The Unicorn Hunter Read Online Free PDF

taunted and threatened each other. Steam billowed up where the warm and cold air twisted and fought against each other, cloaking the field in fog. Through the half-light she could see the faeries of all the courts brandishing weapons in paws, claws and hands. Demon hounds, their shapes shifting to flaunt paws, claws, fur and scales all at once while red eyes glowed in shadowy faces, bayed on all sides as the monarchs faced off. You would never know what they truly looked like until they were close enough to bite. A woman behind Maddy cried out, and that one sound was enough to spread fear through the Sighted like a contagion. Maddy could practically smell the panic rising behind her. The golden-haired armoured men of the Spring and Summer Courts began to round up mounted warriors and line them up in battle formation, facing the Winter Court. Fachtna drew her sword and turned to bellow something at the seething dark mass that was the Winter Court faeries. She pointed with her sword and Maddy watched as trolls, dark-haired gancanagh, their beauty deceptive, and fir dorocha began to form themselves into ranks. The fir dorocha, the ‘dark men’ of Celtic legend, were a shifting faceless mass, terror whispering from them and oozing over the ground toward the opposing courts. Their shadow hands held the silver chains that restrained the hounds.
    â€˜They’re going to charge!’ screamed Roisin.
    Maddy twisted in her grandfather’s grip as she tried to look behind her. Steam obscured her vision and she couldn’t even see if the Sighted were still standing behind them or if they were alone in what was about to become a battlefield.
    â€˜Stand your ground!’ barked Granda, as Maddy, Roisin and Danny squirmed like puppies.
    â€˜We need to go!’ said Danny, his voice high with fear. ‘We need to go right now!’
    â€˜Remember the rules,’ said Granda. ‘Never run. If we run, they’ll chase, and we won’t make it as far as the fence.’
    Maddy froze, her chest hitching with dry sobs, her hair plastered to her head with the condensing steam. She couldn’t think, she could barely see – her whole body shook as she fought the urge to flee.
    â€˜Faeries!’ spat Seamus. ‘You can’t have them in the same space for five minutes without them trying to tear each other’s heads off!’ He drew the shadows of the ground into himself and suddenly his mortal form grew and expanded until he was eye to eye with the other Tuatha. A spread of shadow antlers with too many points for Maddy’s terrified brain to count uncurled through the air and pierced the steam.
    â€˜ENOUGH!’ he roared, his booming voice rollingacross the courts and ending with a clap of thunder that made everyone, mortal and faerie, cover their ears with their hands.
    The silence was immediate and deafening. The Summer and Spring monarchs dimmed their glow and the butterflies rested, trembling, on their clothes. Liadan smiled, a bitter offering, and drew her cold back into herself.
    Maddy heard Danny and Roisin let out a shuddering breath. She could make out whimpers and mutterings behind her. It seemed the Sighted had stood their ground.
    â€˜What now?’ she whispered in the quiet.
    â€˜Now we wait,’ said Granda.
    â€˜For what?’ asked Roisin.
    â€˜For Autumn to arrive.’

CHAPTER FIVE
    A perfect silence reigned for a few heartbeats before the assembled courts began to grumble among themselves. Aengus Óg drew himself up to his full height and looked down his long nose at Seamus.
    â€˜How diminished you are, brother, that you have to construct your true form with shadows and air before you can face me,’ he sneered. ‘Has clinging on to the mortal world weakened you so much?’
    â€˜Not so weak that I cannot remember who gave you that crown,
brother
,’ growled Seamus. ‘Shall we see if I can take it away?’
    â€˜Why do you