Page 71 of Lord of the Hollow Court
A rustling pulled his attention away; his head snapped to a sound from the nearest sitting room as the magic slipped from his hands.
“It’s you!” a voice chirped. A plum head appeared around the corner. “Milord, welcome home.”
“Thank you, Bibi.” Braam looked around with suspicious eyes. “What’s happening? Where is everyone?”
Bibi’s face blushed purple. She wrung her hands and fluttered her plum wings. “They’re hiding, milord.” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “Lady Esmee de Groot arrived not an hour ago. She’s already making plans for how she’ll redecorate.” Her eyes widened, as if pleading. “Is it true, your lordship? Is she really the new ruler of the Hollow Court?”
“Of course not,” Braam said, biting back his anger. “I willnotbend the knee to Fenna de Groot. This court is ours.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “You can come out, Rineke.”
The Captain of the Parapets Emergency Guard was nowhere to be seen.
Bibi cleared her throat, her high, sweet voice suddenly terribly loud. “Rineke! Quit snogging Hugo and get out here!”
Rineke emerged, nose crinkling in an expression that reminded Braam of Katty. Her clothing was rumpled, and a half-dazed expression altered her usually tough demeanor. “Bibi? When did you get back? Did you find—oh!” As Rineke’s eyes landed on her lord, her wings snapped to attention.
“Where is my wife?” Braam demanded of her.
Rineke and Bibi exchanged looks. “I was just about to go out for my shift,” Rineke said, “When Lady de Groot barged in. We’ve been trading off, Bibi and Hugo and I, trying to find her.”
A tendon stood in Braam’s neck. “Who, Rineke? Who is missing? Do you mean this court’s lady?”
She glanced at Bibi again, doubt flickering across her face. “Lady Braam left with the sorcerer from Samhain. He was going to help Misman—we would have gone, too, but she said we couldn’t be exposed to the Wasting.” She swallowed. “Milord, Misman fell ill earlier today.”
Misman. No.How could a child who’d trained with the Valkyrie be susceptible? Misman was a force all his own—how could he succumb to the Fae Wasting? This shouldn’t be. If his court’s magic wasn’t so depleted, this never would have happened.
But it had, all under Braam’s watch.
Braam growled with seething rage, at the Council of Lindendam, at the Elder Courts, at sorcerers who ought to leave his wife and his court the hell alone. He turned his fury-darkened eyes to the closed doors behind him, wondering if his hip would carry him any farther.
“Milord, if I may,” Rineke said, eyes darting toward the door just like his. “Bibi and I will keep searching for Lady Braam.”
“She’s in peril.” He twisted the silver ring above his ruby. “This ring was hot as an iron until just an hour ago.”
“You can trust us with this,” Rineke said. “We won’t fail her. But your lordship has bigger concerns at the moment.” She wrinkled her nose. “Esmee de Groot broughttile samples.”
The hair rose on the back of Braam’s neck. Esmee de Groot had no right to make plans forhiscourt—especially since he would die before letting it fall into de Groot hands.
“I’ll take care of it,” he said gruffly, even as his heart sank. With his hip in such a state, he was no match for Esmee de Groot. “Find my wife. And whatever you do, don’t let her near Lady de Groot.”
With a flutter of her green and black wings, Rineke dashed for the door.
Katty woke in a rose-tinted forest, her muscles feeling as though she had been mashed, boiled and jarred. When she lifted her head from the forest floor, leaves remained pressed into her forehead and cheek.
Spitting a beetle from her lips, Katty sat up and watched the rosy wood spin slowly, then right itself. The air was still uncomfortably thick, but it no longer bore down on her as it had.
Legs shaking, she stood with the help of a tree trunk, then brushed off her red dress and cloak. It did not have as remedying an effect as she had hoped, nor did plucking leaves from her hair. No matter how many she removed, a dozen more clung to her somewhere she could not reach.
Well. Katty supposed she could use a lesson on pride, and would just have to return to Hollow Hall as she was. Messy, damp and empty-handed. Her stomach knotted as she wondered at the importance of the artifact she’d just lost. Would Lord Braam be angry? She hoped he’d understand—that she was only a human, and the tricks of the fae were yet more of this language of magic she had not been taught.
It took several more minutes of picking her way through the forest and all the roots that wished to trip her before the air began to lighten. It was the only way she knew to navigate in the near perfect darkness; the further she went from the oppressive air, the better. When she finally stepped back into autumn, the moisture in her clothes turned clammy and her teeth began to chatter. Katty wrapped her cloak around herself, tilted her chin upward and walked on. At least the waning moon now broke through the boughs, offering her a less murky pathway she hoped led her towards home.
She walked as far as she could, found a fallen trunk to rest on, then resumed. Her stomach felt shriveled and empty, and she longed for running water. Every creek she’d come across so far was stagnant or tainted by oak leaves. Katty did not know much about the wilderness, but she knew enough not to touch it. The de Vries dog had been sickened once by an outdoor water dish with an oak leaf in it. The result was—messy. Having already lost the fae artifact and her lord husband, she did not fancy ending her first week as Lady of the Hollow Court with any further indignity.
As she settled into woe, she did not notice how her ring stayed warm on her cold hands. Soon it grew so blisteringly hot, she exclaimed loudly enough to disturb a flock of crows.
Katty examined her ring. Though she expected it to appear white hot, the delicate twist of silver retained its appearance. She stared at it for a full second longer, then realized what it meant.
