Page 6 of The Iron Raven

“Gremlins are flighty and easily distracted at the best of times,” I pointed out. “You sure they didn’t just see a chicken or a rock and forget what they were doing?”

Keirran frowned. “I’ve always been able to get the gremlins to listen to me, even before I became the Forgotten King,” he replied. “There’s no shortage of them in the mortal world, and they’ve always obeyed me before. At least one of them should have made it.”

“What about Furball?”

“I sent out a request for Grimalkin, but he hasn’t answered.” Keirran shook his head with another frown. “Of course, Grimalkin will come only if he feels like it, and he’s decided not to show. I’m running out of options. Since I can’t go into the Nevernever myself, I figured I would come here to try to get a message to the Iron Court.”

I narrowed my eyes. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Keirran. I believed he was trying his best to do right, to make up for his past. But he ruled a creepy land shrouded in mist and darkness, with faeries that sucked the glamour out of other fey because they had none of their own. That would put a strain on even the most levelheaded faery, and with his amount of power, a stressed-out Keirran was no good for anyone.

“Is there something going on we should know about, princeling?” I asked. “Are you in trouble again?”

“No.I’mnot in any trouble, but...” Keirran hesitated, a slight furrow creasing his brow. “Something strange is happening in the Between,” he admitted. “There have been...incidents, with the Forgotten. Violent incidents, which is not like them at all. And the Between itself is... It doesn’t feel right, if that makes any sense.” He sighed, sounding frustrated and, for a moment, looking years younger. “I don’t know what’s going on, and that worries me,” he muttered. “I was hoping Mom or someone from the Iron Court would be able to help. I certainly can’t bring my concerns to Summer or Winter.”

“Yeah, that would probably be a bad idea.”

While the rulers of the Seelie and Unseelie courts didn’t exactly hate Keirran—well, except Titania, but she hated everyone—they were old-fashioned and stuck in their ways, and if a problem didn’t affect their own territories, they were content to do nothing about it. And if itdidaffect their own territories, their answer was usually to eradicate the problem, swiftly and with lots of pointy, stabby things, before it could become a threat. Though Keirran was very begrudgingly accepted as a ruler of a court, the fey tended to fear and despise anything new. Both the Forgotten and Meghan’s own subjects, the Iron fey, had struggled with that.

The Forgotten King scrubbed a hand over his hair in an eerily familiar way. He was so much like a mini Ash it almost hurt. “I don’t know if I’m being paranoid,” he said. “It’s my realm, I should be able to take care of this myself. I don’t want to bother the monarchs of the other courts if it’s not important. But...” His eyes narrowed. “I guess you should know the real reason I came. The Forgotten aren’t acting normal, and...there is thisthingout there, stalking them through the Between.”

“A ‘thing’?” I blinked. “Uh, can you be a little more specific, princeling? What type of thing? Are we talking haunted toothbrush, evil mushroom person, carnivorous house? Maybe a sadistic potted plant? Tell me if I’m getting close.”

“I don’t know.” Keirran’s eyes went unfocused. “It was like a living shadow, almost insubstantial, but the way it moved was just wrong. Maybe it’s a new type of Forgotten, but it was like nothing I’d seen before. And it emanated...pure loathing.” He shuddered, looking grim. “I couldfeelthis thing’s hatred. As if it despised everything and wanted all of us dead. Not just me and the Forgotten—everyone. All living creatures, in the Between, the Nevernever, and the mortal world.”

“Well, that isn’t very nice. It doesn’t even know me.”

Keirran shook his head. “I encountered it once before, after I returned from Ethan and Kenzie’s wedding,” he went on, naming the Iron Queen’s recently married brother and his princess. “I thought I killed it, but either it’s back, or there’s more than one.” He hesitated, then continued in a grim voice, “I think it’s the reason the Forgotten have been acting strangely. This thing, whatever it is,radiatesloathing. And the Forgotten have no glamour of their own, so...”

“They suck it up like a sponge.” I whistled softly. That did sound serious. Definitely something that needed checking out. “Well, I’m no monarch of Mag Tuiredh,” I went on, “but Ihavebeen lots of places, all over the world, really. And I’ve seena lotof weird stuff, both in Faery and the mortal realm. So, here’s a solution—why don’t I go back with you to the Between? We’ll just have a quick lookie-loo, see if we can’t find this ‘I hate everyone and their dog’ thing, and determine if it’s something Meghan and the courts need to worry about. But I doubt it. I mean, you’re the Forgotten King, and I’m the one and only Robin Goodfellow. Between the two of us, we should be able to handle anything.”

There was a tiny prickle of warning in the back of my mind. How many times had I said those exact words to Ash, back when the two of us thought we could take on the entire Nevernever? How many times had we ended up in way over our heads, facing dragons and monster swarms and ancient, powerful guardians trying to crush us as we struggled to survive and escape? More times than I could count. Now I was saying it to Ash’s son, who had already turned the Nevernever upside down with his antics. Who was very much like his father, but without the centuries of fighting skills and lived experience to back him up. I wondered if it was destiny or a very bad omen that we’d both come here tonight.

Ah, it’ll be fine. This is Meghan and Ash’s kid, after all. What’s the worst that could happen?

The Forgotten King considered it. “Maybe that’s for the best,” he mused. “If the two of us can keep this contained, it would be better not to involve the rest of the courts. And if it is something we can’t handle, at least you can go back to warn everyone. All right.” He nodded decisively. “It’s settled, then. Puck, if you would accompany me back to the Between, I would appreciate it.”

“No problem, princeling.” I grinned, rubbing my hands together. “It’s been a while since I’ve been on a decent adventure. A trek into the Between sounds fun.”

Keirran lifted his chin, looking like he was going to comment on that. But before he could say anything, a scream echoed beyond the Ferris wheel, and angry voices rose into the night.

2

NYX

Keirran and I exchanged a glance. In the shadows of the Ferris wheel, the Forgotten King’s expression was impassive.

“Uh, you didn’t come here with a mob of angry trolls on your heels, did you, princeling?” I asked.

The shadow of a smirk crossed his face. “I was about to ask you the same,” he said dryly. “Apparently, there are rumors that a few thousand wild geesesomehowappearing in Queen Titania’s throne room this summer was not entirely a fluke of nature.”

“Touché.” I grinned back at him. “Not that I would confess to anything about that incident, but man, geese areloud. You could hear them honking for miles. Well, then.” I dusted imaginary dirt from my hands and turned toward the direction of the shouting. “I guess we should go see what’s up.”

Together, we walked across the fairgrounds toward the distant hubbub. As we drew closer, the voices got louder and angrier, though any actual words were blown away on the breeze. Whoever they were, I hoped it wasn’t an angry mob looking for Keirran, or me. Hard as it was to believe, there were creatures out there who didn’t like me that much. Titania herself sicced her hounds on me at least once a year. You couldn’t be the World’s Greatest Prankster and not have people wanting to kill you all the time.

We were nearly to the carousel, tents and booths lining the walkway again, when the tenor of the voices changed. A bloodthirsty howl rose into the night, indicating something had gotten tired of words and switched to violence. More voices echoed the call for blood as rushing footsteps and snarls of rage indicated the fight had finally broken out.

Keirran and I sprinted the final paces around the carousel and found the ruckus.

A crowd of a couple dozen fey, eyes hard and lips curled in shouts or snarls, clustered in a loose half circle around a wagon. Most of them were Unseelie: redcaps, goblins, and a few Winter sidhe that held themselves apart from the “lesser” fey. But I saw a handful of Seelie scattered throughout the throng as well. Marla, the gnome, stood at the edge of the mob, her wrinkled face pulled into an ugly scowl as she shook a fist at what was happening in the center of the circle.

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