Beguiled (37 page)

The pixie twisted loose of Muldoon’s grip, brushed at his suit and lifted his whiskered chin so that he could stare at both Maggie and Culhane. “Pixies can come and go most anywhere. The Fae—you guys or the rogues—don’t pay much attention to us.”

True enough, Culhane thought, remembering the centuries of enmity between the races of Pixie and Fae. He and Bezel had long ago formed an unlikely friendship, but their relationship was the exception, not the rule. Mostly, the pixies were given a wide berth. Known as pranksters and troublemakers, most of the Fae deliberately ignored the pixies’ existence.

Which could work in their favor. But this plan wasn’t without risk.

“If they discover why you’re there . . .” Culhane’s warning faded off. Since they all knew what would happen to Bezel if he was caught, there was no point in saying it aloud.

The tiny termagant would either be imprisoned or beheaded. Probably the latter.

“Yeah, yeah,” Bezel said sourly. “I know. Don’t get your leathers in a bunch. Nobody catches me unless I let ’em.” With that, he threw an angry glare at Muldoon, the warrior who only moments ago had had a death grip on his fine suit.

Culhane smiled to himself at the courage coiled inside such an unlikely package. But then, he’d long ago learned that Bezel, with all of his complaints and insults, was a male to be trusted. And he knew Maggie had learned the same lesson.

“You have the heart of a warrior, my little friend,” Culhane said softly.

Bezel snorted. “No time to be insulting me, Fenian.” Maggie went down on one knee so she could look the pixie in the eye. “You’re sure about this?”

The pixie frowned again, but nodded. “I’ll find her. Not that I care about the kid or anything, you understand. It’s just that I’m sorta used to having her around, you know? And I’ll be cursed in
Ifreann
before I let Mab get her.”

Maggie smiled knowingly at Bezel. “Yeah, I know.”

Culhane hid a smile. The pixie would die before he would admit to loving a part-Fae child. But he cared for Eileen as much as the rest of them. Clearly, Maggie was aware of the truth as well. But even more, Culhane knew that Bezel would do all in his considerable power to see the young girl safe again.

“Well, don’t go getting all gooey on me or anything,” Bezel warned gruffly, and wiped the back of his hand under his long, hooked nose. “I’ll find her. Be back tomorrow at the latest. Then we can figure out what we’re gonna do.”

He shifted instantly and the small crowd in the palace fell into an uneasy silence.

Eileen curled up in a corner of the dark, dirty room and tried to make herself as small as she could. Outside these walls, she heard laughter and music and a lot of shouting. Every once in a while, a loud crash sounded out like something heavy breaking. And every time that happened, the wall behind her back trembled in response, as if the whole place were going to come falling down.

Her stomach was turning and tears kept filling up her eyes, making everything look blurry. Since she had been grabbed in the garden, she’d been in this place. Nobody had come to talk to her since the ugly kidnapper locked her in.

She was pretty happy about that. In fact, she was kind of hoping they’d all forget about her.

But the chances of that were pretty slim. “Probably only about two or three percent,” she whispered to herself.

Something crashed into the locked door across the room. Eileen jumped, the wall behind her shuddered and she tucked her face into her knees and wrapped her arms around her legs.

“Mom. Aunt Maggie. Somebody come find me, please, come find me.” Rocking, whispering to herself, she thought about everyone at the palace. Besides her mom and Aunt Maggie, there were Quinn and Culhane and Bezel, too. They’d all be looking for her, wouldn’t they? But what if they didn’t know she was gone yet? What if Devon was hurt really bad and hadn’t been able to go for help? After he hit that tree, he’d been so still.

Worry had her chewing at her thumbnail and watching the locked door through slitted eyes. Devon was okay; she knew he was. He was a warrior, so he was strong and stuff. So he probably went right to Culhane and they were all looking for her now. Of course they were.

One candle burned in the room and the tiny flame danced and jigged in the darkness. Crazy shadows spun on the walls and Eileen tried really hard not to cry.

Her mom wouldn’t cry. Aunt Maggie wouldn’t, either. Mom always told her,
Donovans don’t get scared. They get mad.

Eileen would rather be mad than scared, anyway. Why’d that guy take her?
Where
did he take her? There was only one window in the room and it was so high up, she couldn’t see anything out of it but a small piece of dark sky with stars. Why was she in this place? Why couldn’t she go home?

Why didn’t anybody come?

She heard a key turning in the lock and held her breath and watched as the door slowly swung open. Instantly, the noise from the other room was twice as loud. People shouting and cussing and laughing and singing. There was another crash and some strange music played loudly over everything.

Eileen jolted, squirmed farther into the corner where she was already trying to disappear; then a woman stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.

“Mab.” Eileen whispered the ex-Queen’s name on a pent-up breath.

“That’s right, my little part-Fae.” Mab strolled toward her, with tiny steps, as if she were afraid to get dirty by walking on that nasty floor. She frowned at the tiny room, shook her head and clucked her tongue. “One candle?” She huffed out a breath. “The Sluagh are not the most congenial hosts, are they?”

Eileen didn’t know what the Sluagh were and really didn’t want to know, either. All she wanted was to go home. “Why am I here?”

Mab tossed her golden hair back over her shoulders, went down into a crouch and gave Eileen a sunny, bright smile. Her silvery eyes were sparkling in the single light of the candle. “To help me, of course,” she said.

“How can I help you?”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that, little one,” Mab told her, standing up again and walking to the one small window, high on the far wall. Slowly, she rose into the air, peered outside, then looked down at Eileen.

“You once did me a favor,” she said. “Do you recall?”

“Yes,” Eileen answered, and stiffened her shoulders. Mab looked a little scary, hovering up there in the air and looking down at her. Mab’s face was white as snow and her eyes looked weird, constantly changing color, from silver to blue and back again.

Then Eileen remembered her mom and her aunt Maggie, and fought to be mad, not scared. It worked. A little. “I remember. I let you out of the painting. And you said you owed me a boon. Mom says that means favor.”

“It does indeed,” Mab said with a nod as she slowly lowered herself to the floor again. “Aren’t you the clever little half-breed.”

“So is this the favor?” Eileen asked. “Locking me up in this room? It smells bad and it’s cold and dark and—”

“Hush child!” Mab frowned and tapped her chin with one finger. “Locking you away was necessary. It was not the boon I owe. But I do intend to pay. I always pay my debts.”

Eileen stood and flattened herself against the wall. “So, are you gonna let me go?”

Mab laughed and the sound was so pretty, like music and sunlight, that Eileen almost forgot that Mab was the bad guy. She remembered quickly enough when Mab reached out a hand, took Eileen’s chin in her fingers and studied her for a long second or two.

Finally, she said softly, “The Sluagh want you, you know. You’re a tasty treat to them. One such as you they have not sampled for many centuries.” Mab smiled. “You shine with innocence, child, and your human soul calls to them.”

Eileen’s knees started shaking and she didn’t know if she could keep from crying much longer.

“But I won’t let them have you.” She frowned and threw a dirty look at the closed and locked door before turning her gaze back to Eileen. “You’re a child and as such are under my protection. You will come to no harm here. Besides, I have other plans for you. So now I gift you with the boon I owe. You will be made fully Fae. Your soul will no longer be streaked with the taint of humanity and so you will no longer interest the Sluagh.”

Mab’s fingers on her chin tightened. Eileen tried to look away from her swirly eyes, but couldn’t quite manage it.

“Then child,” Mab continued, “you will live an eternity as a servant in my palace. You will never know freedom again and for all of your immortal life, you will remember that it was your own blood who sentenced you to this. Your mother’s sister thought to steal what was mine.”

“Aunt Maggie’s gonna find me,” Eileen said, “and then you’ll be sorry.”

Mab laughed, bent low and stared into Eileen’s eyes. “That will not happen. The upstart queen will soon be gone and things will return to being as they were meant.”

Eileen twisted in Mab’s grip, but though she looked fragile and delicate, the Fae was really strong.

“But”—Eileen swallowed hard—“you don’t have any powers anymore. You can’t make me Fae.”

Mab smiled again and this time, the curve of her mouth looked mean. “I have acquired much of what I lost, young one. Trust me when I tell you I have all the power I will need to change you and then dispose of your . . . family.”

“No!” Eileen tried to jerk free, but Mab held the girl still, pursed her lips and blew a slow, steady stream of golden Faery dust into Eileen’s eyes.

Chapter Eighteen

“The good news is, the kid’s fine.”

“Oh, thank God.” Nora shuddered and let out a long sigh of relief.

Bezel grabbed a glass of Diet Coke, courtesy of Maggie’s pulling in everything from her old house. He took a drink, set the glass down and looked at each of them in turn before finally staring at Maggie.

The pixie’s hair was dirty, his green velvet suit torn at the shoulder and he was sporting a heck of a black eye. But he was grinning.

“Told ya a pixie could get in anywhere.”

“Yes,” she said, letting him enjoy his moment of triumph. “You were right. Yay you. Now, details.”

“First,” Bezel said with a sneer, “where’s good ol’ grandFae?”

Culhane answered that. “He is in one of the cells below the palace. There he stays until this is finished.”

Maggie wasn’t proud of locking up her own grandfather. But the choice had been simple. Him, the male who had betrayed them all and made it possible for Eileen to be kidnapped—or
them
. It was not a hard decision.

Jasic had shrieked and pleaded like a little girl before the warriors had tossed his ass into that cell. But she’d been beyond listening to him. When this was all over, she’d have to figure out a more-permanent solution to the problem of Jasic, but there were more-important things to concentrate on at the moment.

“Good.” Bezel nodded. “Okay then. Eileen’s in a small room off the back of the tavern at the edge of the Dark Woods.”

“The
woods
?” Nora echoed that word with horror. “My baby’s in the
woods
?”

Bezel looked at her, but instead of being as snarky and snotty as he was usually, his voice sounded almost . . . kind. “She’s not in the woods. She’s in this room. I caught a look at her when they took food into her.”

“Thank God. And they’re feeding her. That’s good. Is she okay? Is she hurt? Scared?” Nora stopped, then looked at Quinn. “Of course she’s scared. God, she’s all alone.”

“We will get her back.”

“She didn’t look scared to me,” Bezel said with a tight smile. “Kid looked pissed. Heard her yelling at the troll taking her food in and he came running out fast.”

Nora grinned, despite the tears shimmering in her eyes. “That’s my girl.”

“Oh, there’s one more thing,” Bezel told them all, pausing for dramatic effect. “Not only was Eileen pissed, she was floating.”

“Floating?”
Maggie repeated, stunned.

“Yep.” Bezel burped, pounded his chest, then said, “Looks like somebody turned our girl into a full-Fae.”

“What?”
Nora shouted. “Who would do that?”

“Only one person I can think of,” Bezel muttered.