Read To Catch a Queen for Free Online

light onto the path with utter darkness between them, but there were still walkers and joggers out. That made the odds of running into a fairy slimmer. On the other hand, Michael and Beau didn’t stand out from the crowd. Nobody seemed to find it strange that a man was walking a dog in the park, even at night.
    They’d have found it a lot stranger if they’d known what he was doing. He hardly spared a glance for the ordinary people, but he paused in those gaps between pools of light and tried to unfocus his eyes enough to see what was hidden.
    So far, the fairy activity appeared to be minimal, just a few of the tiny things that lived in the bushes. There were no signs of a major gathering that implied a market or revel that night, but it was early still. If there were a market, the bubble of space between this world and the Realm wouldn’t form until midnight, so the fairy folk who existed in this sphere wouldn’t be trooping toward the market until much later. He didn’t want to risk missing anything, so he wasn’t yet ready to give up for the evening.
    If he were totally honest with himself, he’d have to admit that he had no idea what he thought he was doing. He knew where Jen was and what was happening to her, and Sophie and the two enchantresses were working to find a way to get her safely out of the Realm, in spite of her long captivity and the fact that she’d consumed fairy food and drink, which often prevented a return to the real world. It was unlikely that he, a relative novice to all this, would stumble upon the solution by himself while searching for fairies in the park.
    But he had to do something . He wasn’t sleeping much, anyway, and he might as well be out searching for news of his wife instead of tossing and turning. At least when he came back after one of his long nightly walks, he was tired enough physically to get a few hours of good sleep. If he stayed home, he barely closed his eyes and had nightmares when he did so. There was always a chance that he’d find some critical piece of information, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to live with himself if they failed and he knew he hadn’t done absolutely everything he could.
    Tonight, though, he had another purpose. He was working a case of his own. It was a chance for him to repay Sophie for everything she was doing for him. She wouldn’t be able to investigate this herself, since it was unlikely that anyone would say anything about a fake fairy queen to the real one.
    They’d just reached a dark patch between lampposts when Beau growled—a serious growl, not his usual mildly irritated at being awakened from a nap growl. “What is it, buddy?” Michael asked softly, then felt like an idiot. The dog wasn’t likely to supply specifics. His own senses on high alert, he detected a menacing vibe, like he’d felt in the park that morning.
    A terrified scream rang out nearby and before he knew what he was doing, he was rushing in the direction of the scream, his cop instincts to run toward trouble kicking in. Only after he’d run several steps did he notice that he didn’t feel any tug on Beau’s leash. The dog was running with him, which put his senses on even higher alert. The enchantresses had told him that animals had keen instincts when it came to the fae, and Beau’s experiences in the Realm made his instincts keener than most.
    Another cry rang out, and this time it sounded like a name. A woman’s voice, shrill with desperation, cried, “Daithi! Daithi!” There was no answering call, and then there came another wordless cry of terror.
    A figure came hurtling out of the darkness toward Michael, and his hand went instinctively to the weapon on his hip before he saw that it was a woman fleeing as though she was in fear for her life. She saw him just before she reached him and pulled up short with a gasp of fright.
    “It’s okay, I’m a police officer,” he said, holding his hands up reassuringly.
    She looked behind her, like she