by M. J. Scott
“Excellent.” He smiled. “How do you feel about eggs?”
Promising breakfast might have been too hasty, I thought, surveying the contents of Guy’s pantry. Three brown eggs sat next to half a loaf of bread that had seen better days. No herbs, no jam. Plenty of tea and the vile chicory coffee Guy favored. Maybe there would be milk, butter, and cheese in the cool box.
I stared at the bare shelves, not yet ready to turn around. Not until I was sure the relief I’d felt on seeing Shadow sitting there at Guy’s table wasn’t written all over my face.
I’d thought she might well run. Yet she was still here. Of course, she didn’t yet know what we wanted from her.
I hadn’t yet determined how best to tell her that particular piece of information. Guy had agreed to give me a few days to convince her, but that hardly seemed long enough.
But she was still here. Every minute she was still here was a chance to convince her to stay for the minute after that.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be a bountiful breakfast doing the convincing.
Still, I didn’t care if I was being recklessly optimistic. Regardless of whether she helped us, taking Shadow—gods and suns, I needed to find out her damned name—had been the right thing to do. I turned to shake my head at Guy. “Remind me to talk to Mother about hiring you a servant. One who might provide food occasionally—”
Pounding on the door interrupted me.
Shadow was out of the chair, hand on her dagger, before I could blink. Guy wasn’t much slower. Sword in one hand, pistol in the other, every inch the warrior, even though he wore nothing more than a loose shirt and ancient trousers.
Beside him, Shadow looked small, though no less ready. Or deadly.
My own pistol was under the sofa I’d slept on. Out of reach. Suns. At least I still had the dagger from last night.
Shadow looked at Guy. “Are you expecting someone?”
“No.” Guy glanced at her, then nodded once and tossed me the gun. “Take her out through the garden.”
The pounding started again. “Guy, we know you’re in there. Open up.”
Guy’s shoulders relaxed a fraction. “Templars,” he said softly, and Shadow turned pale, looking poised to flee.
Thank God she couldn’t use her powers right now or she’d be gone and I’d lose my chance.
But pale as she was, she stood her ground as she focused toward the door. “I smell Beast Kind.” Her voice was even softer than Guy’s.
“Templars don’t work with the Beasts,” Guy said.
“Then maybe those aren’t your Templars. Or the Beast might be glamoured and unseen.”
I tightened my grip on the gun. Guy’s apartment was well warded, but that only helped prevent anything from entering, not from surrounding them. “Why would a Beast be here?”
Both Shadow and Guy looked at me as if I were lacking my wits. I shook my head at them. “Yes, obviously they’re after her, but what I meant was, how would they know where we were?”
“Guy isn’t exactly inconspicuous. Someone must have seen you at Halcyon. They could be here for him just as easily as me,” Shadow said.
“Then why wait until now to make a move? If they waited for daylight, it would seem more likely it’s you they’re after.”
She shrugged. “It may have taken them some time to find out where Guy lived.”
“Or those are just Templars out there,” Guy said, looking skeptical.
Shadow hitched one shoulder. “Maybe. But I smell Beast.”
“Do the Templars know about her?” I ground the words through gritted teeth. I’d hoped Guy would keep his mouth shut about Shadow, but I’d known he would follow his own code of honor. He had given his oath not to hurt her, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t report our plan to the Abbott General. And he’d left the apartment for a time earlier.
A shrug. Then Guy’s eyes moved to Shadow. “Time to choose. If those are Templars out there, then I can talk them round if you’re staying. If it’s a Beast, I can buy you some time. Are you in or out?”
“What are you talking about?” I snarled. “Either way, we’re not handing her over.”
Guy lifted his eyebrows at this, but Shadow shook her head at both of us. “I’m in.”
Guy gave a curt nod. “Right. So get going, little brother. Just remember what we talked about. Take her somewhere safe.”
Easier said than done. If Shadow was right and Lucius already knew where she was and was willing to come up against a Templar to get her back, then not many places in the city would meet that definition.
Still, I could worry about that once we were safely gone from here. I grabbed her arm and ran.
Chapter Six
Simon dragged me helter-skelter through the apartment, out a back door—I should’ve known a Templar wouldn’t have a home with only one exit—and down several flights of stairs to another heavy wooden door.
“Wait,” I said as he reached for the handle.
“What?”
“Let me check first.” I gestured for him to move back.
He stood his ground. “How? You can’t do your disappearing act in daylight.”
I ducked around him. “No, but my ears and nose are a lot more sensitive than yours.” I moved closer to the door, sniffed the faint drift of air traveling from outside. It smelled clean. Like sun-warmed brick and grass and flowers. None of the musky earth smell of a Beast. Maybe they didn’t know about the back entrance.
Or maybe Lucius had sent Trusted with the Beasts. Not that I could detect any fresh human scents either. Just Simon behind me, a smell I did my best to ignore before the need could latch on to it.
It didn’t really matter what waited for us. We were safer on the run than trapped in a stairway. Still, I wished I had more weapons than just my dagger and the stilettos. I hoped Simon knew how to do more than twirl a pistol. Templar training should mean he was competent, and he’d fought well at Halcyon, but still . . . the thought of going out into the daylight with only my daggers and Simon’s gun made my skin crawl. Unpleasant choices seemed to be my fate right now.
I unsheathed my dagger. “All right. Let’s go.”
I threw open the door and we bolted out into the tangled garden. Simon grabbed for my hand and led the way. No Beasts appeared from between the neat rows of trees that lined the fence either side of the long lot. We didn’t stop until we’d boosted ourselves over the fence and put several blocks between us and Guy’s building.
With every step I wondered what, in the names of the lords of hell, I had done.
Agreed to stay here.
Signed my own death warrant with Lucius probably.
Signed my own death warrant with the Templars if I turned around and changed my mind.
Doomed myself either way.
Not a situation I was reconciled to.
I needed a plan.
First things first, survive the next few hours and days. Stay. Temporarily. Until Lucius got bored and Simon and Guy lowered their guard. Then I could run. Would run. Need be damned.
There were other cities. Other places my skills could be valuable.
Places I’d be alone. I slapped the thought away. I’d always been alone at the heart of it.
Ahead of me, Simon slowed. I looked around, trying to get my bearings. Back in the direction we’d come, the Cathedral spire poked up above the surrounding buildings. Guy’s place obviously wasn’t too far from the Brother House after all.
In the distance, hills rose behind the city. That way was Summerdale. West. Entrance to the Veiled World. Which meant we were heading into one of the rougher border boroughs, Lower Watt or Mickleskin, depending on our exact location. Boroughs where the edges of Night World and human territories blurred.
Good. Residents of the border boroughs kept their heads down and didn’t ask questions. The weapons we were carrying wouldn’t particularly make us stand out. On the other hand, there could be Trusted out and about. Or more Beast Kind. Likely would be, if
my nose was right and there was a Beast at Guy’s.
If it hadn’t already gotten past him. My spine crawled and I tried to shake off the sensation of being followed. Guy was a Templar. He would hold.
I hurried my stride, caught up to Simon. “It isn’t safe here. We could be seen.”
“I know.”
He didn’t look glowing and happy anymore. In fact, he looked as close to furious as I’d seen him. “We need a ’cab or a hackney.”
I wasn’t going to argue with that. The problem might be finding one in this part of the City. Still, in full day, there might be some enterprising—or foolhardy—drivers out and about.
If they were around, they’d stick to the busier areas. “We might have a better chance near a station or hostel. Where’s the nearest underground?”
Simon paused, doing the same rapid scan of our immediate surroundings as I had. Then he pointed. “Melchior’s a few streets west.”
Melchior. The station was nearly the center of the City, and the tracks that spat out of its tunnels heading north and south along the Great Northern Line almost precisely defined the boundary of day and night. Neutral territory but guaranteed to have both humans and Night Worlders crowding its platforms. Not my first choice but we didn’t have many alternatives.
“Can you do anything to change our appearance?” I said, trying to think.
“No.” Simon shook his head. “My talents never ran much to glamours.”
Hell. There was nothing for it, then. We would walk until we found transport.
We set off, Simon leading. I didn’t mind. At this point any attack seemed more likely to come from someone trailing us from Guy’s than a frontal assault. Apparently the Lady liked Simon after all, because we’d only been walking a minute or so when a ’cab appeared on the horizon and actually stopped when Simon hailed it.
The driver looked relieved when Simon directed him to St. Giles Hospital, tilting his grimy bowler hat with a muttered “Have you there in no time.”
As soon as Simon shut the door, the ’cab shuddered from the curb and rapidly gained speed, engine hissing in protest, as we headed back toward the human boroughs.
“Is that a good idea?” I asked. “Won’t we just draw the Beast Kind to the hospital?”
“St. Giles is a Haven,” Simon said confidently.
I didn’t share his certainty. If I’d been right and there was a Beast at Guy’s, such a rapid attack didn’t speak to Lucius being sane and rational and worried about minor details like respecting the treaties and honoring Haven laws. But I stayed silent. Simon was the one who knew the human world and its defenses. I’d put myself in his hands now.
I stared out the window, searching for any sight of the Trusted or Beasts I knew. Out of the sunlight, I felt marginally safer but knew it was an illusion. The windows still let in enough light that I couldn’t shadow.
Silence, well, what passed for silence in a ’cab with the thumps and hisses of its steam engine, settled between us. Simon had taken the side nearest the driver and I’d made sure there was as much space as possible between us. I didn’t want the need to flare here and now, distracting and weakening me even further.
Despite the gap and the odors of steam and coal, the smell of warm male, that peculiarly clean spice I was starting to automatically class as Simon, drifted toward me. Deep inside, the need stirred, softening my defenses, making me want to move closer, breathe deeper.
I set my jaw against it. Wanting wasn’t on the agenda. Particularly not with this man.
“You’re staying, then,” Simon said after a minute or so. “What were you and Guy talking about?”
I shifted my gaze to him, considering. The words sounded in my head perfectly clearly. Permanent mercy has to be earned. A warning to choose the right side. Only in my world the sides weren’t right and wrong. They were my side and everybody else’s.
I’d be choosing me.
So I ignored the first part of Simon’s question. I didn’t have the Fae disgust for lying, but I didn’t want to add to the list of sins he could lay at my feet after I left. “He explained his God’s concepts of mercy and redemption.”
Simon’s expression turned fierce. “He won’t hurt you. Nobody will.”
“I think I have more pressing problems than your brother.” Like how I could outrun the need or how I was going to get the hell out of the City. Like how I could stay alive.
“I’ll keep you safe.”
He sounded so certain. I knew he was wrong. He’d pay a price for this.
I most likely couldn’t prevent that from happening, but I could do my best to keep the price as low as possible. “At this point, safe is a relative concept.”
“It’s always relative. Trust me, it’s not easy to get through Guy.”
Which presumed, of course, that Guy wouldn’t be the one pursuing me in the end. I didn’t reply, instead returned to watching out the window, searching the faces for any danger. Sunlight at least made that easier.
“Speaking of trust . . .”
I turned.
“I can’t keep calling you Shadow,” he said, giving me one of his crooked smiles. “Don’t you think it’s time I knew your name?”
Tempting. Oh so tempting. Easy to relax a little and lean into the light of his world. Pretend I was human. Pretend I was wanted. But I wasn’t and I wouldn’t be, no matter what he and his brother did.
Still, he was going to be hurt because of me. He might be killed. I couldn’t stop it or make it any easier. I didn’t really have anything to offer him. So a name seemed a small thing to give.
If only so he had something to curse when the bill for taking me away from Lucius came due.
“Lily,” I said finally. “My name is Lily.”
Lily? I hadn’t expected that. The Fae often named their female children for flowers or plants. I was surprised her mother had gifted her with anything of Fae heritage if she’d known she was going to give Lily up.
Still, it seemed to fit her. Lilies were pale and slender but also tough. Beautiful and, sometimes, deadly. Maybe her mother had known something after all.
Assuming Lily had told me the truth, of course. She was wary enough to lie.
Which I couldn’t exactly blame her for. Not when I was lying to her too.
She sat beside me and stared out the window as we wound through the streets toward St. Giles, looking calm and composed as the midmorning light made her hair gleam as red as sunset.
You’d never know that a few hours ago she’d been unconscious. That a few minutes ago she’d been running from people who quite possibly wanted to separate her head from her body.
She kept it all inside.
My hand curled around the pistol, the metal warm beneath my hand as anger bit. All that control, all that wariness and hiding had been learned. The Blood had shaped her into something cold, so carefully guarded there was no room for light or openness. She was ice. Determined to freeze me out, presenting only a cool slick surface that couldn’t be penetrated. When she should be glowing and warm like her hair.
In her place, on the run, shut off from my powers, I’d be, well, agitated at least.
Yet she just sat there, looking carefully serene. As if this were perfectly usual and part of her routine.
Guilt coiled through me. Would she look so serene if she knew what I really wanted from her? Or would she see me as no different than Lucius: someone who wanted to use her?
I looked away for a moment, staring out my own window at the treelined street and the people just starting to go about their business. Men in suits or working clothes, the women in brightly colored dresses.
Lily wore black. A severe high-necked black linen shirt covered by a sleek leather vest. Trousers made of the same midnight leather. All of it proclaimed her as something out its element. That would change. I intended to see that the human world became accustomed to her, and she to it.
I turned back to her. One hand lay on her thigh, touching the strap to the
sheath that held one of her stilettos. But that was probably automatic for her rather than a sign of nerves. Her other hand wrapped around the grab bar, braced against the bouncing jolts of the ’cab’s journey.
“Are you always this talkative?” I said, more to get her to face me again than anything.
She turned her head, raised her eyebrows, glancing from me to the driver and back again. “Silence is smarter where I come from.”
“Ah. Yes. I suppose stealth is useful in your occupation.” If not absolutely vital to survival. Silent as the grave, in fact. Another wound to her to lay at Lucius’ feet.
She looked back to the driver.
“He can’t hear us,” I said.
“Why not?”
“Because I’m shielding.” Could she not feel the shield? Most of the Fae I’d met could sense a working. Lily, though, was only half Fae. And the thinly woven stories and legends and whispers about wraiths were never truly clear about what the other half might be. I needed to know more about her powers.
“Why?”
“I thought it safer for the driver not to know who we are.”
Her eyebrows rose again. “If he’d recognized me, I doubt he’d be taking us where you told him to.” She glanced toward the window. “We are headed in the right direction, aren’t we?”
“So far.”
“Well, then,” she said, her shoulders relaxing fractionally, “all should be well.”
“He could still tell someone after he left us. If he was so inclined,” I countered. “It’s better to be safe.”
Amusement lit her eyes again. “Safe? Who’s shielding you?”
“Excuse me?”
Her head tilted slightly, face questioning. “What if this is all an elaborate plot to catch you with your guard down?” A chin jerk toward the driver. “He wouldn’t hear you scream.”
She was trying to scare me, to make me cut and run. She might have agreed to stay, but I didn’t believe she’d meant it. If she could make her escape by driving me away, that would probably be all the better for her.
Well, she was going to have to try much harder than this. I made my smile deliberately slow. “Who says I’d scream? It’s daylight. The last time you tried to kill me in sunlight didn’t go well for you.”