by Jocelyn Fox
“Hey,” said Ross, careful not to crowd Niall. “You back with us?”
Niall blinked again and took a deep breath. He sat up, grimacing slightly and moving gingerly. “Yes.”
Farin leapt from Vivian’s hand and darted close to Niall. The Glasidhe warrior chirped something in Niall’s ear, to which he nodded gravely; and then she kissed his cheek, leaning in primly and whirling away afterward. Ross suppressed a smile.
“If you can stand, we should get back inside the house,” said Ross. She glanced at Vivian, whose gaze traveled to Niall worriedly, but then the redhead nodded and set off toward the house, her hand held protectively close to her chest.
“I might require some assistance,” Niall admitted quietly.
“There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, especially after you just saved Forin’s life,” replied Ross firmly. She extended one hand and levered Niall up from the ground. He swayed and she firmly placed his arm over her shoulder. “Lean on me. I’m stronger than I look.”
“You look very strong,” said Niall in a slightly breathless and puzzled voice. “Why would I assume you are weak?”
Ross smiled. “Let’s save the discussion for when we’re inside.”
Duke led the way toward the house, his pistol in one hand and his other hand holding Tyr’s wrist, securing the unconscious Exile across his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. Vivian followed Duke, and Jess looped back to bring up the rear behind Ross and Niall, retrieving Vivian’s forgotten flashlight.
By the time they approached the front porch, Niall leaned heavily on Ross, taking in slow, measured breaths that Ross knew would be pants of exhaustion from one less disciplined. She paused with him as they both contemplated the four steps of the front porch.
“One at a time, and you’ll have both me and the railing,” said Ross in quiet encouragement.
Niall nodded and they slowly approached the steps. Ross felt her spine compressing from Niall’s weight – he was heavier than she expected, but she just kept her muscles tightened and bore up under the pressure. If she had to be sore for a day or two, that was a small price to pay for helping him after he’d saved Forin’s life, giving the Glasidhe part of his life force without any hesitation. Finally, they stood at the top of the steps. Jess slid around them and held the screen door open, nudging the main door open with his foot.
Ross felt Niall sag slightly with relief as they crossed the threshold. She wondered if he felt the presence of Merrick’s runes as she steered them toward the living room couch. Niall lowered himself onto it with careful control and then sighed. His lips looked blue in the light.
“What can I get you?” asked Ross softly. “Water?”
Niall nodded and smiled tiredly in thanks. She padded into the kitchen and poured a glass of water, pausing to take a deep breath and check the steadiness of her hands.
“Forin and Farin are in the study with Molly,” announced Vivian as she walked into the kitchen, “and I told Duke that he could put Tyr in my room.”
“In your room?” Ross looked sharply at her friend. “Why?”
Vivian shrugged with one shoulder, brushing a red curl away from her face. “Because Molly and Ramel are in the study and the Glasidhe are in there too now. You and Duke are in your room, and this way Niall and Jess can have the living room.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be alone with Tyr,” replied Ross uneasily.
“He’s hurt, Ross,” said Vivian, a subtle tone of reprimand in her voice. “And he never did anything to hurt us while he was awake, anyway.”
“He’s unpredictable,” countered Ross. “We’ve only been dealing with all this for a couple of days. You can’t just assume that you know how he’s going to react.”
“I’m not saying that I know how he’s going to react. I’m just saying that I’m a part of this too, and I don’t need as much protection as you think I do.” Vivian crossed her good arm over her chest, her hazel eyes flashing.
“V,” sighed Ross, putting both hands on the kitchen counter. “I’m not trying to start a fight. I’m just…worried.”
“I know,” said Vivian, softening. “It’s a lot, and it’s all happening at once.” A small smile curved her mouth. “But you gotta admit, it’s pretty cool.”
Ross sighed again and shook her head. “If you say so.”
“I do,” replied Vivian effusively. “I mean, seriously, how can you not think this is cool?”
“Well, I don’t know. I could do without the psychotic evil sorcerer trying to kill everyone,” Ross deadpanned.
Vivian grinned and slid past her to open the fridge, perusing its contents until she pulled out a container of leftover gumbo.
“You’re having gumbo at three a.m.?” Ross asked, raising her eyebrows.
“There are no restrictions on the hours of eating gumbo,” replied Vivian, whirling to point her spoon at Ross. “Gumbo is always appropriate.”
Ross shook her head and left Vivian to microwave her gumbo. She walked back into the living room and handed Niall the glass of water. He drank it slowly. Ross watched as more color returned to his face – or rather, the grayness left his skin and the blueness receded from his lips. She heard Jess and Duke talking, their voices drifting out from Vivian’s room. So, they’d listened to her and put Tyr in her room. She held back a sigh at her headstrong roommate.
“You look worried,” Niall said quietly.
Ross shifted her attention back to the Seelie man. She hadn’t had much interaction with him one on one. The sharpness of his pale eyes unnerved her slightly. “I am,” she replied, deciding that honesty was the best policy.
“It is understandable,” he said with a nod. “There are many things happening at once, all new to you. You have actually adapted quite admirably.”
Ross smiled slightly. She took a seat next to Niall on the couch. “What exactly did you do for Forin?”
Niall lifted the glass of water to his lips and took another swallow. “Your bluntness is one of your admirable traits.”
“I’ve been told it’s less than admirable sometimes.” Ross couldn’t help smiling at him, in spite of the fact that it was three in the morning and their psychotic prisoner had just escaped to God only knew where, along with a certifiably insane rebel Fae.
“Too many times in Court we allow our courtesy to veil too much,” said Niall with a hint of dreaminess in his voice.
Ross sat up straighter and snapped her fingers in front of Niall. “Hey. Focus on me for a second. What did you do back there?” He blinked at her and she pressed for an answer. “What kind of side effects do I have to watch out for?”
“I gave Forin a part of my life force,” he replied slowly.
“Have you done something like that before?” asked Ross, raising her eyebrows.
“Yes,” he said. “Queen Titania…when the Enemy held her prisoner. We sustained her.” He frowned. “But it was not the same.”
“So you haven’t done something like that before,” Ross said.
“I knew it could be done.” Niall leaned back and closed his eyes. “I couldn’t let Forin die simply because I was unwilling to sacrifice.”
“Unwilling to sacrifice what?” Ross felt like an annoyance, but she pushed her self-consciousness to one side. As far as she was concerned, Niall was one of her victims, and she had to assess him. No different than an ambulance call or running a scene with the other firefighters on truck. “You have to give me some details here, Niall.”
“So that you can watch over me,” replied Niall with a small smile.
“Yes,” she said in irritation. “I don’t know what’s so outlandish or funny about that.”
“I will be fine,” he said. “I need to sleep, and I will not be able to do significant rune castings for a day or two.”
“Fatigue and a rest from runes doesn’t seem like a steep price to pay for Forin’s life,” said Ross, narrowing her eyes at him.
Niall waved a hand. Ross rescued the g
lass of water, now mostly empty. “The price will not be paid now.”
“If you were one of my patients, I’d test you for drugs,” Ross muttered, shaking her head.
“It is not anything that need concern you,” said Niall. “I will sleep here by the door.”
With that gentle dismissal, Ross stood and returned the drinking glass to the kitchen. When she glanced into the living room again, Niall had already stretched out on the couch and fallen asleep. He seemed not to mind that he didn’t have a pillow or blanket. Ross sighed and picked up a blanket from the basket by the window. She shook out the folds and spread it over Niall with an efficient, practical speed. As she tucked the edge of the blanket beneath his shoulder, she became aware of Duke standing in the hallway, watching her.
“Don’t lurk,” she said, straightening and giving him a wry glance. “It seems like no matter what world a man is from, they still need a woman to force them to take care of themselves.”
Duke shook his head and smiled. “Darlin’, you ever realize that you say you don’t much like people, but you’re doin’ things like running into burnin’ buildings to save ‘em and tucking blankets around them so they sleep better?”
“I don’t like most people,” replied Ross as she turned off the lamp by the couch. “I don’t see what difference that makes.”
“You’re just a wonderful whirlwind of contradictions,” said Duke.
She sighed. “How’s Tyr?”
“Probably gonna be out for a while. That hit to his head was pretty nasty, down to the bone. And he lost a fair amount of blood from the wound to his thigh.”
“Does that mean he’ll need to…feed…when he wakes up?” Ross stiffened, thinking of Vivian.
“I don’t know,” Duke said. “But trust me when I say we can catch a few hours of sleep before we have to worry about that.”
She breathed in deeply. “Can we afford to sleep? I mean, the bone sorcerer is loose, who knows what he’s doing…”
“The only one of us who can track the bone sorcerer is Niall,” said Duke, “and he’s currently out of commission, so we can’t do much else.”
Ross crossed her arms as Duke tried to herd her toward her bedroom. “There’s always something we can do. You know that as well as anyone.”
Duke rubbed the back of his neck. “We can check online for any police reports in the morning, maybe call in to the Cairn Police Department.”
“CPD handled the bone sorcerer’s minion,” said Ross thoughtfully. “I wonder if they’d be able to connect the dots somehow.”
“And all of that can wait until after at least six a.m.,” said Duke. “Jess is watching Tyr. I’m gonna take morning shift.”
“I can rotate in too,” said Ross absently as she allowed him to guide her toward her bedroom.
“I know. We were gonna give you the afternoon watch.”
“Liar. You two were going to freeze me out,” accused Ross, arching an eyebrow.
“Never thought you’d be arguing to be assigned watch rather than get out of it,” muttered Duke, and his chuckle turned into a noise of surprise at her playful elbow into his midsection.
“That’s a low blow,” said Ross primly. “I only made sure that everyone was assigned watch equally.”
Duke shrugged. “Six in one hand, half dozen in the other, sweetheart.”
She rolled her eyes at him as she slid into bed. He put the Glock on the nightstand and checked the lock on the window.
“Already checked it,” she yawned.
“Doesn’t hurt,” he replied.
She murmured something that wasn’t actually intelligible as he climbed into bed. The warmth of him at her back felt so good. He rested his chin on her shoulder and she sighed.
“It’ll all look better in the light of day,” he said quietly.
“I hope so,” Ross whispered, and then the tide of sleep swept her away.
Chapter 2
“Well, that wasn’t as bad as the first time,” Tess said to no one in particular, brushing off her breeches as she stood. She still hadn’t managed to land on her feet, but thankfully the portal hadn’t slammed them into the cold marble floor of the airy pavilion. It had been more of an unceremonious tumble after the hot, whirling maelstrom of the ether between the worlds.
“Considering I don’t remember the first time, I can’t agree with you,” replied Merrick. He gazed at the pavilion with undisguised interest. “We’re in the White City?”
“Yes. This pavilion was where the Queens held their councils and Summoned the Gate that allowed us to come search for you,” said Calliea, nimbly unpinning her braid as the journey through the Gate had pulled out rebellious tendrils. She shook her golden hair loose and began to braid it again. Tess noticed that Merrick’s attention had turned from the beautiful pavilion to the beautiful Valkyrie commander, his expression no less rapt. She suppressed a smile.
On the day that they had journeyed into the mortal world, the domed ceiling of the pavilion and the tiled floor underfoot had exhibited the silent struggle between the Seelie and the Unseelie: thunderheads had rolled into the sunny blue sky at Mab’s arrival, and the cerulean blue of the ocean waves beneath the tiles had frothed into a tempest when she stepped foot into the pavilion. The long table and chairs that had once hosted the Queens’ councils stood unadorned in the center of the space.
Tess flexed the fingers of her hands experimentally, pushing the memory aside as she evaluated the feeling of returning to Faeortalam. The expansion of the Sword’s power hadn’t diminished, but the flow of taebramh seemed smoother. Perhaps just through virtue of traveling to the mortal world, she’d opened some invisible fissure through which taebramh, the magical substance of mortal dreams, filtered into Faeortalam more easily.
Kianryk shook himself thoroughly and padded over to Luca, gazing up at the ulfdrengr expectantly. Luca grinned and knelt, unbuckling the red leather collar that Vell had sadly fastened around Kianryk’s neck to conceal the wolf in the mortal world. The tawny wolf shook himself thoroughly and stretched luxuriously, seeming to grow before their very eyes.
“Normally he’s a bit less of a show-off,” commented Tess, arching an eyebrow. Luca only grinned at her.
“I will go carry news of your return to the High Queen,” announced Haze, leaping from Tess’s shoulder in a blaze of blue and green aura.
“That will not be necessary.”
Tess turned at the sound of Vell’s voice. The Vyldretning swept into the pavilion wearing her armor emblazoned with the head of a wolf, her scarlet cape swirling about her feet. The Crown of Bones gleamed golden against her raven-dark hair. Her Three walked a pace behind her. Tess’s heart contracted with a good sort of pain when she saw Liam. Her brother wore an uncharacteristically grim expression, but he looked even larger and deadlier than when she’d left, even though only a small amount of time had passed. Gray stood at the High Queen’s other side, a scarlet feather woven into her bright braids. She nodded slightly to Tess and then her gaze shifted to Calliea, a smile curving her mouth as she surveyed her cousin. Finnead stood behind Vell, turning away to guard their backs. Tess frowned slightly at the unusual measure.
“Majesty.” Haze swept an elegant bow in midair. She acknowledged him with a nod.
“You have impeccable timing, Lady Bearer,” said Vell. “I have called the other Queens to council.” Her eyes traveled over the others in the pavilion. “Where is Titania’s Vaelanseld, and Mab’s Vaelanbrigh?”
“Both still in the mortal world,” replied Tess. “Niall by his own choice and Ramel because he would not survive the journey through the Gate.” She thought quickly. “How much time do we have before they arrive?”
“Not enough, I wager,” said Vell grimly. “This council will not be a happy one.”
“Were any of them?” Tess raised her eyebrows.
Vell shook her head, the golden circlet glinting. “This will be another matter entirely, because I intend to invoke my power over the other two, and th
ey will not like it.”
“Why?” Tess asked, even as her mind raced and Gwyneth’s pendant warmed against her throat. She needed to tell Vell what had happened in the mortal world, but she also needed to regain her bearings in Faeortalam.
The High Queen seemed to ignore her question. “Laedrek, post at the southern entrance to the pavilion please, and Arrisyn to the north. Your former mistresses should be entering any moment now.”
Calliea and Merrick wordlessly obeyed, their quick strides cat-quiet on the marble of the pavilion floor. Tess wondered if placing them in front of their former Queens was the best idea – or perhaps Vell was emphasizing her ability to draw from both Courts, taking Seelie and Unseelie and baptizing them as her people. Either way, Tess felt the skin on the back of her neck tingle in strange foreboding.
“Tess.” Vell turned back to her. “Do you have the Lethe Stone?”
“Yes,” replied Tess, reaching for her belt pouch.
“No, don’t reveal it, not yet,” said Vell. She drew back her shoulders, her eyes glinting. “I will tell Mab at this council that I will be using the Lethe Stone, rather than giving it over to her for her sister.”
Tess let out her breath slowly, trying to suppress the tight knot of anxiety forming in her chest. “What else happened while I was gone?”
Vell shook her head. “I have no proof, but one of my sources told me that there was a plot to assassinate you, and it originated in the Unseelie Court.”
“I don’t have any proof beyond what Molly told me, but she said that Mab instructed her to kill me as a price for her own life,” said Tess in a low voice. At the corner of her eye, she saw Luca look at her sharply, and she realized she’d never told him about the plot. It hadn’t seemed important at the time, not after they’d captured the bone sorcerer and encountered the Exiled. She caught his gaze and nodded once, their silent signal to say that she’d explain everything later. His expression remained impassive. Tess hoped that it wouldn’t sully their first day back in Faeortalam.