Night of the Dark Horse (An Allegra Fairweather Mystery) by Janni Nell

spots—two smaller ones and a long streak. When I touched the scratch on my forehead, my fingers came away bloody. Deciding to temporarily abandon my search for Liam, I limped back to the road. My car was nowhere in sight. Nor was the big oak or the triple fork in the road.
    Okay, being lost wasn’t good, but following the road would eventually lead me somewhere. Maybe even back to my car.
    I’d been following the tarmac for only a few minutes when I heard a thin childish voice. “Hey.” It came from the woods.
    I left the road and headed beneath the shady branches, calling, “Where are you?”
    “Up here.”
    My eyes followed the sound of his voice, but... “I can’t see you.”
    “I’m in the big tree.”
    “There’s more than one big tree. Give me directions. Should I walk forward? Should I go left? Right?”
    “Forward. No, that’s too far. Go back. Stop. There.”
    Looking up, I saw a tiny figure far above. I’m talking fifty feet at least.
    “Liam?”
    “Did Mum send you to look for me?” He sounded kind of hopeful.
    Choosing not to disappoint him, I avoided the question and asked one of my own, “What’re you doing up there?”
    “Climbing.” He tried to make it sound like an adventure, but all I could hear was a frightened kid.
    I adopted a casual tone. “Need help getting down?”
    “No.” He was so lying. And he’d never admit to being stuck.
    “Bet you’ve got a great view up there. Think I’ll come up and take a look.” I swung myself onto the lowest branch.
    With two good knees I’d have made it no trouble, but the sudden shafts of pain in the knee I’d twisted slowed me down. Not that it mattered. Liam wasn’t going anywhere. Unless he lost his grip and fell. Don’t go there , Allegra .
    When I was halfway up, I called, “You okay?”
    “I’m grand.” A double-dose of bravado failed to hide the tremor in his voice.
    What had possessed him to climb such a tall tree? Was it just a kid thing? Or were my suspicions correct? He’d flown up there as an eagle, shifted into human form and couldn’t shift back. Fairy kids sometimes took a while to gain full control of their powers.
    Now, I know what you’re thinking—if Liam was Fae, how could he live in the human world without aging prematurely? Well, here’s the thing—changelings aren’t pureblood Fae. They’re a mixture of pureblood and something else. Often it’s crude-fairies, like leprechauns or elves. Very occasionally it’s human.
    At last I reached the branch below the one on which Liam was perched. My muscles trembled as I hauled myself up and sat astride Liam’s branch. I kept close to the trunk, unwilling to risk a broken branch and a swift plummet to earth.
    The first thing I noticed was that my toe wasn’t itching, which didn’t exactly lend credibility to my changeling-shapeshifter theory. Still, Liam did have the pale ethereal look of the Fae, except that his hair was glossy black rather than the pale blond common among purebloods. His eyes were more amber than blue.
    “How long have you been up here?” I asked.
    “All night.”
    “Oh come on, Liam, tell the truth. I know you couldn’t have been here all night.” I rubbed my head, which was still stinging from the eagle’s attack. He had some serious explaining to do.
    “I climbed up at sunset,” he said. “It got dark and I decided to stay.”
    “So you slept in the tree like a bird?”
    “I don’t need sleep,” he said, and yawned, quickly covering his open mouth. The movement forced him off balance and he slipped sideways. I launched toward him, snaked out my hand and locked my fingers onto his jacket. For long seconds we stayed like that, him hanging, me summoning my last reserves of strength. I was tempted to let him fall, just to see whether he’d shift into an eagle, but I didn’t. What if I was wrong? With a super-human effort, I yanked him up and deposited him on the branch.
    “Probably best if you hang on tight,” I said,