Page 78 of Skulk of Foxes
‘I’ve been a bitch.’ It was the truth.
He smiled at me. ‘You always were headstrong.’ He dipped his head. ‘I like to think of it as assertive intelligence and bracing wit.’ He winked. ‘Your mother would be proud.’
I was going to have to spend more time with him. He was good for my already enhanced ego. And with any luck, he’d be rich too. I smiled in vague reassurance that I wasn’t about to spend the rest of my days parading around in a sack-cloth and ashes and looked around. I could see Artemesia embracing an older couple. She looked tired but otherwise alright. Paeonia was on her knees and sobbing. Other Fey I recognised were kissing the ground. Vandrake was clutching his chest in relief, the perpetual ache of faery-induced homesickness gone for good.
I realised I also felt good. There was a warmth pulsating through my veins caused not by swallowing the sphere but by the happiness of being back home on my own soil in my own land. I blinked at Morgan who was still watching me. Perhaps for the first time I understood what it meant to be Fey. I understood just why Rubus had been so desperate to get back here.
‘You promise?’ I said, addressing both my father and Morgan. ‘You promise they’re all okay back in Manchester?’
‘They will be.’
Morgan nodded. ‘They might have to adapt to a new world but they’ll be fine.’
Despite their assurances, I felt a sense of foreboding. I pointed across the border towards the ravaged figures of my friends. ‘We still caused that. Faeries invaded their demesne, fucked it up and then left the humans to deal with the fall-out.’
Morgan’s jaw tightened and I could see pain reflected in his face. ‘We can’t go back. The borders are sealed again. Whatever is happening back there, the humans will find a way to deal with it. They usually do.’ He looked around us. ‘And maybe they won’t be completely alone. Not everyone is here,’ he murmured. ‘I don’t see Bego— Timmons, I mean.’
I stiffened, my own head swinging around and searching for him. Morgan was right. There was no sign of the human-loving Fey hotel manager. I crossed my fingers tightly that he was alright. And that if he remained back with the humans, his presence wouldn’t cause any more problems. I scanned the rest of the Fey crowd. I couldn’t tell if anyone else was missing. What I could see, however, sitting quietly in a corner and with Rubus’s head still cradled in her lap, was Lunaria.
‘She killed him,’ I whispered. ‘She killed Rubus. How? How could she break the truce?’
Morgan smiled sadly. ‘She didn’t break the truce. She couldn’t have.’
I watched her for a moment. ‘Of course,’ I breathed. ‘She was worried about Rubus and what would happen to him if his plan succeeded. She killed him in order to save him. It’s a twisted logic, but to Lunaria it made perfect sense. She wasn’t trying to hurt him, not deep down. That’s why she was able to kill him.’ I paused. ‘She’s going to need our help.’
Morgan lifted up his chin. ‘We’ll be right by her side.’
I nodded fervently. ‘We owe her everything.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘We owe you everything.’
I sniffed. Yeah, okay then. ‘That goes without saying.’
With Morgan at one side of me and my father at the other, I pulled my eyes away from the strange diorama of the human world and looked around Mag Mell. Everything seemed brighter. The greens were greener; the sky was bluer. In the distance, a golden city glittered in the sunlight.
‘It’s beautiful here,’ I said, the understatement of the century.
‘We’ve tried so hard to bring you back and to re-open the borders,’ my father said. ‘Nothing worked. It was clearly a terrible malfunction.’
My eyes flew to Morgan’s. Er… ‘It was my fault.’ I looked down awkwardly. ‘Or so Rubus said. I can’t actually remember.’
‘Maddy’s got amnesia,’ Morgan interjected.
My father blinked. ‘Seriously? How did that happen?’
‘Long story.’ I still couldn’t quite look him in the eye.
‘You must remember Mag Mell,’ he said.
‘No.’
‘You must remember me.’
‘No.’
He spread his arms wide. ‘Come on, Maddy. I’m your dad. Not to mention that I’m utterly unforgettable.’ He spun round in a circle for effect.
Morgan leaned in to my ear. ‘The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.’
