He whistles and Jinn stomps through the shrubs, whinnying in delight as his master throws him a carrot and me a hunk of old bread. Yum.
“Thank you,” I say in a voice that means the exact opposite.
“It is my pleasure to feed you as you deserve.”
Touché, jackass.
With Balor tagging along to help me fend off any two-headed creatures that might be lurking, I make for the bushes to take care of business.
When I return, the huntsman is already packed and impatient to leave. While I’m stroking Jinn’s nose, Ever picks me up without warning, throws me into the saddle, and mounts behind. “Yah!” he yells, and we take off at a gallop.
After we’ve traveled uphill for some time, me trying not to let my imagination run wild with gruesome images of what might happen when we arrive tonight, and Ever silent as usual, I ask, “What are the king and queen of your court like?”
“Shhhh,” he hisses as he pulls Jinn to a stop.
“Why can’t I speak?” The only reason I want to talk is because it annoys him so much.
“Be quiet and listen.”
I glance around the silver trees, thinning out now we’re higher up the mountain.
“I can’t hear anything.”
“That’s because you never stop talking. Balor, stay.” His left arm squeezes, hugging me to his chest before he drops the reins and dismounts. “Wait here.” He takes his bow and quiver and disappears, merging instantly with the green and gold leaves.
“Ever?” I call, but it’s too late, he’s gone.
What if he’s hunting one of those horrible wolf-things? Or, worse, what if one them is hunting me right now?
I can’t bear doing nothing while I wait to find out. I’d rather take my chances with the fae jerk; at least he has weapons. And air magic. Hopefully he’ll be easy to follow. If not, I’ll have to return here. And possibly get eaten.
I slide clumsily to the ground and press my face against warm horse flesh. “Don’t go anywhere, Jinn.”
In the woods, the tree trunks are solid and thick, but the branches are thin and flexible, so it’s easy to follow the path Ever has cut through them. Ten paces. Then another twenty, and I see him striking a warrior’s pose on top of a giant log, bow drawn, arrow nocked, his brown cloak blending into the scrub.
There’s a rustle in the bushes, and he looses an arrow, waits a moment with his head cocked, and then drops his arms to his side in a creak of leather.
I step forward and twigs crack. He turns, smile flashing across his face when he sees me. “I got it.”
“Got what?” I ask, but instead of answering, he bolts off through the forest.
Green blades whipping my face, I chase after him as fast as I can, following the sounds he makes crashing through vegetation and after a while a trail of bright red blood.
When I find him, he’s standing over a silver deer that’s fallen next to a hollowed-out log covered in moss. The green is so bright, it hurts my eyes.
I shuffle closer. The deer is young, and it hasn’t fallen from an injury—it’s been shot by Ever. A bloody wound below its armpit, it struggles to rise, but can’t. The poor thing.
I come up beside the huntsman, my gaze flitting in horror between the gory arrow he’s holding and the dying animal. “What have you done?”
His eyes cut briefly to mine. “I’ve shot a doe.”
“Yes, I know. But why did you do it?”
“Because I’m hunting.”
The deer’s eyes roll back, it makes a final, long, horrible groan, and dies.
The trees waver as my head spins with sorrow. “Are you going to eat it?”
“Of course not. I have no butchering tools, and Jinn cannot carry both you and the deer, butchered or no.”
Any gratitude I felt toward him for saving my life last night vanishes, torched in hot flames of anger. “Never, you’ve ended the deer’s life for what purpose? Hunting to eat makes sense, I understand that, but for sport… I don’t get that. I thought your kind respected animals.”
He keeps his silver gaze fixed on the deer. “Most fae hunt. Usually for food, but we like to practice and improve our skills, and some of us enjoying killing for the sake of it.”
“Oh, good on you.” I drop to the ground, press my palm against the doe’s neck, and softly stroke its still-warm fur. “What a waste.”
Ever moves around the log so he’s opposite the doe, watching each stroke of my hand with unnerving intensity. I wonder how he’ll punish me for daring to question his actions.
“Let’s go now,” he says.
“No.” I’m not leaving until I’ve paid my respects to the deer.
A song seems appropriate. Breathing deeply, I think fast. It has to be something fitting. Then I draw a long breath and sing a slow Irish tune about a girl who disappears forever the day before her wedding. It’s beautiful and bewitching. I don’t know why I chose that one in particular, only that its atmosphere of haunting loss seems right.
As I continue to stroke the deer’s fur, tears run down my face. I can’t help feeling connected, seeing a glimpse of my future in its limp and ruined body—a hapless victim of the huntsman, just as I’m surely doomed to be.
When the song is over, I bend and press a kiss to the deer’s forehead, then lift my furious gaze to Ever’s. Chest pumping, his breath pants out in ragged bursts. His jaw working as if he wants to speak, but is under a spell and can’t get a word out.
“What is it?” I ask impatiently. I feel no sympathy for whatever it is he’s suffering.
“I don’t…” He rubs his chest. “This feeling...”
“What? Where’s the pain? In your arm or your chest?” Fae physiology must be similar enough to ours, so perhaps he’s having a heart attack. And if he is, I should be glad of it.
“I don’t know. My chest. My stomach. What is this feeling?”
“Shame probably.”
“But your voice…”
“What about it?”
“You did something to the forest, changed its pulse. I felt it.”
What dramatic mumbo-jumbo the fae spouts.
“I didn’t. That’s magic you’re talking about, which is normal for you, but I don’t know how to do anything of the kind. You’re not used to feeling empathy. You’re sorry for what you did, killing an innocent creature for no good reason. That’s all. The song moved you.”
Jaw tightening and steel flashing in his eyes, he says, “No. I felt no such thing. Fae notions of fairness and cruelty are not the same as yours. Let us leave here at once.”
Anger pulsating from his body in hot waves, he grips my arm and pulls me through the forest, my feet scrambling to keep up with his long strides. So much for Ever’s short-lived softer feelings of sympathy and regret.
Back on the trail, we find Balor asleep next to Jinn who’s happily munching grass. The dog stops snoring when he hears us and bounds over. Ever crouches and ruffles his fur, then stands and whispers something in Jinn’s ear that makes the horse neigh in delight. At least, as far as I can tell, he’s kind to his own animals.
Once again, he hefts me without ceremony onto Jinn’s back, reminding me of the way Joe, at the end of his shift at the diner, throws rubbish into the dumpster without so much as checking to see if it lands where he aimed it. And then once again, I have to suffer the proximity of Ever’s body, his heady scent of leather and earth, his chin bumping the top of my head as we travel higher.