"Would that be so bad?"
"Yes."
"Zara." He sighs. The wind bellows outside. "How can I make you understand this? I need your mom. If I don't get her, more boys will die."
"That's ridiculous."
"No, it's just how it is."
I think for a second. "If that's true, then why did Ian try to turn me?"
He loses his composure. His face shifts into something worried, something almost human. "Did he kiss you?"
"Almost. Betty killed him first."
He almost smiles. He pulls his hand through his hair. "Betty is fierce."
"Is that why you stay away when she's here?"
"Not even a pixie wants to tangle with a tiger."
He blows on the ember in his hand. It turns to dust.
"You seem like you could handle almost anything," I say.
"This?" He smirks. "Parlor tricks."
We stare at each other.
"Ian tried to turn you because he knew you would be a powerful queen. A queen with my blood would make him into a king. Ian tried to turn you because he thought I would take you as my own."
"That's disgusting." I move my cast arm onto my lap. The weight of it is heavy.
"I agree."
"Are there lots of them? Renegade pixies like Ian and Megan?"
He nods. "Too many now that I'm weak. They can sense it. They come from all over to try to conquer me, take my territory. We aren't the easiest race."
"Obviously."
"You have a choice here, Zara." He moves his lean frame and sits next to me on the couch. He puts his hand over my good one. His is still hot from the fire, almost burning, and it feels good compared to the coldness of Maine, the coldness of me. "We can go back to my house where I will answer your questions and we will wait for your mother there. Or we can wait here for the wolf boy to show up. One of these things is not a good idea."
"Why is that?" I ask, even though I don't want to.
"Because I have this need. And your wolf? He looks appetizing."
I agree to go. He smiles, triumphant, like he knew he'd win.
"I'm delighted," he says like a real gentleman, like he didn't just threaten Nick. He guides me out of the house. I shrug off his arm and he laughs, amused. "I won't hurt you, Zara."
"Right. You won't hurt me as long as I'm cooperating," I say as he opens the door. Cold air bursts in. He helps me on with my coat. I can only get one arm in because of the cast. I look out at the nothingness of snow and woods. I look for signs of Betty or Nick. "Are we taking the Subaru?"
"No. We'll run."
Running is not part of my plan. Stopping right here is my plan.
"I'm not actually supposed to run," I try to say. "The arm and everything."
"I'm sorry about your arm."
"Really?"
He swoops me up as if I weigh nothing, leans me against his chest, and carries me the way grooms are supposed to carry brides over thresholds. He is cold now, away from the fire. He smells of mushrooms.
''Are you afraid of heights?"
He keeps my good arm against him, and doesn't even jostle my cast arm. It's smooth and quick and I don't have time to protest or even to say anything. Then he flies. Literally.
Over his shoulder a dark shape on all fours emerges from the woods and roars.
Betty's missed us. My heart screeches in my chest.
The trees blur as we smooth-smash past them. They become dark shadowy shapes. He zips over the snow. The wind whips my hair back against his chest. Snow falls, covering our faces, covering us as we fly, faster and faster. This speed is what I always wanted when I was running, this unbelievable quickness. It is amazing and beautiful and I can barely describe it, barely experience it, and then we stop.
Betty will never find me. There's no trail.
He sets me down on the rolling ground in a large clearing in the middle of tall pine trees. My breath whooshes out like I'd been holding it.
"Oh, that was amazing," I say before I realize it.
"You're glowing. I thought you hated me."
"I do. But flying? I don't hate flying. I read this book once where-" "You read?"
"Yeah."
"Good. I like philosophy myself. It's good to have a daughter who reads."
I swallow, shift my weight on my feet. They won't be able to follow us here; we left no tracks. I can't believe we flew. "Can all pixies fly? Because I was totally unprepared for that. I mean, I didn't read that."
"Only ones with royal blood. You can."
"If I turn pixie."
"Of course." He points at the clearing. "Here is my home."
"The clearing?"
"You don't see the house?"
"No."
His face shifts like I've disappointed him. "There is a glamour surrounding it, but because you're my daughter you should be able to see through it."
"Uh-huh." I shiver. Snowflakes land on his hair, whitening it.
"Humans see what they believe is there, not what actually is. It doesn't take much effort to hide ourselves and our natures from them."
"Oh, thanks. Pixie Lesson II2, right?"
"Sarcastic. You aren't at all like your mother. When she's scared she becomes quiet."
I stop biting my lip. "No, I'm not. I'm not like her at all."
He sighs. "Just try to see what's really there, Zara. Then we'll go inside, out of the cold."
"Fine."
I stare at the clearing and it shifts, shimmers almost. A snowflake lands on my eyelash. I close my eyes as it melts. Then I open them again.
"Crud," I mutter.
I can hear the smile in his voice. "You can see it?"
"I don't know how I missed it."
"The glamour."
The house isn't a house. It's a mansion-huge with large-paned windows on each of its three floors. It's clapboard sided and painted a creamy yellow, like old houses on the Battery in Charleston. Its stately straight lines seem to soar up toward the sky. It's not ostentatious, but it's large, screaming of old money and tea in the parlor and croquet in the backyard.
I turn my head to tell him that but my mouth drops open and my tongue seems to bail on being an active participant in the conversation.
"You see me as I am." He smiles.
His teeth are a little pointy.
But it's not his teeth that get me. It's the fact that his eyes are silver with black pupils. It's the fact that his skin shines like blue ice. It's the fact that he's taller than I thought, wider.
"I don't look like you," I say finally.
"No. You look like your mother."
"I have your hair. My mom always said you abandoned us but that's not how it was, was it?"
"No, she abandoned me." His face shifts into sadness. His eyes seem smaller. Then he looks back at me.
"Let's get you inside, out of the cold."
I follow him because I don't know what else I should do. I follow him because I want to keep Nick safe and I'm hoping that my plan is stillthe plan somehow, that somehow they'll follow us here and find me and Jay. I follow him because I want to find out what kind of monster my father is. Yes, it's true. My father.
The large mahogany front door opens for us. He leads me inside to the front hall. One step. Another. It smells of wine and beef and mushrooms. Bright light shines off the marble floors. People line up against the upholstered walls. Most of them wear normal people clothes, but some are in prom-dress-type stuff and tuxes. They bow, one after another, an entire room. There must be a hundred of them. But they aren't people. They're pixies without the glamour. Their teeth are pointed like sharks' teeth. Their skin is tinted blue and their legs are long, longer than normal. My knees shake.
"Our court, the dark court," the king announces. "Please rise."
The pixies stand up straight. I do not know what to do. I give a little wave as all their eyes stare at me, silver pixie eyes.