A slow smile spread over his lips. He could hurt them even if he couldn't resist them.
He let the pixies stroke him, arching up and biting at the exposed neck of the elfin boy, inhaling their strange mineral-and-earth scents, letting lust overtake him.
"Neil!" Luis shouted, pulling Corny up by the back of his shirt. Corny stumbled, reaching out to right his balance, and Luis pulled back before Corny's hand could catch him. Corny grabbed Luis's shirt instead, the fabric singeing. Corny stumbled and fell.
"Snap out of it," Luis ordered. He was breathing fast, maybe with fear. "Stand up.”
Corny pushed himself onto his knees. Desire made speaking difficult. Even the movement of his own lips was disturbingly like pleasure.
A faery rested long fingers on Corny's calf. The touch felt like a caress and he sagged toward it.
Warm lips were next to his. "Get up, Neil." Luis spoke softly against Corny's mouth, as if daring Corny to obey. "Time to get up.”
Luis kissed him. Luis, who could do everything that he couldn't, who was smart and sarcastic and the last boy in the world likely to want an awkward geek like Corny. It was dizzying to open his mouth against Luis's. Their tongues slid together for a devastating moment, then Luis pulled back.
"Give me your hands," he said, and Corny obediently held out his wrists. Luis bound them with a shoelace.
"What are you—" Corny tried to make some sense of what was happening, but he was still reeling.
"Thread your fingers together," Luis said in his competent, calm voice and pressed his mouth to Corny's again.
Of course. Luis was trying to save him. Like he saved the man with the mouth full of pennies or Lala with the snaking vines. He knew about cures and poultices and the medicinal value of kisses. He knew how to distract Corny long enough to bind his hands, how to use himself as bait to lure Corny away from danger. He saw right through to Corny's carefully hidden desire, and—worse than using it against him—Luis had used it to rescue him. Exhilaration turned to acid in Corny's stomach.
He stumbled back and staggered toward the curtain of branches. They scraped his face as he passed through.
Luis followed. "I'm sorry," he called after Corny. "I'm—I didn't—I thought—”
"I'm? I didn't? I thought?" Corny shouted at him. His face was suddenly too hot. Then his stomach clenched. He barely had time to turn before retching up chunks of old mushrooms.
Predictably, Luis had been right about the cakes.
An owl's yellow eyes caught the moonlight, making Kaye jump. She'd given up on calling Corny's name and was now just trying to find her way back to the revel. Each time she turned toward the music, it seemed to be coming from another direction.
"Lost?" said a voice, and she jumped. It was a man with greenish-gold hair and white moth wings that folded across his bare back.
"Kind of," Kaye said. "I don't suppose you could point me the way?”
He nodded and pointed one finger to the left and the other to the right.
"Hilarious." Kaye folded her arms across her chest.
"Both ways would bring you to the revel eventually. One would just take quite a bit longer." He smiled. "Tell me your name and I'll tell you which is better.”
"Okay" she said. "Kaye.”
"That's not your real name." His smile was teasing. "I bet you don't even know it.”
"It's probably safer that way." She looked into a dense copse of trees. Nothing seemed familiar.
"But someone must know it, mustn't they? Someone who gave it to you?”
"Maybe no one gave me a name. Maybe I'm supposed to name myself.”
"They say that nameless things change constantly—that names fix them in place like pins. But without a name, a thing isn't quite real either. Maybe you're not a real thing.”
"I'm real," Kaye said.
"You know a name that isn't yours, though, don't you? A true name. A silver pin that could stick a King in place.”
His tone was light, but the muscles in Kaye's shoulders tensed. "I told Silarial that I wouldn't use it. I won't.”
"Really?" He cocked his head to the side, looking oddly like a bird. "And you wouldn't trade it for another life? A mortal mother? A feckless friend?”
"Are you threatening me? Is Silarial threatening me?" She stepped back from him.
"Not yet," he said with a laugh.
"I'll find my own way back," she mumbled, and headed off, not sure where she was going and not caring.
The trees were heavy with impossible summer leaves, and the earth was warm and fragrant, but the woods were as still as stone. Even the wind seemed dead. Kaye walked on, faster and faster, until she came to a stream pitted with rocks. A squat figure crouched near the water, the brambles and branches of her hair making her look like a barren bush.
"You!" Kaye gasped. "What are you doing here?”
"I am sure," the Thistle witch said, her black eyes shining, "you have better questions for me than that.”
"I don't want any more riddles," Kaye said, and her voice broke. She sat down on the wet bank, not caring about the water soaking her skirt. "Or eggshells or quests.”
The Thistlewitch reached out a long, lanky arm to pat Kaye with fingers that felt as rough as wood. "Poor little pixie. Come and rest your head on my shoulder.”
"I don't even know what side you're on." Kaye groaned, but she scooted over and leaned against the faery's familiar bulk. "I'm not sure how many sides there are. I mean, is this like a piece of paper with two sides or like one of those weird dice that Corny has with twenty sides? And if there are really twenty sides, then is anyone on my side?”
"Clever girl," the Thistlewitch said approvingly.
"Come on, that made no sense. Isn't there anything you can tell me? About anything?”
"You already know what you need and you need what you know.”
"But that's a riddle!" Kaye protested.
"Sometimes the riddle is the answer," the Thistlewitch replied, but she patted Kaye's shoulder all the same.
Chapter 9
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light;
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.
—Christina Rossetti, "In an Artist's Studio"
In the darkness of early dawn, Corny woke to distant bells and the thunderous pounding of hooves. He rolled over, disoriented, sore, and filled with sudden panic. Somehow he'd gotten his leather jacket back on, but the edges of the sleeves looked tattered. His wrists ached and when he inadvertently pulled against the shoelace that tied them, it made them hurt more. His mouth tasted sour.
Realizing he was still in the Seelie Court explained the dread and the discomfort. But when he saw Luis, wrapped in Kaye's purple coat, cheek pillowed against the burl of a nearby blackthorn tree, he remembered the rest. He remembered what an idiot he'd been.
And the agonizing softness of Luis's lips.
And the way Luis had brushed Corny's hair off his face while he puked in the grass.
And the way that Luis had only been being kind.
Shame made his face hot and his eyes burn. His throat closed up at the thought of actually having to talk about it. He rolled onto his knees and stood awkwardly, physical distance the only thing that calmed him. Maybe Kaye was in the direction of the noise. If he could find her, Luis might not say anything about what had happened. He might act like it had never happened. Corny threaded his way alone through the trees, until he spotted the procession.
Silver-shod faerie horses raced past, their manes streaming and eyes glittering, the faces of the faeries on their backs covered by helms. The first rider was arrayed in dark red armor that seemed to flake like old paint, the next in white as leathery as a snake's egg. Then a black steed galloped toward Corny, only to rear up, front hooves dancing in the air. This rider's armor was as black and shining as crow feathers.
Corny stepped away. The rough bark of a tree trunk scraped his back.
The black-clad rider drew a curved blade that glittered like rippling water.
Corny stumbled, terror making him stupid. The horse trotted closer, its breath hot on Corny's face. He threw up his tied hands in warding.
The sword cut through the shoelace binding his wrists. Corny cried out, falling in the dirt.
The rider sheathed the sword and pulled off a ridged helm.
"Cornelius Stone," Roiben said.
Corny laughed in hysterical relief. "Roiben! What are you doing here?”
"I came to bargain with Silarial," Roiben said. "I saw Sorrowsap on the other side of the lake. Who bound your hands? Where's Kaye?”
"This is, um, for my own good," Corny said, holding up his wrists.
Roiben frowned, leaning forward in the saddle. "Favor me with the story.”
Reaching up, Corny touched one of his fingers to a low green leaf. It curled, turning gray. "Pretty nasty curse, huh? Tying me up with the shoelace was supposed to keep me from touching anyone by accident. At least I think that was what it was for—I don't remember everything about last night.”
Roiben shook his head, unsmiling. "Leave this place. As quickly as you can. Sorrowsap will get you safely out of the Bright Court lands. Nothing is as it seems now, apparently, not even you. Kaye— she ought—" He paused. "Tell me she's well.”
Corny wanted to tell Roiben that he could shove his bullshit pretense of caring up his ass, but he was still a little shaken by the sword so recently swung at his head. "What do you care?" he asked instead.
"I care." Roiben closed his eyes, as though willing himself calm. "Whatever you think of me, get her out of here." He leaned back in the saddle and twitched the reins. The horse stepped back.
"Wait," Corny said. "There's something I've been wanting to ask you: What's it like being a King? What's it like finally being so powerful that no one can control you?" It was sort of a taunt, sure, but Corny really wanted the answer.
Roiben laughed hollowly. "I'm sure I wouldn't know.”
"Fine. Don't tell me.”
Roiben tilted his head, his pale eyes suddenly grave. Corny was disconcerted to have the faerie Lord's full attention fixed on his face. "The more powerful you become, the more others will find ways to master you. They'll do it through those you love and through those you hate; they will find the bit and the bridle that fits your mouth and makes you yield.”
"So there's no way to be safe?”
"Be invisible, perhaps. Be worthless.”
Corny shook his head. "Doesn't work.”
"Make them yield first," Roiben said, and the half smile on his lips wasn't quite enough to render the suggestion frivolous. "Or be dead. No one can yet master the dead." He replaced his helm. "Now get Kaye and go.”
With a flick of the reins Roiben wheeled the horse around and rode down the path, dust clouding behind the shining hooves.
Corny threaded his way back through the woods, only to find Adair leaning against a tree.
"You're an ill fit among such beauty," said the faery, pushing back butter blond hair. "It's a mistake you humans often make—being so ugly.”
Corny thought of Roiben's words. Make them yield first.
"This was a pretty cool gift," he said, letting his hand trail across the bark of a nearby oak, blackening the trunk. "The curse. I should thank you.”
Adair stepped back.
"You must have been really pissed off. The curse even withers fey flesh." Corny smiled. "Now I just have to decide what's the best way to express my gratitude. Whatever do you think Miss Manners would advise?"
• • •
Kaye tried to keep her face expressionless as Roiben ducked under the canopy of branches that formed Silarial's chamber. His silver hair poured over his shoulders like mercury but it was sweat-darkened at his neck.
Longing twisted in her gut along with a terrible, giddy anticipation she couldn't seem to quash. The human glamour Silarial had covered her with felt tight and heavy. She wanted to call out to him, to touch his sleeve. It was easy to imagine that there had been some misunderstanding, that if she could just speak to him for a moment, everything would be like it had been before. Of course, she was supposed to stand near the trunk of the massive willow and keep her eyes on the floor the way the human attendants did.
The glamour had seemed clever at first, when Silarial had suggested it. Roiben wasn't allowed to see her—according to the rules of the declaration— and if she was glamoured, she would remain unseen. Kaye was just supposed to wait until he and Silarial were done talking, and then she was supposed to try to convince him to go along with Silarial's plan. If she agreed with it, of course. Which she was pretty sure she wouldn't, but at least she would get the smug satisfaction of pissing him off.
It had sounded like a better scenario than it felt now as she stood there, watching him through her lashes as if they were strangers.
Silarial looked up lazily from her cushions. "Ethine tells me that you will not agree to my conditions.”
"I do not think you expected me to, m—" He stopped suddenly, and Silarial laughed.
"You nearly called me 'my Lady,' didn't you? That's a habit in need of breaking.”
He looked down and his mouth twisted. "Indeed. You have caught me being foolish.”