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Part I
Revisiting the Original Hypothesis
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Chapter 1
In Which I Am Attacked by Flying Monkeys
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The only thing the stories seemed to agree on was that the fae were capricious beings who delighted in disrupting human lives, awarding their magical favors according to a system of ethics known only tothem.
~Big Book of Fairyland, “Flora andFauna”
The flying monkeysattacked just before sunset.
Swear to God, that’s exactly what they looked like. I even looked for a smoke trail warning “Surrender Dorothy!”
“I have no idea what that means.” Rogue, as usual, had read my thoughts as clearly as if I’d shouted them. “But now would be an excellent time for you to focus and possibly assist.”
I struggled to clear my fatigued brain and sit straighter on his lap—not easy on horseback, with our steed Felicity breaking into a panicked run over the glassy black rocks as the sky overhead darkened with throngs of winged primates.
“I thought you said we’d have some time before the Queen Bitch would be strong enough to come after us.” I gasped as the mare whipped around a narrow curve.
Fortunately Rogue needed no reins, guiding her with the grip of his muscular thighs and likely his mind, leaving his hands free to hold me tight against him. As a fae noble, Rogue possessed many skills, and apparently superb horsemanship ranked high among them.
“What makes you think it’s her?” He sounded arrogant—something that once would have grated on me—but I felt his anxiety beneath. Rogue had suffered far more at Queen Titania’s hands than I. We hadn’t discussed yet what had happened to him as her puppet and slave, largely because he’d been letting me sleep off the exhaustion from battling her.
Also, Rogue was far from the type to confide. He might never tell me.
His gorgeous face was tense, creased with the torment of his captivity, the winding black lines that covered the left side of his face and body stark against his skin. Apparently even immortals could look the worse for wear.
I wasn’t in much better shape, perilously drained of my magic reserves, my hands a crippled mess—and unfortunately pregnant, just to top it all off.
Neither of us was fit to fight. Nor could we afford to be recaptured by Titania.
We barreled into a narrower canyon that forced Felicity to slow her headlong rush and fortunately limited the angles the monkeys could come at us.
“Whether or not this is Titania’s doing,” Rogue said, “these creatures are more like guard dogs. It wouldn’t require much of someone to send them. However, it may require much for us to deal with them.”
“What do you want me to do?” I asked.
“How much power do you have?”
I wished I knew how to answer that. Rogue had been teaching me more about my abilities to work magic and how to draw energy from outside myself, but we hadn’t gotten far before Titania snatched him. It was a bad sign that he, the ever-and-all-powerful—far more magical than I, though I hated to admit it—had to ask me for help.
“Some. I don’t suppose you have my crystal staff tied to the saddle?”
Rogue looked grimly amused. Then ducked when a flying monkey, clawed fingers outstretched, dive-bombed his head. Monkeys shouldn’t have curved talons, but pretty much anything goes in Faerie. A burst of magic from Rogue, his signature feral black and blue, whooshed past me, and the monster chimp dissolved in a puff of sparks.
“Your girl, Athena, took it. She seemed to think you couldn’t be trusted with it.”
And Athena had ridden ahead with the others, since Rogue had been burdened with unconscious me. Annoying of her as the thing would augment my abilities, even if it was dangerously addictive. Compared to my current alternate fate, that sounded like giving up caffeine when starving to death.
“You can’t nuke them all, like with that one?”
“No. Not enough power for so many.” He hated admitting it too. Quite the pair we were.
