Realm of Mirrors (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 3)

by Sonya Bateman

  “Arcadia.” The lingering smile melted from Daoin’s lips. “She won’t like that,” he whispered, his eyes widening. “No, she won’t like that at all. She means to…”

  “Do you remember something?” Taeral said. “Someone from Arcadia? Do you know who she is?”

  A visible shudder moved through him. “She does not love,” he rasped.

  Then he shot to his feet and stumbled back from the table. “You’ll never have her!” he shouted, in a resonating voice like nothing I’d ever heard from him. His blue eyes nearly glowed with rage. “She is safe. The stone is safe. You’ll not…have…”

  “Father, no!” Taeral lunged at him as he swayed in place, catching him with an arm around his waist. “She is not here,” he said. “This is your castle. Remember? Everyone is safe here. Everyone belongs.”

  “My castle.” Confusion washed over his features. “Yes. I have a castle,” he said with a smile. “We should go there. It has plenty of room.”

  Taeral pressed his lips together. “We are already in your castle, Father,” he said.

  “We are?” He looked around briefly and brightened. “Oh, yes. Is it time for the movie?”

  The pained expression on Taeral’s face was hard to take. “No,” he whispered. “Not yet.”

  “Okay. We can watch the movie tonight,” Daoin said. “I think I’m tired now, though. Is it all right if I sleep for a while? I don’t want to miss the movie.”

  “Of course, Father. I’ll make sure you do not miss it.”

  “Thank you. You’re a good son.” He smiled again. “I remember where my room is.”

  “Very good. I’m glad you remember.”

  “Goodnight…Taeral. And Gideon, and Sadie.”

  When he wandered out of the room, Taeral sagged in place. “He is getting worse,” he murmured. “I must bring him across the Veil soon, or even Arcadia’s magic will not be able to restore him.”

  “Then let’s do it,” I said. “We’ll go now. Tonight, if you want to.”

  He huffed a breath. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, brother,” he said. “But I cannot overstate the dangers we face. At the least, we should spend a few days to prepare so I can teach you to better wield your Fae magic. But even then the journey will pose a great risk to all of us.”

  “Yeah, you keep saying that. A lot,” Sadie said. “That’s why I’m going with you.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “No, you are not! I’ll have enough trouble preventing them from detecting Daoin,” he said. “I cannot protect you as well.”

  “Then you’re missing the point,” Sadie practically growled. “I’m not asking for your protection. I’m going to help protect you, and Gideon, and your father.”

  Taeral shook his head. “A’ghreal, please. Arcadia is no place for…”

  “For what?” She was on her feet now, her eyes glittering. “A werewolf, or a woman?”

  He lifted a hand toward her, then changed his mind and lowered it. “For the woman I cannot lose,” he said.

  “Taeral…do you really think I could stand to lose you? Either of you,” she said, looking hard at me. “You guys just risked your lives to save my pack, and you didn’t even know them. I do know you, and I’m not going to sit back while you rush off, and maybe die, when I could’ve done something to help. You got that?”

  He looked away. “I’ll consider it,” he said. “That is the best I can offer.”

  “Well, you can damn well consider a better offer than no, because I’m not taking that one. I mean it.” She glared at him for another moment, and then spun and left the room.

  Taeral didn’t move. Or speak. Eventually I said, “Maybe we should bring her. I mean, she’s probably not going to let you leave her here.”

  “That is not her decision to make,” he said through clenched teeth. “Nor is it yours.”

  “Fine. Maybe we shouldn’t go at all, then,” I said. “Because every time you bring it up, it sounds like an even worse idea than the last time.”

  “We have no choice.”

  “Hey, I can live without being a better DeathSpeaker. I don’t even want this gig.”

  “And yet you have it,” Taeral said flatly. “You can survive without the knowledge, yes. For a time. But what happens when a new branch of that blasted cult finds you, one with greater numbers or improved weapons? If you’ve no control over your abilities, Milus Dei will capture you. They will use you, break you down. And destroy all of us.”

  I shivered involuntarily. “There has to be another way.”

  “There is no other way! Not for you…and not for Daoin.”

  Suddenly I thought of what he’d said to Cobalt just before we left The Grotto. He’d thanked him for protecting me when he couldn’t. And I remembered the damned promise, the one that condemned him to death if he failed to keep me safe to the best of his abilities. Under the current circumstances, helping me understand all this DeathSpeaker crap was keeping me safe.

  So Arcadia was Taeral’s only chance, too.

  “Okay, look,” I said. “If we have to, we have to. But I want to know something.”

  “What?” he said wearily.

  “That promise you made. Is there any way to cancel it?” I said. “I mean, you said there’s more magic in Arcadia. So is there a spell, or a magic potion or something, anything that keeps you from dying because of me?”

  Taeral laughed without amusement. “Aye, there’s a way. But it involves no magic—and it will never happen.”

  “What is it?”

  “A promise can be pardoned, which negates the consequences of failure to keep it. But the pardon must be granted by a ruling King or Queen,” he said. “I am Unseelie, so that leaves out the Seelie King. And the Unseelie Queen banished my father…so you can guess my chances of receiving a pardon from her.”

  Great. No matter what we did, we were screwed on that front.

  And probably the rest of them, too.

  CHAPTER 7

  Movie night wasn’t very well attended. None of the Duchenes had come down, and the other residents who occasionally came in for the show hadn’t stirred from their rooms. Grygg, the massive golem who’d appointed himself guardian of the door, never joined us. The movie probably would’ve been over by the time he walked from the front desk to the parlor anyway.

  I suspected everyone could feel the chill between Sadie and Taeral, and wanted nothing to do with the impending explosion.

  Reun, Daoin, and Taeral occupied the front-and-center big couch. I sat on the loveseat next to it, and Sadie took the furthest possible chair back. Apparently, I’d been placed on the list of overprotective idiots by association. A few times I considered slipping back there to try talking to her, but the go-to-hell look on her face stopped me.

  On the screen, Michael Corleone was in the bathroom at Louis, looking for the gun to carry out his first mission. But I wasn’t paying much attention to the Godfather-in-training.

  I was thinking about Arcadia.

  From the first time I heard the word, I’d been drawn to it—even without knowing anything about the place. Taeral had only talked to me about it once. He hadn’t said much. Just that the moon was eternal, brighter than it was here. That in the Fae realm, it was always night.

  All my life, nights had been the best time for me. I felt safer under the moon. And there hadn’t been much in the way of safety while I was growing up.

  I didn’t even need Taeral’s constant reminders to know that Arcadia was a dangerous place. I could sense that myself, somehow. But part of me looked forward to going there, longed for it. And I had no idea why.

  If Taeral really was going to help me figure out Fae magic, maybe I could get him to tell me a little more about the place. Like how to get there. I knew what crossing the Veil looked like, but only because of the Redcap who attacked me and Sadie in Central Park when we were looking for my mother’s body. The thing that looked like a cross between a leprechaun and a
vampire wanted to take me to the Unseelie Queen, for some reason. He’d opened a shimmering hole in reality and tried to drag me through.

  I’d managed to bash him through it with a shovel like an angry, oversized softball instead, but I’d just about dislocated my arms doing it. The little biting bastard was heavier than he looked.

  I dragged my attention back to the present. Daoin was completely absorbed in the movie, and Taeral was half-asleep. Reun watched the screen and Daoin at the same time. I glanced back and caught Sadie glaring at the back of Taeral’s head.

  We sure knew how to have fun around here.

  Just as I was settling back, Daoin sat forward abruptly, startling Taeral into alertness. “Someone is coming,” he said.

  My breath caught. The last time he’d said that was a few seconds before Reun busted through the front door in a rage, demanding an audience with Daoin—back when we still thought the Seelie noble wanted to kill us.

  And I wasn’t the only one worried by the cryptic statement.

  “Who?” Taeral said, looking wildly around the room. “Father, who is coming?”

  Reun was already on his feet, moving toward the entrance to the parlor. “I will not allow them inside, whoever they are,” he said.

  “They’ve found me.” Daoin stood, his gaze fastened on the television. “Taeral…run. Keep her safe.”

  Suddenly a jagged crack of light appeared on the screen, splitting Marlon Brando’s jowled face in half. And a voice that definitely didn’t belong to the Godfather boomed a single word.

  “Cíunaas.”

  My throat closed up tight. I tried to shout for Reun, to tell him I didn’t think anyone was coming through the front door.

  But I couldn’t say a word. Sound refused to emerge from my mouth.

  Just as I realized everyone else was suffering from the same problem, and the word had to be a spell, a figure emerged from the TV—heading straight for Daoin.

  For one crazy second, I thought the Godfather had somehow stepped into the parlor.

  But the figure was nothing like Brando. He was tall, slender, and definitely Fae, wearing something that looked like armor made of blue light. A pointed metal headband with a blue gemstone in the center rested on his high forehead, and Celtic-style tattoos decorated his face and neck.

  The curved, serrated dagger carved with runes that he clutched in his hand looked sickeningly familiar. It was exactly the same as the one Taeral had given me—the one Daoin had made copies of when he was Captain of the Unseelie Guard.

  It wasn’t hard to deduce who this guy was.

  Taeral lunged for Daoin, knocking him aside as the Fae from the portal dove at him. At the same time, another figure emerged…and another, and another, all of them identically dressed and similarly armed. Two of them grabbed Taeral. Just as he liberated a weapon from one of them and stabbed it through his assailant’s arm, the other sank an identical dagger deep into his side.

  His mouth opened in a silent scream as a third Fae soldier helped restrain him, and two more came through the shimmering rip. Then another. A pair of them had almost reached Daoin.

  I lunged at the newest invader and managed to knock him down. He swiped his blade at me, but I grabbed his wrist, twisted and slammed. A snarl lifted his lip, showing pointed teeth as the knife clattered to the floor.

  There was a flash of motion to my left—Sadie, charging into the fray around Taeral. Somewhere in the room, I heard a shouted spell that might have been Reun, and a powerful blast of air washed over me. The television smashed into the wall behind it in a shower of sparks.

  But the soldiers were unaffected, and the rip remained.

  And Taeral was being dragged through it.

  No! I still couldn’t speak. As I struggled with the Fae I’d pinned, two more rushed past us—then seconds later, I heard Reun scream. Sadie was on the floor, apparently unconscious. I refused to believe she was dead. And the soldier beneath me was almost free.

  I drew an arm back and rammed a fist into his jaw.

  He barely flinched. And then, he grinned. “Tuariis’caen,” he said.

  The dagger I’d twisted away from him flew back into his hand, and in a single smooth motion, he plunged it through my shoulder.

  Not being able to scream almost hurt more than the knife.

  He pulled the blade free, flipped me off and scrambled upright. For an instant I got a good look at him—dark brown braided hair, gleaming amber-gold eyes, thorny vines tattooed across the bridge of his nose and around his throat like a collar. His grin chilled me to the core.

  “Crohgaa,” he said. “Amaedahn…naech crohgaa.”

  Whatever that meant, it wasn’t a spell. I tried to stand, to go for him again, but only got halfway up before pain twisted through me and drove me to my knees. He grinned again, and dove through the portal.

  I could only watch as the rest of them hauled an unresisting Daoin through the same way as Taeral—and the shimmering crack vanished.

  CHAPTER 8

  As soon as the portal closed, the invisible stranglehold on my throat released. “Sadie!” I gasped, dragging myself toward her motionless form. At least I could see her, and I could get to her.

  I couldn’t think about Taeral and Daoin yet. If I did, I’d lose it.

  She was facedown with one arm flung over her head, and the other bent loosely behind her back. I moved to turn her over, momentarily forgetting about my shoulder until incredible pain surged through me and left my mouth in a hoarse scream.

  Then I remembered the runes on those daggers were enchantments, designed to enhance the damage the weapons dealt.

  My damage was definitely enhanced.

  “Sadie…” I worked to flip her single-handed, dimly aware of the increased activity in the background that seem to come from another life. Motion and voices. I blocked them out and focused on Sadie.

  She was breathing, at least. Her eyes were closed, and there was a small smear of blood at her right temple. I searched gently with my fingers, lifting her hair and feeling for injuries, before I realized that the blood was probably mine. My entire arm was soaked in blood that dripped from my fingertips.

  But Sadie seemed untouched. They could’ve used the sleep spell on her—one of the few I actually knew. So maybe I could reverse it. Sometimes I could come up with Fae words I didn’t know if I relaxed my focus, so I closed my eyes and tried not to think about how to say ‘wake up.’

  “Diúsaegh.”

  I spoke the word almost before I thought it. Sadie’s body stiffened, and her eyes flew open. “Taeral!” she called harshly, struggling to sit up. Her distant gaze barely registered me, even though I was right in front of her. “We have to stop them—”

  “Sadie, wait.” I grabbed her arm firmly, before she could bolt. “We can’t.”

  Her lip curled as she wrenched away. “The hell we can’t! Turn your pendant on,” she said. “I’ll go wolf and…kill every one of those…” Her voice faded as she finally looked around and realized how quiet it was. How the parlor wasn’t full of Unseelie soldiers any more. How it was distinctly lacking Taeral. And Daoin—but she wasn’t looking for him yet. “No,” she said in a cracked whisper.

  I shuddered and glanced over the rest of the room. Denei and Zoba, the two oldest Duchenes, were rushing toward Reun’s sprawled and groaning form, half-propped against an overturned table. Two of their younger siblings stood near the parlor entrance, and Grygg was just outside it, glaring through angrily as one of the Duchenes spoke to him with rapid, emphatic gestures. None of them had seen what happened—it was over too fast.

  “Gideon.” Sadie’s voice trembled. “Where is he? Where’s Taeral?”

  I wasn’t sure I could speak. The weight of it threatened to crush me, the sick certainty that we’d never get them back. Those Fae had swatted every one of us down like insects in the space of two minutes, and there had to be a lot more where that batch came from. But she had to know. “I’m not sure,” I managed. “But if I ha
d to guess…I’d say Arcadia. Specifically, the Unseelie Court.”

  “You’d be right.”

  I barely recognized the splintered voice from across the room as Reun. He’d managed to stand with Denei supporting him, and now he limped toward us with an anguished expression. “They took both of them, didn’t they? Daoin and Taeral.”

  I nodded, wincing at the fresh pain moving my neck caused.

  “Oh, God,” Sadie said. “We have to go after them.”

  “Who’s them?” Denei demanded. “Reun, what the hell happened? Why didn’t you call me down here?”

  He eased himself straighter. “They are the Unseelie Guard. And you’d not have made it in time,” he said. “This was carefully planned. The new moon, the precise location. They intended to neutralize, grab and leave.”

  “Well, when they come back, I’m damn sure gonna lay a hurt on ’em,” she said.

  Just behind her, Zoba made a very unpleasant sound. I could only assume he agreed.

  “They’ll not return. They have what they came for.” Reun stepped away from her, his hand lingering on her arm for a moment. Apparently the two of them still had a thing together, though I couldn’t imagine the attraction. “Gideon, your shoulder,” he said. “A drais-ghan?”

  It took me a few seconds to puzzle that one out. Spelled dagger. “Yeah, that,” I said. I decided not to mention it was a copy of the one Reun’s wife had given to Daoin while they were having an affair. No need to rub that in at the moment.

  “Jesus!” Sadie scrambled to her feet. “You’re bleeding all over the place. Why didn’t you say something?”

  “Thought it was kind of obvious.” I was still on my knees, and I wasn’t sure I could get up. The slightest movement made my whole arm feel like it was going to explode.

  She bent closer to look at the wound. “How bad is it?” she said, reaching for my shoulder.

  “Don’t—”

  She touched it. And I screamed.

  Sadie snatched her hand back fast. “Sorry. I guess that means pretty bad, right?”