Silver Hollow (47 page)
“Dearg, let’s go before they see us! I have a bad feeling about this
,
” Amie urged against his ear, pressing her cool hand against his heated chest. He grumbled in his first tongue a moment before turning to follow her.
She was right. Whoever these beings were, it was not certain they would be on their side. And he sensed an ever
-
present threat looming behind this attack. His instincts told him the battle was not over yet, but only beginning. Wrapping his hands around her thighs, he hugged her closer to his back and ran.
The border was there, thin and translucent in appearance, yet powerful enough to stop the wrong people from entering. He picked up his pace, pushing harder against the frosted ground
,
and growled when a hooded figure stepped into his vision and held open their hands.
Amie gasped behind him, lifting a hand at the ready. “Who is that?”
Dearg paused and could have laughed at her timing, this meddler above all meddlers. Before Amie could release a charge, he reached up to cover her hand with his own and said, “Watch the forest.” Then, turning to the stranger
,
he stated as calmly as he was capable, “Dameri.”
The human princess pulled her hood back and fixed her sparkling blue eyes on Amie. “I see you heeded my warning and kept her far away.”
“What?” Amie exclaimed, pushing past him to stare down the
gremlin
hunter. “What is that supposed to mean? How do you two know each other anyway? And why would you tell him to take me into the woods knowing those crazy people were out there?”
“Unseelie,” Dameri corrected.
“What?” Amie asked while he turned his attention to the forest behind them. Sure enough two other figures were approaching them,
the golem and Unseelie who
had
helped
them.
Should have known she’d have her hands in this. But what was she trying to prove?
Dameri laughed and repeated, “The beings who attacked you
were Unseelie who lost touch with their inner nixy.”
A rough, gravelly voice interrupted them. “But they were led by the golem
.”
“Ah, I see you finished disposing of our friends, Ginuog.”
Dearg repressed the urge to growl as he and Amie turned to greet the strangers.
Dearg
stood directly in front of her but
Amie
pushed past him when the woman appeared at the beast’s side.
“Faye?”
Adrenaline coursed through Amie’s veins at breakneck speed after their attack. She was in no mood to deal with Dameri. And she had made a point to block out the fading memory of the dream she woke to hours ago, while in Dearg’s arms. In a weird way, Amie had loved fighting the enemy while riding his back like a spider-monkey. Shooting out webs of energy from her fingertips, she had very much felt like a comic book character. Her mind
hadn’t
register
ed
they were fighting actual people. When the enemy moved, they were like shadows, without definition and shape. The golem were another story. They terrified her.
Now she was staring one in the face that was bigger than any of the others, looking eerily like Vincent from
the
TV show
Beauty & the Beast
. She half expected to see Catherine Chandler in her
Eighties
shoulder pads beside him. But the leather
-
clad vixen was definitely her best friend.
“Faye?” she whispered, cutting through the silence and wincing at the brokenness in her childhood friend’s golden eyes. Amie blanched at
this
look, immediately started building up her inner defenses, because she had seen it before, when Faye told her that her parents were dead.
Dearg grabbed her by the shoulders, blocking her view then, until all she could see was the brilliance of his
cobalt eyes
. Pressing his forehead to hers
,
he said, “Remember what I said before?” His harsh mask was set back into place, but for a moment she saw the pleading in his eyes.
“Just you and me,” she agreed, thinking he might be the only person she could trust anymore. His eyes brushed the forest behind them before he sighed. Amie frowned when he released her and nearly protested.
Until she heard that voice from a dream, from another life, awaken the dead wood behind him. “Amie?” Faye said.
Jessamiene Wenderdowne stared once Dearg had moved aside, revealing Faye, with her Selene-esque leather jumpsuit and faintly glowing golden eyes
.
Faye, her childhood best friend who was obviously not human.
Where are Jo and James?
Faye launched herself into Amie’s arms before she could ask the dreaded question. Though she was just as thin and wiry as ever, she managed to give her a bone-crushing hug while saying, “Amie! OMG, you have no idea how much I’ve missed you!”
“Faye,” Amie said, trying to pull back so she could start demanding some answers.
Pushing away abruptly, Faye glared up at Amie, her bronzed eyes narrowed into cat-like slits. “Do you have any idea what we went through to find you?”
“You look…shorter
.
” Amie spoke the thought aloud and Faye smirked.
“Yeah, yeah
,
rub it in. Not all of us can be Wenderdownes.” The name in Faye’s
S
outhern twang sounded funny.
“Guess not,” Amie replied and wondered why her words sounded bitter. She glanced at the hulking beast watching them with a muzzled smile. “Who’s this guy? And don’t tell me his name is Vincent.”
The creature in question stood a head taller than all of them save Dearg, which was hard to tell with the fatigues he was wearing, a black cross of military and mercenary. Faye’s eyes flashed to the beast in annoyance before returning to her half-Seelie friend. “You remember
the
guy at my party
seven
years ago? Ben? Well…” Here she turned to glare daggers at the monster. “Turns out he’s a rogue golem and he had been hunting you for ages. Lucky for us, we figured it out first. Got into an all-out brawl with him after my surprise party, the same time you were attacked.” Her gaze flickered to Dearg and then Dameri behind her.
“Ben?” Amie gasped. This was the infamous Ben, British doctor and savior extraordinaire? The lion king ignored Faye and grinned knowingly at Amie.
“She has a right to know. And we’re not giving the
M
erlin any more time to hunt us down,” he said.
“You’re Ben?” Amie queried, caught the roll of Faye’s luminous golden eyes.
With a slight nod of respect
,
he leaned forward on the massive gun now serving as a cane in front of him. “Among other names,
Ben
belongs to my human form. My first name was Ginuog. I am a golem, Jessamiene Wenderdowne. Long ago, Lord Oberon created us from the earth of the Borderlands to protect it from human influence. We were only made to follow orders at first. But Lady Titania gave us something we weren’t supposed to have, free will. We rebelled and chose the wrong path. My people were sent beyond the Vale because of our wickedness. We chose the wrong side of the war and have since fallen into darkness.”
He grimaced with a hint of a growl. “If you have not r
ead of us, this is because those who
taught you are even greater fools to forget us. We can change any shape, take any animate and inanimate form. We are the thing that goes bump in the night. But we aren’t the worst thing out there.” Taking a step forward, the dark creature brought shadows with him. “There are those inside the walls of Wenderdowne who have an even darker agenda than my people.”
“What are you saying?” Amie shook off Faye’s comforting touch and took a daring step toward the beast.
“They are coming, the dark ones who steal all light. They have been planning for this moment ever since your birth, Gatekeeper. Do not think your coming here was accidental. This was planned. But nothing can prepare you for what is coming.”
“Enough! She will learn soon enough.” Dearg came between them, bringing the fire with him and betraying his feelings. Flames escaped his fingertips, reflected in his pupils
,
and Amie instinctively captured his hand in hers.
The golem sized his opponent up, a smirk being the result. “A grand job you have done informing her, Freargde, keeping her in the dark.
W
hat did you expect her to do when they come to blaze the gates down? Slitting her throat would have been easier.”
Amie frowned, the name Ben had used for Dearg so familiar, like she had read it somewhere before. “What do you mean?” Amie rounded on him, fed up with riddles and ready for true grit.
Dearg’s eyes softened. “Ginuog speaks the truth. You are special, Amie.” When she scoffed
,
he grasped her shoulders in his hands, willing her to listen. “Amie
,
there has never been a Wenderdowne like you before. Your father’s kind
are
powerful but their power was always limited. But humans are unpredictable. We don’t know what you’ll be capable of. The Exiled believe you will be able to keep them shut out forever. They won’t wait for you to ascend, Amie. They’ll attack sooner than that.” Desperation twisted his hard features.
“What are you saying?” She turned to look the others in the eye, “Are they coming now? That’s why y’all are here
,
isn’t it? Why we were attacked earlier…”
“Don’t worry. We’ve got a plan.” Faye brushed easily past the beast with none too gentle a sh
ove,
packed
with
an extra nixy punch judging from his wince.
“Wait a second!” Amie shook her head, stepping back until Dearg’s wall of a solid chest was against her again. Gesturing wildly
,
she pointed to her best friend’s companion. “What the
heck is going on here? What did you mean he was hunting me? Was he with those creeps we just toasted back there? And what do you mean
seven
years ago? It’s been maybe a month and a half since I’ve been gone! And
were you the chick
I saw dancing in the market?”
Dameri interrupted before Faye could finish
.
“We do not have time for this! We have wasted precious minutes already. Dearg, you must return her to the castle or Henry shall notice. Above all we must not attract unwanted attention. We do not need the Merlin involved in this affair.”
“Are you frigging kidding me?” Amie nearly shouted at the tiny human. “I just found out my best friend is here and you expect me to let her walk away?”
Dameri rushed to them, taking Amie’s hands in her tiny palms. To Amie’s surprise, the sadness in her blue-green eyes tugged at her heart-strings enough to make her recoil. “Too much is at stake. We mustn’t allow Henry to know your Unseelie guardian has arrived, or that we are in league with a
golem
. Henry has fought too many wars against them and will not understand. But I implore you, Jessamiene, keep our secret and trust we hold your best interests at heart. Dearg shall explain our plan and Faye shall be allowed to tell you more after tonight, this I promise you.”
Amie sighed and glanced back at one of her oldest childhood friends. “Faye, you know I’m going to need to know what happened eventually.”
Faye nodded, featu
res drawn once again behind the
world-weary mask she had arrived in. They had known one another far too long to not be able to read one another’s facial expressions. And the gap in their little entourage was plaguing her thoughts and worst fears.
What
had
happened to Jo?
…
On the road back to Wenderdowne, Dearg tried filling in the blanks. He told her how he had gone to Dameri because of his fears over the castle’s newest
ad
dition. Dameri asked him in turn to watch over Amie before she left on a wild goose chase for answers, after the gremlin hunt. What Dameri found was Faye and Ginuog, or Ben as he had
called himself, already at the B
orderlands fighting to stay alive. But when Dearg told Amie what they wanted her to do tonight, at the party,
it
had her splitting hairs and running off the deep end.
So Amie spouted off the things she hadn’t been able to say in front of the others. “What the heck
,
Eddie
?
Why didn’t you tell me they were here? How long have you known about all this?”
“Too dangerous to tell you before and you were nay ready for the truth. You humans always deny everything before you, though it is plain to see as daylight.”
“So that’s what this whole thing was about? Get the human out of the house and set me up to meet up with them?” Inwardly she wondered if his affection for her had been an act as well.