I didn’t know what truly happened in those final moments between Keirran and Ethan Chase. I did know that Ethan had been Keirran’s friend, and they’d helped each other several times in the past. Perhaps it was an age thing, but Keirran had always preferred to drag a reluctant, begrudging Ethan into his problems rather than come to us.
Leanansidhe nodded. “How is our darling Ethan, by the way?” she asked. “Still as grumpy and surly as ever? That boy could give a medusa a run for its money.”
“Ethan is fine,” Meghan said cautiously, wary of giving too much information to the Exile Queen. “He moved to a small town with Kenzie and opened his own martial-arts dojo.”
“Ah, Mackenzie,” Leanansidhe sighed. “Such a darling girl, so unlike her perpetually scowling better half. I heard they were married sometime last year. I would’ve gone to the wedding, but sadly, I wasn’t invited.” She sniffed, looking like an offended faery grandmother for half a second, then smiled at Meghan again. “Did you know that, when we first met, Mackenzie made a bargain with me?” the Dark Muse continued. “I bet Ethan never told you, did he? Mackenzie wasn’t born with the Sight like your brother—she had to bargain for it. Ethan didn’t want her to, of course, but we worked out a lovely little deal for her to gain the Sight.”
Meghan stiffened. Mackenzie St. James had been sixteen when she was first dragged into the Nevernever with Ethan, and bargaining with a faery queen was a dangerous proposition for even the most experienced fey. Granting a mortal the Sight was a huge request, and the price for such bargains was always high.
“What did she promise you?” Meghan asked quietly.
“A month of her life,” the Dark Muse responded. “Really, it was one of my more generous offers. Ethan nearly went through the roof, but Mackenzie had no qualms making that deal. Of course, this was before I learned that she had leukemia.” Leanansidhe shook her head. “Funny thing with humans who don’t think they’re going to live much longer—they’re much more likely to risk everything. The point is, because of that and the nature of our deal, I’ve taken to checking up on our darling Mackenzie from time to time. And recently, I’ve noticed something odd happening in the real world. Have you seen those obnoxious little piskie creatures, hanging on to humans in the mortal realm?”
Meghan stiffened, and I narrowed my eyes. So, Leanansidhe had seen them, too. Or at least, her network of spies and informants had.
“Actually, we did have the pleasure of running into one,” Puck said. “You wouldn’t happen to know what they are, would you, Lea?”
“Not a clue, darling.” Leanansidhe made a disgusted gesture with her cigarette flute. “I suspect they’re a new type of fey, and that is all I know. But, according to my informants in the real world, these creatures are not only spreading, they are everywhere now. At first, it was just a few, and no one really paid much attention to them. But then, they started to multiply. And you can find them throughout the mortal realm, now. From what I can see, they are attracted to negative emotion—anger, fear, rage, despair—and spread it among human and fey alike. Like hateful little moths, fluttering around human lamps, making everyone cranky and stupid. They really are getting to be quite the menace.”
“How long has this been going on?” Meghan asked.
“Well, that’s the interesting thing, darling. I did some research, asked around, paid off a few favors, and you know what I discovered? These creatures, these nightmare piskies as they’re being referred to by the exiles, first appeared a few months after the war with the Lady and the Forgotten ended. Now, what this means...?” She shrugged. “That is anyone’s guess. But these creatures started appearing not long after the Between disappeared the first time. When your darling son made the sacrifice to rip away the Veil.”
Anger flickered, and Leanansidhe shot me a look, as if she could sense my thoughts. “Regardless,” she went on, “my prediction is that something happened the night when the Veil disappeared. Perhaps these creatures are appearing from a part of the Between that we don’t know about. Which begs the question—if these nightmare piskies are coming through, what else is out there? And how much of a threat are they?
“So, I would very much appreciate it if you would look into that, darling,” Leanansidhe remarked. “Maybe get the other courts in on it as well. They don’t concern themselves with anything that is happening in the real world, and I think that perhaps they should. At least for this problem.”
“I will.” Meghan nodded wearily. “After we find Keirran. I’ll return to Faery and let the other rulers know about this new type of fey. Though I feel we should know a bit more about them, first.”
“Well, if you are in the human world, I’m sure you’ll see a few of them,” Leanansidhe said. “I’ll put out feelers in the mortal realm, see if I can dig up any information on our missing Forgotten King. But I do believe your best bet will be your brother and his wife. Those two know more about what is happening than I suspect the rest of us might think. Besides, in the past Keirran has gone to Ethan and Kenzie. There’s no reason to think he wouldn’t try to contact them again.”
Meghan groaned. “I don’t want to drag Ethan and Kenzie into this,” she sighed. “I promised I would try to keep faery politics out of his life. But it sounds like we’re running out of options.”
“Ethan understands what being the Iron Queen’s brother means now,” I told Meghan. “Family is the most important thing to him, even if he has to deal with the faery madness that comes with it. I think we should trust him at his word and see if he and Kenzie have heard from Keirran, or have any idea of where he could be.”
“And I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to see us,” Puck added, grinning from the other side of the couch. “We make his life so much more exciting. Hopefully, he’s gotten over that slight miscalculation with the doves at his wedding.”
Meghan sighed again and rubbed a hand over her eyes. “I’m sorry, Ethan,” she murmured. “I don’t want to do this, but I think we’re going to have to upend your life one more time.”
She turned, but suddenly put her hand against the sofa back, as if to brace herself. Alarm flared, and I stepped forward, catching her elbow. Her muscles shook under my fingers.
“Meghan...”
“I’m all right,” the Iron Queen said calmly. “Just tired, I think. The fight with the Monster took a lot out of all of us.”
That was putting it mildly. We had almost died, battling one of the toughest creatures I had ever encountered. It wasn’t superstrong, it wasn’t the most powerful monster I’d ever faced; it just seemingly couldn’t be killed. Eventually, we did discover the secret to bringing down the creature down, or rather, Puck did, but not before it had inflicted some serious damage of its own.