Broken (13 page)

We passed more sheep farms and old cemeteries. Unnerving to me,
Jonathan seemed jittery around the latter. He finally calmed when
we reached a quaint town with cobbled sidewalks. I didn’t
quite catch the name. It was “something on the
something”.

In the distance dark clouds trailed us. Jonathan scrunched his
face when he noticed them. I could swear he was sniffing the
air.

“Better find a place to get out of that,” he said.
“It doesn’t look natural.”

We found a place to stay above a pub. Since we had to pay cash
and not use credit cards, we had to share a room with two beds. The
two of them looked at me, wondering who would be sharing
my
bed.

“You two can sleep together on
that
bed,” I
said.

Jonathan shrugged. Chris had a blank look that didn’t say
much either way. I was surprised one of them didn’t offer to
take the floor.

The pub was friendly in comparison to the last one we’d
been to. The mood inside remained light, even with the storm
churning outside. The revelry inside seemed to be due to a local
soccer win. None of the patrons were sober, and considering the
amount of noise they were making, we knew none of us would be
getting sleep for a while. We decided to join in.

The merriment was contagious. The locals seemed to accept us as
one of their own — at least Chris and I. They sensed
Jonathan’s reticence to interact and seemed to leave him to
his own devices. I wasn’t sure what was going on with him. He
smiled and drank only water. Other than that, he would make his way
to the window from time to time. What he was looking for I
wasn’t sure.

Chris and I both drank beer — the locals plying us with
free rounds.

We managed to get cornered by an older gentleman with a few
missing teeth. With his Lundberg stetson perched upon his head and
pipe in his hand, he looked all the part of old English charm. He
shared with us a tale. Chris and I hung off his every word.

“Now, the men of Shropshire in the west were well
acquainted with the fey folk, or so it is said. And hundreds of
years ago, such encounters were commonplace. One such man was Edric
the Wild.

“One day when Edric was returning from a great hunt in the
forest, he lost his way, and wandered about ‘til nightfall.
But upon hearing faint music in the breeze, his heart was lifted
and he found a house in the distance. He peered through the window
and beheld six noble ladies dancing. They were of beauty beyond
compare and garbed in fine, shimmering linens. These six women,
they danced round, singing a song to which he could not understand
the words. And in the midst of the six was a young maiden who
surpassed the others in grace and beauty. One look upon her and
Edric’s heart was stolen.

“Forgetting all that he had heard about the fey folk and faery
curses, Edric decided he would take this woman for his wife. So he
circled the house, searching for the entrance. He was a Lord of
sorts, and thought he had the right to take her. So, he stormed in
once he found the entrance and plucked the fair maiden from among
her sisters, even though they had changed to beasts and attacked
him. Throwing her across his horse like a sack of potatoes, he rode
into the night with her sisters on his heels.

“He returned to his manor with the maiden. Upon arriving,
she slid off the horse and strode ahead of him into the house. She
sat in the corner and despite his best persuasions, she refused to
utter a single word. There she sat through the rest of the day and
through the night as well. When he arose in the morning there she
sat still, watching all that he did. Through the next day and night, she
still sat, speaking not a word, but watching. Then, on the eve of the third day, she broke her
silence.

“‘I know you, Edric of the Wild,’ she said.
‘And I know what you would have of me. I will marry you, as
you seem to be a good man, straight and true. But these things you
must know,’ said she. ‘Luck and great health shall be
yours as I am a Queen among the Faeries. But if you reproach me
with who I am, the place from which you first laid eyes upon me, or
my sisters from whom you stole me, then on that day, you will lose
both your bride and your good fortune. I will return to the land of
my birth and you will pine away to a quick death. Now do you swear
by all that is good, that you shall do as I ask?’

“Edric pledged by all that was most sacred to be ever
faithful to her, and they were wed. And not a finer wedding had
been seen among all the nobles from far and near whom Edric invited
to their bridal feast. And all who knew of Edric and his Faery wife
were glad for them.

“Now, at that time William the Norman, whom Edric had once
fought but now had made peace with, was newly made the King of
England. When the King heard of such a wonder, he invited the
couple to his court, for he much desired to lay eyes upon this fair
maiden and see the truth of it with his own eyes.

“Upon seeing them and the marvelous beauty of the lady, he
declared them the fairest couple in all the kingdom, asking them to
stay in his Court. And for a time they did, enjoying all the King
had to offer them, until one day the hills of Shropshire called
them to return.

“After many happy years, they had a child – a son of
the Faery wife. But one day Edric could not find his wife upon
returning from a late hunt. He called for her and searched. When at
last she appeared he took angry with her.

“‘Where have you been, wife?’ he said with an
angry look. ‘Have your sisters been keeping you from
me?’ And at the moment those words of reproach slipped from his
tongue, Edric realized his mistake. For in that brief instant that he mentioned
her sisters, she vanished from sight.

“Edric’s grief was overwhelming. He searched high and low, even to the place where he had found her at first. But no tears,
nor laments of his could summon her back. He cried for days without
end, and he pined away as had been foretold to him. He then died of
sorrow.

“And it is said, that even to this day, his ghost still
searches for his beloved wife — the Faery woman who would
accept no reproach.”

The man finished with a humble smile and I clapped and I thanked him for the story. I think he might have told
another had I not yawned. The days had started to take their toll
on me. I was exhausted.

“Well,” he said. “It’s time I be
headin’ home. Now you two take care.” He looked over to
where Jonathan watched at the window. “And mind the company
you keep.” He nodded his head and shuffled out the door as we
both thanked him again and bid him goodnight.

I rose from the table, Chris following my lead. Jonathan looked
over from the window, so I motioned towards the stairs. He followed
us up, leaving something by the sill — a piece of wood from
what I could tell.

Back in the room, I had no qualms about stripping down to my
underwear in front of them, although Jonathan’s stare
lingered a little longer than Chris’s. A small part of me
wanted Chris to see what he wouldn’t be sleeping with. I took
my time getting under the covers.

I was curious to see what Jonathan looked like undressed. If his
forearms and the v-shape that his shirt formed from his shoulders were any indication of how he was built, he was likely
ripped. Sadly, he took off only his shoes and lay down on the bed
beside Chris, fully dressed.

He didn’t smile, but there was something in his eyes that
told me he knew I had been watching him.

Chapter 16

I wish I could say it had been a night of restful slumber. The
bed was lumpy and the storm outside brought with it winds that
rattled the windows. I woke with the feeling that someone was
watching me.

I found Jonathan by the sill, fingering another piece of wood.
He didn’t bother to turn away when I saw him.

“What is it?” I whispered. Chris seemed to be out
cold.

“Nothing,” he said. “You should go back to
sleep.”

I sat up. The rain pounded against the windows in waves. It was
still dark, but the moon offered enough light to see that it was a
pretty heavy downpour. I stood beside him, looking out.

There was no one about, but I could swear I caught some kind of
movement in the shadows. I waited, and then caught it again; a
skirting from one alley to another by a small creature with spikes
on its back. It looked lean and lanky, but muscled. It skittered on
all fours. It was no animal I was familiar with. Two more skirted
through the shadows.

“What are those?” I asked.

“Howlers,” Jonathan said, pausing to study me.
“She knows we’ve hidden you. She’s tracking
us.”

He looked over at Chris’s slumbering body. “Those
things can’t smell me, but they can smell him. He could lead
them away from us.”

I hadn’t sorted out what to do about
Chris, but he was still a source of familiarity.

I shook my head. “Chris stays.”

Jonathan shrugged. “Don’t say I didn’t warn
you. At some point you’re going to have to trust me,
Katherine.”

Trust him?
He’d broke my heart. It wasn’t going to be that
simple. He was my first love — one who’d taken years to
overcome. Loving him had been more powerful than anything I had
ever known.

But it wasn’t the time to be discussing that now.

“No offense, Jonathan, but I’ve known Chris
longer.”

And
he
didn’t desert me without a word of goodbye.

Jonathan didn’t say anything, but with that one eyebrow
raised, I knew what he was thinking.

For all that knowing, how much did I really know Chris? He
hadn’t been honest with me. What was to say he wouldn’t
do the same thing to me that Jonathan once did.

“Without Chris I’d already be dead,” I said. I
had to justify it to myself, if not to him.

Again he shrugged. His fingers flipped a piece of wood between
them as he peered once more out the window. The howlers still slunk
through the rain.

“What is that?” I asked and reached for the wood. I
got a small shock when our fingers made contact. He made a point of touching
my hands with his for a little longer than necessary to pass it to
me. His hands were warm, and a part of me wanted to feel those
hands upon me once more. I remembered the heat he had filled my
body with once upon a time.

I took the piece of wood, deciding that his fingers had been
touching mine for too long. It was light, airy, with a carved rune
on it. It felt like the fox he had once carved for me.

“It’s yew,” he said. “It wards off evil,
but in this case, I’d need a whole forest to stop
them.”

I just stared at him blankly. I had no idea what he was talking
about and wasn’t going to fake it. He caught on without me
having to ask.

“She really wants you. It takes a lot to control a pack of
howlers — she had to have made a pretty hefty bargain with
them. Why does she want you so badly?”

I shook my head. “I was hoping you could tell me. You at
least knew her name.”

“I have to admit it took some digging to find out who she
is. You have no idea how big the unseen world is. She could have
been anyone. But what I did learn was she was once part of the
Summer Court. Just over a hundred years ago, she was banished.”

“Why?”

“Don’t know, but there’s not a lot of
tolerance when it comes to negative interaction with humans. And
they don’t take kindly to mating with them either.
That’s why the Summer Court is pure. No half-breeds, like
your boyfriend there,” he said, and nodded to Chris’s
still sleeping form.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said.

I thought there was a little light in his eyes at the mention.
“Well, you smell of him. His scent is all over
you.”

I was inclined to smell myself to see, but that would look
ridiculous.

“Anyhow,” he said. “She’s now part of
the Winter Court. I hear they took her in gladly.”

“So what does she want with me or my ancestors?”

He shook his head. “No clue. And if we knew that maybe we
could appease her, or ask for help.”

“Appease that monster?”

I went on to tell him what I’d seen happen with my family
members, detailing how each had died and how she had been involved.
When I revealed she’d seen me in each vision and that in the
last one she’d tried to kill me, Jonathan showed the most
amount of emotion I think I’d seen yet.

“Wow,” he said. “Impressive.”

“Impressive?” I asked.

What was so impressive?

“She’s stronger than we thought. She can actually
reach through those kinds of visions? It’s an impressive
skill. We’ll have to ward your dreams — she can likely
Dreamwalk.”

This was getting to be a bit much again. I felt my head
swimming.

“Dreamwalk? What does that mean — she can get in my
head?”

He nodded.

I sat on the bed. “What am I going to do? Is nowhere
safe?”