“No, I don’t.” Her tone could have chilled a fire elemental. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
Cuan was not proud of himself. Yet he couldn’t deny that his taut shoulders eased at Tamsin’s words. It wasn’t that he wanted her to be trapped in his world against her will…but his very soul cried out at the thought of her leaving.
I truly am a beast,he thought bleakly, riven with self-loathing.
Aodhan let out an irritated sigh. “Then this is all a waste of time. Accept the fact that you’re stuck here, human, and let us all get on with our lives.”
“I can’t give up. Not yet.” Tamsin caught her lower lip between her teeth for a moment as though debating something with herself, then rushed on, “Look, maybe it doesn’t have to be a lover. Maybe someone else could help. There have to be some humans who know about your world, right? There was the guy who pushed me down the portal, at the very least.”
“He sacrificed you in return for a gift from the fae,” Cuan pointed out. “I very much doubt such a person would wish to undo that bargain.”
“No, but maybe he’s got enemies,” Tamsin said. “I mean, I know that people aren’t disappearing from Little Ashton on a regular basis. Do you think someone could have been guarding the stone circle?”
“The Wild Hunt,” Aodhan and Motley said in unison, instantly.
“The Wild Hunt?” Tamsin looked between them, animation coming back into her face. “What’s that?”
“Renegades and traitors,” Cuan said harshly, not wanting her to get her hopes up only to have them cruelly dashed. “Fae outcast from our lands, and the distant descendants of fae who refused to leave your world when the rest of us withdrew. Now they patrol the borders of the realms with their hounds, ensuring that none cross in either direction.”
Tamsin frowned. “But Motley went back to Fair Hill to get Angus for me, and no one stopped him.”
Motley’s chest puffed out. “Too fast. Too clever. In and out and gone.”
“And it was only sheer blind luck that you are not gone.” Fear for his friend sharpened Cuan’s tone yet further. His blood still ran cold whenever he thought of the risk Motley had taken. “I have told you, over and over, never to portal to the human world. The hellhounds of the Wild Hunt can scent fae magic, and they have ways of intercepting even you. I know you only went to Tamsin’s world to rescue Angus, and that was indeed a true and noble deed…but you cannot put yourself in danger like that again, Motley. Not for any reason. Promise me you will not.”
Motley looked mulish, but dipped his chin in a grudging nod.
Tamsin was chewing on her lip again. “I don’t want Motley to get hurt, of course, but is the Wild Hunt really that dangerous?”
“They are,” Cuan said firmly. “And the loathing between the unseelie and the Hunt is even deeper than that between us and the seelie. If there was the slightest chance of hope of aid from the Wild Hunt, Tamsin, I would take the risk of going to them myself. But there is not. I beg you, do not ask Motley to travel to your world again.”
From the quick, guilty glance Tamsin cast the raven shifter, she had indeed been contemplating exactly that. To Cuan’s relief, though, she seemed shaken.
“I do not mean for you to abandon all hope,” Cuan said, more gently. He turned to Aodhan. “You said that you had books containing tales of former tithes?”
“I have books about everything,” Aodhan replied. “That being the entire point of a library. I suppose your next question will be whether I’ll allow you to read them.”
That was, in Cuan’s opinion, the other main purpose of a library, but he held his tongue. Aodhan had a certain proprietary attitude to the books under his care. Cuan had known griffins who guarded their nests of gold with less fervor.
He bowed his head toward the alicorn in a gesture of respect. “I would consider it a very great favor, to be repaid in any manner of your choosing.”
“Much good that will do me when you’re likely to be dead before the next dawn.” Aodhan heaved a resigned sigh. “But I suppose if I say ‘no’, you’ll all just loiter around cluttering up my woods even longer. Fine. You can come in.”
“Er…” Tamsin cast a dubious glance around the sunlit—and apparently empty—meadow. “Come in where?”
A slight, smug smile tugged at Aodhan’s lips. He turned away, and—with what Cuan suspected was a totally unnecessary flourish—snapped his fingers.
Tamsin’s jaw dropped open as shadow engulfed them all. She craned her neck back, staring up at the towering oak that had appeared, its spreading branches blocking out the sun. Windows glinted amidst the thick folds of bark, while elegant towers thrust out through the topmost canopy.
“Shut up,” Tamsin exclaimed. “You live in a giant magic tree?”
“No.” Aodhan rolled his eyes, as though this should have been obvious. “I live in a carefully architected seven-dimensional fold within three-dimensional space, anchored by a complex biological system powered by a variety of natural and mystic energies.”
They all blinked at him.
Aodhan let out another exasperated sigh. “Yes, human. I live in a giant magic tree. Now close your mouth before a nighthaunt flies in.” He headed for a door nestled between two mammoth tree roots. “Leave your orange thing outside.”
Tamsin’s mouth closed with a snap, though her eyes were still round as full moons. “Uh, actually I think I’d better stay out here with Angus.”