The Earl's Childe (21 page)

Another chitter-giggle came from the woods, closer this time, along with more thrashing.

“Heather?” squeaked my brother.

“Back up!” With one more glance over my shoulder, I stepped back just enough to launch over the wall again, careful of the salt. After I landed, I jumped up and looked over the wall.

Nothing.

“Heather?” My brother whimpered.

“What?”

“I don't hear anything.”

Crap. He was right. No birds, no bugs. Nothing nearby. Dead. Silence.

“To the castle! Now!” I hoped the salt magick would hold. I hoped the two pixies were safe.

My brother and I booked it, top speed, to the castle, nearly breaking down the back door as we shoved through it. Almost knocking Mrs. McInnis down.

“What is it, children?” she asked, concern crossing her wrinkled face as she immediately put down the dishes.

“Where'sMumandDad?” I asked between burning gasps of breath, glancing over my shoulder out the still-open door and brushing the raindrops off me. My legs were shaking from the run.

“Your Mum's just finishing lunch, and your Dad's in the office. What's wrong?”

“It's…Um…” I paused. The McInnises knew the truth about Ermie. I remembered Mr. McInnis nailing iron crosses to the horse stalls during the early attacks. They knew, but I had a feeling they were even more distrustful of the fey than Dad. “Just, um, tell Mum to meet us in the office? Like, now? Please?”

Mrs. McInnis frowned at us, but nodded. Rowan and I dashed out of the kitchen and into the hall.

The office door was open, so with a knock on its wood, I ran in and stood between my parents' two desks, breathing hard. Isis scrambled to her feet with a whine of concern.

Dad was pacing behind his desk and stopped as soon as he saw us. “Alison—” Alison was my dad's agent “—I've got to call you back. Something important.” He swiped the screen on his phone to end the call. “What's wrong?”

“Mum'll be here in a second,” I said between breaths, bending a little and resting my hands on my knees. It was not a short run from the furthest end of the furthest garden to this part of the castle.

Even as I said that, Mum walked in, closing the door behind her. “What's going on? Marie said you two came running in like something was after you.”

“In the woods. Behind the rose garden,” Rowan volunteered.

“What?” Mum asked, eyes wide. She met Dad's gaze and nodded towards her desk.

“We don't know,” I continued. “Th-the two faerie-pixie things that Ivy and Ash know were trapped in the rose garden and angry about it, so I let them out and told them to see if they could tell Lord Cadmus and Lady Fana to give us a meeting, but I had Rowan bring me more salt and I redid the line, and I totally made sure it was unbroken, I even kind of felt it humming or something, like I feel with spells and stuff, but there was something in the woods behind me. I thought I heard a laugh or something and then some rustling, and then when I jumped back over the wall, we didn't hear anything. No birds, no bugs, no animals, nothing, like when Ehrwnmyr attacked Helen, remember?”

Mum sucked in a breath. I heard Dad behind me, opening a drawer. I looked at him. He pulled two knives out of the bottom drawer of Mum's desk. They had dark metal blades, and the handles looked like they were made of animal horn. It was my turn for my eyes to go wide as he handed Mum one.

“Show us where you were.” Mum grabbed a sweatshirt that was hanging on the back of her chair and draped it over her arm, hiding the blade. Dad grabbed a light coat and did the same. As we left the office, he slapped his thigh and said, “Come on, girl,” to Isis, even as she was already on his heels.

My brother and I looked at each other, but led them back to the kitchen. “It's starting to rain harder, you two. Grab your coats.” Dad gestured to the pegs beside the door.

Once we were outside and away from everyone else, Mum and Dad put their coats on. Seeing them grip the knives felt unreal, though. My parents. Carrying weapons.

Once we got to the rose garden, Isis circling around us the whole way, my parents verified which wall we were at and told us to stay behind them. Rowan hovered as close to me as he could without touching me. He didn't say a word the whole time, and he kept avoiding our eyes. I could see him trembling, and I remembered why I'd kept him out of most of this since Lily came home.

My parents walked the inside perimeter of the wall, glancing into the woods. It wasn't so quiet now. Isis didn't seem concerned, either. Even in the rain, there were a few birdcalls and some quacking in the distance, where there were a lot of streams. From high in the treetops, we heard a heron's dinosaur-like cry and the angry whipping of trees from where we knew it nested. I felt a little less like a baby when I noticed both Mum and Dad jump.

“When did you put the salt out here, Michael?” Mum asked.

Dad looked up at her. “I didn't. I only covered the castle foundation and all the entries. I thought you did it.”

“I haven't salted anything, though I rescind my ‘this is a bad idea' comment. I'm glad it's here.” She glanced back at me. “Even if it did trap the little ones. They're out now, and maybe they will get a message to the two daoine síth, and we can work out some deal.”

“So who
did
put the salt here?” Dad pressed his lips together.

“Jack, maybe?” Mum offered. Jack was Mr. McInnis's first name. “He knew you'd done it around the castle, and we told them about the Unseelie threat.” Mum shrugged, still looking at me, and then explained further, “We want them safe, too. They're on our property, so they need to know.”

I nodded, understanding. “And Ginny? She knows everything, right?”

“Aye,” Dad said, half a smirk on his face as he looked from the woods to me. He was likely remembering that talk with my parents' matter-of-fact assistant. “She knows, but I don't know how much she attributes to us being mad or artists or what. Anita, too. She was better after your mum's explanation about faeries—er, faerie—being descended from angels who didn't fight for God or Lucifer and were banished. None of the other staff, though, and none of the villagers. Just the McInnises, Anita, and Ginny.”

I sighed. It was tough trying to keep straight who could know and who couldn't know and all that.

Dad looked at me sympathetically. After one more look to the trees and to Mum, he pulled his coat closer and said, “Let's go inside.” Walking beside me, he brushed my arm with his free hand. I hesitated, then moved closer so he could put an arm around me. “You took this whole faerie thing in stride. When your Mum was explaining things to me, I couldn't even begin to process it, even after I saw it. I just had to, because you were in danger.”

“Mum gets it. And the McInnises,” I said.

“Your Mum has always been a believer in magick. Long before she met me. We disagreed, so we didn't talk about it, but that doesn't mean she stopped believing. And I'm pretty sure the McInnises have always had a certain belief, too.” Dad sighed. “The rest of us, though…it takes time for us to get used to the idea. And we panic, and we
want
to disbelieve. You've seen me panic, and it's not safe. You understand?”

“Mm-hmn.” I nodded against him, enjoying the feel of his arm tightening around me. I'd mostly avoided him since the whole Tom-magick-blow-up, and I really missed a good Daddy snuggle. “And Joe's family? How were they when they found out about the kelpie?”

Dad paused. When he answered, he sounded a bit surprised, “Strangely, not very shocked. Your mum just went with them being rather unperturbed, so I did too. But, I hadn't really thought about it.” He shrugged. “Maybe royals are more in tune with magickal happenings than the rest of us?”

“Hmm.” Again, my mind went to Joe, worrying about him. If they did know more about magick, which was possible because Joe hadn't even been much bothered by the ghost we ran into, maybe…maybe they also had magick helping them in Bahrain? I hugged Dad again. “Think…think they're going to be all right?”

He leaned over and kissed my head. “I'm praying every day for them. Remember, though, his parents have more experience for their situation than we do for ours. And they have more backup.”

I nodded again, and we were quiet for a while. I hadn't thought a lot about Joe and his family today, not with all the weirdness, and I felt guilty about that too. Yeah, things were crazy, but what kind of best friend was I?

“Honey,” came Mum's voice from ahead of us. Once our eyes were on her, she pulled up the sleeve of her sweatshirt, tucked the knife so the dull edge was against her forearm, and then pulled the sleeve back down, hiding the weapon. Dad let me go just long enough to do the same. I reached out to pet Isis as she trotted by me.

As we approached the door, Mum continued, “I think the rain is just hard enough for an excuse to hand out info on first aid and do some exercises in here…while you and Jack take a wheelbarrow of that salt and lay it around the stables and down the paths there.” She looked back at the gardens. “I don't know if just the castle and gardens are enough anymore.”

“I think that is an excellent idea, love.”

“Does Jack have a blade?”

“I'm sure he does, but I'll ask anyway.”

Mum glanced at the back door. No one was around. She took hers out and handed it to Dad. “Take mine anyway, and take Isis. I'll stay inside.” She reached up on her toes and kissed him. “Be careful!”

“We will, love.” He kissed her back. Before I could finish rolling my eyes at them, he kissed my cheek and then blew a kiss to Rowan.

Rowan turned to Mum. “Won't the rain wash the salt away?”

Mum gave him a half-smile as she herded us inside. “Not with the magick we're using with it.” Then she lowered her voice. “But we shouldn't speak of this inside. Both of you will keep things quiet, right?” We both nodded as we hung our coats on the pegs, ready to pretend we weren't possibly in a whole lot of danger.

Not that I'm one who normally likes rainstorms, but I was grateful this one had picked up, with rolling thunder in the distance. It meant no one argued with Mum's plan to spend the afternoon in the downstairs, open-to-the-public library, going over first aid for humans and horses, nor when we broke into teams for a trivia game based on the lesson and other horse stuff.

Not that I was in any mood for trivia and games when I couldn't update Lily with what was going on. Strangely enough, though, despite my total desire to not be social, I actually managed to do pretty well at the trivia game, leading my team to some score of Super-Awesome-Something against No-Chance-in-Heck.

I was looking for Lily, who had sulked off as captain of the losing team, when Max edged in front of me, his odd blue eyes a guarded mix of shy, uneasy, and ready to be on the receiving end of trouble. A look I knew pretty well, from the mirror, sometimes.

“Was it something I said?” he asked. Even though he was slouching, I noticed he was quite taller than I was.

“Huh?” I asked, confused, and wondering if he were my age or older. He looked older, but both coaches had told me I looked older than eleven. I hadn't seen his info last time I'd snuck a look at the class list.

“After we came into the castle for lunch, you just took off. And then it seemed you took great pleasure in squashing my team. What I said about the castle, when I came in, I was just joking, you know. It's beautiful here. And definitely clean.”

I blinked a few times, processing his words. “I went off with my brother. Something was bothering him and he needed my help.” Pausing, I considered the game that I'd thought I was just going through the motions for, and realized otherwise. “And it wasn't your
team
I took pleasure in squashing, but my can-do-no-wrong sister. You just happened to be lucky enough to be on her team. And yeah, I know you didn't mean anything about the castle.”

He smiled at me. “So, we're good?”

Though I was confused, I smiled back. “Yeah, we're good.”

Before we could say anything more, Jared and Chris bookended us. Chris ruffled my hair. “What was all that about, sis? When did you get so smart?” As he spoke, I noticed his eyes were on not me, but Max, who shifted uncomfortably.

“Um, A, I'm not your sister, and B, clearly you all need to study more. What's
your
deal?”

“You may as well be our sister; we've known you that long.” Jared also seemed to be talking to Max rather than to me.

“You know we've got your back like brothers, right?” Chris continued.

Before I could shake my head or roll my eyes, Lily, Sara-Not-Beth, and Livy joined us, making a circle.

“Heather always likes to make it clear she is the smartest person in the room,” my sister said with a not-real smile. Clearly, she was more than a bit cheesed that my team had won. Because, you know, there weren't
bigger
problems going on.