“Wake up, lady.”
Someone shook her. Harley stifled a scream and automatically reached for her blade. She froze with her fingers wrapped around the hilt and blinked hard against the bright sun. Confused brown eyes focused on her. Awareness returned. The cabbie. She slid the dagger back into her boot.
“Hey, sorry to startle you, but we’re here.”
“Yes, yes, thank you.” She glanced out the window. The Callahan estate loomed before her, the place where her living hell had begun and the one she’d avoided for nine years.
She glanced away before the sight of the mansion sent her into a panic attack. In an effort to delay the inevitable, she adjusted the beanie she wore, shoving the strands of her hair that had slipped free back under the knit fabric. More spilled out. She cursed, yanked the cap off and dropped it in her lap. With trembling hands, she twisted the length of her hair and carefully stretched the hat over her piled tresses, hiding the platinum curls that always drew looks from men and women alike.
Unable to linger longer, she clutched her backpack, grabbed the bag of food she’d picked up in town and slipped out of the cab. Her gaze drifted to the butterfly garden. How many hours had she spent in the spot reading as a teenager or playing as a child without her blue-eyed ghost man appearing to her?
Couldn’t he have clued her in on her tainted heritage earlier? She could’ve run away and saved her family or committed suicide and saved herself. No. He’d waited until Hell had reigned in her backyard before confirming what her mom had told her all along—she was a monster.
And someday I’ll surround myself with sluaghs and redcaps, exactly like the ones who slaughtered my family.
Memories from the horrid night pushed at her. She shook her head to dislodge them.
Coming here was a mistake. She only had in an effort to find some sort of closure. She wanted to sit in front of her mom’s portrait and tell her she’d done her best to remain Seelie before she actually lost the battle for her soul and broke her promise.
But I don’t need to stay in the house to do that. I can say my piece, then leave. And my ghost man? Well, I’m here, so I’d say that settles the score.
Her thoughts eased the churning in her gut. She turned to tell the cabbie to wait for her, but the cab peeled away, kicking dust in her face, before she could get a word out. She choked on the gritty air and faced the vacant mansion that stood as a tribute to her fallen family members. Neither she nor Ian, who’d escaped death by being away at college, had been able to bring themselves to sell it.
“Guess I’m staying.”
She made her way to the entrance and slipped the key into the lock. The click resounded in her ears, and a screech accompanied her push of the heavy oak door. Dust and stale air whooshed around her. She blinked rapidly to clear her blurry vision and swept her gaze over the entryway. Empty. She let her nonhuman senses flare. Only the sounds of scurrying mice reached her ears. A sigh of relief escaped. She shuffled inside and headed toward the living room.
The chiming of the grandfather clock stopped her. Noon. The memories she’d hoped to keep buried rushed back with the clang, ding, clang of the pendulum.
A slideshow of monsters and death flashed through her mind. The screams of her family mixed with the roars and grunts of the sluaghs who’d killed them.
Harley tugged at her hair, dislodging her cap. “No, dammit, no!”
“You’re alive.”
She froze. The low, gravelly voice of her ghost man caressed her as tangibly as it had all those years ago. She dropped her hands. Hovering inches away were the eyes she’d seen in her dreams every night since.
“Oh God.” She scrambled back and tripped over her bag, landing on her ass.
“Be calm. You’re safe.”
Peace settled over her as if he’d taken her anxiety away with those words. Still, she inched away from his disembodied eyes. Caution had kept her alive in the face of a lifetime of evil. It didn’t matter if she’d felt as if she’d known him for ages. She’d learned years ago, nothing was as it seemed. Those with the ability to use glamour could create illusions out of thin air.
She settled on bent legs and studied the apparition for a clue as to whether he was a figment of her imagination or not. The oval surrounding the spectral display showed tan skin, ridiculously long lashes and dark eyebrows. Her pulse kicked up. Excitement, desire, fear—she wasn’t sure what caused it. She only knew she couldn’t look away.
“You.” She swallowed hard. She still couldn’t believe her eyes. Couldn’t deny the sight either. “It’s you.”
“Yes. It is.”
A long moment passed where they held each other’s gazes. So many times, she’d fantasized about what she would say or do if she ever reconnected with him. None of the scenarios fit the pregnant silence stretching between them. She let them slip through her fingers and asked the first question that came to her mind.
“What’s your name?” It had always bothered her not having one.
“I am Calan. Yours?”
Calan. She let his name settle over her heart. “Mine is Harley.”
“Harley.” Her name spoken in his deep voice sounded sexy, something she never thought her unusual name could be.
Finally, he released a shaky breath she felt skim over her cheek. She pressed her palm to the sensitive skin to hold the warmth close.
“You never returned to me, Harley.”
Raul’s words that night had confused and scared her. She hadn’t known what to believe. Or who.
“I ran just like you told me to.”
“I also told you to come back.”
She’d tried. Raul had followed her. Attacked her. She glanced at her hands that had once been covered in blood. Raul’s blood. She lowered her gaze and prayed Calan didn’t see the elation in her eyes the memory brought. It had felt good to hurt Raul. That had scared her most of all, and it was the reason she’d stayed away.
“Yes.” She turned her head, unable to look into his eyes. “You did.”
“Why didn’t you return to me? You promised.”
She glared at him. “And you promised to save me. Why didn’t you? You left me.”
She was being childish. She knew it but couldn’t help it. Watching bubbles form in Raul’s blood while he struggled to breathe had been one of the darkest yet most exciting moments of her life. Temptation had held her in its grip, and she’d fought it alone.
“I saved you the only way I could.” The featherlight stroke of his fingertips along her cheek wiped away the memory of her encounter with Raul, but not the shame she’d experienced. “Do you not remember the knowledge I shared with you?”
She remembered. Calan had forced information into her brain she hadn’t known what to do with. Within one heartbeat and the next, she’d learned everything she’d needed to know about how to avoid falling victim to the redcaps and sluaghs. He’d also implanted a compulsion to have an obsidian blade made that became her constant accessory. She never left the house without it. It was the only thing that could kill the fairies’ creatures.
She forced herself to nod. “Yeah. I remember.”
“I thank the gods for that, Harley. I was right about you. You are the one I’ve sought.”
“What do you mean?”
“You will be the one who will unlock me from my prison and allow the Wild Hunt to ride again.”
She stared at him for a moment, then licked her suddenly dry lips. “The Wild Hunt?”
The trembling in her voice betrayed her fear. She couldn’t help it. Over the past nine years, her thoughts had often drifted to the man who’d saved her. She kept coming up with the same question: why had he? It had never made sense, despite his explanation about breaking a promise and wanting to make it right by helping her. She was his enemy. Or she would be once she embraced her heritage and allowed the evil lurking inside her to take her over completely.
She’d been right all along to question his motives. He might’ve hunted the Unseelie Court, but he wasn’t a hero. Not by a long shot. He was evil too, even if he stood on the righteous side of Hell.
And this is the man I could never stop thinking about. She groaned. Or longing for.
That was the worst part of her fascination. She desired him. No. Even that didn’t come close to the fascination that plagued her. She craved him—a demented creature from Hell. She’d read enough stories of the Wild Hunt to be afraid of him. Except…it didn’t destroy the urge to wrap him around her and hold him close. It only made her feel guilty for it.
“Why are you afraid?”
She stared into the disembodied eyes that had haunted her dreams, and curled her fingers so she didn’t reach for him. “You’re kidding, right? An imaginary man tells me he wants me to release the Wild Hunt, and you ask why I’m afraid.”
“Trust me, I’m very real.” He chuckled.
The sound of his laugh skipped through her and left heat behind. Her lower belly quivered. She ignored the response. “You said that you’re real, just not here. Is this why? Because you’re a rider in the Wild Hunt?”
“Yes. I am the leader of the Hunt. Now explain to me your fear of it.”
“Are we talking about the same one? The spectral procession of hounds and horses riding across the night sky?”
“Yes, that’s the one.”
“Then the answer’s no way, Calan. I’m not releasing another hellish entity to torture the world. There’s enough here already.”
“That is because the Huntsmen are not in your world to stop the fairies’ creatures.”
She glared at him. “What are you talking about? The Wild Hunt is known as a group of horsemen who kill everyone in their path. Sure, you might’ve hunted the Unseelie Court, but how many unfortunate humans got caught up in your fury?”
He growled. “Lies. All lies. Not once in all the years we’d ridden have we ever caused the death of an innocent on purpose.”
She wanted to believe him. She really did, but his last two words killed any hope that her fascination with him had been justifiable.
“On purpose?” She shook her head. “And that’s supposed to convince me you’re not one of the bad guys too?”
“Before you judge me for what you think you know of the Wild Hunt, come to me. Then you’ll see for yourself that I’m not the evil one.”
She held his gaze and asked the one question she’d always posed to herself. It had helped her survive. “Aren’t we all evil?”
“Everyone holds the potential for corruption, but people like us must struggle to maintain our honor.”
Struggle was the right word. The monster stuck inside her beautiful body wanted out. A monster he has sworn to hunt. Kill. She waited for fear to grip her. It never came. If she gave in to the lure of her heritage, she’d want him to kill her.
But he also promised to save me. Could he? Heal her, maybe?
She blew out a slow breath. Nothing was black-and-white, and she was too tired to figure out where Calan landed on the spectrum.
“Easy to say. Hard to do.” She closed her eyes in an effort to dim her fascination with the leader of the Wild Hunt. It didn’t help. His woodsy scent wrapped around her, leaving her feeling safe, content and needy. She wanted him to hold her. Be her hero. “Is that the reason you saved me? So I could release you?”
A long moment passed before he curled his hand around the nape of her neck. Her skin tingled and warmth spread. He dropped his hand before the sensation could consume her. She met his captivating eyes—her temptation, the greatest of all.
“Walk toward the lake, and you will find me. Don’t be afraid. I promise you, you’re safe with me.”
With his assurance given, he faded. She stared at the spot where he’d been and sighed. He’d never answered her. She supposed that in itself was one.
She was a means to an end.