the rider galloping straight at her. Laila stared wide-eyed at the form riding up behind the young fairy, stood up, her son gripped tightly in her arms, and took off into a full run. Knocks reached back over his mother’s shoulder, trying to grab Mallaidh—despite her distance—screaming at the top of his lungs, “Mallaidh!”
Mallaidh turned around, only then spying the looming rider about to trample her. She shrieked, but just a little, a slight, scared yip escaping her delicate mouth as she completely seized up in fear. Something slammed into her from the side, tackling her to the ground mere inches from passing hooves. She looked up, the ground exploding around her, to find the kind eyes of the boy who had just saved her life.
Knocks watched helplessly as Ewan emerged from the darkness of a nearby bramble patch to save Mallaidh, Ewan standing in the place where he should have been. Even as scared as he was, he felt his stewing hatred of Ewan simmering stronger still.
Back in the grove, Ewan and Mallaidh gripped each other as firmly as they could, the sound of hooves growing closer by the second. The rider trotted slowly up behind them, its goat bleating, grunting against the reins, the goat wanting little more than to stomp these creatures underfoot. Flanking it on each side sat drooling, snarling, muscular piles of awfulness—hounds beset with razor-sharp fangs and shaggy fur matted with blood and ichor.
The children looked up at the mount and its rider, the beast’s nostrils choking the air with sulfur. The rider leaned over, its face emerging from shadow into the dim light. Pale, sickly, rotting from the inside out, Tiffany Thatcher looked nothing like she had the last time they had met; the only mercy in this moment was that Ewan had no idea he was looking upon his own mother.
Tiffany had trouble finding words. She could feel the minutes ticking away, her time on earth drawing to a close. She had a toll to pay; this was not it. Her eyes darkened and she cast a single finger at Mallaidh. “She will be the death of you!” she spat at Ewan. “She and her kind will kill you to spare their own. I have seen it!”
Shuddering, Ewan looked up, shaking his head. “Go away!”
His mother looked down at him, feeling only the slightest, fleeting pangs of motherhood. Then she nodded. “You’ll die for her,” she growled bitterly. She tugged at the reins, urging her steed into the woods. With a sharp whistle she called off both her hounds. Mallaidh and Ewan looked on as the creatures bounded into the forest after her, leaving them alone.
“You saved me,” whispered Mallaidh into his ear.
Ewan released her, and jumped to his feet, brushing himself off nervously. “No, I . . . I’m sorry . . . I mean . . . I . . . was on the other side of the bushes.” He hadn’t realized in the moment how tightly he’d held her or, more important, how tightly she’d held him back. In the most ladylike fashion possible, she too rose to her feet, took Ewan by the hand, kissing him gently on the cheek.
“My hero,” she said softly. Then she looked down at her small hand held in his and quietly begged, “Don’t let go. Don’t ever let go.”
“I won’t,” he said.
“I know.”
TIFFANY ENTERED THE small clearing where the two stood, slowing her lurching beast. Her hounds hurdled over hedges, flanking her quarry, preventing their escape.
It had been nearly seven years but Knocks recognized the demon on horseback. The face of his first adopted mother was something he could never purge. She was dead, of that he was certain. He’d watched her tie the rope around her neck, cheered her on as she wobbled, toppling the chair beneath her. From the looks of it, she too had not forgotten their time together.
“Knocks,” whispered Laila into her son’s ear, “I’m going to put you down and I want you to run as fast as you can. Can you do that for Mommy?”
“No, Mama,” he whimpered back. “I can’t.”
“Yes. Yes you can. And you will,” she said sternly. “Mama has something she has to do.” Slowly, she put Knocks down on the ground, giving him a shove. But he was only able to take a few steps before the two hellhounds brayed a deep bellow that stopped him in his tracks. He wasn’t going anywhere. Laila took a few steps, putting herself squarely between