One
Olivia
Tonight I would watch a man die for his crimes. I would hunt him down and let a pack of giant black hounds rip him to death and send his soul to the afterlife, and I would trust that he had done something to deserve it.
I was struggling with that concept.
Not the part where I'd hunt him or even watch him die. I'd seen a man torn apart by a cwn before, and while I didn't intend to closely observe the process, I did not have an issue with the overall idea of it. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here.
I believed in the Cwn Annwn, in their purpose on earth. The Welsh Wild Hunt, tasked with wreaking vengeance on humans who murder those with fae blood. Did those crimes deserve such a fate? Sometimes. Other times, though, it was indeed rough justice. But justice it was. When you take a life--intentionally and maliciously--you must accept that you may receive the same in return.
My problem with tonight's Hunt? The part where I didn't know what our quarry had actually done.
I had chosen not to know. I'd seen that as purpose. Resolution. Faith, too, which doesn't come easily to me. I trusted that the Cwn Annwn were justified in their actions, and so for my first Hunt, I would prove that by not asking for details.
Yeah...
A noble sentiment, which lasted only until the moment of truth loomed.
I sat on my horse, leaning forward, hand rubbing her neck, trying to calm my nerves with her warmth. She felt those nerves, though, and her left ear twitched.
"Dwi'n iawn, Rhyddhad," I said, reassuring her I was okay.
A soft whinny suggested I might be lying.
Rhyddhad looked like a regular horse--a young gray mare--just as the cwns looked like regular hounds. They were, in their way. That is, they weren't shape-shifting humanoid fae. But they were fae beasts, and they understood us better than mortal ones.
Rhyddhad and I were on an empty stretch of country road, outside Chicago. Waiting for our quarry to arrive.
The Hunt must take place in a forest. That was traditionally the domain of the Cwn Annwn, and back in ancient Wales, the restriction had been no restriction at all as people passed through forest regularly. It was trickier in the modern world. And in Chicago? A city of three million people...? Let's just say that it was a good thing the local Cwn Annwn pack had been here for centuries, with time to adjust and improvise. Time to learn how to get even the most urban-dwelling killer to a patch of woods.
It helped, too, that they only needed to conduct a proper Hunt a few times a year. That meant plenty of time to use their tricks--both human and supernatural--to get their prey where they wanted him.
This time, they were lucky--their target worked in Chicago but lived outside it. He passed daily along this wooded road, and he often drove past dark.
It'd been almost a week ago when Ioan--leader of the local Cwn Annwn--came to me and said, "We have one. Are you ready?"
I was. There wasn't any doubt of that. I was the new Mallt-y-Nos. Matilda of the Night. Matilda of the Hunt. I had accepted that role, and along with it, I accepted this responsibility.
When headlights bobbed down the empty road, hooves tapped across the pavement, a rider coming to my side, a cwn loping beside him, her tongue lolling.
"Looks like we have a winner," Ricky said as he reined in. "Dark sedan headed this way, right on time."
He smiled, but it wasn't his usual grin. He was on edge, too, and his horse--Tywysog Du--shook his head, breath streaming in the cool spring air.
"We doing this?" he said.
"I guess so."
He inched Tywysog Du closer and reached to squeeze my arm. Ricky Gallagher. Former lover, current best friend--a feat I was still amazed we'd managed. It took work, but it was important to both of us, and six months later, we were settled into the new relationship.
This would be Ricky's first Hunt, too. The first time we fully inhabited our ancient roles--me as Matilda and him as Arawn, Lord of the Otherworld, legendary king of the Cwn Annwn. There was a third party in this configuration. Gwynn ap Nudd, even more legendary king of the fae, the Tylwyth Teg. But Gabriel had no place here. Not tonight.
"Is that the car?" Ioan asked, his quiet voice traveling through the silence.
Another of the Cwn Annwn--Meic--peered down the road with binoculars. Yes, just regular binoculars. The Huntsmen were blessed with near-perfect night vision, but not bionic sight, and unlike most fae, they embraced human tech.
"It's definitely a dark sedan," Meic said. "Could be an Audi..."
"You realize you have an expert, right?" Ricky called to him.
Ioan chuckled and waved for Meic to bring the binoculars to me.
My Cwn Annwn blood gave me decent night vision, but it wasn't like theirs, and I had to squint to make out the oncoming vehicle.
"We've got a BMW," I said, as it came over a dip a hundred feet away.
I only needed to nudge Rhyddhad. She knew what that meant: get the hell away from the roadside before some poor stranger goes into a tailspin seeing a pack of giant hounds and horsemen.
Human folklore said that if you spotted the Hunt, you'd die. That wasn't exactly true. Yes, if you spotted them, and they were there for you, I'd suggest an emergency call to check your life insurance policy. But for any culture with Wild Hunt folklore, the fear of them was ingrained, and the Cwn Annwn preferred not to send innocent humans into mindless panic, especially when they were behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.
So the horses and hounds headed into the field, not unlike city kids playing road hockey when someone called "Car!"
I watched the vehicle as it passed and... "Shit!"
There was the dark blue Audi we were waiting for--a few car lengths behind the BMW.
"Brenin!" Ioan shouted, alerting the alpha cwn.
The hound whipped around, but he was too far from the road. The closest to it was Ricky's cwn, Lloergan. She suffered from old injuries, meaning she hadn't kept up when we bolted for the field.
"Lloe?" Ricky called, but she was already veering as Brenin barked a command.
Lloergan ran back to the road. The BMW was gone, the Audi coming fast. The cwn wasn't going to make it. And if she did...
Lloergan leapt onto the road right in front of the Audi. I shouted, "No!" as the car went into a spin.
"I can't see Lloe," I whispered, leaning over Rhyddhad's neck. "Where's...?"