I didn’t have the courage to do it very hard—this was
Ethan
!—but it was enough to make him let go. I whirled around to face him, opening my mouth to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing. But Ethan had already recovered from my admittedly wimpy blow, and before I could get a word out, his fist was swinging toward my face.
A few weeks ago, I’d have been helpless in this situation, and even now shock made me a little slow. But Keane’s training kicked in again, and I managed to block the punch with my arm. It hurt like hell, but better to take a punch on the arm than in the face. Ethan took another swing while I was still reeling, but that blow never landed because Keane jumped in between us.
The air filled with the prickle of magic, and the boys swung at each other furiously.
“What is going on?” Kimber wailed, coming to my side and reaching out helplessly toward her brother and Keane.
I’d have answered her if I had a clue, but I could only stare in horror as my friends tried to pound the crap out of each other.
Ethan never had a chance. Not with Keane’s skill at hand-to-hand fighting. I was certain that some of the magic in the air was Ethan’s, but even
he
couldn’t get a spell off when someone was kneeling on his chest and pounding on his face.
“Keane! Stop it!” I cried, because Ethan was clearly already down and beaten.
Keane, of course, ignored me. I stepped forward, meaning to try to drag him off of Ethan, but Kimber grabbed my arm.
“Don’t,” she said, and I turned to her in shock. This was her brother who was being beaten senseless!
Kimber’s eyes were wide and frightened-looking, and she winced with every thud of fist hitting flesh. She spoke to me without looking away from the fight.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but as long as Ethan is conscious, he’s dangerous.” A tear leaked down her cheek, and her hand tightened on my arm, like it was taking everything she had not to interfere.
I knew she was right, no matter how much I hated it. Ethan was ridiculously good at magic, and I had no idea what the limitations of his power were. If he had suddenly gone crazy during the night, then he could probably kill us all with a single spell.
Eventually, Ethan went limp, and Keane stopped hitting him, though he remained sitting on his body, poised for action and panting with exertion. After the incident when Ethan had taken Keane’s shield spell down during our sparring session, I might have thought Keane would enjoy beating him unconscious, but he didn’t look like he was having fun.
“Get something to tie him up with,” Keane ordered, not taking his eyes off of Ethan. “I don’t know how long he’ll stay out.”
I didn’t know if he was talking to me or to Kimber, but since I was the only one who had anything other than the clothes I was wearing, I ran to my backpack and yanked the zipper open. My hands were shaking, and I was having a hard time catching my breath as I pawed blindly through my belongings.
I’d been locked in a nightmare about the Erlking when Ethan had attacked me. I didn’t think that was a coincidence. I had freed Ethan from the Wild Hunt, but because he wore the Erlking’s mark on his face, Ethan was still subject to his will. I’d been off-limits to the Erlking on this journey because of Titania’s guarantee of safe passage. I suspected that guarantee had been revoked and the Seelie Queen had just sicced the Wild Hunt on me.
I didn’t exactly have rope stuffed in my backpack, and my frantic searching didn’t find anything even vaguely ropelike. I flinched when I heard the sound of fist hitting flesh again.
“Hurry up!” Keane barked.
Kimber yanked a T-shirt I was pulling out of the backpack from my hands, and I turned to see her easily tear a shred off of it. Well, that solved that problem.
Still shaking and almost sick to my stomach, I watched as Kimber and Keane ripped apart my shirt, then bound Ethan hand and foot. Ethan’s face was badly bruised, and bloody from a split lip. I couldn’t help suspecting Keane had beat on him more than necessary to subdue him, but I bit my lip to keep myself from saying so. Starting another fight was not going to improve the situation.
When Ethan was thoroughly trussed, Kimber turned to me while Keane hovered over her brother with a watchful eye.
“What happened?” she asked, but from the look on her face I thought she’d already guessed.
“I was dreaming about the Erlking,” I said, “and when I woke up, Ethan was trying to drag me away into the woods.”
Keane cursed, and Kimber looked like she was on the verge of tears. I don’t even want to know what
I
looked like. The pain in my heart was almost too much to bear, even though I knew Ethan hadn’t been responsible for what he’d done. Gingerly, I rubbed the spot on my arm where I’d taken the punch. It throbbed steadily, and I was going to have a humongous bruise in the morning.
Ethan moaned softly, and we all went on red alert. Keane knelt beside him, ready to grab him if he went berserk despite being tied up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Kimber hugged herself and looked worried while I knelt at Ethan’s other side.
“Ethan?” I said. “Ethan, can you hear me?”
He dragged in a shaky-sounding breath, and his eyes fluttered open. He hissed and quickly closed his eyes again, his skin going a sickly shade of green.
“You puke on me and we’ll be going another round,” Keane growled, all heart as usual.
Ethan’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, his eyes still firmly closed, his voice tight with pain.
“Are you all right?” I asked, then wanted to slap myself for the question. No, he
wasn’t
all right. In more ways than one.
He shrugged as best he could with his hands tied. “Been better.” He cracked his eyes open again. His wince said it hurt.
“Are you
you
again?” Keane asked.
Ethan sucked in a deep breath. “Yeah. For the moment, at least. Whatever you do, don’t untie me.”
“Wasn’t planning to,” Keane said.
Ethan looked up at me, his expression stricken. “I’m so sorry, Dana. He ordered me to bring you to him, and I
couldn’t
disobey him. I tried to be noisy about it so Keane and Kimber would stop me, but that was the best I could do.”
“I know,” I assured him, laying my hand on his shoulder. I wished I could think of something to say that would make him feel better, but he’d been bitter about the hold the Erlking had on him
before
this.
“You’re still connected to the Erlking,” Keane said. “That means he can find you through the bond, right?”
I heard Kimber’s gasp of dismay, but I already knew just how much deep shit we were in. It wasn’t just Ethan that the Erlking could track anywhere in Faerie.
“You’re going to have to leave me behind,” Ethan said.
“No!” Kimber said. “Absolutely not!” She looked back and forth between Keane and me, waiting for our chorus of agreement, but we didn’t join in. For entirely different reasons, I suspect. I couldn’t help thinking that Keane would get some amount of satisfaction from abandoning Ethan, but maybe I wasn’t giving him enough credit.
“We have bigger problems than just Ethan if Titania’s set the Wild Hunt on me,” I said. “I bear the Erlking’s mark, too.”
Kimber gasped in surprise. Keane, of course, already knew about the mark, so it made sense that he didn’t look shocked. I expected more of a reaction from Ethan, but there was no sign he was surprised by my announcement.
“You knew!” I said to him with a hint of accusation in my voice.
“He told me,” Ethan responded, and I didn’t need to ask who “he” was.
“Seems like you have some explaining to do,” Keane prompted me. “What were you saying about the Erlking’s mark?”
I said a silent thank-you to Keane for not telling anyone he’d already known about the mark. I doubt either Kimber or Ethan would have taken it well if they’d found out.
Wishing I’d found the courage to fess up earlier, I gave Kimber the same abbreviated version of the story I’d given Keane.
Chapter Sixteen
Keane was still all for leaving Ethan behind, though I think he was saying that just to be irritating. Much as he disliked Ethan, he wasn’t truly spiteful at heart. We would have to keep Ethan tied up and under close watch, otherwise he might try to drag me off into the night again, but there was no way we were going to abandon him. Even if he
did
side with Keane for the first time in known history.
“The Erlking’s orders were vague enough that I could at least try to work around them this time,” Ethan argued. “But he’s not stupid. He’ll find a way to make me do what he wants.”
“You won’t be able to do much of anything all tied up like you are,” Kimber said, and Ethan gave her a condescending look.
“If he forces me to use magic, it won’t matter that I’m tied up.”
“So we’ll gag you, too,” she said, never one to give up easily. “You’re good, but even
you
can’t work magic without words or gestures.” She sounded really certain of herself, but she ruined the effect by tacking on “Right?” at the end.
I had already made up my mind that we weren’t leaving Ethan behind, so I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to the argument. I’d already been forced to leave my dad and Finn, and I was damned if I was going to do something like that again. Besides, as long as I had what amounted to a homing beacon set into my flesh, leaving Ethan behind wouldn’t do any good. The Erlking was a supernatural hunter, and he was no doubt even now hot on our trail. He had horses and was familiar with the terrain, and we were on foot and the next best thing to lost. Not to mention we had no food or water. He could be on us in a matter of hours.
“We need to destroy the mark,” I blurted, interrupting yet another argument I hadn’t been listening to.
My friends all turned to me with varying expressions of confusion and wariness.
“What do you mean, destroy the mark?” Kimber asked, staring at me intently.
“As long as I have this mark on my shoulder, the Erlking can find me. Let’s not kid ourselves: we’re not going to be able to outrun him or hide from him. So the only way we can stop him from catching me is to destroy the mark.”
“Destroy how?” Keane asked grimly.
My palms were sweaty, but I shivered as I tried not to think too much about what I was proposing. The Erlking’s mark was like a tattoo, and I was hoping that like a tattoo, it was only skin-deep. Trying not to look as scared as I felt, I turned to look at the remains of our fire, which had burned down to embers over the course of the night.
“No!” Ethan shouted, struggling against his bonds. “We are
not
doing that!”
Kimber’s face was almost green, her eyes wide with horror as she clapped her hand to her mouth. Only Keane looked like he was actually thinking about what I said, so I focused on him.
“If we don’t find a way to destroy the mark, then the Erlking will catch me and he’ll force me to join the Wild Hunt. As if that isn’t bad enough, he’ll make me take him out into the mortal world so he can hunt defenseless human beings. If it’s a choice between that and dealing with a few minutes of pain, I’ll take the pain.” My throat tightened with panic even as the words left my mouth, and I forced myself to take a deep breath.
“No!” Ethan insisted again. He was struggling against the bonds so much I was afraid he was going to hurt himself.
Keane sneered at him. “Are you worried about
her,
or about your own pretty face?”
I thought sure my heart was going to stop. I’d been so focused on my own mark that I’d allowed myself to forget about Ethan’s. There was no point in destroying mine if his was going to lead the Erlking right to us anyway.
“Think what you want, asshole,” Ethan growled at Keane. “I’m not just going to sit around and let you burn a hole in my girlfriend.”
“No? How are you going to stop me?”
Ethan opened his mouth for a response, and Kimber jumped on him, clapping her hand over his mouth as magic suddenly filled the air. Ethan glared at her, but she ignored him as she gave Keane a pointed look.
“Taunting Ethan probably isn’t the best idea,” she said, trying for a tone of grim humor and failing miserably. She was visibly shaking, and I wished I’d never dragged her into any of this, never allowed her to come to Faerie with me.
“My bad,” Keane said, holding up his hands and looking embarrassed.
Kimber waited until the last hint of magic faded before she took her hand away from Ethan’s mouth, and she was poised to slap it right back into place if necessary.
“I wasn’t going to hurt him,” Ethan said, but I wasn’t so sure he was telling the truth.
“Don’t try that again,” I said. “If you’d rather we leave you behind, we’ll do it.” The words came out low and raspy, but
he
wasn’t the one who was in danger from the Erlking. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get Kimber to go along with it, but it turned out I didn’t have to worry about it.
“I’m not worried about myself,” Ethan said. “If I’d thought about burning it off before, I’d have tried it already. But it’s not really a tattoo. I don’t know if burning it will destroy the magic.”
His brows drew together as if he were concentrating hard, and then he shook his head and looked me in the eye. “The Erlking says to tell you to spare yourself the pain. It won’t work.”
My stomach did a nervous flip-flop. I knew Ethan could really communicate with the Erlking—thanks to the damned mark. But I also knew that if burning the mark would destroy it, Arawn would hardly say so. And that Ethan could have made this message up as a way to stop me from hurting myself.
“We’ll just have to find out for ourselves,” I said firmly, “because there’s only one way to know for sure.”
Ethan started to protest again, but Kimber grabbed a leftover strip of my T-shirt and stuffed it in his mouth. The glare he aimed at her was positively terrifying, but she was unaffected.