Page 41 of The Iron Raven

“My doing,” sighed a familiar voice, as a large gray cat sauntered in from the balcony, his tail held up behind him. “You certainly took your sweet time getting here,” Grimalkin said, hopping lightly onto a table and regarding us with disdainful cat eyes. “I had already been to Arcadia to warn Oberon before making my way to the Iron Realm. I thought you would be here already and have warned the queen, but apparently, my expectations were too high, again.”

“Grimalkin was telling me about the creature you saw in the Between,” Meghan went on, as the cat gave a yawn and began washing a front paw. I wondered what he would do if his fur suddenly burst into flame. “He said that it seemed immune to glamour, and that it could change faeries into monsters just by touching them. Do you know anything more about that, Puck?”

“If I may, Your Majesty.” Nyx stepped forward, bowing deeply as Meghan turned to her. “Keirran and I have hunted this creature before. We first encountered it in the Between, though later it moved into Phaed and eventually fled to the Nevernever itself. I believe it came here for a specific reason. When we were battling the creature, none of us could really hurt it. It might have killed us had we kept fighting, but as soon as the way into the Nevernever opened, it abandoned the fight to cross the River of Dreams into Faery. As to why it’s here...” Nyx offered an apologetic shrug. “That I cannot tell you.”

“You are Forgotten,” Meghan said, and Nyx gave a single nod. “How is it you look different from the rest of them?”

“I was not present during the last war, Your Majesty,” Nyx replied. “I did not partake in the method used to change them into what they are today. I have been returned to the Nevernever only recently. As I once served the Lady, I now serve the Forgotten King. He is the one who sent me to warn you about this creature.”

“Grimalkin has told me a little,” the Iron Queen said, sounding thoughtful. “But even he cannot say what it is, or why it’s here in the Nevernever. But you all seem to agree on one thing—it’s a threat to everyone it comes across.” She looked up at me, that worried look going through her eyes once more. “Puck, are you sure you’re all right? This curse or condition or whatever it is... It’s not hurting you, is it?”

Only my sanity a little.“What, this?” I pointed to my forehead and smirked. “Don’t worry about me, princess. I’m just a little horny.”

She frowned, unamused, and Nyx rolled her eyes. I knew the situation was serious, but I suddenly felt very immature.

“Oh, and check this out,” I announced, pulling up my pant leg, where a cloven hoof could be seen beneath the cuff. “Hornyandshaggy. Like your favorite taxidermy.”

“Let’s hope you don’t end up on someone’s wall,” said a deep voice behind us. Like the echo of a dream, one that was eerily familiar. I knew that voice instantly.

And something inside me snapped.

Rage flooded me, like a smoldering geyser or volcano that finally burst into eruption. Images flashed through my head, memories and emotions long buried, springing to life again. I remembered a dream with his voice, cold and full of hate, saying Meghan never loved me, that it was my fault that Ariella had died, that the world would be better if I was gone. I remembered the endless fighting, those years when we almost killed each other, the anger and resentment that cut deeper than any sword. All of that came bubbling to the surface, hot and volatile, spilling poison into my veins.

And suddenly, I wanted to hurt him. Not just hurt him—stabbing him with my daggers would be too quick. Besides, Ash had been poked, speared, impaled, slashed, kicked, clawed, and cut open enough times that such injuries were almost commonplace now. No, I wanted to make him suffer, as only Robin Goodfellow could. To devise a prank so devious and hilarious, ice-boy would feel it for years, and all the Nevernever would never let him forget.

In that moment, I felt Puck truly die, as Robin Goodfellow of the woods rose up and took his place.

I smiled broadly as I turned to face the owner of the voice. Ash. Ice-boy. Son of Mab. Former prince of the Unseelie Court. Lots of names, but they all belonged to my greatest friend, and greatest rival, in all of Faery. He swept through the doorway in his long black coat, icy blade glittering blue at his side. Like his broody kid, he was dressed in stark black, from his shirt to his pants to his boots, but his dark hair and silver eyes gave him a dangerous edge that even Keirran could not match. I saw Coaleater take a step back and Nyx staring at him with a mix of curiosity and wary awe. I snorted under my breath. Ice-boy did have that effect on pretty much everyone. After the kings and queens, he was one of the strongest faeries in the entire Nevernever, and he had thatpresencethat turned people into slack-jawed zombies for a moment or two.

Except me. I was pretty much immune to the ice-boy effect. In fact, I’d made it my personal vendetta to get under his icy cold skin as much as possible, just to remind him that his natural awe didn’t work on everyone.

“Well, look who decided to join the party,” I drawled as Ash strode to Meghan’s side. Anger and resentment still simmered, but I tamped them down. Now was not the time for a Goodfellow prank, not in the middle of the Iron Palace, surrounded by Iron knights, with the Iron Queen in the very same room. The best laid pranks always took a little time. “Always appearing at the most dramatic moment, ice-boy. Tell me, were you just lurking outside the door waiting for the perfect setup?”

“If I was, any discussion about mounting your head on a wall would certainly get my attention.” Ash stopped just a bit shy of Meghan, giving her a brief, genuine smile before turning to the rest of us. His silvery gaze went to my horns and narrowed. “It seems I’ve missed a few developments,” he went on, and the flicker of worry that crossed his face was lost to everyone but me. “Would you like to fill me in, Goodfellow? Is this a curse, an evil potion, or something else entirely?”

I smirked. Ash didn’t know the original Robin Goodfellow, not really. He hadn’t been around back then, though his two brothers had been. Maybe he’d heard the stories, but he’d never asked me about the time before we met. Too bad for him. He really should have paid attention.

“The short version?” I shrugged. “Some big nasty monster showed up in the Between, kicked our butts to the curb, gave me a few new appendages, and took a swan dive into the River of Dreams. Oh, and it’s in the Nevernever now, by the way. No idea where, exactly. But it’s here.”

“That’s why Keirran sent us,” Nyx broke in as Ash frowned. “We can’t seem to kill it ourselves. We were hoping you would be able to help us track this monster down and end the threat it represents to everything.”

Meghan nodded gravely. “Grimalkin was saying the same,” she mused, and looked at Ash. “This is definitely something we should look into. The realm is stable enough right now... I’ll send for Glitch and bring him back to the capital to keep an eye on things while we’re away.”

“I can go with them, if you want,” Ash suggested. “If you’re worried about leaving the kingdom, you don’t have to do this. Puck and I can probably track this thing down and put an end to it.”

Just the two of us, ice-boy?I bit down an evil grin.I think I would like that, though it wouldn’t go so well for you. What kind of bizarre accidents would happen to you while we’re tracking this thing down, I wonder?

But Meghan shook her head. “No, Keirran sent them to us for a reason. Besides, I want to see this thing for myself. I don’t like the idea of some creature rampaging through the Nevernever, turning my closest friends...um...” She hesitated.

“Horny?” I supplied, and grinned when Ash shot me a look. “Yeah, that’s not ever gonna get old. Don’t worry about me, princess. I’m fine, just gotta be careful on polished floors. What we do have to worry about is where this big bastard is. ’Cause I have no idea where it disappeared to when it crossed the River of Dreams. It could be anywhere by now, turning the local rabbits into vicious horned dinosaur bunnies.”

“Not to mention,” came Grimalkin’s slow, superior voice, “none of you have any idea of what this creature is. And as you saw in Phaed, if you do not know what it is, you will not know how to defeat it. Rushing headlong into a battle without any sort of preparation is doomed to failure.”

I crossed my arms. “You got a better idea, Furball?”

“Indeed.” Grimalkin raised a hind leg and gave it three excruciatingly slow licks before he deigned to answer. “There is one who might know the identity of this creature,” he said. “One whose visions, on occasion, have shown her the future, the past, and everything in between. She knows much about the Nevernever, more than she wishes to at times. She would be the one to help you decipher this new threat to Faery.”

“Another oracle?” Meghan frowned. Her confusion was understandable. The original oracle, an ancient faery who could see into the future, had recently been killed by the Forgotten in the last war. “I didn’t realize there was more than one.”

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