by M. J. Scott
“She lied,” I said flatly. Endangered my family. Took me to her bed, smiling sweetly. It was all a lie.
“Ah,” Lily said. She shook her head at me. “So merciless.”
“Bryony is right,” Simon said. “You need her—”
I opened my mouth and he held up a hand.
“You don’t have to trust her, but you do need her.”
“Says the man who is causing all this trouble in the first place.” My head pounded. I felt as if I had walked into a nightmare. Holly had betrayed me. Simon was working with a vampire. And they wanted me to just go on as though nothing were wrong. My hands curled. I wanted to hit something. Anything.
“You swore oaths to protect the City,” Bryony said. “Will you forsake them now? Become the forsworn knight everyone believes you to be?”
My fists curled tighter, tighter than the knots in my stomach. No. I would hold to my oaths. That much I had left to me. But I didn’t have to like it. “I will do my duty. Wake her up.”
HOLLY
I stayed silent while they explained the plan to me. They would tell me Simon’s secret so that the geas would lead me to Cormen. Guy would come with me. Bryony and Lily and Simon gathered around me, faces earnest. Guy was halfway across the room, back turned.
It was perfectly clear that he was not pleased with this development. I, on the other hand, felt relief. Here was a way to get to Cormen and to bring him down.
“I’ll help you,” I said. “But I want my mother and Reggie.”
“You’re hardly in a position to bargain,” Bryony said. Of the three of them, her manner was coolest. Simon was carefully professional. Lily was hard to read, but I thought I saw a hint of sympathy in her clear gray eyes. She’d been a slave once. Maybe she understood.
“We had a deal, Guy and I,” I said.
He turned at that. “You lied to me.”
I wanted to flinch away from the anger in his eyes. Instead, I lifted my chin. If I had lost any chance with him and if I was going to attempt this madness, then I deserved something at least. “I kept my end of the bargain. I found out about Henri and Ignatius for you. You swore to help me.”
Guy turned away again.
Simon started to move, but Lily put a hand on his arm. “I’ll do it.” She walked over to Guy, said something in low tones. Guy shook his head. Lily spoke again.
Guy turned back to me, face stone. “Very well. Your mother and Regina will be safe if it is in my power to see it so.” He spun away again and this time walked out of the room. The door to the outer chamber swung shut behind him with a horribly final sound. Like the cover of a crypt sliding home. Severing all light and air. Severing anything that had been between us.
Stupid. I’d known all along that he could only walk away from me eventually.
If he could be stone, then so could I.
“I’m ready,” I said to Simon. “Tell me what Cormen wants to know.”
* * *
“Could you at least look at me?” I held on to the grab strap as the autocab rattled around a corner and waited to see if Guy would finally respond. He’d yet to address me directly since we’d left the ward. He hadn’t listened when I’d tried to explain. To apologize. I needed him to hear me.
Slowly, his head turned and ice blue rage focused on my face.
I gripped the strap more tightly to resist the urge to flinch. He was angry. I couldn’t fault him for that. But I wasn’t going to cower to make him feel better.
“If you can’t talk to me, then this isn’t going to work,” I said, keeping my tone light, as if we were discussing nothing more complex than the weather. Which was hot. The sun burned high and fierce, turning the sky to a white-blue shimmer. Sweat dampened my prim white cotton shirt and long skirt. The sunlight only added to the ache in my head caused by too little sleep and fear and guilt.
“I’ll talk when it’s necessary.”
The cab jolted again. Unlike me, Guy simply braced himself with a hand against the door. The beasts on his hands were very black.
“It’s necessary now,” I said. “We have to plan what we’re going to do.”
“We have a plan. We’re going to Summerdale. We’re going to find Cormen and bring him to the queen. Make him confess his alliance with Ignatius. Then this will be all over and done with. And I won’t have to see you ever again.”
I flinched then, cheeks reddening as though he’d slapped me. There. He’d said it. The words I’d known were coming. I clenched my fingers tighter still, willed the bite of the hardened leather to keep the tears at bay. Guy’s face was perfectly blank, his eyes looking through me rather than at me.
“I can go to Summerdale alone,” I said. “You don’t have to come.” Even now, I could feel the geas tugging at me. West. Toward the Veiled Court. Toward a distant spark I assumed was my father. I could find him alone, if I could get myself admitted to the Veiled World. I didn’t rate my chances of rescuing my mother and Reggie very highly without Guy, but I didn’t want him there if he wasn’t on my side. At least for as long as it took to accomplish our task.
“Yes, I do. If I don’t, then you’ll run straight to Cormen and tell him what he wants to know.”
I sucked in a breath. He was angry. Angry with me, angry with Simon judging by the snarled interaction I’d witnessed between them back at St. Giles.
Angry with the whole hells-damned world. I kept telling myself maybe he would see reason eventually, but as each word he said to me turned more barbed, cutting deeper, I struggled to believe my own lies.
But I couldn’t afford pain and heartbreak right now. So instead I used something else. My own anger. At Cormen. At Simon. At the stupid, stubborn man beside me who could see nothing but black-and-white and didn’t care enough about me to give me even the slightest chance to explain. “You know,” I said, letting my own voice turn icy, “I was doing something I was forced to do. And if your brother hadn’t—”
“We’re here.” Guy cut me off with a gesture. He was out of the cab almost before it came to a complete halt. I climbed out on the other side. I didn’t think Guy would be coming around to assist me. I doubted he’d lift a finger to do anything beyond what he considered to be his duty for me ever again.
Don’t think. I lifted my chin and smoothed my skirts while Guy paid the driver, pretending it was the glare of the sun making my eyes water.
When my vision cleared, I took in the sight before me. The Guild of Metalmages was a complex of redbrick buildings, surrounded by an ornate wrought-metal fence. It was said that each class of students added another layer of enchantment and decoration to the metalwork standing between the guild and the rest of the citizens of Silversdown.
I could believe it. The fence was a dense screen of curling and twisted metal. Leaves and flourishes and curlicues chased themselves over and around and between the spiked metal supports, looking like the product of the union between a lace maker and a possessed blacksmith.
But there was no time to admire the artistry of the work. Guy concluded his business with the driver and then marched past me, headed for the main gate.
No rest for the wicked, it seemed.
GUY
The gate guard recognized me and waved us through. I kept walking, not stopping to see whether Holly still followed me. I didn’t want to see her. Didn’t want to talk to her.
Her or Simon, for that matter. But I’d set out to stop those who wanted to hurt my brother, and I would see that task through. Even if I didn’t agree with what he was doing. He had, in a way, betrayed me.
That part made me feel as sick as I did when I thought about Holly. How I’d been taken in by big eyes and easy kisses. Fool.
But apparently being a fool didn’t stop just because you found out you were a fool. Because every time Holly tried to reach out to me, tried to apologize, I couldn’t completely ignore her. It hurt me when I hurt her, cutting her off. Shutting her out.
She hid her pain well, but I still felt it. Or was that my own?
Fool.
We had to wait in the main hall as they sent for Saskia. She appeared quickly enough, moving with authority through the milling students and mages and visitors.
She looked at home here. My little sister fitted in with the other mages, her hair pulled back smooth against her head and soot smudging one cheek and several places on her plain gray dress. Certain of her power. I only hoped hers wasn’t going to lead her into the same sort of idiocy as Simon’s. But that was a discussion for another time.
“Guy?” She stood on tiptoe to kiss my cheek. “What are you doing here?” Her eyes were curious as they turned in Holly’s direction. “Miss Everton.”
“Is there somewhere we can talk privately?” I asked before they could get too far into polite female chitchat. We didn’t have a lot of time. So far, Holly was resisting the geas, possibly because we were moving toward Summerdale, but Bryony had said that the longer we took, the more likely she would lose control and run.
That only lifted Saskia’s eyebrows higher, but she nodded at me. “My workshop.” We followed her through the building and out the other side to a set of small one-storied structures set around the garden beyond. Each of them stood slightly apart from its fellows . . . probably to minimize the risk of fire spreading in the case of student accidents. Metalmagery gone awry could produce some spectacular results.
Saskia stopped at the last of the squat little buildings and unlocked the heavy metal door.
I followed her into the workshop. I had no idea what most of the apparatus scattered around the long wooden counters did: strange glass tubes and metal implements, piles of leather-bound notebooks, and two heavy copper sinks. The air smelled of smoke and steam and flames with an acrid tang of chemicals.
“We need weapons. For Summerdale. No iron or anything else that the Fae wouldn’t permit,” I said when Saskia closed the door.
Saskia’s eyes narrowed. “I seem to remember you having a fairly impressive arsenal of your own.” She crossed the room and unlocked a chest under one of the windows. She lifted the lid but then turned back to me. “What exactly is this about, Guy?”
“You don’t need to know,” I said. “Weapons, Sass.”
She made a disgusted noise. “I’m getting very tired of you and Simon treating me as though I’m made out of glass, Guy. I’m a metalmage, I’m not helpless. You have the masters here riled up enough that I can’t go anywhere without permission, and while I appreciate the concern, I don’t want to be left in the dark any longer. Ignorance is more dangerous than knowing what I’m up against.”
I scowled at her. “You don’t—”
“If you say you don’t need to know, then I will hurt you,” Saskia gritted. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“We’re in kind of a hurry.”
“Then talk fast.” She slammed the lid of the chest down, and then sat herself on it. Clearly we weren’t getting anything until she was happy.
“It’s Templar business,” I said shortly, hoping it would shut her up.
Saskia’s lips pressed together. “Guy—”
“I can’t tell you. Please, Sass. Don’t argue.”
Her hand stole up to the ’prentice chain at her neck. “Are you just going to Summerdale, or into the court?”
“We may go to court,” Holly said. I shot her a look, but she ignored me.
“They might not let you take anything with you,” Saskia said.
“We know that,” I said. “But we need to try. So we need weapons. No iron. A sword for me. A dagger perhaps for Holly.”
“I can use a sword,” Holly interjected.
“I might have something your size,” Saskia said. “Do you want guns as well?”
“Yes,” Holly said.
Saskia rummaged in the chest, produced two pistols. “Here, these are silver and a few other things. They work well enough.”
I took the pistols from her before Holly could, felt their weight. Tucked them both into my belt for now. I would give Holly a weapon when I had to. Not before. Not while the geas might still take hold of her. “Swords?”
Saskia bent again. “You’re spoiling my surprise, you know,” she muttered from the depths of the chest. “I was going to give you this for Hallows’ Night. But I guess you need it now.” She stood back again, holding a sheathed sword in both hands. “I haven’t finished the decorations, but it should still be balanced.” She smiled a little lopsidedly at me. “I meant it to be more ceremonial.”
I took the sword from her. “Don’t worry about me,” I said, and drew the sword from the sheath. It was beautiful. The blade glinted a strange pale silvery gold and the hilt was black, padded with leather. I lifted it. It felt true in my hand. Made for me.
“You’ve been talking to Williams,” I said to Saskia as I examined the sword more closely, wondering how she had charmed my preferences out of the closemouthed Templar armorer.
“I was hardly going to guess how you preferred your blades. I wanted it to be a good sword even if you weren’t meant to use it.” She smiled again, then went back to the chest, coming up with a smaller sword this time.
I took it before she could pass it to Holly. “What are they made from?”
Saskia shook her head. “Trade secret.” She grinned at me. “Perhaps not quite as strong as steel, but I’m getting closer. They’ll do the job unless you try and chop down a tree or something.”
I was hoping we wouldn’t have to use them at all. But I didn’t like our chances.
HOLLY
The autocab took us to a livery stable next. As Guy handed me silently up onto the gig that appeared, I felt as though I were going to my own funeral.
We drove out of the City in silence and Guy pointed the horses west. It didn’t look alarming. No, Summerdale looked much the same as the hills to the east of the City. Except perhaps for the denseness of the forest bordering those hills. But apart from that, the ground above the Veiled Court appeared to be rolling green hills.
Which was true to a point. They were rolling green hills, peaceful and serene.
Because the Fae didn’t live on the hills, they lived under them. Or perhaps not even under them. Because from all I’d heard, the geography of the Veiled World bore little resemblance to caves underground. The hills were merely a gateway to their realm.
I didn’t understand it, but I did know I felt dread when I looked at them. Dread and an ever-increasing pull from the geas.
I clenched my hands into the leather of the gig’s seat. I was doing what it wanted. I would control myself. To bring Cormen down, I would fight.
Guy glanced at me. “Too late for second thoughts.”
“The Fae are dangerous,” I said.
Guy slowed the horses to turn through the gate. “I thought the Fae courts were meant to be full of beauty.”
I fixed my eyes on the road ahead. In this distance, an airy-looking marble tower rose from the base of one of the hills. The Gate. The tower that guarded the entrance to the Veiled World. There was no other way to enter if you weren’t Fae. I’d hoped never to come here. “More glamour and intrigue and danger. If you think the Night World is bad . . .” I shivered, wishing I’d worn something warmer.
“The Fae aren’t the same as the Blood,” Guy said. “They don’t turn people. Or blood-lock them.” The distaste in the last word made me wince.
I still didn’t know exactly what had happened to him to make him hate the Blood so much. Simon had said something about not wanting anyone else to lose someone as they had done, so I had to assume it was tied up with how their sister had died. But I wasn’t about to raise the subject with Guy when he was riding a knife’s edge just keeping his temper under control.
“The Fae in the City abide by its rules,” I said. “But the Fae who spend their lives in the Veiled World? They have different rules there. And if you enter, then you are agreeing to be bound by them.”
His expression suggested he wasn’t going to be agreeing to anything.
&nb
sp; I stifled a sigh. Guy was used to winning his battles with strength and steel. Blood and Beasts could be cut down, driven back. Their magics were specific and limited. I doubt he had any idea of what a Fae Lord or Lady was truly capable of.
We were risking our lives coming here.
If Cormen thought he was about to be exposed, then he wouldn’t hesitate to kill me. I was certain of that. Just by stepping into the Veiled World, I was putting myself more under his power. Half-breeds could be claimed as property and had virtually no rights here. If it actually got to the point where I had to tell him what I had learned, then only Guy could save me.
More than Mama’s and Reggie’s lives were riding on this now. Cormen and Ignatius and those who sided with them could bring the City burning to the ground. With the treaties broken, unrest and war could spread like wildfire throughout the world. And who knew if any humans would be left standing in the end? Or any half-breeds.
But I didn’t know how to explain to Guy the parts of this that he didn’t already know. Didn’t know how to ask him to help me think of a better way. Not when he looked at me so coldly.
So I fell silent again and watched the white tower grow larger as we traveled toward it.
Chapter Twenty-two
HOLLY
Guy’s hand was cool around mine as he handed me down from the gig. He let go of me once I reached the ground, pale eyes gazing beyond me to the Gate in front of us.
Up close it was daunting, its walls rising white to tower above us, unbroken by windows. There was one dark door, twice as tall as Guy. The whole place gave off an icy chill of Fae magics.
I wanted to ask Guy if it would be all right. If he was as scared as I was.
But it was too late for that.
The geas was mostly quiet. I still felt the distant spark and the tug toward it, but obviously I was moving in the right direction.