I looked up. A lean figure stood atop one of the towers, arms crossed, gazing down with a smirk. He shook his head, dislodging several feathers from his crimson hair, giving me a split-second glance of his pointed ears.
“For example,” he continued, still grinning widely, “you look exactly like the brother of a good friend of mine. I mean, what are the odds? Of course, he’s supposed to be safely home in Louisiana, so I have no idea what he’s doing in New York City. Oh, well.”
The gnomes whirled, hissing and confused, looking from me to the intruder and back again. Sensing he was the bigger threat, they started edging toward the tower, raising their hands to snarl at him.
“Huh, that’s kinda disturbing. I bet none of you have pets, do you?”
A dagger came flying through the air from his direction, striking a gnome as it rushed forward, turning it into mist. A second later, the stranger landed next to me, still grinning, pulling a second dagger from his belt. “Hey there, Ethan Chase,” he said, looking as smug and irreverent as I remembered. “Fancy meeting you here.”
The pack lifted their arms again, mouths opening, and I felt that strange, sluggish pull. The faery beside me snorted. “I don’t think so,” he scoffed, and lunged into their midst.
Pushing myself off the wall, I started to follow, but he really didn’t need much help. Even with the gnomes sucking away at his glamour, he danced and whirled among them with no problem, his dagger cutting a misty path through their ranks. “Oy, human, go help your friends!” he called, dodging as a piranha-gnome leaped at him. “I can finish up here!”
I nodded and ran to the foot of the stairs where Keirran had drawn back, placing himself between the gnomes, Annwyl and Kenzie, his eyes flashing as he dared anything to come close. Annwyl slumped against the ground, and Kenzie stood protectively beside her, still holding one half of the broken rattan. A few gnomes surrounded them, arms outstretched and glaring at Keirran; one was doubled over a few feet away as if sick.
Leaping from the stairs, I dropped behind one of the faeries with a yell, bringing my stick crashing down on its skull. It dropped like a stone, fading into nothing, and I quickly stepped to the side, kicking another in the head, flinging it away.
Hissing, the rest of the pack scattered. Screeching and jabbering through their nasty hand-mouths, they scuttled into the bushes and up the walls, leaving us alone at the foot of the stairs.
Panting, I looked toward the others. “Everyone okay?”
Keirran wasn’t listening. As soon as the gnomes had gone, he sheathed his weapon and immediately turned to Annwyl, dropping down beside her. I heard them talking in low murmurs, Keirran’s worried voice asking if she was all right, the Summer girl insisting she was fine. I sighed and turned to Kenzie; they would probably be unreachable for a while.
Kenzie approached sheepishly, one half of the broken rattan in her hand. “Sorry,” she said, holding up the ruined weapon with a helpless gesture. “It…uh…died a noble death. I can only hope it gave that thing a wicked tongue splinter.”
I took the broken stick from her hand, tossed it into the bushes, and drew her into a brief, one-armed hug.
“Better the stick than you,” I muttered, feeling her heart speed up, her arms circling my waist to cling to me. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “They were doing something to Annwyl when Keirran came leaping in. He killed several, but they backed off and started doing that creepy thing with their hands, and Annwyl…” She shivered, looking back at the Summer faery in concern. “It was a good thing you came and chased them off. Annwyl wasn’t looking so good…and you’re bleeding again!”
“Yeah.” I gritted my teeth as she stepped away and gently took my arm. “One of them mistook my arm for the stick. Ow!” I flinched as she drew back the torn sleeve, revealing a mess of blood and sliced skin. “You can thank Keirran for this,” I muttered as Kenzie gave me a horrified, apologetic look. “He went swooping in to rescue his girlfriend and left me alone with a half dozen piranha fey.”
And speaking of swooping…
“Hey,” came a familiar, slightly annoyed voice from the top of the stairs, “not to rain on your little reunion or anything, but did you forget something back there? Like, oh, I don’t know…me?”
I heard a gasp from Annwyl as the redheaded faery came sauntering down the steps, lips pulled into a smirk.
“Remember me?” he said, hopping down the last step to face us, still grinning. Kenzie eyed him curiously, but he looked past her to Keirran and Annwyl. “Oh, hey, and the princeling is here, too! Small world! And what, may I ask, are you doing way out here with the queen’s brother?”
“What are you doing here?” I growled, as Keirran and Annwyl finally joined us. Keirran had on a wide, relieved smile, and the other faery grinned back at him; obviously they knew each other. Annwyl, on the other hand, looked faintly star-struck. I guess you couldn’t blame her, considering who this was.
“Me?” The faery laced his hands behind his skull. “I was supposed to meet a certain obnoxious furball near Shakespeare’s Garden, but then I heard a racket so I decided to investigate.” He shook his head, giving me a bemused look. “Jeez, you’re just as much trouble as your sister, you know that? It must run in the family.”
“Um, excuse me,” Kenzie put in, and we stared at her. “Sorry,” she continued, looking around at each of us, “but do you all know each other? And if you do, would you mind letting me in on the secret?”
The Great Prankster grinned at me. “You wanna tell her? Or should I?”
I ignored him. “Kenzie,” I sighed, “this is Robin Goodfellow, a friend of my sister’s.” Her eyes went wide, and I nodded. “You might know him better as—”
“Puck,” she finished for me in a whisper. She was staring at him now, awe and amazement written across her face. “Puck, like from A Midsummer Night’s Dream? Love potions and Nick Bottom and donkey heads? That Puck?”
“The one and only.” Puck grinned. Pulling a green hankie from his pocket, he wadded it up and tossed it in my direction. I caught it with my good hand. “Here. Looks like those things chewed on you pretty good. Wrap that up, and then someone can tell me what the heck is going on here.”
“But the courts have to know what’s going on,” Keirran added. “You felt what those things were doing. How long before they kill all the exiles in the real world and start eyeing the Nevernever?”
“You have to go to them,” I said. “You have to let them know what’s going on. If you tell Oberon—”
“He might not listen to me, either.” Puck sighed, scratching the back of his neck. “But…I see your point. Fine, then.” He blew out a noisy breath. “Looks like the next stop on my list is Arcadia.” That grin crept up again, eager and malicious. “I guess it’s about time I went home. Titania is going to be so happy to see me.”
At the mention of Titania, Annwyl shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. The longing on the Summer girl’s face was plain; it was obvious that she wanted to go home, back to the Summer Court. Keirran didn’t touch her but leaned in and whispered something in her ear, and she smiled at him gratefully.
They didn’t see the way Puck stared at them, his eyes hooded and troubled, a shadow darkening his face. They didn’t see the way his gaze narrowed, his mouth set into a grim line. It caused a chill to skitter up my back, but before I could say anything, the Summer Prankster yawned noisily and stretched, raising long limbs over his head, and the scary look on his face vanished.