put a stop to it. Bran, Charlesâbut they would have to do it with more violence. âShe can do that?â
âYes. And more importantly, everyone knows it.â
âWhat kind of fae is she? Isnât Dana a German name? I thought most of the fae were Britishâyou know, Welsh, Irish, and Scots.â
âMost of the fae we see in the US are Northern European: Celtic, German, French, Cornish, English. Dana isnât her real name. This decade or so sheâs been using the name âDana Shea,â a variant of daoine sidhe. A lot of the older fae and some of the witches wonât use their own namesâanything that belongs to them for such a long time develops power over them and can be used against them, the same way scraps of hair or fingernails can.â
âDo you know what her real name is? Or what kind of fae she is?â
âI donât know itâI donât think even Da knows it. Though she is a Gray Lord, one of the most powerful fae. They rule the fae sort of like Da does the wolves.â He glanced at her. âIf Da was a psychotic serial killer, maybe. I do know what kind of fae she is, though. You meet her and talk to her a bit. Then tell me what you think.â
Anna gave a half-amused huff. âWhat do I get if Iâm right?â
His eyes lightened with the wolf who lurked inside him, and the hunger in his gaze told her exactly what he meant when he said, âThe same thing you get if youâre wrong.â
She waited for the fear or even trepidation that thoughts of sex had usually brought to herâbut it never came. Just a welcome tickly feeling in her stomach. In less than a monthâs time, heâd made serious inroads on her problems in that area. âGood,â she told him.
He smiled at her and relaxed against his seat.
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SEATTLE highways had a lot more vertical variation than those in Chicago. The roads rose above water, tangled and burrowed under hills where houses sat unmoved by the thousands of cars that traveled beneath them. Over the smell of the cars was the scent of water and salt from the Puget Sound and various other saltwater lakes and ponds. The gray skies leaked here and there, not enough to turn the wipers on full but too much to let the rain accumulate long.
Following Charlesâs directions, she exited the highway and found herself tootling along a slower road in what could just as well have been a small town in Britain as a part of Seattle. It looked old, quaint, and beautiful, if a little self-conscious. On the water to her right was a series of docks with boats and houseboats, while on her left, narrow buildings covered the side of a hill that got progressively steeper as she drove.
A huge silver bridge arched over the water and the road she was driving, soaring up to land on the top of a steep hill above. The name of the cross street that ran directly under the bridge had Anna pulling her foot off the gas so she could be sure that she was reading the street sign correctly.
âTroll?â
âWhat?â Charles had been looking toward the water, but he turned back to look at her.
âThereâs a street here called Troll?â
He smiled suddenly. âIâd forgotten about that. Why donât you follow it up the hill?â
She turned the car up the road and thought for a moment the decision was a mistake because the little blue car strained to crawl up the hill, which was even steeper than it had looked from the bottom. The road was narrow and claustrophobic, with the bridge for roofing, its steel feet closing in from left and right.
She was so busy worrying about driving that she didnât see it until they were quite close. The road they were on ended and teed into another road. The bridge overhead plowed into the top of the hill. And in the space between the road and the end of the bridge crouched a giant something.
Without consulting Charles, she parked.
Someone had