The Earl's Childe (26 page)

“No!” Even at a whisper, the tone of her voice made me wince. “You and Max! What happened? You
do
know he likes you, right? And that's why Jared and Chris went all ‘hey, don't mess with Heather' on him, yeah?”

For real? We had some weird thing stalking us outside our house this afternoon, and my sister wanted to know what I was doing
with a boy?
A boy Ermie had told me to be careful about, on top of it all? Not that it was any of Lily's business if he did like me. In just the dim glow of her bed lamp, I could see her eyes sparkling, hungry for gossip. I sighed. “Once I told him I was only eleven, he un
-like
-liked me. And if he hadn't, I'd have said, ‘I'm not even twelve yet, I don't even want to
think
about that level of
like.'
Because, really, I've got enough to worry about with evil faery folk possibly wanting to
kill and eat and torture
everyone in this castle. Y'know?”

With a dramatic sigh, Lily tossed herself onto her back, arm over her forehead, and pronounced, “Well, you don't need to be so
dramatic
about it. Sometimes
normal
things are good to be interested in,
you
know?”

I matched her sigh, but only said, “Good night, Lily,” as I changed into my pyjamas.

“Also, I think you need to worry about the evil faery folk torturing, and then killing, and
then
eating everyone in this castle. Not that I can imagine going through someone's digestive tract is pleasant, but if I'm already dead, it's not torturing me.”

I threw a pillow at her, burying my mouth in another so as not to give her the satisfaction of having made me giggle. I considered telling her about what Ermie had said, but part of me really did want to have this one normal, sisterly moment.

CHAPTER

13

JOE! In Danger!

I remember I was dreaming, but I don't remember what about. My brain was too busy swimming into consciousness, until it hit me:

The Bell Spell!

Is it supposed to sound like my phone? Is that my phone?

“Heather, what the H? Who the freak is calling you?” That was my sister.

The ringing had stopped by the time I was together enough to find my phone. As I put my hand on my phone, it buzz-rang a text message, making me jump and drop it. Bleary-eyed, I fumbled with the screen, noting it was a little after three in the morning.

I dropped the phone again when I saw the text message.

“Cookie dough.”

I let off my own “Holy” cuss word, only I said the cuss, which made Lily sit right up in bed. “Cookie dough” was the code from Joe that meant we needed to talk
right now!

The phone started ringing.

“Joe! It's Joe!” I think I remembered to whisper. At least, no one came running into my room. I swiped at my screen to answer. “Joe? Joe! Where are you? How are you? Oh my God!”

“About…to crash land or something…like, on your property.”

He sounded far away, with a lot of wind interference.

“What?!”

“Looks like…between those trees…the loch…the castle. Come…us!”

Someone who sounded kind of like Prince Christopher shouted “Hold on!” before the line went out.

“Get dressed! Now!” I told my sister, leaping up from my bed. “I'm getting Mum and Dad!”

I ran into their room, throwing the door open. “Mum! Dad! Mum! Where's Dad?” I gasped, seeing only Mum in the bed.

“He's in the library. Couldn't sleep. What is it?” She rubbed her eyes.

“Joe called!” I showed her my phone with his number as having called. “Something about crash-landing in the field by the trees that mark our property from the park on the loch side.”

“What?!” Mum sat up in bed.

“What's going on?” My dad came into the room. “What's happened?”

I repeated what I'd told Mum. “How…?” He shook his head.

“Doesn't matter how. If there are red caps out there, they're in danger.” Mum was out of bed, yanking on jeans from out of the hamper. “Michael, still got your blade? Go start the truck. And tell Isis to stay here. I want her with the kids. Just in case.”

Dad nodded grimly, lifting his shirt to show a sheath along his belt as he headed back down the hall.

“Heather, you wait—” Mum began.

“No! It's Joe! You and I can take Ermie and get there faster! And he can protect them!”

Mum stared at me for several moments. “Fine. Get your boots on and make sure you're armed.” She grabbed her phone from the nightstand. “Marie, sorry about the hour. It's an emergency, though.” She buckled her sheath to her waist, then grabbed a second knife and tucked it into her boot.

I was back with my boots on and knife tucked into them even as she was hanging up the phone with a “Thank you. And discreet, please. I don't want anyone else woken up.”

I wondered something.
Ermie? Can you hear me? Meet me us at the castle
.

Aye
.

The response was faint, but I did hear it!

“Ermie will be right here!” I told Mum.

We'd only gotten down the embankment when he slid to a stop in front of us.

Mum hesitated, looking up at his tall shoulder with a curse on her lips.

“I'll give you a leg up,” I said, cupping my hands at his belly. “His fur will help the rest of the way. And you both can help me.”

Mum shook her head, took a deep breath, and grabbed the kelpie's mane. Putting her boot into my hands—crap, she was kind of heavy!—she launched onto his back with a soft “Eep.” I used her foot while she linked arms with me and followed her up there. I'd only just gotten my arms around her waist when Ermie took off.

“You know where we're going?” I asked.

I can smell the royal family
.

I swallowed hard. “Are they…bleeding?”

Aye
.

“Then hurry faster!”

It seemed only a moment passed before we arrived. But Mum and I were grateful for his magic fur-tentacles because he had to buck and kick his way through a circle of creatures I could only catch glimpses of in the overcast darkness.

The glimpses—and their yowls upon getting kicked or bitten—were nightmare enough.

Off!
With that, Mum and I tumbled onto damp grass amid Joe, Princess Maryan, Prince Christopher, and Richard and Annie, Joe's younger siblings.

With a growl and a scream, Ermie snapped, kicked, and reared, driving back another group of those…things. Their eyes seemed to glow yellow around round, black pupils, and every so often I'd see the glimmer of a yellowish tooth, as if it, too, were glowing. It was too dark to see their clothing, probably for the better; I might have puked if I saw their blood-dyed clothes at that point.

And. They. Stank!

Like just-fresh-enough road kill is the best description I could muster. Not that I had much time to consider it.

“Heather!” Joe threw his arms around me in a very tight and very fast hug before thrusting me behind him as one red cap got closer.

I stepped around him and slashed with my knife. “I've got the weapon!”

“Give me the knife, then.”

“For real?” I noticed a stickiness on my side and saw his arm was bleeding. “You're already hurt!”

“Give it to me,” came Prince Christopher's voice.

“Here, take my extra,” said Mum, and I saw her hand it to him.

“Then give it to me,” Princess Maryan now demanded. “And the four of you stay between us.”

I didn't argue. Our three parents made a circle around us kids, but Ermie was keeping most of the pack at bay. Annie was hugging Richard, and Joe put his not-bloody arm around them. He saw me eyeing his shredded sleeve. “It looks worse than it is.” But he spoke through gritted teeth.

“How did you even get here?” I asked Joe. I didn't see the wreck of any plane or heli or anything, and that probably could have given us cover. I couldn't tell how many little monsters there were around us, and I could barely have made out Ermie were it not for the grunts and squeals.

“You wouldn't believe…” He trailed off, clearly seeing the ridiculousness of me not believing, well, anything at this point.

He still didn't finish, so I stated, “I arrived to rescue you on a kelpie, and we're surrounded by a bunch of red caps who want to eat us.
What
don't you think I'm going to believe?”

Joe sighed, pressing us back as his mum took a defensive step and drew hissing blood from the attacking red cap. “Magic carpet made by a recently freed djinni.”

Okay, I wasn't expecting that answer, but I wasn't going to
not
believe him.

“And Tony disappeared and went back to Mum's family because Granddad was in trouble, too,” said Annie.

“And the carpet didn't work right without him,” added Richard.

“Apparently, djinn lose a whole lot of power if you free them from their lamps,” Joe added with a frown. “Or, they're not allowed to use it or something.”

“How'd he get free?” I asked, because hey, a djinni would probably be useful right about now. “And his name is ‘Tony?'”

“It was my third wish. I'd given him my word,” Joe said softly, not meeting my eyes. “And that's the name he said he preferred.”

“You
had a magick wishing-genie lamp?” I gaped, and then ducked back as a high-end-cussing Mum blocked us from an oncoming red cap while three or more seemed to be tackling Ermie somewhere across from us.

“Not the best time for this discussion,” Joe growled. “Don't you have any more iron blades?”

“Dad and Lily have them. They should be—there! Lights!” I pointed, seeing the headlights of Mum's F-250.

Crash!
One of the headlamps blinked out as the sound of crunching metal thundered from that direction.

“Michael!” Mum screamed, almost breaking ranks and going in that direction. A glance behind her at us, at me, stopped her, but froze my heart.

“Dad!” I shouted.

Then. Everything. Stopped.

I had to think to breathe and took a gasp of air in. I heard the others do the same. Around us, I heard shuffling, grumbling, and muttering.

Ermie, un-stopped, had already jumped to the side closest to me, looked at me—I could see his glowing ocean eyes—then started walking around us, head lowered, shoulders hunched. His creepy “I am a stallion and I will kill you” posture. I could feel his heat and smell salt and brine from him. He was panting and snorting. In the darkness, I couldn't see if he was hurt, and he seemed to be keeping his mind to himself.

“Aimee? Heather?” My dad's voice sounded scared.

“Dad!” I shouted.

“Michael, we're here and we're fine,” called my mum. I could see the whites of her eyes as she glanced around. When she turned her head slightly to Prince Christopher, I saw her put her finger to her lips. He nodded.

I saw the silhouettes of three figures in front of the remaining headlamp. Two of them looked like Lily and Dad. The third I didn't recognize.

Nor did I recognize the smooth, silky voice that called out, “And who speaks for your group?”

“I do.” Prince Christopher shook his head at my Mum, who sighed as he stepped forward.

“Truly?” The unfamiliar silhouette lifted its hand, and the area all around us seemed to light up, though I couldn't see where the light came from. “You neither look nor sound like a human girl child, Your Highness.”

Dad had his arm around Lily. They clutched their knives and walked at a diagonal towards us, away from a daoine síth who looked a lot like Lord Cadmus…but, surprisingly, way creepier. Especially with the smile on his face.

“Aimee! Heather!” My dad and Lily jogged to us as Ehrwnmyr moved between the circle of red caps and them. The hugs were quick as we returned our attention back to Lord MacCreepyPants the Worse.

“If you know who I am, then you know I speak for—”