Sonny walked back to his apartment from the Avalon, head down, shoulders hunched. Along the way, he spotted several Lost Fae: a dryad in an empty lot offering encouragement to a sickly-looking juniper bush; a winged boy crouched atop a fire hydrant who watched him pass with big, glistening eyes; the fruit seller at a corner market who hid his taloned, feathered feet beneath an impressive glamour and a long white apron…
Where Sonny went, reputation preceded him. As he passed the Fae on the streets, they gave him a wide berth, even though Sonny had no quarrel with them. Most had already had to fight against the Janus to cross over, and it wasn’t an experience any of them wanted to repeat. There were also those of the Otherworld who had been trapped in the mortal realm more than a century ago through no fault of their own. Some would even have gone back, were it not for Auberon’s harsh decree of banishment that had accompanied his closure of the Gates: If a Faerie had gotten caught-consorting with humans in the human world-then they could stay there.
Still, not wanting to appear to his remaining loyal subjects in the Otherworld as overly vengeful, Auberon had left it to his Janus to decide whether or not a Lost Fae would go on to pose an actual threat to the mortal realm. Most of them didn’t, and so the Janus left them in peace.
Even so, the Lost Fae remained almost universal in their passionate hatred for Sonny’s kind. He felt a familiar twinge of regret about that as he stood in the swiftly ascending elevator to his floor.
At the entrance to the penthouse, he sensed a presence even before he’d turned the handle on the door. It was warm inside, almost oppressively so. Sonny could feel the hair raise up on his arms as he stepped cautiously through the doorway.
A Storm Hag hovered a foot and a half off the floor in the middle of his living room.
“Hag,” he hailed her blandly.
“Watch thy mouth, fleshling,” she hissed. Tiny spears of lightning sparked from her fingertips, and her dusky robes billowed around her like gathering thunderheads. Servants of Mabh, the Storm Hags had long ago been chained to the mortal realm by their harsh mistress to carry out her commands. The hags communicated with Mabh, herself confined to her own grim realm, through enchanted mirrors. They were malicious creatures but-because they were Queen Mabh’s direct emissaries, answerable only to her and not to Auberon or any of the other Courts-they were untouchable; the Janus were forced to leave them in peace.
Which made it particularly frustrating when one showed up uninvited in the middle of your living room, Sonny thought.
“Queen Mabh sends a greeting.”
“Queen Mabh sent her ravens first.” Sonny crossed his arms and leaned against the bar, not in the mood for this. “A greeting might have been welcome before an attack.”
The Storm Hag’s gray lips stretched in a ghastly parody of a smile. “Be thou lucky Mabh turns any attention on such a crawly worm as you. She is mighty as she is merciless. She is the Darkling Queen, the Queen of Air and Darkness, bringer of storm and war-”
“I don’t need to hear her resume. Just tell me what she wants and get out.”
“An alliance,” the creature snarled. “This realm hides something that belongs to Mabh. You know this?”
The kelpie. Sonny went cold despite the room’s temperature. Auberon was right! It was Mabh. He nodded slowly.
“She wants it back. It should never have been sent here. It was a mistake. Find it. Return it. And the queen will grant you a boon.”
Sonny wasn’t entirely sure he wanted Mabh’s favor. But still, a boon granted by a queen of Faerie…that was a valuable thing. And Sonny had a feeling that such a gift might come in handy. He had to consider Mabh’s offer carefully.
“What say you, fleshling?” the Hag hissed wetly.
“I say call me that again and Mabh will have another minion to put back together with her magicks.”
Sonny walked a few steps away, thinking hard. Bargaining with the Faerie was always bad business. If a deal was ever broken, the consequences could be dire. An unfulfilled agreement was considered an unforgivable transgression by Faerie laws. If you wanted to break a bargain with the Fae-and couldn’t find a loophole by which to do it-then you risked granting the wronged party unlimited power to seek redress. It was always best never to enter into a deal with the Faerie in the first place, but here was an opportunity to not only eliminate the threat of the Wild Hunt waking-by getting the kelpie back to the Otherworld-but also earn a favor of a Faerie queen.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll get Mabh what she wants-but only because it’s for the greater good. She can send me word of time and place.”
He turned away.
“Now get out of here and stop drooling on my rug.”