snapped his fingers. "Remember the Boggart? Cordelia?"
Oh Sweet Lady! The Cairn! "Yes. I do. We need to find that Cairn and close it down. I keep getting distracted."
"No. No listen to me. This is crazy, but remember what Cordelia said? The Summer Queen was telling them to run through the Cairns? The Obsidian Queen was too powerful?"
I had a vague memory of her saying something like that. "And you think its related to her having Crwys?"
"You just said it yourself. Having a Dragon in your possession, even if by force, is a powerful symbol anywhere. Those things are invincible with very little kryptonite issues."
"Except the Witch Queen of New Orleans here exploited that one piece of kryptonite."
Kyle rubbed at his goatee as he thought. "Cordelia said Summer was unhappy, that means Tzariene doesn't like the tip in power. Maybe we should ask for her help? Maybe she knows what we could offer in trade for Crwys? I'm sure she'd help, especially since it would mean taking Crwys out of Alfheim."
I didn't say anything for a few seconds. It was a crazy idea, but right then, I needed crazy ideas to fit in with the idea the man I loved was a Dragon. "Okay. I'll entertain it. So when and where should we summon her?"
"I vote Ina's house," Kyle said before he moved back to Arden. "Aunt Arden, I know you have a book on Faeries in here somewhere."
"Brendi wanted it," Arden said. Her voice sounded worse than before. The curse was going to consume her soon. "Said it was too true."
"And you gave it to her?"
"No," Arden's laughter broke into a coughing fit. I waited with an arched brow as she stood back up and headed to the far wall by the door in. She remained inside the protective ward as she gestured to an antique cuckoo clock. Kyle took it down and revealed a small safe behind it. After a few mangled attempts to open it, Kyle helped her and pulled a small book out of it. "That is the original. The one I gave her was the copy I had made years ago. I make it a habit of making copies of things, so thieves take the decoys. But they usually get caught when they try to sell them."
"You mean you spell them so they are caught when they try to sell them."
The hood over Arden's head bobbed up and down as she closed the safe. Kyle put the clock back in place.
"Why do you want that book?" I asked as I held out my hand to him. I wanted to take a look at it.
Kyle handed it over. "I think it's better to be prepared if we plan on going after a Faerie queen."
It was a nice book, with a handmade cover and gold trim. The edges of the pages were also gold and the pages felt like onion paper. I was surprised when I saw it was written in English. I read the gold stamped title aloud. "'Dangerous Concessions.' Who wrote this? I don't see an author."
"Alfred Lord Tennyson." Arden made it back to her chair as Kyle helped her sit back down. "He knew more about the world of Faeries than Shakespeare or the Brothers Grimm. But not many knew this about him. He wrote under pen names, not to protect his reputation, but to protect himself from the wrath of Alfheim. During his time, Oberon and Medbh were a formidable couple, able to traverse the Cairns and enter our world without repercussion."
"How…how did they do that?" Kyle asked. "It's well known Faeries turn to ash if their feet touch earth."
"Oberon knew how. He could circumvent the protocols placed between our worlds, which is why I suspect he was taken."
"Taken by who? Is that why we never hear about him? Why he's not with Tzariene?"
"Yes. No one knows who is responsible for his absence. The Angels and the Demons swear they had no part in his disappearance. But he vanished during a Wild Hunt," her hood nodded. "It's all in that book. Tennyson knew his stuff. He was a God Mother's child, you know."
No. I didn't know that. The only recognizable piece of work I could think of that was written by him was "The Lady of Shalott."
Sam, Arden needs to rest.
Arden didn't say anything, and after a few seconds Kyle leaned down and looked up into her hood. "She's asleep. I feel really bad about leaving her."
"You want to stay here with her till