A Debt Owed

Chapter One

Chapter One

Melody Atwood stubbed her toe on the kitchen bench, reaching for the tap to fill the glass she’d taken from the draining rack. There was no way she was going to turn the light on. It’d only wake her up and it had been hard enough to fall asleep in this heat, without making it any more difficult to return to sleep. It had been the worst time of all for the air conditioner to die. Brisbane in January without an air con wasn’t fun. At least tomorrow she’d be going to her dad’s place for the week. Hopefully the air con would be fixed before she came back to her mum’s in time to start year twelve. It didn’t seem possible that this was her last year of high school.

Finished her drink, she sat the glass beside the sink and lifted her damp hair from the back of her neck, yawning. The house hadn’t been designed to survive summers without air-conditioning. With another yawn, she let go of her hair and headed towards the hallway.

Reaching it, Melody squinted her eyes against the soft glow of the nightlight that had been in the hallway for as long as she could remember. She wiped her damp hands against the oversized cotton t-shirt she wore to bed, reaching for the wall again as she stumbled in her half awake state. A couple more steps and she reached her bedroom. She froze, all traces of sleep vanishing.

A backwards step made her feel no better. Her heart raced, her eyes wide as she stared at the huntsman spider on her floor. Its eight hairy legs appeared ten times their actual size and she opened her mouth to call for her mum. Only a squeak escaped. She backed up more, hitting the hallway wall behind her. Inching along the hallway, the wall against her back, Melody was unable to take her gaze from the spider. It was nearly as big as a side plate.

She sent a glance towards the closed door of her mum’s study at the end of the hall, light shining under the gap. Her gaze was drawn back to the spider who still hadn’t moved. Did she have time to get her mum and return before the spider scuttled away? She’d never sleep if it disappeared somewhere in her room. But she couldn’t spend the entire night pressed up against the wall in the hallway. Her dad wouldn’t be impressed if she wasn’t ready when he arrived to pick her up at eight.

She blinked, hating the need that forced her to take her gaze off the creature for even a second. How was she going to cross the entire hallway to her mum’s study if she couldn’t even stand to take her gaze off the spider long enough to blink?

It was the city for crying out loud. The middle of Brisbane. You’d think spiders would be smaller here. Huntsman spiders belonged in the country. Not in the middle of the city.

Melody sighed. Who was she kidding? She’d still be frozen against the wall even if it was a daddy long legs spider. The huntsman chose that moment to scuttle towards her and, with a shriek, Melody dashed along the hall. She flung open the study door and slammed it shut behind her. Breathing hard, she tried to find the power of speech. She gestured to the closed door as her mum turned in her office chair to face her, the glow of the computer screen and a desk lamp the only light in the dimly lit room.

“Mum, there’s a-” Speech deserted her again when her gaze was drawn by movement from across the room.

A man rose to his feet from the armchair that was pushed between two towering and cluttered bookcases. He was several inches over six foot and almost painfully thin, his body all wiry muscle. He stalked towards Melody, his gaze raking over her, a vivid blue in his extremely pale skin, his long hair fair enough to be almost white. A slim hand reached out and tilted her head back with a gentle pressure on her chin. He smiled. “Where have you been keeping this delightful creature?”

The expression on his face caused Melody to take a hasty step backwards. The timber door prevented further retreat. If it wasn’t for the spider, she would have opened the door and left her mum to her unsettling visitor. He seemed strangely dressed, almost old fashioned with his tall leather boots, fitted trousers, brocade vest and a leather pouch on his belt.

The man twined a lock of her long hair around his fingers. “Lovely. Not as fair as your mother’s hair, but this golden colour has a beauty all of its own.” When Melody dragged the strands from him he smiled, capturing her chin between his fingers. “Not as fine a face as those of our race, but your eyes remind me of a forest. A blend of shadowy greens. You’d make a lovely addition to the court.”

Again Melody pulled from his grip. Who did he think he was?

Sherry rose to her feet, walking towards her daughter. “Excuse me a moment and then we can return to our business.” She reached for the door handle.

“I believe we have other business to deal with now.”

Melody wished the man would stop looking at her. It was making her extremely uncomfortable. Like she was some sort of exhibition in a freak show.

Sherry let her arm fall back to her side as she slowly turned to face the man. “What business?”

“A debt owed.”

Sherry shook her head. “You can’t be serious. I was too young to understand exactly what I was agreeing to. And grieving. My mother had just died.”

Melody struggled to figure out what was going on. Her mum had known this man twenty years ago? Her grandmother had died three years before she’d been born. Why had she never met him? He would have been a toddler twenty years ago. Or a young child. What sort of deal would her mum have made with a kid?

“You’re obligated to give me what I ask for.”

Sherry continued to shake her head. “No, Elon. Please. Don’t do this to me. Ask for something else.”

Elon laughed. “You said anything. Haven’t I kept my end of the bargain? Aren’t you famous? Don’t your tales of the Fae sell to millions? Didn’t I help prevent you from being a one hit wonder?”

“Please. You can’t have her.”

“Mum?” Melody looked uncertainly between the two, wondering if it wouldn’t be better to face the huntsman after all. “What’s going on?” Surely Elon couldn’t have had anything to do with her mum’s books. At the most he was in his mid twenties.

Sherry continued to stare at Elon. “Go to your room, Melody.”

Elon shook his head. “Do you really want to do that? I can destroy what I’ve given you and still end up with her. Don’t fight me on this and no harm will come to her from me.”

“Mum?” This time the word was a whisper. Surely her mum wouldn’t make her go with Elon. This was crazy.

“Will you protect her from all others?”

Melody stared at the back of her mum. Had she heard right? She stepped to the side so she could see her mum’s expression. It didn’t help. She had no idea what her mum was thinking.

“You have nothing else to bargain with.”

“I’ll give you anything. Whatever you want, it’s yours.”

Elon chuckled. “Didn’t we have this exact conversation twenty years ago? Although you sound more desperate now than you did back then. The toast of the literary world, at nineteen, with your bestseller. Yet not even the glimmer of a story three years later when I met you. You made your bargain back then, now you must abide by it.”

Melody didn’t want to hear another word. She reached for the door handle and tried to open it enough to slip through. Her mum was in the way. Even when she pressed the door against her mum’s back, she didn’t move.

“Don’t even think about it.”

The tone in Elon’s voice had Melody looking over her shoulder at him. A shiver went through her at his piercing gaze. She wanted to argue with him, but fear had her remaining silent. Her mum couldn’t let her go with Elon. Her mum hadn’t let her attend a party this week because there hadn’t been adult supervision. She’d turned seventeen at the start of last month and didn’t need a babysitter. Especially not at a party.

Sherry put an arm around Melody and drew her close. “She’s not a piece of property to give away at will.”

“She’s a child and as such belongs to you according to our laws. Don’t fight me on this, Sherry. You won’t like what happens.”

“Do you think I’ll like this any better?” Sherry’s arm tightened around Melody.

At any other time, Melody would have pulled away. At five foot six she was as tall as her mum, but right this moment she wished she was short enough to hide behind her.

“Let go of the child and give her to me. You’re starting to bore me and I did tell you if that was to ever happen there’d be no more stories. Including not finishing the one we’ve been working on tonight.”

“Give me the terms. There must be some way she can end this bargain. In less than a year she’ll be considered an adult. Does that mean she can leave once she turns eighteen?”

Elon laughed. “Do you honestly believe she could last nearly an entire year in my world without becoming indebted to someone else? She is human.”

The way he spoke the word human had Melody wanting to ask him that if he thought so little of humans, why would he want her to go with him? None of this made sense. For the smallest moment she wondered if she was having a nightmare, but her dreams were never this real. And her nightmares never contained spiders the size of the one that had been in her room. They were always as large as her.

“If she makes it to her eighteenth birthday, when I celebrate it in this world, she’s free of all obligations to you,” Sherry said.

“This could be entertaining.” Elon nodded thoughtfully. “I won’t return her though. She’ll have to find her own way back. Nor will I offer her any advice or protect her from others.”

“But you won’t harm her.”

“I’ve already agreed to that. Do we have a bargain?”

“Yes. Give me half an hour to pack her things and say goodbye.”

The scent of old rainforests filled the room, going as quickly as it came. “You can have half that time.” Elon looked from one to the other. “Do not keep me waiting.” He strode back to the armchair and dropped in it.

Melody stared at him. Her mum was going to make her leave with a stranger? Before she could protest, Sherry was drawing her from the room, closing the door behind them.

“We don’t have much time,” Sherry whispered.

Melody started to argue, stopping when she saw the spider in the hallway across from her door. She pointed towards it. “Mum, I can’t-”

Sherry clamped a hand over her mouth. “Don’t say it. Whatever you do, never let them know.” She dragged Melody towards her room, pushing her through the doorway.

Melody stumbled as she tried to keep an eye on the spider and at the same time pull away from her mum. “What’s going on?”

“They’re all true. Every single book I’ve ever written, other than the first.”

“But they’re stories. About made up people.” Melody eyed her mum. “Are you okay? Should I ring someone for you?”

“We don’t have much time. You have to go with Elon. We don’t have a choice. He’d take you anyway, but this way you have a chance of eventually returning home.” As she spoke, Sherry grabbed a medium sized cloth backpack and started shoving clothes in it. “You have to remember everything I’ve ever written about the Fae. Your life could depend on it.”

“I’m not going with him.” There was no way her mum could make her. Besides, she could always move in with her dad.

Sherry shoved the backpack at Melody. She slipped off the gold charm bracelet she wore and held it out. “They love gold so each one of these charms will be valuable to them. Don’t put yourself in anyone’s debt. Go on, take it.”