“Can I use your phone?” I asked him.

He plucked a cordless phone off of its charger and handed it to me without comment. I tried to pretend my hands weren’t shaking as I dialed Kimber’s number and prayed she’d pick up. It was still pretty early in the morning, and she wouldn’t recognize this number on her caller ID if she checked before answering.

To my relief, she picked up and said a groggy-sounding “Hello?”

“Kimber. It’s Dana. Are you awake?”

She made a sleepy, puzzled sound, and I heard her moving around in bed. “Dana? Where are you? Is everything all right?”

“I’m fine.” I crossed my fingers as the words left my mouth, an old, childish habit I sometimes reverted to in times of stress. “I’m, uh, at the Erlking’s house.”

Kimber gasped. I suspected she was now wide awake. “What?”

“He’s agreed to let Ethan go, but Ethan’s too weak to walk and I don’t have any way to get him home.”

“Wait a minute. What? Did you just say the Erlking let him go?”

“Yeah. But I need your help.”

“So the Erlking actually went for the offer we came up with?” She sounded incredulous, and I couldn’t blame her. I guess neither one of us had really believed it would work. It had just made us feel better to have the illusion we could make a difference.

“Er, no. We came up with something else. But I don’t want to talk about it, not now. Can you help me get Ethan home?”

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” she said, and I heard her footsteps as she got out of bed and started hurrying around.

“Hold on a sec, I’ll get you the address.”

“Don’t bother. I know where it is.”

I guessed it made sense that the people of Avalon knew where the Erlking lived. It wasn’t like he and his Hunt were inconspicuous. “Okay. See you soon.”

“Yeah,” she said, then hung up.

I hugged myself to suppress a chill, even though the fire made the room cozily warm. For a little while, Kimber was going to be so happy to have her brother back that she wouldn’t bug me too much about what kind of deal I’d made with the Erlking. But I knew that wasn’t going to last, and eventually she’d start pushing me to tell. I just didn’t know if I was willing to share the details, best friend or not.

I decided this was a case of “cross that bridge when you come to it” and tried to push those thoughts aside.

Ethan looked paler than usual, and there were shadows under his eyes. The Erlking’s mark was startlingly dark against his skin. I wondered if it was a normal tattoo and Ethan could get it removed, or if he was stuck with it for the rest of his life. Not that it looked bad, in its own wild and exotic way, but I imagined Ethan would prefer not to be constantly reminded of his time in the Wild Hunt.

The Erlking sat on a straight-backed chair, crossing his legs as he watched me holding Ethan’s limp hand.

“I told you on the phone earlier that it’s in my best interests to protect you,” the Erlking said. “Even more so now that we’ve reached our agreement. In light of that, I should warn you that I have been given permission by Titania to hunt your aunt Grace.”

“What?” The statement came from so far out in left field that at first I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about.

“Word reached the Queen that Grace had ambitions to take the throne. She did not take kindly to the information.” His lips curled in a wry smile.

It wasn’t like I felt even remotely bad for Aunt Grace. If she got herself killed because she took it into her head to use me to kill Titania, that was just tough. I didn’t know if I was mean-spirited enough to say I’d be glad if Aunt Grace died, but I wouldn’t shed a tear.

“What does this have to do with my safety?” I asked.

“Grace is doomed. If she is clever, she may be able to evade me for a fair amount of time, but, powerful though she might be, I will catch her. This is assuming the Queen’s people don’t catch her first, naturally. Your aunt knows that. Even if she were to succeed in kidnapping you and forcing you into Faerie, the Queen’s guards will be alert to the danger, so Grace could not get close enough to make the kill.”

“Okay. I still don’t get what this has to do with me.”

“It has always been my experience that when a person has nothing left to lose and nothing left to gain, he or she can be expected to lash out.”

He gave me a significant look, and I remembered his earlier suggestion that Grace was no longer trying to kidnap me but was trying to kill me instead. I couldn’t say I knew Aunt Grace very well, but I had no trouble believing she was capable of it. My arrival in Avalon and her failed attempts to make me into her own pet Faeriewalker had driven her off the deep end. And she struck me as the kind of person who would hold me responsible for the mess she’d made of her life.

I sighed. “If she wants to kill me, she can line up behind all the other people who want the privilege.” If I wasn’t careful, having all these people wanting to kill me was going to make me bitter.

He nodded in approval. “I admire your courage, Faeriewalker. Very rare in one so young.”

“Er, thanks. And I thought you were going to stop calling me that. My name is Dana.”

“My apologies, Dana. And my name is Arawn. Few would dare use it, but you may do so with my blessing.”