Free When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears: The Goblin Wars, Book Three by Kersten Hamilton Page B

hard enough could see him, though they might mistake him for a shrub. The phooka curled at Joe’s feet was a different story. Gil was as invisible as a cat-sídhe to those who weren’t gifted with second sight.
    “Welcome,” the Green Man said after Raynor had introduced Seamus. “Any friend of Raynor’s is a friend of mine.” He turned to Raynor, more slowly than Teagan had ever seen him move. “He is a friend, isn’t he?”
    “I think so,” Raynor said. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
    “I’ll plant myself somewhere soon. This little one needed watching. He’s a long way from home.”
    Gil could have been a wild boy painted by Raphael, beautiful in face and form except for his long, tufted ears and his left hand. Teagan couldn’t call it deformed, exactly. It was pink and perfectly formed—for a pig’s trotter. Gil’s human right hand was pressed to his wounded neck, and his eyes were closed but he couldn’t manage to keep the lashes still. Feigning death , Tea realized.
    “Phookas are the broken ones,” she said when she saw Seamus staring at the boy’s two-knuckled hand. “Twisted by the Dark Man for his own amusement.” Gil was going to need some clothes. Currently, he wore nothing but a rag wrapped around his middle. Only the mild winds of May and June blow in Mag Mell. Never the winds of October in Chicago.
    Joe creaked as he turned. “What happened, Tea? I persuaded Mag Mell to let you carry iron into realms where no iron belongs. I made a way for Finn to follow you.” His hair shook like leaves in a gentle wind. “I thought you would bring Fear out, and Mag Mell would be well again.”
    “I’m sorry, Joe,” Teagan said. “Things were so different from what I expected. Mab is trying to destroy Fear Doirich. The Dark Man is going insane.”
    “He’s killing her,” Joe said. “Killing Mag Mell. She was weeping. I heard the willow cry out before—” He shrugged his charred shoulder.
    “I’m so sorry,” Teagan said again.
    Joe lifted his eyes to the buildings beyond the fence and across the alley. “Plans can go wrong. Even very good plans.”
    Teagan nodded. Green Men planned forests and gardens that covered continents. Gardens that might take a hundred thousand years to grow, but that could be destroyed in what must seem like the blink of an eye to them.
    “I had to make a split-second decision,” Teagan explained. “I chose to save Gil.” Well, there it was. The lawyer’s horrified look was back.
    The phooka gave up his ruse and sat up. “That’s not my real name.”
    “Well, you’re stuck with it,” Teagan said. “Unless you want to tell me—”
    “No,” Gil said quickly. “I don’t. You tried to bend me.”
    Now not only was Seamus looking horrified, Raynor was frowning. He had warned against using her Highborn power to bend creatures’ wills into making promises they didn’t want to.
    She’d thought she’d had a really good reason to bend Gil to her will in Mag Mell—and she still wasn’t sure it was completely wrong. Phookas’ own wills got them into all kinds of trouble. But knowing she’d destroyed his trust hurt more than she’d expected.
    “What’s in that bowl? Is it good to eat?”
    “No. It’s soap and water to clean your neck. I’m sorry that I tried to bend you, Gil.”
    “I like your other eyes better,” the phooka said. He was jiggling like Aiden on a sugar high, but Teagan couldn’t tell if it was fear, shock, or just the cold.
    “What other eyes?” Seamus asked.
    Teagan winced. How could she possibly explain? He already thought she was a goblin. If he ever saw her walking as a bilocate with molten golden eyes, he would probably call in an exorcist.
    “Shhh, shhh, calm down, little one.” Joe put a huge hand on the phooka’s shoulder. “No need to get excited.”
    Gil was little compared to Joe, but he was still as tall as Teagan. She wondered how phooka boys felt about pastel colors, as she wasn’t sure anyone else’s