Their outlines shifted and rippled. Stray tendrils of dark licked across their flickering blades, but I couldn’t focus on them or their weapons long enough to get a sense of who or what they really were.
Phantoms.
They drifted, circling around Samuel’s body, blurring my view of him. A harsh wind picked up, whipping my hair in front of my eyes and tugging on my clothes.
Slowly—so slowly—I eased back, one deliberate step at a time. They didn’t appear interested in me, but that might change.
With the door at my back, I lifted my hand, still clutching the blood-coated dagger, and shielded my eyes from the storm, just as the wind dropped, the howling ceased, and Faerie’s sweetness faded from my lips.
Samuel’s body was gone.
I stared at the spot where the dark had collected, expecting the shadows to move again, but they didn’t, and as the seconds ticked by and the aches started to seep into my weary body, it hit me. The fight was finally over.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I released Scaw, who seeing the blood on me immediately asked where Samuel’s body was. I told him the Hunt took it. He seemed alarmed, then settled into Lorekeeper mode and started asking questions. I didn’t have the energy to explain and sent him instead to check out the pool while I waited in the dark of the entrance hall, the old house sighing around me.
I’d expected the doubt to rush in. I waited for the grief to hit, and the guilt, but I felt only the buzz of Samuel’s draíocht rushing through my veins. He’d killed countless people. He’d opened a path back to Faerie, the repercussions of which could be deadly, and he’d killed Danny Andrews—my friend. The pain hit then. I was dangerous and those unfortunate enough to be around me would always be at risk. Sat on the stairs, alone, I finally understood what Reign was most scared of. It wasn’t the thing inside of us, it was what we could do with the power residing there. The responsibility of it was overwhelming, but Arachne wasn’t going away. She was a part of me, and what I did with that part was up to me.
Kael found me minutes later, or hours, I wasn’t sure. With a barked order, he told Nyx and me to gather up everything we could. I didn’t have any personal items. I never had. So I took the weapons I could find, causing Nyx to cast me a discerning side-eye.
We returned to the entrance hall where Scaw and Kael cut their conversation short. Kael lifted his head and stared right at me with those steely eyes of his.
He scanned the faces of the three of us. Scaw, me, and Nyx. “The Fae Authority is disbanded. I will stay and try to rectify human-fae relations, but—”
The entrance door rattled and Reign strode in. His coat flared and with the street backlit behind him, his hood cast shadows across his face. Kael’s hand went to the daggers at his sides, but Reign’s sharp slice of a glance stopped him from doing anything foolish. The former rock star stopped, let us all absorb his dramatic entrance, and then flashed a smile. “This is it? A Lorekeeper, a general, a warrior, and a construct?”
Kael’s fingers twitched. Reign saw and trained his level gaze on the general. “It’s a little late for old grudges, General. You’ve failed to protect your people. We’re not welcome in London. The police are setting up roadside checkpoints and security details on the tube. We need to leave London. Now. Before the net tightens.”
Nyx flicked her coat collars up and tucked her chin in. “We can hide, like we did before.”
“If we leave London,” Kael sounded steady, reasonable, but I saw the tremble of his hands, “and the harpy returns, eight million people will perish.”
“And what are the five of us going to do to stop her?” This from Scaw.
“Some of the FA survived. Given time, I might be able to recruit more—”
Reign made a disgusted sound, more akin to a growl than he’d probably have liked, and cut off the general. “The Fae Authority is dead. Long live the Spirits, right Alina?”
All eyes turned to me. The look he gave me wasn’t one of joy, or hope. He looked at me like he had on the steps of the National Gallery. Enemies, that look said. But more than that.
Then he chuckled. “You have two of Faerie’s worst right here. But if we stay out in the open, we’ll be caught, unless you want to live like rats in the sewers?”
“Then we go,” Nyx said, clear and precise. “Split up. Head to the country.” She dug around in one of her bags and handed out several cell phones. “Take these. Leave them on, but don’t use them unless it’s a live-or-die scenario. If the harpy returns, at least we can contact each other.”
“If the harpy returns, we’ll know without these,” Reign grumbled, but he took the cell phone and tucked it inside his coat.
I took mine, and I realized the fluttering in my chest was panic at the thought of being alone. That fear hadn’t left me. Worse, it had taken root. I couldn’t be alone. I wasn’t sure what I’d … do. My gaze wandered back to Reign to find him watching me. They all watched me, even Kael. Waiting.
“We go. For now,” I said. Don’t make me go alone. You understand, Reign. Don’t leave me alone with this.
He inclined his head in the smallest of acknowledgements and I knew he’d understood. The others thought it was an agreement to leave, but it was more than that. A truce.
We gathered up what bags we had and left Kael standing alone on the steps of the empty FAHQ.
Samuel would have been disappointed to realize the world didn’t stop revolving without him in it. But the destruction he’d wrought saw peace among the London fae shattered. The Met had clearly been looking for an excuse to roll out the strong arm of the law, and the rampaging ogre, spirits on the Underground, and a riot in Trafalgar were all the proof they needed. But the room full of bodies and the death of one of their own drove home the final nail in the coffin. The London fae—those the police could find—were rounded up and made to vanish. Others caught in the open were attacked on the street by retaliation mobs. Justice, the tabloids called it. And the press liked nothing better than to turn idols into villains.
While standing below the arrival boards at Paddington train station, I was grateful I didn’t have pointed ears and colorful eyes, but I kept my head down all the same. The weekend crowd was lighter than I’d hoped. British Transport Police, in their high-visibility jackets, patrolled the platforms and waiting areas.
I checked to see if my train was boarding and then—for the fifth time in the last five minutes—scanned the crowd for Reign. Kael had given us each a new cell phone and told us to scatter. Reign had lingered long enough to tell me to buy a train ticket for the 5:00 a.m. London-Penzance train and that he’d join me. But he wasn’t here. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised. He blamed me for not stopping the hound, might even have suspected I’d turned the hound on Shay. Whenever we were together, people died. The spirits within us weren’t designed for peace. That didn’t stop me from not wanting to get on the train alone and travel into the unknown.
The board above shuffled its display, announcing my train was boarding. Head low, I joined the people lined up to pass through the ticket barriers. The police watched me pass through without a second glance. Reign wouldn’t be so lucky. He was too distinctive.
What if he’s been caught?
I strode down the platform, passing the rumbling diesel engine. Reign wouldn’t get caught. He was too slippery for that. Wherever he was, it had to be for the best. I didn’t need him. Not really. I had once, but not anymore. It was the company I craved. Or at least that’s what I told myself with each step.
I found my seat on the train and scanned the platform one last time for his familiar figure.
He’d never intended to be here. His last words to me had been a lie. But he had gotten me on a train and on my way out of London. Maybe that was what he’d wanted all along.
The train shuddered and rolled forward. The platform slid out of sight. Apartment blocks and warehouses huddled around the tracks, turning to a blur as the train gathered speed. What awaited the fae, I wo
ndered. Exiled from one world only to be hunted in this one. What awaited me? Human and fae, neither and both, and something else too. I had a new hunger in me now, not just for draíocht, but for power. I’d be back, of that I was certain. The harpy knew me now. She’d had a few hundred years to run Faerie. The chances of her and the elders not turning her gaze toward our world were slim, at best.
I checked Nyx’s cell, making sure it was turned on. She would contact us if—when we were needed. Until then, we were free to go wherever we wanted. In my case, be whomever I wanted. But Kael had stayed. I hadn’t yet decided what I was to Kael, or what he was to me. My enemy? Even that thought sat uneasily, like the one piece of the puzzle that wouldn’t quite fit where it was supposed to. I’d been wrong about him, blinded by my own stubborn revenge. Still, I’d be keeping my daggers sharp and at the ready for when we’d meet again. It wasn’t over between us.
“Is this seat taken?”
The hooded top hid much of his face, but I could never mistake his voice. I smiled, even though my instincts demanded I yell at him for letting me think he’d left me.
“I was waiting for someone,” I said.
Reign eased his long-legged self into the small seat. “His loss.” He kept his hood up, but I saw the secret smile lift his lips.
“How did you slip the Transport Police?” I asked, unable to curb my curiosity.
“Londoners never look up.”
He’d hidden among the station’s curved iron roof trusses. I allowed a small smile to settle on my lips. How was it possible I could want to hit him and throw my arms around him? Much of me hated him for being a grade-A selfish asshole, what was left of me wanted to thank him for not leaving. He’d likely never know how much it meant to me that he was beside me, even if we were just as likely to kill as kiss one another.
The train rumbled on. London blurred by the window and inside the carriage people chatted, read on their tablets, or flicked through newspapers. It was all entirely normal, apart from the two monsters sat side by side.
Reign shuffled down in the seat and sighed. “How did it feel?” he quietly asked, staring down the carriage rather than meeting my gaze.
I hesitated, searching for his true meaning, and then settled on the only thing we shared. Power. “It felt wrong. And right.”
After a moment’s hesitation he inclined his head. I still couldn’t see his face, just the downward tilt of his lips. “It was a lot to ask. You did what you could. Nobody’s perfect. Except me, of course.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course.” A gentle quiet settled over us, one comfortable enough that the tension melted from me for the first time in weeks. “I’m sorry. I tried …”
“Don’t.” I heard him swallow. “Don’t talk about her.”
But that didn’t change the fact the hound had killed Shay, and I hadn’t stopped it, might even have brought about her death. The distance between Reign and me might never be bridged. It shouldn’t be. We’re dangerous together.
“For what it’s worth,” he said, and sighed, “I’m sorry about Detective Andrews.”
Grief and guilt briefly knotted around my heart, until my own weary sigh allowed me to breathe again. “I need your help, Reign.” I said his name as a whisper. He turned his head and studied my face, his own expression a perfect mask of stoicism. “You were right. I can’t do this alone, whatever this is.”
His smile returned, a little softer this time. “You were never alone, American Girl.”
He was right. He’d always been there, watching from the sidelines in his uniquely stalkerish way. “But you were, and I’m sorry for that.”
“Yeah, well, after a few hundred years you’d think I’d get used to it.”
I curled my fingers into my palm, fighting the urge to lace them in his. One touch might ignite the spirits, and the last thing I wanted was to free the hound on a packed train. Still, despite the risks, and as the train hurtled into the dark, I was glad for his company. His understanding. We might never have what we’d once wanted, but at least we weren’t alone.
“You’re smiling,” he said, making it sound like an accusation.
“Is that not allowed anymore?”
“Knowing what I do, I have to wonder what the construct who harbors an ancient fae spirit is smiling about.”
“World domination and how to enslave the human race, obviously.”
His brow arched, prompting me to laugh. If the fae who harbored a nightmarish hound thought it likely, then anything was possible. What a terrible pair we made. I just hoped that wherever the train took us, the people there were ready for the worst of Faerie. Because we sure weren’t.
From the moment Alina touches Reign,
her fate – and the fae – close in …
Find out how it all began.
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Oxford, New York, New Delhi and Sydney
Copyright © 2016 by Pippa DaCosta
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This electronic edition published in 2016
First published in July 2016
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City of Shadows Page 25