13 Treasures (33 page)

“No, not all of us,” said Feathercap. “Just me. The others were working to protect you—but I fooled them. With the division of the realm I managed to convince them I was loyal to the Seelie Court, and to them. Gredin never fully trusted me. But I was too clever for him… too clever by far. You see, when Morwenna left the mortal world, nobody dreamed that her guardian would remain behind. It was my most closely guarded secret.” He gave a triumphant smile.

“So who is my guardian?” Tanya demanded.

“Gredin is your guardian,” said Feathercap. “Raven is your grandmother’s. Both agreed that it was in your best interest—and Florence’s—to protect you from the truth.”

“And the Mizhog?”

Feathercap sneered. “Let’s just say the Mizhog was saved by your grandmother many years ago from an unpleasant fate similar to the drain-dweller’s. It’s been loyal to her ever since.”

“If they’re protecting me, then why don’t they come?”

“Because they are outnumbered. And because it’s too late,” Morwenna told her. “In just over a minute, I will be free and you will take my place. Feathercap will remain here to ensure that you do not escape. I’ll finally have the freedom that’s rightfully mine.”

A white-hot rage took hold of Tanya then, possessing her in a way she had never before experienced. “You don’t deserve to be free.”

“What did you just say?” Morwenna’s voice was dangerously quiet—but Tanya no longer cared.

“You’re selfish, and cruel, and you don’t
deserve
to be free!” she shouted. Her whole body was trembling. “All these years, you’ve festered with hatred. Blaming my grandmother, when the only person to blame for all this is
you
. You had a choice—and you chose this. My grandmother chose her family. She stayed. Her freedom is her own. She’s suffered for it.”

“
I don’t care!
” Morwenna shrieked. “We had an agreement! Florence betrayed me—she deserves to be here now, the coward! Not me!
Not me!
”

“You don’t care!” Tanya cried in disgust. “Of course you don’t! Why should you when other people have paid dearly for
your
mistake? Not just my grandmother but Amos too. His reputation was ruined because of what you did.
But you don’t care!
”

Morwenna started to walk away, weaving between the trees like a ghost. “The exchange has already begun.”

Tanya thrashed violently in the bonds. She could only watch as Morwenna’s form glided from sight… and listen as Feathercap jeered at her attempts to escape. Terror engulfed her. She heard herself sobbing before she even realized she was, before she felt the hot tears cascading down her cheeks. Oberon jumped up at her, whining in terror and confusion. An image flashed in her mind—the image of her own face on futile posters with one empty, awful word: MISSING.

I don’t want to be the girl who vanished in the woods. I don’t want to be another of Tickey End’s missing.

Something was moving through the darkness, coming toward her in a dark blur. Feathercap noticed it a split second after Tanya.

Red.

The momentary distraction was the opportunity Oberon had long been awaiting. With a perfectly timed lunge, Feathercap was silenced forever.

The Land Rover screamed to a halt just short of the edge of the brook, and then Warwick and Fabian jumped out and went dashing through the water toward the opening in the forest. A shrill sound pierced the night.

Fabian ran even harder.

“What is that?” Warwick panted, as they reached the edge of the woods.

“It’s the alarm on my watch! I set it to go off at midnight!”

Warwick fumbled in his pocket and pulled out the lock of hair, his hands shaking. “Take it! I’ve got some matches—we have to burn it!”

Fabian held out his hand, but the hair slipped through his fingers and fell to the ground.

“Where is it?” Warwick yelled, striking a match in an attempt to light up the area. “Fabian,
you idiot
!”

Fabian dropped to the ground and began hunting desperately.

His watch continued to scream like a banshee foretelling certain death.

Red hacked violently at the bonds. Slowly but surely they began to loosen, until eventually the strands fell away and disintegrated. Her hands were dark and wet with blood. The spidertwine had sliced her fingers as she had extracted the scissors from Tanya’s back pocket.

“What are you doing here… how did you know?” Tanya sobbed. “Where’s the baby?”

“He’s safe.” Red continued to hack, speaking breathlessly. “I made the exchange, but the circus folk wouldn’t allow me to travel with them. Said the police had been sniffing around, asking questions. So I decided the best thing would be to come back here and hide out for a bit longer. I was just about to go into the tunnel over by the church when I saw you and the boy coming out of the garden gate. So I watched and followed… luckily for you.”

Finally, the last thread was broken. Tanya was free.

“We need to get out before midnight… she’s trying to switch places with me—”

Red silenced her with a nod of her head. “I heard everything. We need to move.”

She grabbed Tanya’s arm, pulling her through the woods. Things rippled in the darkness. The fairies lurked just out of sight, waiting for the moment that Tanya would be surrendered to them. Oberon circled them protectively, and Red pulled her knife out and held it aloft. Then she began to run. Tanya sprinted after her, running for her life, zigzagging through the trees.

“We’ve got to get you out of the woods,” Red panted. “Before Morwenna leaves. We’re nearly out of time—”

Her words echoed meaninglessly in Tanya’s head. Something was wrong.

“Stop,” she moaned. A strange humming had begun in her ears, like a swarm of insects.

“We can’t stop!” Red hissed. “Move. I said MOVE!”

“I can’t,” Tanya whispered, staggering to a halt despite Red’s attempts to support her. Gradually the humming evolved into a whisper of voices all around her. Faces within the trees awoke. Gnarled finger-like branches reached out to her. Vines disentangled themselves from tree barks and snaked toward her. The forest stirred with life.

Tanya understood what was happening. The switch was taking place.

Her strength left her. She sank to the ground, her eyes clenched shut and her hands clamped tightly over her ears. A strand of ivy was beginning to work its way up her leg. Red sliced it away with her blade, only for it to be replaced with another. She heard Red telling her to get up—Red pleading with her to move—but Tanya could not.

She thought of her parents and wished she could see them one last time. She thought of her grandmother, and wished that things could have been different between them. She thought of Fabian and Warwick, and what would become of Amos. She wondered if Red would ever find her brother. She even pictured Spitfire, curled up at the foot of the grandfather clock with his bones jutting out of his mangy fur.

The last thing she thought of was Oberon, her beloved, faithful dog. He had stayed by her side until the end. Then all thought fell away, leaving nothing, only darkness. Oberon began to howl.

A sharp pain in her thumb brought her back. Tanya struggled into consciousness and looked down. Fresh blood ran from a new wound.

“How did I…?” she began drowsily, seeing Morag’s scissors in Red’s hand, but not understanding. She felt herself slipping away again, being tugged and pulled by the foliage wrapping itself around her—but not before she saw Red’s hand.

Red’s poor, bloodied hand.

Red’s poor, sliced fingers. Red, whose blood was mingling with her own as she gripped her hand tightly. And Red was holding her, cradling her head. Willing her not to go.

“Take me,” Red was whispering. “Take me instead. She has a life to go back to. I don’t. You took it from me. Take me instead.”

Take me instead.

Take me instead.

And the vines and branches crawling toward Tanya—and those that already ensnared her—paused for the briefest of moments before slowly withdrawing, releasing her from their clutches and continuing on their way—to Red. Inch by inch they crept over her like leafy tentacles, pulling her away from Tanya… away from the mortal world.

Red did not resist.

In moments, she was surrendered completely; swallowed by the forest.

Fabian’s hand closed around the hair, along with a fistful of earth.

“I’ve got it!”

Warwick struck another match, the yellow flame hissing to life. He seized the hair and held the match to it. It flared up instantly and he dropped it to the ground.

They watched in silence as it burned away to nothing, until all that remained was the charred remnants of fallen twigs and leaves where Morwenna’s hair had been.

Fabian’s watch finally went silent.

“I never realized,” Warwick said softly. “All this time… I thought the hair was my mother’s. She was dark too… I never saw the significance until tonight. All the time he was trying to find a replacement for Morwenna. He never got over her.”

“How long have you known?”

Even in the darkness, Fabian could read the regret in his father’s eyes.

“Ever since Tanya was born.”

“What will happen to Morwenna now that the pact is broken?” Fabian whispered.

“She’ll feel it, instantly,” said Warwick. “It should be enough to deter her from wanting to go ahead with the exchange.” He began to run deeper into the woods, calling over his shoulder.

“We have to find Tanya!”

Fabian followed his father, neither of them aware that an alternative exchange had already taken place.