Hart and Hunter

Chapter 41

Ch. 41: Dane

Chief Laura Coleridge arrives less than a quarter hour after our call ends. I tell her the short version, and leave werewolves out of it, but after only a brief spate of shock and denial, she accepts the evidence with which she is presented easily enough. More importantly, she agrees to my plan. Maybe people are more open-minded in the middle of the night.

While a deputy drives Ingrid and Danni home, Freya packs four of the fae, the seven children, and Halloran's body in my old Ford Explorer and drives them up to the standing stones to wait for us.

Julian, Erickson, his niece, the two warrior fae—Alyth and Sylv—and I go with Coleridge to Erickson's sister's house in a police SUV. When we arrive, however, I see we're not the first ones there.

A fire engine idles outside, lights flashing, and a police cruiser has just pulled up at the curb.

"Oh shit," Erickson breathes. "Pauline."

As we pop the doors and pile out, though, I see Savannah's mother dashing down the front steps, tears streaking her face and a wild, frantic look in her eyes. Then she sees Savannah and screams.

Running towards us, she snatches the sleepy, still-damp girl from Erickson's arms and collapses in tears. As the fae slip past her and into the house, I gather that the mother had awoken to a strange sound, gone into her daughter's room, and found the window open and the child gone. Fearing she'd been taken, she'd called the police.

"Skinchanger must have sensed or known we were coming, somehow," I murmur.

"Probably through Savannah. The mental link, remember?" Julian says. "I bet as soon as we came through the portal, it knew the game was up, and fled."

A moment later, Alyth and Sylv return, shaking their heads. The skinchanger left no trace.

While Erickson invents some story about finding his niece sleepwalking (his house is apparently nearby), the rest of us withdraw.

"Where do you think it went?" Julian asks, and shudders.

"No idea," I say. "But if it knows what's good for it, it'll stay far away from here."

Coleridge shakes her head. "You and I have a long talk ahead of us, Hunter. I'm rolling with this now, 'cause it's that or arrest you all, and that's too much paperwork. But I want a full, thorough, and complete explanation as soon as you don't look and smell like shit."

Despite my tiredness, I bite back a smile. "Yes, ma'am."

***

Leaving Erickson with his family, Coleridge drives the rest of us out of town and up into the hills to the standing stones.

She parks as close as she can get and then, with weariness weighting our steps, we cross the open meadow to the natural outcrop of white granite. There, we find the others already gathered, along with what appears to be a small delegation of Fae.

The doorway between the arched stones is open, the air shimmering like rippling glass, and a dozen Fae wearing long garments that flow like silk mill about tending to the time-orphaned children, and to the dead.

Halloran's body lies uncovered upon a much grander bier than the stretcher of ferns and branches on which we carried him from the Shadowlands. Candles burn around him, and flowers cover him. A woman kneels at his side, and when she straightens, I bite back a gasp. For a moment, I thought she was Rhiannon, but from the likeness and Julian's description, I recognize Eirnín.

Spotting Julian, she approaches with her hands outstretched.

"Son of my daughter's son," she says, tears making her eyes shine bright. "We meet again. I am glad to see you well, though I wish it were not under such sorrowful circumstances. I feel as if I have lost my daughter a second time, and now my son."