“I can remove it,” Cerridwen said. “I suspect it will fade rather quickly in any case. The spell is not strong.”
“Astonishingly strong for an infant who cannot yet roll over,” Elizabeth retorted. It was a terrifying idea, but she had no time to deal with that right now. Instead she picked up the poker by the hearth. It was iron, and she had learned enough from Jasper to be certain she could hit with some strength. “I have sent for Jasper and Georgiana. Perhaps we should wait until they come.”
“That will be interesting.” The dark irony in Cerridwen's voice sounded almost absurd coming from a bird's mouth. “He is one of Miss Darcy's fae. I have seen him with her.”
Elizabeth's chest tightened as a sick feeling roiled her stomach. Could her sister-in-law be behind this effort to steal Jenny? Had she been wrong to believe that Georgiana was on their side? What if she had been working for the Wicked King all this time?
Betrayal tasted bitter in her mouth. William would be devastated. For the first time, she was glad he was far away.
Jasper arrived first, his shirt ends flapping loose over worn breeches, his hair disheveled, and a blade in each hand. Elizabeth had never been so glad to see a sword before.
“You traitor,” he spat with obvious distaste at the invisible figure. Of course, he could see fae now. “Elizabeth, do you want him dead, or just disabled?”
Elizabeth said, “Disabled will do. I want to be able to question him.” And she was no longer inclined to wait for Georgiana. She could barely restrain her fury. How dare he try to hurt Jenny?
“Shall I release him, then?” Cerridwen had somehow managed to transform herself into half-sized version of her true self.
Elizabeth nodded. “Do not let him get away, though.” She shifted towards the doorway, poker in hand. She was prepared to use it, along with the energy she had gathered in her hands, spinning it into a mage power. Jasper and Cerridwen had by far the best chance against the fae, especially since they could see him, but she was fully prepared to back them up.
She had come a long way from the girl at Longbourn who never thought to have an enemy.
“There,” Cerridwen said. A palpable current of magic snapped through the room. “He is free.”
Jasper lunged forward, sword extended, stopping abruptly as he apparently hit something. A cry of anguished pain came forth from the empty air.
Elizabeth ordered, “Make yourself visible to me!”
A creature rippled into view – a familiar one, with ears that pointed to each side. Crimson fae blood trickled down his patched tunic from where Jasper's rapier impaled his shoulder.
“Mistletoe?” Elizabeth gasped. The fae who had saved them from being poisoned, who checked all their food, who overheard their conversation atevery meal. The one she had trusted with their lives. “How could you do this to us?”
“I never meant to hurt her,” Mistletoe sobbed. “I only wanted a tiny lock of her hair, and then I would have put her back.”
Anger burned inside her as she advanced towards him. “Why? What did you want with her hair?” As if half the old fae stories did not speak of the mischief that could be caused with a lock of hair. Lady Anne's hair had permitted the High King to steal the trueborn Georgiana Darcy and replace her with the current changeling Georgiana. Whom Elilzabeth had thought until tonight was her ally and a friend of sorts. Was Georgiana, like Mistletoe, only pretending to help them?
Why had she ever thought a fae could be trusted?
“Nothing! I was ordered to fetch it.”
“Who ordered you to do so?” Elizabeth put every ounce of ferocity into it, even knowing the fae could not lie to her. But he could hide things, and she wanted the truth.
The fae seemed to fold in on himself, despite the sword in his shoulder. “The High King,” he wailed. “I have failed him. I am dead, I am dead, I am dead.”
The door flew open, and Georgiana entered. She clasped her hand to her mouth. Was it true shock, or merely a false front? “Oh, Mistletoe, what have you done?”
Now he did collapse to the floor, held up only by Jasper's blade. It must have been agonizing. “Great lady, forgive me, forgive me.” He dissolved into miserable sobs that wracked his thin body.
Elizabeth felt no sympathy for him, nor for her sister-in-law.
“What did he do?” Georgiana's voice was like sharpened steel.
“He tried to take a lock of Jenny's hair to give to the Wicked King,” Elizabeth said flatly.
The girl looked genuinely horrified. “But...” She crouched down beside the fae. “Mistletoe, you swore to me you hated the High King,that you wished to see him fall.”
“It is true, it is true, every word!” he cried. “But he holds my little daughters prisoner and will torture them if I do not do as he says!”
Georgiana frowned. “You said no one had sent you here.”
