Marked By The Hunt

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Quinn opened her eyes, wishing for daylight so she could see Gideon better. “Why is this happening?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why am I here? How is any of this possible?”

“Your sister made a bargain with the Fae. A Demi Fae to be precise.”

“How do you know?”

“I heard them arguing before you arrived. I was hiding amongst the trees near the water’s edge. From what I can figure out, she was taking your dog for a walk and he was sick. She was talking to him, wishing she could understand him so she could figure out what was wrong. Your sister was worried about what you’d say when you came home and found him sick. Kaeder noticed her and offered to tell her what your dog had to say if she agreed to owe him a favour in exchange.”

“Kaeder?”

“The owner of Masquerade Nightclub. He collects humans for his staff. So he’s often in our world adding to his collection.”

“Well he’s not about to collect my sister.”

“What are you going to do? Offer yourself in exchange?”

She shook her head, not liking that option either. “There must be something.”

“He traps people into owing him favours so he has humans to work in his nightclub. He’s not going to want to exchange the favour for anything less than he already has.”

She’d figure it out when she got there. “Can we leave now? I want to find my sister.”

“We can’t move on until daylight. They might come back this way. We have to stay beside water.”

“I need to find my sister.” She should have pushed Marley in the dam like she’d been tempted to. Should have said no to taking her. Or refused to go to the dam if she was stuck babysitting. If she’d refused to take Marley none of this would have happened. She would have been safe. Her thoughts faltered. Until the end of the year. “If I hadn’t followed her, would we have known? Or would she have disappeared without us knowing?”

Gideon shrugged. “That depends on your sister. Only if she managed to get word back to you.”

The sound of a wolf howling drew her attention and she stared into the forest. “Did they leave some behind?”

“I doubt it. There are wolves in the forest. Most of them stay away from people, but when they’re in a pack…” His voice trailed off.

Quinn was glad. She didn’t need graphic details. Her mind was more than capable of coming up with enough gory details on its own without anyone else’s help. “Do they only hunt at night too?”

“No.”

“Then how are we meant to get to the nightclub?”

“By using a great deal of caution.”

That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. “How far away is it?”

“It’s still a couple of days away by foot.”

“I can’t take that long to find her.” Her teeth were starting to chatter.

“Come on, let’s wait on the banks of the lake out of the breeze.” He wrapped his fingers around her wrist again and tugged her towards the trees.

She shook free of his grasp, continuing to push through the water. “Stop grabbing me all the time.” She sent a glare towards him even though she knew he wouldn’t be able to see it. “I need to find my sister. Now.”

Gideon pointed to a cluster of trees with some low shrubs at their bases. “That’s where I hid when I heard them. It’s fairly sheltered.”

“Are you listening to me?” She stumbled onto the bank of the lake, stopping to face him.

“Yeah, but I don’t think you’re listening to me.”

“I have to find my sister. She’s only fifteen. I was meant to be looking after her tonight.”

Gideon remained silent for a moment. “I don’t think you understand exactly how dangerous it is here. This is the realms of the Fae. All the rules are different. And nothing like what we’re accustomed to. You could be killed because one of the Fae didn’t like the way you spoke to them. Or they could torment you for an eternity. Most of the food can’t be eaten and something as simple as iron can protect you better than a gun.” He held up his necklace before letting it fall back against him. He started to reach for her, but let his arm drop to his side before he came into contact. “Come on. Let’s get out of the breeze.”

She watched him walk towards the cluster of trees he’d hidden amongst earlier. Her sister needed help. She looked in the direction Kaeder had taken Marley. How was she meant to sit around waiting for daylight when her sister was in trouble? She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.

“Are you coming?”

She looked in the direction Gideon’s voice had come from, unable to see him.

“Daylight’s only about two hours away. Two and a half at the most.”

With one last look towards where her sister had been taken, she headed for the clump of trees. She nearly tripped over Gideon. When he shifted, she heard a crinkling noise.

“If you sit beside me, I’ll share my survival blanket with you. It’s dry. All my stuff is stored in resealable plastic bags.”

She wanted to say ‘no way am I getting that close’, but she couldn’t stop shivering. She sat down, moving near while still trying to keep some space between them.

Gideon reached out and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, tugging her against him, the survival blanket making crinkling sounds. “I don’t bite.” He lowered his voice. “Much.” There was laughter in his voice.

She wanted to protest his actions, but the warmth of his body and the shelter of the blanket kept her silent. “How did you end up here?”

“The same as you. Through a moon portal. It was absolutely freezing. I guess that’s to be expected. Sydney in July isn’t exactly summer.”

“Wait a minute. You said you’ve only been here a month. September is nearly over so it couldn’t have been July.”

“That long already? Dad probably thinks I’m dead.” The earlier humour faded from his voice to be replaced by desolation.

“Gideon, it can’t have been July.”

He remained silent for a moment. “Time doesn’t run the same between the human world and here. Haven’t you heard all those stories about people who’ve returned home only to find a hundred years have gone by while they’ve spent only a short time in the realms of the Fae?”

She felt like she was going to throw up. In a hundred years there’d be no one left alive that she knew. That couldn’t happen. Her parents, her friends and Buddy. “No. I can’t stay here that long.” She started to rise.

Gideon’s arm tightened around her and he pulled her back against him. “Don’t panic. That’ll get you killed.”

“Stop grabbing me all the time. I have to go after my sister.”

He took hold of her shoulders, forcing her to remain seated, the survival blanket falling away. “Running won’t help. Neither will panicking. In this realm most of the time you’ll only have yourself to rely on. Favours come with strings. Ones so thick and tangled they trip the unwary.”

She stilled. “What do you expect for helping me?” She felt him come closer, his face centimetres from hers.

“To be human.”

Several times she replayed his words over in her mind and still they made no sense. “Who?”

“Both of us. I’m not Fae and yet I’ve spent a month trying to think like one, trying to be one. I have no Fae magic to make any promise to me binding. All I want is to not have to worry about being human with you.”

“What’s wrong with being human around the Fae?”

“Because then you might find yourself becoming the pet of one for an eternity. With no rights other than what your Fae gives you.”

Panic hit again and she struggled to rise, fighting against his grip. “No. I need to go.” She had no idea where. Other than she wanted to get her sister and get out of this place. According to her schoolteachers, she wasn’t very good at following orders. Becoming the pet of some Fae didn’t sound like a good position to be in with a flaw like that.

Gideon’s grip tightened on her and he dragged her close. “There’s nowhere to run to. And there’s no escape. Not if you want your sister back. And even when you find her that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to leave. Not for both of you.”

At his quiet words she froze. She refused to believe. There had to be some way to escape. For both her and her sister. “What did you do?”

His grip on her relaxed. “When?”

“To the Hunt.”

“Nothing. It doesn’t work like that. Unless you get in their way.”

“How does it work?” He was silent for so long she began to think he wasn’t going to answer.

“I killed someone. But I don’t know if that makes me a murderer since I didn’t know helping dad remove the tree would make him die.”

“You killed someone?” She didn’t like the squeak that had returned to her voice. Clearing her throat, she tried again. “What do you mean?”

His hands remained on her shoulders and his face close to hers. “I was suspended. Again. Apparently teachers don’t like it when you make the class laugh at them.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” She’d been in trouble for that a few times. Never suspended though. “What has that got to do with you killing someone?”

“Dad said if I wasn’t at school, I had to help him. He’s a tree lopper. Not an arborist. He hates that word. He’s Truman the tree man. He loves telling people that. Thinks it’s funny. Or cool, or something. Anyway, he usually makes me work for him every Saturday. Reckons that with the amount I eat he can’t afford to support me if I don’t contribute.”

She smiled at the humour in his voice, relaxing as she listened to his deep voice, the shadows continuing to press in around them.

“It was a large old tree with spreading branches and leaf litter nearly ankle deep on the ground underneath. I can still hear the crunch as we walked close to it so Dad could decide on a plan of action. The new owners of the property wanted it gone because the roots were destroying the back fence. They thought two large trees in the one backyard was excessive.”

She could almost picture the tree with its spreading branches and the shadowy depths beneath it. He’d said July. Maybe there’d been very few shadows beneath the tree. It might’ve lost all its leaves for the winter. He remained silent so she spoke. “What happened?”

“After it was cut down, he left me to load all the wood into the trailer. We sell it to a man who sells it on for firewood. He took my ute and I was left with his work truck and trailer. Said he might as well make the most of having the help and get a quote done at another place. I’d nearly finished cleaning up when a man appeared.” Again he fell silent.

“Who was he?”