Fire Kin

by M. J. Scott

  • • •

  Flames.

  Flames and darkness and the sounds of metal clashing. The night blurred together into a whirl of those three things as we made our way toward our goal. Fought our way deeper and deeper into the Night World with blood and steel, meeting Beast and Blood and humans who stood against us.

  Guy and Simon and I fought together. I hadn’t expected Simon, but he wielded his sword with as much deadly grace as his brother and several times called sunlight to clear our path of looming Blood. I was aware of Rhian fighting near me several times, carving her path with her usual ruthless efficiency. She too had a Templar beside her. A one-handed Templar whose sword flamed with sunlight.

  Liam.

  Well, I wasn’t going to argue about his right to be here even if a one-armed knight was more vulnerable than the rest of us.

  It took several hours to reach the mansion that was the point of entry to the warrens that Lily had marked. Other squadrons would be trying different paths down into the depths. I thought I heard the cathedral bell tolling midnight far behind us, but that might have been just my imagination. The night was clouded and dark, so there was no way to mark time by the passage of the moon above us. It would be darker still where we were about to go, so the time didn’t really matter.

  There was a brief respite when we reached the mansion, a few minutes taken to let the men join up again. Those who could.

  I squared aching shoulders and nodded at Guy. He shouted more orders, and I boosted his voice so that it would be heard by all.

  I wished I could boost everything else as easily. Make the men fresh and unharmed. But I couldn’t do that much. I was tired and so was everyone else who fought with me.

  And the worst was yet to come.

  I decided that perhaps a little demonstration might at least lift their spirits, so I stole Liam’s idea and called a flame to dance around my blade as we headed down into the warrens.

  • • •

  Fighting our way through tunnels and darkness was just as bad as I expected it to be. The Blood had extinguished all the lanterns—they and the Beasts could see just fine in the dark after all—and left traps and dead ends for us to throw ourselves against as they came floating out of the darkness to attack us.

  We had lanterns and the sunmages used sunlamps to aid us, but we had to be careful not to tire them out. There was no way for them to recharge their powers down here.

  Worst of all were the forces of Trusted who charged out to meet us. It was hard to show mercy when someone was trying to take your head off. The casualties piled up, each crumpled corpse dressed in red-stained white making me sick to the pit of my stomach.

  But still we fought on, searching for Ignatius Grey, until we’d come so far and so deep that even I couldn’t tell exactly where we were. The earthsong came from all around me, though it was strangely muted, as though the Blood had done something to twist the sound of it. Still, it was power to draw upon and I used it to light torches as we paused, panting, when we reached a large open area where tunnels branched in all directions.

  There was still no sign of Ignatius.

  “How long do we keep going?” I muttered to Guy. “We could go round in circles forever down here.”

  Guy grinned at me. “Not losing your nerve, are you, Your Majesty?”

  Beside him, Simon laughed. There was a cut on his forehead that had dripped blood over half his face. The effect of crusted blood and soot smeared across his skin made his smile more disturbing than funny.

  “No,” I said. “But I’ll be bloody glad to get out of these Veil-damned tunnels.”

  “You and me both,” Guy said. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, which only smudged the dirt on his face farther across it.

  I wondered if I looked as bad as they did. I had ditched the armor I’d worn before the Treaty Hall. It was pretty; I would give my smiths credit where it was due. But it wasn’t what I was used to and I didn’t want to be hampered by strange armor. So I was wearing my old mail and leathers and carrying my own sword, not the queen’s. I reached for the canteen hanging at my hip and swigged water as I considered our options, recalling Lily’s maps to mind. I had a copy of them stuffed beneath my mail, but this wasn’t really the time to take a long enough break to study them in detail. We had to keep moving. I corked the canteen and wiped my mouth, tasting blood and sweat on my skin.

  “Which way, Your Majesty?” Simon asked.

  Where was Ignatius? Where would I go if I was him? Up or down? If he’d been a wraith, I’d have picked down. Down where he could hide in the earth and laugh at us as we searched for him. But he wasn’t and I had to hope like hell that he didn’t have another handy wraith baby to give him wraithlike powers to walk the shadow.

  So for him, up had to be safer. Offered more chance of escape.

  But maybe that was what he wanted me to think.

  I spat a curse as I tried to choose, seeking the Lady’s guidance on this insane throw of the dice we were attempting.

  Before I could give the order to move onward, Lily stepped out of the tunnel to my right.

  “I found Ignatius,” she said. “He’s this way.”

  I could’ve kissed her. Simon did kiss her, looking as though he didn’t know whether he wanted to do that or kill her. Guy just grinned, a quick, savage gleam of white in his soot-smeared face.

  I knew how he felt. If there was one thing I was going to do if I lived through this, it would be to see what I could do to change the attitudes of the Fae to Lily’s kind. I knew what the dislike was born of; I knew how wraiths were made. The violent joining of near-turned Trusted and Fae women. Some humans went into a kind of frenzy in the hours before they died and rose again during the process the Blood used to create more of their kind. And it was men in this state who sired wraiths.

  She was born to darkness, yet Lily strove for the light. And she might just have saved us all. I was going to make sure that there weren’t more wraiths born against the will of the women who bore them, but I was going to make sure we would honor this one and any of her kind who chose to make themselves known. And Alder’s baby would be taught to be proud of who she was.

  I didn’t yet know if I could save her mother, but I could offer her that much.

  I gave Simon a minute more to satisfy himself that Lily was all in one piece and not hurt and then I told her to take us to Ignatius.

  Our progress went more swiftly. I didn’t know if Lily had already cleared the tunnels we traveled through, or if the Blood were falling back, but we only encountered a few parties of them standing in our way. Between Simon’s sunlight and my fire, we made short work of them. I didn’t want to risk any more of the men with us until we reached our destination. I took care to damp down the flames behind us, having no desire to go up in flames if the warrens caught alight, but we moved swiftly, following Lily’s unwavering directions.

  We ended up several levels above where we’d started, close to the surface, I thought, maybe only two or three levels below the earth. Lily paused at a massive metal door. “He’s in there,” she said. And then she faded out of sight.

  I blinked at her disappearance and then pulled my focus back to the door. The last barrier between me and my quarry. It was barred with iron. Perhaps Ignatius thought that would stop me, but he’d misjudged me and the company I fought with. If I could stand to be in the ward hidden beneath St. Giles, then this small amount of iron here wouldn’t stop me.

  I summoned my will and reached for the muted power around me and blew the door inward.

  • • •

  I ducked through the shattered doorway. Ignatius stood in the middle of the room, pointing a pistol at me. Alone. I skidded to a halt and lifted my own gun. Was it coming down to this? At who was faster to pull the trigger? I almost laughed. The last time I’d fought a duel with weapons, it had been Stellan and swords. The Fae didn’t fight with guns. They were a human invention. One I’d learned to embrace in my years away f
rom the City but battles weren’t duels.

  “So you made it this far, Your Majesty,” Ignatius said. “Well done.”

  I tilted my head at him. “Ignatius Grey, I bind you to stand trial for crimes against the City and the treaty.”

  He laughed then. A weirdly rough sound. But I didn’t pay much attention to it. I watched his hand where it held the gun. And I saw the tiny movement as his fingers started to squeeze inward. I flung a binding spell at him, but I wasn’t quite as quick as Lily, who appeared behind him and casually knocked him out with the hilt of her dagger. She smiled as she peered down at him where he lay unconscious on the expensive carpet. “That was for Reggie, Alder, and the others, you prick,” she said. Then she turned her smile on me.

  “I believe this room might be booby-trapped, Your Majesty. I suggest you take this”—she pushed Ignatius over with her foot—“and get out of here.”

  “Excellent suggestion, my lady,” I said with a bow. Guy hoisted Ignatius over his shoulder and then we ran like hell.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  BRYONY

  The cathedral bells started to ring wildly, jolting me from a half doze. I’d sat down for a minute with the tea Father Cho had insisted I drink and closed my eyes just for a moment. . . .

  But the sound of the bells brought me to my feet. I barely knew where I was, but I let my feet carry me out of the room and grabbed the nearest Templar.

  “What do the bells mean?” I asked him.

  He laughed and pointed. “Come see for yourself, my lady.” I followed the line of his finger and got my bearings at last. I was near the entryway to the Brother House, and the doors were open. I ran for them, nearly cannoning into Father Cho.

  “I was just coming to fetch you,” he said, steadying me with his hands. He grinned up at me. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen the Abbott General smiling. It was infectious, that grin, and the dancing light in the tired dark eyes.

  Father Cho stepped out of my path and ushered me forward. It was still dark, but I walked out onto the steps in time to see Asharic and Guy ride into the courtyard and come to a halt under the row of hanging lamps lighting the courtyard, Simon and Lily close on their heels. Guy was carrying someone in front of him. Someone tied hand and foot, I noticed. Someone that Guy deposited none too gently onto the cobblestones once he dismounted.

  The man’s long hair was white against the dark gray stones. So was his skin.

  “Ignatius Grey, I presume,” I said half under my breath.

  “Indeed,” Father Cho said. “God is good.”

  “Eluria e’tan mei,” I agreed. Bless the Veil. And bless the woman who had borne that title. We were about to avenge her. And the king who replaced her seemed to be—at least to my frantically seeking eyes—whole and unharmed.

  “Eluria e’tan mei,” I repeated, and watched Ash give orders for Ignatius to be locked up below the Brother House.

  I followed him down to the cells, added my power to his as we bound the cell in ward upon ward, adding to the binding that Ash had cast on Ignatius and the silver shackles that held him spread-eagled on the low wooden bed they’d laid him on. He wasn’t going to move or escape or take the easy way out, if either of us could help it.

  “What are you going to do with him?” I asked after Ash had sent the guards away.

  Ash stared through the grille in the door. “Put him on trial.”

  “Do you think he’ll confess to killing the queen?”

  He drew down the cover that closed off the grille with a snap and turned away from the cell. “That one? I doubt it. But there will be others eager enough to save their skins and make peace.” His voice was tired. “But that’s a problem for tomorrow. We have to finish the job tonight. Round up the alphas and as many Blood and Beasts as we can.”

  “Let the others do that.” I laid my hand on his cheek. “You’re exhausted.”

  “I’m the king,” he said. “It’s my fight to end.”

  “You’ve already ended it. You’ve got Ignatius. Spread word of that and the rest of them will give up.”

  “I’m not sure how many are left,” Ash said. “Not Blood, at least. There was fire in the warrens by the time we got out.”

  “Yours?”

  He jerked his head toward the cell. “His. He booby-trapped half the goddamned place. I decided not to interfere.”

  “Adeline won’t be pleased.”

  “Adeline can build her own damned warrens,” Ash said. He closed his hand around mine, then stopped. “You’re not wearing my ring.”

  “It’s a little big.” I pulled my chain free of my dress, showed him the ring safely hanging there. “I didn’t want to lose it.”

  He went very still, his eyes seeking mine. “What does that mean?”

  Time for the truth. Because there was no denying it. My life would have to change some, but I would take that over a life without Ash. “It means that you’re not doing this alone,” I said. “Lady help us both.”

  He smiled then and my heart seemed bigger than my chest suddenly. “Don’t think I’m going to sit and embroider in Summerdale. The court and all its stupid rules bore me senseless.”

  “I’m the king,” he said. “I get to make the rules. And one of them is whatever my lady wants.”

  And then he kissed me and the night fell away.

  ASH

  In the end, the trial took more time to organize than it did to hold. As I’d predicted, Ignatius’ former allies were all too eager to confess his crimes for him in exchange for amnesty. Some of them I granted it to. Most of the Beast Kind packs had had a swift and deadly change of alphas, and the new alphas were all keen to sign a new treaty. I would keep a careful eye on them but hoped that Ignatius would be enough of an example to keep them in line for some time to come.

  Even Salvia had found her tongue in the end and confessed that she had worked with Ignatius, helping him with the attacks on the Treaty Hall and the queen. I hadn’t threatened her, but she had told me anyway, perhaps assuming that I was as vindictive as she was and that I would harm her Family to wring the truth out of her.

  Her testimony alone, witnessed by my father and Lord sa’Eleniel and the other heads of the Families, was enough to condemn Ignatius.

  I hadn’t made up my mind what I was going to do with Salvia herself when I returned to the City. I didn’t want to execute her, but exile was not a fitting punishment for treason. She had named others who were also now waiting on my judgment, but none of them were highly ranked. Some would have been coerced and some just following orders. I doubted many had known just how far Salvia’s plot went, but I would deal appropriately with those who had.

  On the morning of Ignatius’ trial, they brought me word that Salvia had been found dead in her chamber in the palace. I didn’t know if her husband had brought her poison or she had found some other way. I didn’t ask, just ordered that her body be returned to her Family. Maybe that was cowardly of me, but it was justice of a kind and I had enough death on my hands already.

  With more to come. One more in particular, today.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Bryony asked me one last time as we waited outside the humans’ council chamber where the trial was to be held.

  “Yes. It’s time to end this. Time for peace.”

  I bent and kissed her hand where my ring covered half of one finger, the colors like fire tamed to solid form. “Go take your seat.”

  I watched her go. Waited for my name to be called. Then I walked into the courtroom to sentence Ignatius Grey to death.

  The outcome was a foregone conclusion. We had the evidence we needed and there could be no mercy in this case. The Veiled Queen had established her peace with a display of power and law as well.

  It seemed that I was to follow in her footsteps a little longer.

  Not surprisingly, Ignatius stayed silent throughout the short trial. He listened to the list of charges. Assassination of the queen, engineering the breaking of the treat
y, the explosion at Treaty Hall. The attacks on St. Giles and other targets. Destruction and death and treachery to spare. Buried close to the end of the list was the kidnap of Fae citizens. Compared to the other offenses, it must have seemed minor to those listening and I hoped that it would stay that way. Better not to have the truth of what he’d been doing down there in the depths of his warrens known too widely. We didn’t want others amongst the Blood to begin to wonder why a wraith was such a prize.

  Ignatius had refused to confess anything to me and I’d refused to allow the Templars or anybody else to attempt to extract the information from him. I might be executioner, but I wouldn’t be a torturer if I didn’t have to be. And I didn’t have to be, given the number of witnesses ready to speak against him. I spared the Fae women that part too. No one needed to know the details of what they had been through, unless they chose to share them. They were safely back in Summerdale under the care of the healers.

  So I spoke the words I had to speak and watched them lead Ignatius back to his cell.

  And at sunset I waited for him in front of the ruins of Treaty Hall, sword in hand.

  There’d been arguments aplenty about that in the time since we’d captured him. Guy and Simon and even Lily had argued for the right to wield the sword. But I’d refused them. Simon would regret it, if I read the man right, no matter how much he might think he wouldn’t. Lily would do it with no regret, but I didn’t want her to have more blood on her hands. She deserved all the grace the Veil could grant her from this point onward. Without her, Ignatius might well have been the one wielding the sword.

  She had brought the Fae women out of the warrens on the night we defeated Ignatius and somehow shepherded them through the fighting back to St. Giles besides. I still didn’t know how she’d managed it. It was going to take the women a long time to recover. I had gone to see them and Violet had told me just a little of what Ignatius had done to them. And that there had been others before them, who hadn’t survived his attempts. But now, thanks to Lily, they had a chance.