“Now we wait.”
The man reached out beside him and began twirling the umbrella.
Chapter 14
Kynon took his sweet time. Left unprotected, my skin began to burn. I had a bottle of sunscreen in my messenger bag, but the gray men had taken that an hour ago after they caught me arguing with Righty under my breath and decided I must be crazy or was activating a pre-mixed hex.
They gave my paltry spellwork skills way too much credit.
“How are you holding up?” I called to Mai.
The old man had taken pity on her and allowed her to share in the shade of his umbrella.
Not a euphemism.
“You’re going from lobster to fire hydrant.” She glared at the elder. “Can I bring her water?”
He shook his head. “She will soon have all the water she desires.”
I flashed him a nasty smile. “Salt water that will dehydrate me more if I drink it.”
He spread his hands in a helpless gesture.
A frustrated growl jerked the nearby gray men into high alert.
Oh.
That was me.
“When you are finished being stubborn,” Righty said, “we will handle the situation.”
“You say handle, but what I hear is slaughter.” I sighed. “You can’t kill this many Seelie.”
As precarious as my position was on the throne, a misstep of this magnitude would topple me. If a murderous faux pas got me off the queenly hook, I would consider taking a header, but it wouldn’t. The only thing it would earn me was a knife in the back once Rook dragged me to Faerie.
“You are learning,” Lefty remarked. “That response was almost diplomatic.”
I stuck my tongue out at him, which meant I was mocking thin air.
Smooth. Real smooth.
Behind me, waves slapped the shore, and cooling waters frothed around my ankles.
The old man’s spine stiffened. “You brought it, then?”
“I did.” Kynon’s voice rose from over my shoulder.
From his seat in the sand, the old man made a gesture in the air. “Let it be done.”
Kynon came to my side, clutching the fur tight in his hands. “What will you do with this?”
A knowing smile curled my lips. Sweet confirmation. He had no idea. Not who I was or what I was about to do. These guys picked up on my portent vibes somehow, but his ignorance was proof they hadn’t specifically targeted me. Good. That made this business.
Business I could handle.
I wrested the gray lump from his grip. “Why don’t I show you?”
Exhaling through my teeth, I focused on the skin and let myself sink inside its residual memories. With my hold on its identity secured, I draped the skin down my back, pulling its eye slits over mine. Magic shimmied over my body, twisting me into a more compact shape. Down and down I went, until my soft belly rested on the hot sand. Thick whiskers flicked when I twitched my nose. Shifting side to side, I thumped my meaty hind flippers and barked at Kynon.
His head swung between me and the old man, who shot to his feet.
“What manner of creature are you?” he demanded.
I barked again. Speaking while shifted was still a work in progress.
He shook a gnarled finger at my face. “Do not mock me.”
Mai rose slowly. “She can’t talk once she’s shifted.”
The elder spun on her. “Is she a shifter, then?”
She extended a hand and wobbled it. “Not exactly.”
“What manner of creature is she?” he repeated.
She leaned around him and looked to me for permission. I made a strangled cough.
That must have been enough for Mai. “She’s the Black Dog’s daughter.”
This time the strangled noise came from his throat. “Macsen Sullivan’s child?”
“He’s the only Black Dog I know of.” She huffed. “Well, except for Tee.”
His knees buckled before they gave, and he hit the sand near me. “You’re the princess.”
Cough-bark-cough.
Mai plopped onto the sand near me. “I think she’s wondering if the race to the death is still on.”
“I offer my humble apologies, Princess Thierry.” He bowed low before me. “I only sought to protect my people. I meant no offense, Highness.”
Figuring it was safe to let go of the skin, I did, or tried to. I had sunk so deep into its memories, I was loath to be parted from the Mother, the sea, reluctant to walk as men did in this hot, dry place.
Mai stroked the length of my spine and whispered, “It’s safe to come out now.”
Her touch, her voice, shocked my own memories to the forefront of my brain, and I released the skin with a shudder, peeling it off while magic crackled and stood my hairs on end.
“Next time—” I coughed into my fist, “—have a reason before you attack someone, okay?”
“Death has not been kind to us.” His lips flattened. “We are picked off, one by one, year by year.”
“If you’re this aggressive to outsiders, I can see why.” I passed him his pelt. “I have never seen gray men, but legends of your people’s beauty lured me down to the shore. I was curious.” I paused when his papery hand brushed mine. “I offered you and yours no insult, and yet you challenged me.”
“We must protect ourselves against your kind.”
“Wait.” I rubbed my forehead. “You thought because I was a death portent that I would, what, kill you? For no reason?”
He returned my frown. “It is the nature of a portent to announce death, is it not?”
I couldn’t fault his logic. That was how the portent business worked. Back in Faerie, if you saw Mac coming for you, you knew you were as good as dead. My presence wasn’t as commanding or as damning. I didn’t know my father to comment on his intentions, but I approached each situation with hope I could leave with a suspect in custody. Not dried out, rolled up and tucked under my arm.
Magic like mine fed on death, on the souls of the condemned.
Hungry days were good days. They kept me honest.
The burn in my gut had increased since returning from Faerie. Maybe because I was using more magic these days? The non-lethal kind. The skin-walking trick was cool, but it would get me killed if I didn’t get a handle on it and soon. My transition time sucked, and without my runes, I was just a half-fae girl with a nifty parlor trick. If Righty hadn’t intervened with Herbert, the perverted djinn might have dry-humped me to death—or worse—before I sprouted hands to fend him off.
And I did not want to die wearing a dollar-store thong and the dried sweat of a teenager.
Swaying on my feet, I wobbled as one of the pelt’s memories surfaced until the hazy images coalesced into one crystalline remembrance.
“When I wore the pelt, I saw a giant black bird swooping low over the sand. It poached the skins from your people when they come ashore to shift and mate.” Other flashes of insight followed. “The bird can’t catch them at sea,” I said dazedly. “Selkies must shift to human on dry land. It waits until they’re pink-skinned and helpless. Then it snaps their fragile necks in its crooked beak.”
The elder glanced at Kynon then back to me. “I— Yes.”
Not just any black bird, either. “The Morrigan.”
Frail as he appeared, the old man’s voice raged with the force of his anger. “Yes.”
“I have to ask.” Though I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer. “Can you sense her in me?”
“Yes.” His forehead creased. “You carry something of her magic in you.”
For a panicked second, I thought he sensed some cosmic marker Rook had implanted in me, and I was primed to scratch off the topmost layer of my skin to remove it at any cost. I am not his. Then it hit me, and my hand shot to my throat.
“Not in me.” I lifted the silver charm I never removed. “On me.”
Gamely, he held out his hand. “May I?”
“Sure.” I leaned forward so he could inspect it. I
t was too valuable to remove. I couldn’t risk losing it.
Wrinkled fingers tapped the triquetra stamped into the metal. “What is this?”
“All marshals are issued these pendants,” I explained. “They allow us to summon the Morrigan. When arrests go bad, we call her to consume the remains so there’s nothing left for humans to find.”
“Are all of them so strong?”
I bit down on the inside of my cheek. No, they weren’t. Not even close, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
An ear-piercing yowl shifted his attention off me, and I used the distraction to reclaim my necklace.
I shielded my eyes from the sun and peered toward the boardwalk leading from our condo onto the beach. “What is he doing here?”
Mai shielded her eyes from the sun. “Diode?”
My bobcat-sized kitty stiffly picked his way across the sand, swiping at anyone who dared look his way twice. His neon gaze collided with mine, and his ears swiveled backward.
Uh-oh.
His splotchy fur stood on end by the time he reached us. His whiskers shot forward, and he spat at the sea.
“What is that?” the old man asked.
“He’s a friend,” I said, stretching out my hand toward Diode.
“Don’t touch him.” Mai popped my wrist. “Any more stress and—”
“—he’ll explode to regular size like a feline piñata,” I finished.
“You have been standing on the shore, surrounded by these gray men for several hours now.” A snarl curled Diode’s upper lip. “I must assume, therefore, that you have seen all you came to see and that you are ready to return to your rooms?” His tail bristled as he squared off with the old man. “It’s a mercy that her guard alerted me when he did. Had she been harmed by your hand, I would have peeled the flesh from your bones and gifted her with both your skins.”
The old man’s spine stiffened. “I will not be threatened, Old One.”
Old One? I glanced between them.
“I have threatened you. Offend me again, and words will fail to suffice.” Diode picked his way to me on dry pockets of sand and swatted my bare leg. “Carry me to our rooms.”
The old man gaped.
“It’s all right.” I grunted as I lifted Diode, bringing him in front of my face and rubbing our noses together. “Who’s a cute widdle kitty cat? Who’s my special wittle boy?”
His claws flexed. “I should have let the selkies take you.”
“Eh, they would have given me back.” I addressed the small gathering. “It was nice to meet you all, and I’m glad we will part as friends.” I hated playing the game, but I rolled the dice and made my first promise using the power awaiting me in Faerie. “Once I am made queen, I will speak to the Morrigan on your behalf.”
“You have our gratitude, Princess.” The old man bowed. “It will change nothing, but we appreciate the gesture.”
“It can’t hurt to try.”
He didn’t respond.
Diode sank his claws into my arm. “We should be going.”
With a tight nod to the pod, I braved the sizzling sands and began the walk back to our condo.
Mai fell in step beside me. “Sorry.”
“For what?” I jerked my chin toward the gray men. “You couldn’t have predicted that.”
“Still.” She stared ahead. “We have to be more careful. You’re an Unseelie royal, and we can’t keep pretending you’re a neutral who’s welcome to crash all the parties like we used to. It’s dangerous.”
I counted backward from ten before answering. I was doing that a lot lately.
“My views haven’t changed.” I hadn’t changed. “I’m still me.”
“I know that, but people who have never met you…” She shrugged. “All they hear is the title.”
As much as I hated it, this was a wakeup call for me. We had escaped unscathed, thanks to a quirk of mine, but would I be so lucky the next time? Would my friends? She was right. I had to be more careful. Even if I had no special love or loyalty to my house, the others expected it from me.
Walking into this situation with the gray men, I could have gotten myself killed or had to kill to protect myself, and it would have been my fault. I wasn’t on the clock. No official duty had brought me here. I was on my own time, and I was mingling freely the way I always did, a luxury I could no longer afford.
“Princess?”
I glanced over my shoulder and spotted a gray man, a teenager, and barely that. Thirteen if I had to guess. He was easy on the eyes, as they all were, but his movements were less fluid as though he was still growing into his height. Unlike the elder, he met my gaze and held it. He wasn’t afraid. I bet he thought he could take me if he had to.
I liked him already.
Despite Diode’s grumbling, I turned to face the boy. “You can call me Thierry.”
His gaze plunged into the sand. “I can’t do that.”
The kid was coiled tight and ready to burst. I quirked an eyebrow at him. “Do you need something?”
“My great uncle—our pod elder—has a touch of foresight. It’s why we beached earlier than usual.” His cheeks reddened. “He wasn’t sure why we had to be here, only that we did.”
“Okay.” Intersections of fate made my skin crawl. “What is it you need from me?”
“Some of the others—my parents—worry he will think meeting you was the reason for his vision. He will think you were sent to us as a sign that better times are ahead for our pod, but please,” he begged. “Don’t mention us to the Morrigan.”
Interesting. “Is there a reason why I shouldn’t?”
A hard glint sparkled in his eyes. “If she thinks we asked for help, she’ll kill us in one fell swoop instead of picking us off one at a time.”
My temper combusted in a scalding, choking blast of anger.
That right there was the reason why the Unseelie mantle weighed on me. Seelie weren’t always sparkling rays of light. Just as Unseelie weren’t always as dark or sinister as their reputation intimated. Either might take exception to something another faction did and make their lives a living hell in payment for it, but this burned my biscuits.
I didn’t expect cuddle time with the Morrigan. She wasn’t that kind of mother-in-law. Heck, she wasn’t that kind of mother. Her reputation was hard won, and she was proud of it. But now her notoriety was rubbing off on me, and I didn’t like it. It bred expectation. Doors that once opened to me were now slammed in my face. I got that. I understood. Mac’s legacy stuck me with baggage too.
The difference being my father’s legacy challenged me. His standard gave me a rung to grasp, a name to live up to. I didn’t want to be Black Dog’s Daughter. I wanted to be Marshal Thackeray, the best marshal in my region. I wanted to outshine my father on my own merits. All the Morrigan’s name lent me was grief. Fear was as easy to inspire as pain was to inflict. I could hurt people. I could kill them. I was good at it, and God knew some days I craved it. But I wanted to be my best self, not my worst.
My tone was calm, even. “What does the Morrigan have against the gray men?”
The youth rocked back on his heels. “My great uncle, he stole something from her. And then he lost it.”
I frowned. “What could he have taken that would piss her off enough to murder an entire pod?”
“My great aunt…” His voice blended with the churning sea. “She was the Morrigan’s daughter, and no one has seen her in centuries.”
Chapter 15
Back in my room, I collapsed face-first onto my bed with a groan. The mattress dipped when Mai sat, and I rolled against her. Seconds later, Diode strolled up my spine. I grunted as vertebrae popped under his hefty weight.
When he reached my head, he leapt onto the pillow. Batting aside the tangles obscuring my face, he peered at me. “What does the selkie elder running away with the Morrigan’s daughter mean for you?”
I would have ignored him if he hadn’t placed a persuasive paw—claws out—on my hand.
“Back this train up.” Mai shoved me onto my side. “Why do I get the feeling you two already knew about this?”
Guilt welled in me. “Back in Faerie, Rook confided in me that he has a missing half-sister.”
She jabbed a finger in Diode’s face. “You told the cat before you told me?”
He batted her hand—claws in. “The cat was in the room when the confession was made.”
“Why does it mean anything?” She threw up her hands. “I get why Rook would want to know where his sister went, she’s family, but if she’s missing here too… I don’t know. Will telling him change anything?”
“No.” I exhaled. “It won’t.”
She patted my thigh. “What’s with the face?”
Diode rumbled thoughtfully. “She was going to use the sister’s location as leverage with Rook.”
Mai popped my leg. “Smart.”
“It was an inkling.” And that was being generous. “Not a fully formed plan.”
“It was a good inkling,” Diode allowed.
I closed my eyes. “Yeah, well, my twenty-four-karat leverage over Rook just turned copper.”
I felt green thinking about it. Information on his sister would have been invaluable.
Mai palmed my forehead and peeled open my right eye. “So they ran away together, the Morrigan found them, and she started picking selkies off for revenge?”
“It looks that way.” The selkies had chosen the wrong nest to rob. “The Morrigan is unique among the fae. She’s allowed to cross realms regularly to collect tithes. She could have made any number of side trips. The conclave must have eyes on her, but only the higher-ups would know about it.”
“You are a higher-up.” She pointed at the ceiling. “You’re a princess.”
“A princess of Faerie,” Diode interjected. “At worst, Thierry ranks as a junior marshal. At best, she is viewed as a visiting dignitary seeking asylum. She poses a security risk, actually, now that her loyalties will be seen as lying with House Unseelie and not with the conclave or its neutral views.”
Hearing that, my molars were in real danger of being ground into powder.
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