The Shadowed Path

1. Reine-1

1

Reine

"This is going to be a disaster," Ellerin muttered. He and I waited for John and Kestrel in the yard of the Graves' house. Light barely tinged the sky, and we stood in the shadows just outside the reach of the outdoor spotlight. An early cricket chirped good morning. I shifted my weight from foot to foot, ready to get going. As per usual, the humans held us back.

Ellerin had rented a car, and we were packed. He wore his Stetson and had his ubiquitous suitcase, and I'd stuffed a backpack with everything I could fit. Selene, the psychologist who had accompanied me to Atlanta, was holding the rest of my stuff for safekeeping, and if I didn't return, she'd donate it.

Did I want to return? The question had bumped through my brain at inconvenient times over the past two days, mostly when I tried to focus on other things. Important things. But the persistent query never disturbed me when I remembered Lawrence's rejection and how it had stung, but also saved me.

I caught myself rubbing the twin pinhead scars on my neck, left by a vampire who'd promised to heal me. Apparently to vampires that meant stopping blood flow, not preventing scarring. b***h.

Kestrel walked out of the garage, her backpack dangling from her left hand, and her father's voice floated out after her, "Did you remember pajamas? You can't sleep naked there." Kestrel rolled her eyes and mouthed, "I'll be right back."

"Think she forgot pajamas?" Ellerin asked once she'd disappeared. "Or is John trying to delay?"

"Only the gods know. Thank you for your humor about this, by the way. And for not charging me a ridiculous amount to bring them along."

He arched an eyebrow and cast a sideways glance at me. "I'm starting to question that. You should've let just her come."

"I thought that checking with him first would keep her from accompanying us. I wasn't eager to have to babysit a teenager through Faerie."

"You could've just said no."

I closed my eyes, and my cheeks heated. "I know. I'm not great at that." Hence how I'd ended up in exile in the first place.

Ellerin shook his head. "Maeve doesn't teach her daughters to say no. If she did, they may say it to her."

I opened my eyes at the mention of my mother's name. "Feeling feisty, are we? No one calls her by her name."

He shrugged. "Someone needs to take her down a peg."

I almost asked if that's why he and my grandmother, the queen of Faerie, were conspiring, but that wasn't Ellerin's style. He preferred to drop bits of knowledge in an offhand way and refused to answer direct queries. Typical Fae.

Finally, Kestrel emerged, followed by her father. In the four days since his wife's death, John Graves had shrunk in, then stretched outward again into a parody of himself—thin and brittle. Now his concern centered on his daughter, and the hard line of her mouth told me she barely held her redheaded temper in check.

"Are you ready?" Ellerin asked. "Truly ready? I'm not going to turn this car around."

I almost laughed at the stereotypical dad tone and statement.

"Yes, we are." John punched a code into a keypad beside the open garage door, and it closed with the grumbling of a teenager disturbed too early in the morning. "I made sure we didn't leave anything important behind."

I imagined his pack stuffed with all sorts of random, "just in case" crap.

Kestrel, who had at least a little bit of a clue due to her training for the PBI—Paranormal Bureau of Investigation—had likely packed smarter than her father had. I supposed we would see once we got to Faerie. Some of his "just in case" crap might prove to be useful in a land where the typical rules didn't apply. When they'd asked Ellerin for guidance, he'd merely told them to bring enough provisions for two days and an extra change of clothes, and beyond that, to trust their instincts and John's experience as a field scientist.

I called Sir Raleigh out of the strip of trees between the Graves' house and their neighbor's. His dark gray coat kept him hidden until he trotted into a circle of light, and he looked up at me with slightly glowing green eyes. I wondered what he had been chasing, or perhaps he'd been exploring. Sometimes it was easy to forget he wasn't an ordinary cat.

We got into the car, the men in front. Ellerin started the engine, and John started his mouth.

"Is this a place you've been to often?"

"Not in a long time." Ellerin’s tone revealed his reluctance to engage in the conversation.

"Oh." John sat back and pulled out his phone. "Do you need me to punch in some coordinates or something? For directions."

"No."

"But if this is an unfamiliar location for you, how do you know how to get there? This city changes constantly. I thought you said time is of the essence, and it's only open at sunrise."

Ellerin's face, reflected in the rearview mirror, turned pink, and he gunned it when we reached the interstate entrance. "Thanks for the reminder. Hopefully, your delays won't make us miss it."

John sat back, and now his mouth hardened into a similar line to the one Kestrel's had been in earlier.

She gazed at the horizon, which had gone from navy to dark royal blue. "We still have plenty of time. I can feel it."

I closed my mouth. I'd been about to say the same thing. Would this be our journey—Kestrel and me keeping John and Ellerin from killing each other? Maybe I should've just said no.

But…

"How's your magic?" I asked Kestrel. "Is anything flaring right now?"

"Nothing major." She looked out of the window. "I can feel life energy around me and the waxing power of the sun."

"Just like an earth witch," John added. "Maybe you're finally settling into something."

Kestrel shook her head. "No, I still feel it separate from me."

If it was possible for someone to go still while driving, Ellerin had. "Right, that's why you're coming with us. So the physician in the Light Court can help you figure out your powers."

Had he forgotten? We'd talked about this. But he'd been studying Kestrel like he'd never seen her before the entire morning.

Kestrel, seemingly oblivious to Ellerin's odd reaction, said, "Yes, hopefully."

I leaned over and caught John's gaze in the rearview mirror. "And what about you, John? What are you hoping for?"

He turned away. For the first time, John didn't say anything. Maybe he didn't know.