Standing Stones

As it was, Herne’s house bordered Careek Park, and it had plenty of room for all of us. Herne and I had the master, the triplets had a bedroom, Danielle—Herne’s daughter from a prior relationship—slept in the sunroom when she visited, and the nanny had her own room. Evershine had come over to Seattle with us, once Morgana and Cernunnos asked us to move back. Yes, the house was full, but luckily, it had been large to begin with.

I entered the triplets’ room. Ionie was sitting up in her bed, screaming her head off, tears flowing. Mara and Nightshade were crying, too. All it took was one to set them all off.

“What’s wrong, lovey?” I asked, giving Ionie a kiss. But she just kept wailing.

“Jex gone! Jex gone!” she said through her tears.

“Yes, Jex is gone,” I said, grumbling. That damned stuffed rabbit.

The girls were fraternal triplets, and I was proud of all of them. I was also relieved because not only had I provided heirs for Herne, but I had gotten it all out of the way at once. Unlike a number of women, I took no enjoyment from being pregnant.

I began poking around, looking under beds and in the closet, but Jex—Ionie’s favorite stuffed rabbit—was nowhere to be seen.

“Wait!” I said, as I shook out the bedding on her bed. There, jammed between the bed and the wall, was Jex. I yanked him out and stuffed him into Ionie’s arms, and she promptly quit crying and hugged him.

“Okay, we’re good. Hey, pumpkins,” I said. “Mama has to go to work. You be good for Evershine, hear me? You behave.” I scooped them up, one by one, and kissed them on the cheek. Nearly two years old, the girls were used to their nanny being their primary caregiver, but we spent plenty of quality time together. The triplets were bound together in a way that I’d never seen before. They seemed to have built a secret world between them, one that Herne and I could watch but never fully enter.

I glanced at Evershine. “Crisis averted. I need to run into work for a while, but I’ll be home later this afternoon. I’ll bring takeout,” I added. We had a cleaner who came in once a week, but there was no room for a live-in cook, although Evershine cooked for the girls. She had managed to learn how to use the kitchen appliances without incident, for the most part, and the one time she added dish soap into the dishwasher by mistake had resulted in the cleanest floors we’d ever seen, thanks to the mound of foam and bubbles that frothed out of the machine.

I slid into my leather jacket, grabbed my purse, and headed out to my car.

***

When Morgana and Cernunnos had first ordered us back Earthside, I had been reluctant to make the move. But a couple of months back, they had insisted that the babies and I join Herne, since they wanted him to stay over here full-time. He had already retaken the helm of the Wild Hunt from Yutani, and now we were, once again, fully opening the agency.

Yutani was an incredible employee, but he wasn’t management material and he never would be. He had actually begged Herne to take the reins again, and we finally decided to oblige him. We hadn’t expected to be running a full-on agency again, but events were shifting, and Morgana foresaw the need for us to be here.

“I’m not sure what’s about to unfold,” she said. “But something’s on the move. You need to summon Raven and Kipa back as well, though they’ll be adjunct only. And Viktor, as well.”

“But we already have Wendy and Lyrical and Wager,” I said.

“Events are unfolding, the world is shifting, and with it, fate’s gearing up for something new. Trust me,” Morgana said. My mother-in-law was seldom wrong, and as she spoke, a shiver ran down my spine. That ripple told me she was right.

“All right, though I don’t look forward to bringing up my daughters over there, at least not while they’re this young,” I said.

“They need to be familiar with both of their home worlds. You can bring them back to Annwn for special occasions and vacations. And Cernunnos and I will be over there quite a bit. I’m not about to let my grandchildren grow up without knowing their Gamma,” Morgana said.

So, we had moved back Earthside, all of us, a few months ago. And last month, we recalled Raven and Kipa to help us. It was almost like old times. I missed Angel—my best friend was still adjusting to her transformation into a goddess—but she and Sejun had hinted that they might join us later on. DJ, her brother, had returned to Seattle with his foster family after it became obvious they were unhappy in Annwn, and Angel missed her little brother.

And today, Morgana and Cernunnos were coming to talk about something. I wasn’t sure what, but they said it was important, and it had to do with the case Raven and Kipa had recently investigated. As I stood there, purse slung over my shoulder, the world seemed to shift for a moment, and I realized we were standing at the crossroads. Once again danger was rising.

***

The drive down to the office went relatively smoothly. The weather was pleasant—a cool but clear September morning—kids were in school, most people had arrived at their workplaces and so traffic was moderate rather than bumper to bumper…all in all, one of those autumn days that I savored, where the storms hadn’t yet come in, but the heat of summer had passed.

I stopped at the nearest coffee stand and ordered an iced quad-shot caramel latte and a sausage breakfast sandwich. No doubt Talia would have food and coffee ready, but I was hungry now. As I pulled through the drive-through and picked up my food, I smiled. It was good to be home, even though I didn’t think I still missed it so much. Annwn was beautiful, but I’d been born here, and the Seattle area was in my blood.

Another five minutes and I pulled into the parking garage, grateful that we’d decided to rebuild and revamp the entire agency. After the dragons attacked, there was nothing left of the original building in which the Wild Hunt Agency had been housed. Herne had bought the property, bulldozed what was left, and then had the agency rebuilt. We owned the entire building now, along with a parking garage beneath it so we could escape the rain.

I locked the door and, slinging my purse over my shoulder, carried my latte to the staircase and jogged up. The elevator was a nice touch, but since I had been through the Gadawnoin, I seldom grew tired, except for my pregnancy and the birth. Triplets were taxing.

I pushed open the front door and entered the waiting room.

Talia glanced up, waving. “Ember, I wondered when you’d be in!” She pointed to the hall. “Everyone’s in the breakroom. I’ll be in as soon as Morgana and Cernunnos arrive.”

I headed down the hall, thinking about how many times we’d gathered for the morning staff meeting. I wasn’t here most days, leaving Herne to handle the business. But Morgana insisted that we all needed to meet. As I entered the breakroom, I saw that I was the last one to arrive.

Wager and Yutani were discussing something in the corner, though Wager looked like he’d been up all night. He grimaced more than once.

“You okay?” I asked, breaking into the conversation.

“I don’t feel well at all. I would have stayed home, but since we were having an important meeting today, I came in. After we’re done, I’d like to go home, if possible.” Wager looked sweaty, and I pressed my hand to his forehead.

“You feel hot. Maybe you should go now,” I said.

“I’ll wait until we’re done, then head home,” he said. “Don’t worry about me. I just have a rough stomach today.”

“Okay, well, if you need to leave, let us know.” I turned back to the others.

Herne, Kipa, and Viktor were sitting at the massive round table where we held meetings, talking. Raven was reading the news on her tablet. And Lyrical was still on her road trip. We were transitioning her out of the business and into the temple I was founding, which felt weird as shit.

“Sorry I’m late,” I said. “Ionie lost Jex.”

“Oh, crap,” Herne said. “That’s a disaster.”

“It would be, except I managed to find him again. I swear, Jex better never wear out. At least until she’s ready to let go of him.” Somehow, I had the feeling that when our daughter was a thousand years old, she’d still be cuddling the stuffed toy. “So, does anybody know when Morgana and Cernunnos will be here?”

“We’ll be here when we’re here.” Behind me, Cernunnos’s voice echoed against the walls, its deep resonance ricocheting through the room.

I whirled. Talia was leading them both into the room. The fact that the gods could appear wherever they wanted was still alien to me. I hadn’t yet developed the ability to teleport—or whatever the hell it was they did. Apparently, it was a skill that only came with time after a mortal had been through the Gadawnoin.

“Hey,” I moved to hug Morgana. I’d originally been pledged to her, but now she was my mentor rather than my patron. And she was my mother-in-law, which was a whole different sort of bond. “Are you stopping in to see the girls after you leave here?” I asked.

“You think we’d leave without seeing our granddaughters?” Cernunnos asked. “Think again, Missy.”

I snorted. It still felt odd how cozy we’d all gotten since I had the girls. They had both treated me well enough when I was still Herne’s girlfriend, but after we got married, the energy between us had taken an interesting shift.

“Well, come in and sit down,” Herne said.

Morgana stayed standing. “In a moment,” she said, the congenial feel dropping away. “We have a serious issue to attend to.”

“The Aqcarians?” I asked, settling down beside Herne. We were facing a potential time bomb, given the new threats from a group of Water Fae who had previously remained hidden.

“Yes, but there’s more to our visit than that,” Cernunnos said, his voice resonating with a rich bass tone. “Our historians are researching them, by the way. We’ve run into ancient texts that link Jorgununda with the actual Jörmungandr of Ragnarök fame. She’s a distant ancestor of his. And the Aqcarians are her chosen people. Well, they aren’t exactly people, but...”

“We get the idea,” I said.

“I hate to bring this up,” Herne said. “But I got a note from the mayor this morning. You know how she promised to keep people away from the open water of Puget Sound as much as possible?” Herne said.

Viktor nodded. “Because of the giant octopuses that were capsizing boats?”

I nodded. “Yeah. What’s happened?”

“The mayor can’t resist the tourism industry any longer. She had to lift the restrictions.”

“It’s like Jaws, all over again,” Talia muttered.

Angel and I had watched that movie. I shivered. “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

“We’re going to need a lot of bigger boats,” Herne said. “Chances are she’s going to get voted out in the next election for ‘destroying’ the summer tourist trade, although frankly, I’m not sure how much Seattle depends on water tourism. But yes, she lifted the restrictions. The octopuses were never caught; they’re still out there.”

“Can we ask Ashera to go find them?” I asked. “She’s a dragon.”

“She already went out. They almost dragged her down. She barely escaped,” Kipa said. “It’s going to take more than a dragon to destroy them.”

“Does she have any friends who can go with her?” Herne asked.

Raven shrugged. “We could ask her,” Raven said. “But we don’t even know how many are out there, where they’re hiding, or how the Aqcarians are controlling them.

“If we could enlist the water dragons to help us on this, that would be helpful,” Morgana said. “I have no idea whether they’ll say yes, but at least they work with mortals, not against them.”

“What about recalling Storm from over in the Realms? Could she help us?”

I shook my head. “For one thing, she’s a Hedge Dragon, and an earth one at that. For another, I last heard she’s taking care of her sister right now. I don’t want to bother her for the moment.” After a moment, I added, “But the fact remains that we’ve got a water-based group out to ransack land-dwellers. Ostensibly at the behest of an ancient sea serpent goddess. So, what else is new?”

“We have another issue—or potential issue. This one is a little closer to home,” Herne said.

“It’s with the Fae Courts,” Morgana said.

I groaned. “When aren’t there problems with the Fae Courts? So, what are Saílle and Névé up to now? Are they still beating each other up? I thought they had agreed to a truce, but apparently, I was wrong.”

“Oh, they don’t have a beef with each other right now, at least not on the surface,” Morgana said. “It won’t last long, of course. They’ve never been able to work together. It’s simply not in their nature. But for the moment, they’ve aligned.”

That little tidbit made me uneasy. “Um…against what?”

“Did Herne tell you about the Elemental Fae?” Morgana asked.

I shook my head. “I’ve been focused on the triplets for the past few months. What’s going on?”

“The Elemental Fae are emerging back into the world,” Cernunnos said.

I stiffened. “What Elemental Fae? Most of the Water Fae belong to either the Light or Dark Courts, don’t they?”

“Yes, as do a number of the Fae belonging to the air, earth, and fire. But there are a few that distanced themselves in the past, so well they’ve mostly been forgotten. And now, at least one branch is coming out of the woodwork,” Morgana said.

“Not only that, but a couple of the Water Fae branches have decided to split off and declare their independence. And that isn’t making either of the queens happy,” Cernunnos said.

“Oh, gods,” I said. “Don’t tell me—civil war among the Fae Courts?”

“Exactly that. And given the emergence of previously forgotten Fae who don’t pay any heed to either the Light or Dark Courts? It’s a volatile time in the Fae Nation.” Herne shrugged. “Saílle and Névé aren’t about to play nice. You know what they’re like.”

“Cripes,” I said. “Yes, I do know.”

Both Saílle—the Dark Fae Queen, and Névé—the Light Fae Queen, were as arrogant and haughty as they come. They’d both put the stamp of approval on my maternal grandmother and my paternal grandfather joining forces to assassinate my parents. And once I’d passed through the Gadawnoin, neither wanted to acknowledge my status, although they didn’t dare say a word. But neither had failed to notice my rising popularity.

Over the past year or so, hundreds of ‘tralaeths’—half-breeds, either part Fae and part human, or part Light and part Dark Fae — had begun to gravitate to my worship. I felt weird about the very concept of being worshipped, but Morgana helped when she pointed out that I was providing a service to those like me simply by validating their very existence.

“What are we going to do?” I asked. “Better yet, what are they going to do?”

“That’s the problem. They’re starting to send out assassins against leaders of some of those groups breaking off from them. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that the kelpies suck—they’re a boil on the world’s ass—but it’s going to be worse once they realize the Fae Queens are after them. They’ll launch their own attacks to retaliate.”

Herne sighed, looking at his mother. “And you can lay odds that both Saílle and Névé will attempt to discredit the Elemental Fae who make themselves known. We can’t let that happen. The Elemental Fae won’t hesitate to fight back, and…” He rolled his eyes and shrugged.

“Oh boy,” I said. Leave it to the Fae Courts to start a war. “So, what do we do?”

Morgana brushed a strand of her hair away from her face. She’d pulled the raven locks into an intricate tangle of braids and curls. She was wearing a designer pair of trousers with a short trench jacket and carrying a Marc Jacobs handbag. It was so odd to see a goddess dressed in designer wear, but that was Morgana—sometimes she showed up in magical clothing, but usually she looked like she was straight off a shopping trip to Saks Fifth Avenue.

“I’ve talked to the leaders of the Crystal Fae. We’re going to facilitate their emergence by placing one of their best in the Wild Hunt, where she’ll work with you on cases and try to forge diplomatic bonds between the Crystal Fae and the Fae Courts. You’ll help her do that.”

I blinked. “Really?”

“Truly,” Morgana said. “Now, if you’ll give me a moment, I’ll bring her in and she can get started.”

Before Herne or I could say a word, my mother-in-law headed out toward the lobby, and the rest of us—including Cernunnos—sat silent, unwilling to break the silence.