I heard a squeak and looked over at the rat cage, where all fifteen rats were staring at the figure that now loomed over Horst. It was hard to be sure from this distance, and they were, you know, rodents so not super expressive, but if a rat could be said to look terrified, then these rats looked terrified.
And it wasn’t hard to see why. Because Dirchan wasn’t just fae.
He was some kind of shapeshifting fae. And at that moment, he had shifted into a snake.
A giant snake with a gray hood spreading out from either side of its face, and cruel intelligence glinting in its slitted eyes.
“I’ve given you all the chances you’re going to get, Piper,” he hissed.
“Dirch, let’s just talk about this.” Horst was taking small side steps, and I realized he was trying to put himself between the immense serpent and me.
“We are talking,” the snake said in the same creepy, stomach-churning voice I’d heard on the phone. “My mother was the most important person in the world to me.”
“I know, and I’m sorry I borrowed the brooch. But when you said it was a very powerful magical object, you failed to mention that it had been made from your mother’s ashes.”
I closed my eyes. Horst had told me he travels around procuring—usually through illegal means—magical objects that he then uses to try to restore the kobolds to their true form. What he plans to do with the kids once they are back to being human, he couldn’t say. But that was what he used magical objects for.
Not just used.Used up. That was what he had told me, anyway.
And it appeared he’d used up the wrong object.
“I will have my mother back, Piper, or I will take the most important person in the world to you.”
I opened my eyes to find the snake’s gaze pinning me in place. I was only able to tear my eyes away when Horst grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me, hard. “Run, Glory!” he said. “Go, now!”
But there was no time. The snake struck out, not with its mouth but with its tail, batting Horst out of the way before curling nimbly around my neck and lifting me to the ceiling, where I dangled, feet kicking helplessly.
“Dirchan, you can’t do this!” Horst shouted, grabbing for what he could reach of the snake’s body.
“I want my mother back,” Dirchan said, his voice raspy with anger and malice and what sounded a bit like grief. If he hadn’t been in the process of choking the life out of me at that moment, I would have felt sorry for him.
Horst pulled his pipes from his pocket and started to play, but Dirchan merely laughed as he used a coil of his snaky bodyto send the pipes flying. “That may work on rats and kobolds, Piper, but I’m immune to your pathetic piping. Now, get me my mother, or I will squeeze the life out of this puny human.”
Quill chose that moment to get to her feet, stretching her back as though she had just finished watching a long movie. “Well, puppy, it looks like you have this well in hand.”
I was pretty sure my face was turning purple. It certainlyfeltpurple.
This was the second time since I’d met the Pied Piper that I’d found myself being strangled by some paranormal creature.
Something to discuss with Roger. If I survived.
And after I sent him that glitter bomb.
Horst looked around him, his face frantic even through the haze that fuzzed my vision. “Glory, hold on! I’ll...I’ll think of something.” But from the way his voice broke at the end, I had a feeling he didn’t have much of a something to think up.
And then, as the world started to go black around the edges, I heard him say, “Okay, Quill. Please. I need your help. Save her. I’ll do anything.”
I would rather die than owe her something. That was what he’d said earlier.
“Why, this is a surprise,” Quill said, her voice a study in feigned shock. “You wantmyhelp, puppy? I thought—”
“Quill, she’s dying!”
The Unseelie queen’s mouth curled in displeasure, probably annoyed that she wasn’t going to get to toy with Horst for as long as she wanted. But she fluffed the skirts of her dress and wiggled her fingers as though some impressive magic was about to happen.
“Mortal, I do hope you’re not dead yet. I’m going to need you to throw me what you have in your pocket.”
What I had in my pocket? The pressure around my throat was lessening, and I had a feeling that was more because Iwas losing consciousness and not because Dirchan was having a change of heart. My hands brushed numbly at my pockets. There it was—the brooch Bathsheba had found for me.
