After a very long time that was probably no more than an hour after I woke up, the door opened, and the queen walked in with two female attendants, and two male.
The first man was the fae who had seen Samuel and the rest out. He was tall, taller than Samuel, with seafoam eyes. For the first time, I realized he was the water fae whod broken into the bookstore. The second man was short by human standards but not oddly so. His skin was green and rippled like the waves of an ocean at sea. Like the fairy queen, he had wings on his back, though his were grayish and leathery and less insectlike.
One of the women was carrying a chair. She was nearly human in appearance except that her eyes were orange and her skin pale, pale blue. The second woman was covered, head to toe, with sleek brown hair about two inches long, and her arms were a third again as long as they should have been. She was carrying a narrow silver ring just big enough to fit around my neck.
At the sight of the silver ring, I tried to run. The tall man caught me and sat me in the chair while the woman whod carried it in tied me into it: wrists, elbows, and ankles.
Then they put the silver collar around my neck.
Once she has them in thrall, only she can release them.
It took me too long to find your secrets, Mercedes, she said. Phin was the owner, but Ariana has him safely guarded in the reservation, where none of mine can get him. You gave it to your friend, but he has given it over to the werewolves, and we cannot go there either.
How long had I been out, and what had I told her? I didnt remember all of it, and that worried me.
The fairy queen was wearing a different dress than she had been. This one was blue and gold. Did that mean it was a different day? Or just that shed gotten things on her dress and had to change?
They have left me only vengeance for now. Her eyes gave that weird flutter. Eventually, they will not guard the Silver Borne as diligently, and I will have it. Until then, Ill take what I can get. I hope you enjoy your victory.
Mercedes Athena Thompson, she said, putting a hand on my forehead. Look at me.
The Look at me part was inside my head. It reminded me of the way Mary Jos voice had entered my head in the bowling alley. Maybe without that experience, the queens voice wouldnt have seemed so clearly foreign.
You want to serve me. Nothing else matters.
Adam mattered.
If I didnt make it out of here alive, hed think it was his fault. That if hed been in better shape, Id have brought him with me, and hed have saved the day. Hed take responsibility for the world if someone (like me) wasnt around to shake him up. So I had to survivebecause Adam mattered to me.
The fairy queen had continued to talk in my head, but I wasnt paying attention to what she said.
Whom do you serve? she asked aloud, pulling her hand away from my head. Not as though she were interested in the answer.
Choose this day whom you will serve,I murmured.But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.It seemed appropriate to quote Joshua at her.
What? she asked, startled.
What were you expecting me to answer? I asked, feeling a little let down. Some of the very old fae react poorly to scripture, but this one didnt seem to mindnot the scriptures anyway.
Bring her to the hall, she said, her eyelashes beating her cheekbones with the force of her temper.
The men picked me up, chair and all, and hauled me back to the hall. I had only vague memories of what had happened to me there at the hands of the witchmy mother once told me that childbirth was like that. All that pain, then nothing. But if my mind had blocked out the worst of it, my body seemed to make up for it. As we got closer and closer, my stomach clenched, and I broke out in a sweat. By the time we made it into the hall, I wouldnt have been surprised if the men carrying me could smell my fear.
They brought me right up to the throne before setting me down.
What did you do? the queen hissed at the witch, who shrank back from her. What did you do that she resists me?
Nothing, my queen, the witch said. Nothing that would allow her to resist you. She is only half-human. Perhaps that is the problem.
The queen released her and stormed back to me. She took a silver knife out of her belt and cut my arm right over the bite Samuel had given me. The bite marks were still fresh-looking, so I hadnt lost a lot of time.
She rubbed her fingers in my blood and put them in her mouth. Then she cut herself and dribbled three drops into the open wound on my arm.
She was going to use old magic to bind us together. This was the stuff the wolves got out to make someone pack.
I had a sudden panicky thought. If she got me, could she get to the pack through me? Zee had been worried about her enthralling the wolves.
My blood to yours, she said, and it was too late to do anything about what she was doing. My silver, my magic, our blood makes you mine. Because it was done.
A fog rolled over my head.
I struggled and struggled, but there was nothing to struggle against; it was only fog that seemed to cover everything and muffle my thoughts.
Chapter 15
AFTER STRUGGLING AND STRUGGLING, I FOUND MYself alone, standing on a great barren field of snow. The cold was so great that it froze my nose when I breathed in, but, although I was naked, I wasnt uncomfortable.
Mercedes, Brans voice was breathless. Here you are! Finally.
I turned all around and couldnt see him.
Mercedes, he told me, I can talk to you because you are part of Adams pack and his pack is mine, too. But you need to listen because I cant hear you. All I can do is show you what I think you need.
All right, I told him. It felt lonely knowing he couldnt hear me. Lonely because it wasnt Adam whod found me there in the snow. I shivered though I still wasnt feeling the cold.
The biggest weapon in the arsenal of a fairy queen is enthrallment. As a member of a pack, you should be all but immune to that. But yours is a special case, and I am told that no one thought to teach you how the pack magic should work for you. Apparently my son and Adam, who should know better, assumed that it would all be instinctive because thats how it works for a wolf. When Adam found that it was not the case, he chose to wait so he could find out who had been messing with youinstead of making you safe.
There were complications, I told him sharply. I didnt like to hear him being critical of Adam. Id known what he was doing and approved of the way his mind worked.
A pause followed, and I had the distinct impression of surprise.
Im sorry for offending you, he said slowly. That I know you are offended is . . . interesting. I got the impression of a shrug, and he continued with his message. You should know that thrall magic is not so different from the pack bonds, Mercedes. The pack bonds are not built to subdue individuality to the Alpha or enforce behavior of any kind. A pack needs all its differences, and we find strength in that: a lot more strength than one stupid fairy queen who is stealing magic and using a witch. You understand me?His fury shook my whole being, he was so angry.
He wasnt angry with me, though, so it wasnt my concern.
I understand, I told him, even though he couldnt hear me. Or mostly couldnt hear me.
Im going to show you something, he said. And suddenly in the white snow there was a silver garland. This is one of your pack bonds, he told me. I couldnt see him, but I could feel him walking beside me as we followed the garland. We stopped by the end, and there was a rock tied . . . enveloped in a soft cage of silver. The rock glowed a warm yellow that was very welcome in this cold place.
Christmas garlands and a rock? he said, a smile in his voice. Why not an ornament?
Wolves arent fragile, I told him. And theyre . . . stubborn and hard to move.
I guess that imagery works as well as anything, he allowed. Do you know who this is? Can you feel how worried she is for you?
Mary Jo, I said. And once hed pointed it out to me, I could feel it, too. Could feel that she was looking for me, running on four feet to use her nose to its best advantage. She wasnt hot on the trailand I had the impression of miles traveled and miles to go stretching out both ways in weary infinity.
It is not usually so clear, Bran said, pulling me out of Mary Jo. Partially it is because I am with youand I am the Marrok. Another part is that the fairy has locked you into your own headI can tell that by the quality of my contact with you. That she has done this is an unforgivable offenseonce more I felt him try to contain his angerbut that will give you strength here you would not otherwise have had. He paused. The connection between you and me is stronger than it should be, too. Im not getting words back, but there is something . . . No use getting distracted with the why of that now. We have other tasks.
He took me to another silver garland and had me tell him whom it belonged to. After the third, I could find the strands myself without his guidance. The fourth was Pauls. He was running with Mary Joand just as anxious to find me. He still didnt like Warren, though. I could see that his garland and Mary Jos were intertwined and connected to all the other garlands, too. One by one we walked by the rocks that were the wolves in the pack.
Bran held me at Darryls, when I would have hurried on because I wanted to find Adam.
No, he said. I want you to look here for a bit. Can you find Darryls connection to Auriele? Its different from the pack bonds.
I looked and looked. I found Aurieles rock nearby, but I couldnt see anything. Finally, in desperation, I picked up Darryls rock and saw that it moved Aurieles, tooas if they were tied together . . . and then I couldnt understand how Id missed the blazing gold rope between them, it was so obvious. Maybe Id been looking too hard for a silver garland and instead their bond was very differentsofter, stronger, and deeper. Unlike the pack bond, it wasnt tied onto the rocks; it originated in one and ended in the other.
Bran took me by the elbow. Okay, quit playing with them. Youre making Darryl unhappy. I have another one to show you.
He led me to the center of all the strands of silver.
All but buried in the pack magic was a very, very black rock. It radiated anger and fear and sorrow so strongly it was hard to go near it.
Dont be frightened, Bran said, and there was a rough affection in his voice. Adam has been frightening quite enough people lately. Look and tell me what you see.
This was Adam? I ran up to the rock and put both hands on it. Hes hurt, I said, then corrected myself. Hes hurting.
Where is your mate bond?
It lay in the snow, a fragile and worn thing. There were a lot of places where it had been roughly knotted, just to keep it together.
Hastily made in need, which isnt necessarily a bad thing, the Marrok said, but that was compounded by rough handling by a bunch of idiots. Most of whom should have known better.
I could see that around the knotted places, the rope was worn, as if a dog . . . or a wolf had chewed on it until someone had tied it to keep it from breaking.
Henry isnt in the pack anymore, said Bran. Just in case you hadnt noticed. Ive brought him to my pack for a little one-on-one. In a few months, I might let him go out on his own again. Most of that mess is his doing.
But I wasnt worried about the chewed sections anymore.
Its broken, I said, kneeling in the deep snow. In front of me the rope came to an abrupt ending, as if sliced by a sharp knife. Id thought that the reason I hadnt been able to feel Adam was still the overload from when hed thought I was dead. Though it had been recovering from that, hadnt it? When had I lost the connection?
It hurt to know that it was broken.
Now, that, Bran growled, was cut by black magic.
His voice was so strong in my right ear that I turnedand got a glimpse of something huge and awful that didnt look anything at all like Bran in any form Id ever seen.
I couldnt see how it would be possible until Samuel told me there was a witch involved. Between the witch and the queen, they found a weakness and broke it, he told me. And then, in a curiously amused tone, he said, And I dont scare you a bit, do I?
Why would I be afraid of you? I askedbut my focus was on the broken rope. Would I hurt Adam if I touched it?
Go ahead, said Bran. He would give anything for you to touch it again.
Mine, I said. Mine.
But I still didnt touch it.
With that superior humor he occasionally used, which made me want to hit him every time, Bran said, Im sure he can find someone else who wants it.
I grabbed it with both handsand not because I was worried there would be someone else, no matter what Bran thought. But because we belonged together, Adam bound to me, me to him. I loved it when he let me make him laughhe was a serious man by nature and weighed down by the responsibility he held. I knew he would never leave me, never let me downbecause the man had never abandoned anything in his long life. If I hadnt taken the gold rope of our bond, I knew Adam would have sat on me and hog-tied me with it. I liked that. A lot.
Mercy! This voice wasnt Brans. This voice was demanding and half-crazed. A short pause, then much more controlled, Adam said, About damned time. Found you. Mercy, were coming to get you. Just sit tight.
I wrapped his voice around me and held on tighter to the rope between us until it settled into my bones, and I didnt have to hold on anymore. Adam, I said, happily. And then added, because hed know I was teasing, Took you long enough. You were waiting for me to get myself out?
I looked around my field of snow, by then littered with cheery garland and glowing rocks. I closed my eyes and wrapped the feel of pack around me like a warm cloak. I felt the fairy queens magic touch the golden rope I shared with Adamand this time it was the queens magic that shattered.
* * *
MY GAZE WAS LOCKED WITH THAT OF THE TRAPPED forest lord. He blinked, and I jerked my eyes downand saw that my arm was still dripping blood. From the amount Id lost, I hadnt been out of it for more than a few seconds.