Page 30 of The Rebel Seer

I point Brendan’s way because we need to make some things clear. “No eating weird faery creatures. Your dad thought it was fun because he ate a bunch of stuff he shouldn’t have.”

Brendan’s hands go up like what me? “I would never eat a faery creature.” He frowns as though lying hurts him. “I mean, unless it deserved it or looks really tasty.”

“Be careful,” Rhys warns. “Some of the sweetest-looking things in Faery can bite back. We’re only going to the Seelie sithein. Your senses can fool you in there. The Unseelie are a bit more open about their cruelty.”

My heart hurts for my son because there’s beauty in Faery, too. It should have been his second home.

“I’ll have to change your mind.” Dev is back and his hand slides into mine, squeezing it as though letting me know he’s going to try. “Do you remember our temple?”

Rhys frowns. “Vaguely. I think the last time I was there I was eight. I remember there was a stream that ran through it. We would play in it, Lee and Evan and I.”

Dev gives our son a smile. “It is the most peaceful place I’ve ever been. I can’t wait for you to show Shahidi. And Brendan and Cassie, I promise you will be safe in the palace. Your aunt is being cautious, and she has her reasons for it, but I want you to enjoy yourselves.”

The hounds reach us first, all three running to Shy as though greeting her before one joins me.

“We found it,” Danny says and reaches into his backpack, pulling out the stones Matilda gave us. He passes them around.

“Nimue told us we must each have one of these on our persons, preferably in hand, to go through this door,” Rhys explains. “It’s blue dolerite, found only here in the mountains. It will allow us to pass through a piece of Annwn, though Nimue says we won’t notice it. It’s more like a wormhole.”

“It’s a passageway he uses,” Dev explains. “Many ancients connected to other planes have ways to travel that don’t involve using the front door. So let’s get this going. I would like to be at the palace before nightfall.”

Danny places the stone in my hand and takes the other. “Let’s get this over with because I want to get to New Zealand. Sasha, whatever you do, don’t take off that ring. The sun in the sithien has less ultraviolet rays than the Earth plane sun, but it will still damage you.”

“I will be careful,” Sasha says, taking up a position at the back of the group. “And no one forget that there is cold iron in your packs should you need it.”

I carefully sheathe my cold iron knife before we start the walk to the mountain. I hope I don’t have to use it.

Chapter Nine

Shy

Rhys’s hand is firmly in mine as we reach the entrance to the cave where we will find the doorway to Faery. At least the hounds seem to think so. The biggest is at my side, as though trying to ensure I don’t fall off the mountain. I know he has a name. Something Welsh. But I call him Fluffy. He seems to like it.

“My parents will go first.” Rhys helps me up the last of the steps, and I’m so grateful he overrode his father’s suggestion of designer heels. The slippers I’m wearing are sturdy and don’t slip on the wet rock stairs. “And then the two of us. Sasha will watch our six. Stay close to me. No matter what my papa says, it’s dangerous until we’re in our temple. We’ll stay in the rooms there. I won’t let them separate us.”

It’s so odd to think in a matter of hours I’ll be presented to Miria, Queen of the Seelie Fae. My boyfriend’s granny, though I doubt he calls her that. I’ve only ever heard Rhys refer to her as Queen Miria. I wish we went over royal protocols but no, I had to make us lunch. I’m wondering if I’m supposed to curtsey, and then panicking a little because I don’t know how to curtsey, when a shiver goes through me and I realize the Drowning Woman is here again. I gasp and shift toward Rhys when I realize how close she is.

His arm goes around me. “Are you okay? What do you see?”

“She’s here,” I whisper and try not to look at her. I can feel her, though. Cold and dead and longing. Longing for what? To take me with her? Fluffy barks and circles the spirit. It surprises me, though I don’t know why since it makes sense. “The hellhounds can see her.”

“Emyr seems to sense something,” the queen says as the hound joins Fluffy.

We find ourselves in a cave, though it’s obviously magical. There are faery lights all around, and it’s far warmer and drier than it was outside. It reminds me of the entry into Frelsi.

All three hounds circle the Drowning Woman, but they don’t seem to see her as a threat. They bounce around as though asking if she wants to play.

So much for their instincts.

“It’s a spirit,” I tell the queen. “One that has followed me around since I was a child. She’s the first spirit I ever saw, and quite frankly, one of the most frightening. Not that the hounds seem to be afraid.”

They are literally running in and out of her, playing in the water surrounding her like puppies.

“I hoped she wouldn’t be able to follow,” Rhys says with a sigh.

“She might not be able to,” I reply. There’s something desperate about her. I feel energy coming off some spirits. It’s stronger the older I get. Or perhaps I’m simply more at ease with it so I feel it more. The Drowning Woman is desperate. “She hasn’t come this close in a long time. She might be trying to imprint on me because she knows she’ll lose me once I cross the plane.”

She shimmers. I can’t tell if it’s the faery lights or something she’s doing herself. But for a moment she glows and I feel…sadness.

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