked when Quinn patted her shoulder. “That
bitch
has my baby!”

Maggie totally understood. Quinn was trying to be supportive, but it was wasted. Nora wasn’t the fainting or swooning type. She wasn’t going to melt into his big chest and cry oceans of tears. If she wasn’t stopped, she was going to storm out of the palace, hunt Mab down personally and tear her—and anyone else standing between Nora and her daughter—limb from limb.

Still, at least Nora was now focused on killing Mab instead of Quinn, for marrying her without bothering to mention it.

The palace guards had already disbursed the crowd of Fae who’d lined up for an audience with the Queen, and Maggie was grateful. She couldn’t think about anything but Eileen right now.

Where was she?

Was she hurt? Scared? Of course she was scared. God, looking at Devon’s face was enough to make Maggie want to shriek right alongside Nora. Half of the young warrior’s face was bruised and swollen and his eyes were filled with fear.

Culhane’s son had shifted to the Warriors’ Conclave as soon as he’d regained consciousness. Terrified, he’d reported to his father, who had then gathered his five top warriors and come to the palace to break the news to Maggie and Nora.

Mab had somehow known just how to get to Eileen. How? Did she have help here inside the palace? Was someone spying on them and reporting to the former queen? How else could she have guessed that Eileen might be off wandering in the gardens? How else would the Bog Sprites have known about the Warriors’ alcove?

And why in the
hell
hadn’t she had Claire ward the damn gardens as well as the palace? Idiot. Stupid. But no, she’d gone along with Fae tradition of the palace grounds being open to all Fae. She should have bucked all of them and done whatever she had to, to protect her family.

Now Eileen was paying for her mistakes.

And that just didn’t fly with Maggie.

She glanced at Culhane’s son, standing off to one side of the small crowd clustered together in the throne room. He looked just what he was. A scared kid. No matter that he was four hundred years old. Culhane and Bezel had been right about that. He was young and scared and despite his fear and his own injuries, like the purplish bump on his forehead, he’d gone for help immediately, so she loved him for that.