by Anya Bast
Bolting to her, she pushed the woman out of the way. Elizabeth tripped, sprawled on her back, looked upward.
The huge chunk of black quartz hurtled straight toward her.
TWENTY-THREE
GIDEON’S teeth ground together, but he refused to look at the sluagh that roamed around him. The sounds of their claws on the marble were like splinters of ice through his brain. He kept his gaze focused on Gabriel’s face. Beside him, the Summer and Shadow Queens were locked in a similar prison of attention.
“Look at these monsters you can call,” he yelled over the sound of the goblins and sluagh around them. “How is it you think you deserve to walk among humans?”
“You don’t fool anyone here, Gideon,” Gabriel countered. “You don’t care a whit about humanity. Don’t pretend to be their guardians.”
“I wouldn’t be standing here, with Labrai guiding my every move, if I wasn’t.”
Aislinn snorted. “If Labrai is guiding you, why didn’t you stop the last two pieces from getting into Piefferburg? How was it, if the almighty Labrai directs your hand, Ronan Quinn was able to create an illusion that duped you all and enabled him to carry in the first piece? The piece he stole for you in the first place. How is that, Gideon?”
“Oh, that’s right.” Gabriel barked out a laugh. “That had to be embarrassing.”
Gideon’s jaw locked. Those failures were bitter truths that poisoned his reality.
“In fact,” continued Aislinn, “I would make a guess that the Lady Danu had a hand in allowing those pieces to come to us. Everything happened so perfectly.” She paused and gave him a sweet smile. “As though it was all meant to be.”
Gideon gave her his best poisonous smile. “If the goddess Danu is guiding these events, how is it you were trapped in Piefferburg in the first place?”
Aislinn locked gazes with Caoilainn. “That’s an excellent question.”
“If you’re accusing me of something, just come out with it,” answered Caoilainn.
Aislinn raised her silver blond brows. “You’re helping the Phaendir to keep the walls up right now, Caoilainn. There’s no reason not to suspect you didn’t help erect them in the first place.”
“Watt Syndrome could never have been created without specific knowledge of fae genetics,” Gabriel added. “We’ve long suspected a traitor in our midst. Viewing your recent actions, seems likely it was you.”
The room immediately plunged into a subzero temperature range. Gideon watched frost coat Gabriel’s golden skin, leaching away the healthy color. Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed several of the sluagh slip and go sprawling on the suddenly slick floor.
“How dare you,” shrieked Caoilainn. “I would never.”
Gideon’s lips curled in a smile and he bit back the liar dancing on his tongue. He’d entertained the idea of throwing Caoilainn under the bus if he’d deemed it would help him. Looked like that option was off the table. Her actions spoke louder than his accusations.
“Cut the temper tantrum,” Aislinn growled. Her lips were blue and frost coated her hair, starting at the crown and snaking its way down.
“I think the lady doth protest too much,” Gabriel added.
“Cut the temper tantrum? You just accused me of damning my race!”
“If the shoe fits.”
“You incredible bitch!” She reached her right hand out to one side and a chunk of the foyer wall exploded in a shower of black quartz. The tower rocked ominously, and a deafening crack snaked its way up the wall, past the ceiling.
“Ladies, I’m growing bored.” Gideon leveled his hand at Aislinn and Gabriel. “Tell us where the Book of Bindings is or I’ll kill you both right now.”
Aislinn and Gabriel exchanged a look. Gideon couldn’t interpret it, but it should have been a look of apprehension. They had little power to wield over him. Gabriel was an incubus, so unless he was planning to seduce them to death, his power was useless. Aislinn’s main magick was that of necromancer, also a relatively useless skill in battle.
“Yeah,” said Gabriel lazily. “We’re not doing that.”
Gideon didn’t even blink…he just fired.
ELIZABETH rolled to the side a moment before the chunk of quartz hit the cobblestones. She curled in on herself, protecting her head and face from the explosion of rock. A piece of the shrapnel hit her leg. Blinding pain burst through her and blood ran hot. Elizabeth doubled over as she lay on her side, gripping her leg and crying out in agony.
Niall raced over to her with Kieran at his side. Niall knelt near her, while Kieran led the confused, dreamy-eyed fae woman away.
Niall helped her to sit up and rolled the bottom of her pant leg up to check the damage. He rocked back on his heels and pushed a hand through his hair. “We need to get this wound cleaned up now.”
“Is it bad?” she asked, peering down. All she could see was blood. It hurt like hell. The pain throbbed in hot waves up her leg. She sank her teeth into her lower lip to keep from groaning and crying out.
“I can’t tell, but I don’t think it broke a bone. Seems like just a really bad, deep cut. You’ll need stitches.” He looked into her face. “Looks like you’re not running away from me anytime soon, beautiful.”
She looked away from him, really hating the little spark inside her that thrilled at the prospect of being forced to remain with him…at least for a little while. “Yay,” she replied, her voice flat.
“Aw, now no sarcasm needed.” He glanced around. “Where’s your mother?”
She shrugged. “Apparently trying to teach me a lesson. She disappeared.”
He nodded. “Come on, let’s get away from the tower.” He helped her up, and she limped toward the sidewalk.
Everyone they passed thanked and congratulated her for saving the woman. The woman in question had wandered down the road, staring up into the velvety winter night sky, seemingly oblivious that someone had just risked their life for her. The lady hadn’t even known she’d been in danger.
Kieran approached them, hooking his thumb after the woman. “Feeorshee.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Oh.” It made sense now. The feeorshee had one foot out of this world and into the next. They lived in a reality that was half a dream.
“Listen,” said Kieran. “I’m sorry I reacted that way to you earlier. What you just did was incredible.”
“Don’t be too impressed.” She grimaced. “I really didn’t even think about it, Kieran. I just acted.”
He grinned. “That’s good. If you’d thought about it, you’d never have done it.”
That was true enough.
“After you left, Niall told me about your motivation for hiding the pieces. I didn’t know any of that.” He paused, studying her. “Very compelling.”
Elizabeth swallowed. “Look. I’m not asking for forgiv—”
“Come with us,” he cut her off before she could get defensive out of guilt.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why?”
“Are you always this suspicious? I’m offering to trust you.” He glanced down at her leg. “And we can get you cleaned up and bandaged. You won’t get far with an injury like that.”
She snapped her mouth shut before she said something she would regret and gave a curt nod.
Niall scooped her into his arms, and she immediately began to struggle. “Put me down. I’m not some damsel in distress. I can walk…or limp, at least.” She could dissolve and heal the wound, but she didn’t want to do that here and end up buck naked. She’d rather endure the pain.
Another blast of magick shook the tower and the street along with it. The crowd began to scream and scrabble, running away as more pieces of black quartz began to fall like some demented, dangerous rain, crashing on the street.
Niall began to move through the throng, away from the structure. She grabbed his neck and hung on tight. “You were saying?” he asked with a sly grin.
“Be quiet,” she muttered, angry that, at least for the moment, she nee
ded him. She was acutely aware of how much that pleased him.
Niall and Kieran made their way through the fleeing people to a SUV a couple blocks away. Kieran opened the back door, and Niall slid her onto the seat. Wincing, she changed her position to one that didn’t hurt so much. Kieran started the vehicle and they took off down the street.
She stared out the window, looking at the chaos erupting. The sluagh and the goblins had spilled from the tower and roamed the streets around the structure, frothing at the mouth at their inability to carry out their queen’s orders. The residents of the city were now fleeing Piefferburg Square, apparently in response to some event that she was unable to see now. Something big was happening, that was for sure.
The light-headedness that she’d been keeping at bay only through a sheer force of will reared its head. Her eyes drooped and her head lolled as she fought it. Looking down, she saw she was bleeding all over Kieran’s car.
So much blood.
In the distance, gunfire rang out, making her jerk erect for a moment before her vision began to fade to black. Struggling to stay conscious, she glimpsed a group of human soldiers running across the street in front of them, chasing the sluagh.
Well, that was exceedingly dumb.
Kieran swerved to avoid a skirmish and gunned the engine to go around another confrontation. Everything was falling apart. War was beginning. Elizabeth felt badly for the humans. They’d obviously received the order to engage, but they were going to get the worse end of this.
Niall glanced back at her, as if reading her mind. Did he know her that well? “Don’t look so worried. The Shadow Queen gave orders to the goblins and sluagh that the soldiers are not to be harmed. They’ll be detained, incapacitated, but not killed.” He paused. “We’re about to reenter the human world; we won’t start out by slaughtering them.”
Elizabeth nodded, unable to speak. She was only barely holding on to consciousness.
“The queen doesn’t want any more bad publicity with the humans than we already have,” Niall finished. When she didn’t respond, he looked back at her. “Are you all—Kieran, stop the car!”
“I can’t!” Kieran was negotiating the disordered streets like a pro. “We need to get the hell out of downtown. Everything is turning into chaos.”
Niall scrambled into the backseat beside her, cupping her face between his hands. “You’re pale and look ready to…Elizabeth? Elizabeth?”
Her eyes rolled shut and everything went dark.
TWENTY-FOUR
“FUCK,” Niall swore under his breath. Elizabeth had passed out, either from pain or blood loss. “She needs medical attention!”
“I’m going as fast as I can go. Hold on.” Kieran jerked the wheel to the left to avoid a group of fae battling soldiers.
Niall held on tight to Elizabeth’s limp body, looking out the back window to see the soldiers scattering the fae with bullets. If the soldiers were packing charmed iron bullets, those fae were dead. If not, the shots might not kill them, depending on what kind of fae they were, but it would hurt like a son of a bitch.
Kieran headed into the ceantar dubh and parked in front of a tall residential building that Niall didn’t recognize. “The book is here?” he asked as Kieran stopped the engine.
He nodded. “It’s a safe house, of sorts. Only a few of us know about it.”
“And you trust Elizabeth not to do something crazy?”
“Am I right to trust her, Niall?”
“Fuck yes.”
Kieran turned to look at him. “You love her, don’t you?”
Niall met his gaze. “Yes.”
“I trust that anyone you trust is okay.” He glanced at Elizabeth as Niall hefted her unconscious body into his arms. “Even someone who did something like what she did.”
“She did it for love.”
“A year ago, I wouldn’t have understood that, but now I do.”
They climbed out of the SUV and went into the building. It was dank-smelling, and the staircase was steep and narrow. Like most of the buildings in this part of town, it had been constructed during the early days of Piefferburg so it was very old and had been built small to be easier to heat.
Holding Elizabeth close to his chest and musing about how much she would hate the fact he had to carry her up the stairs, he followed Kieran upward, their passage lit by only a series of bare lightbulbs hanging from wires. Each of their shuffling footsteps echoed through the space.
They went all the way to the top—of course. Niall’s lungs were burning and his arms ached from Elizabeth’s weight by the time they reached the final flight of stairs. There, on the topmost landing, was a scuffed and dented metal door. Kieran knocked, and his wife, Charlotte, answered. “Thank god you’re safe,” she breathed, throwing herself into his arms.
After several long moments of standing there, listening to Charlotte and Kieran coo at each other, Niall cleared his voice. “I know she looks light, but…”
Charlotte moved, just then noticing him there. Her eyes traveled to Elizabeth, then to Kieran, recognition clear on her face. “Why have you brought her here?”
“Niall trusts her and that’s good enough for me. Plus, I watched her risk her life to save someone back at the tower.”
“Yes,” snapped Niall, “that’s how she got this injury that’s making her gush blood.” His tone made it clear he was losing patience.
Charlotte’s gaze moved down to Elizabeth’s leg and her eyes widened. “Of course, come in.” She moved to the side, and Niall carried her in.
The inside of the apartment was sparsely furnished, the few pieces of furniture occupied by the usual suspects—Aislinn’s advisors. Aeric O’Malley and his wife, Emmaline; Bella and Niall’s brother, Ronan Quinn; plus the rest of the Wild Hunt, Melia, Aelfdane, and Bran, who had his pet crow, Lex, perched on his shoulder. An old fireplace stood along one wall, rusty fireplace tools leaning against the brick.
Bella and Ronan were sitting on the couch and immediately moved so he could lay Elizabeth down. Bella knelt next to her, pushing Elizabeth’s flame-colored hair to the side to reveal her pale face.
“She’s lost a lot of blood,” said Niall, ripping her pant leg up the side.
Bella didn’t say a word, just moved to get all the things he needed. He didn’t even have to open his mouth to ask. Lady, his brother had married an angel. A moment later and he was pressing a clean wad of material to Elizabeth’s wound.
She would need stitches if she remained in human form. If she regained consciousness, she could take water form and heal the wound instantly. Anxiety clenched his stomach.
What if she didn’t wake up?
GIDEON released the magick with a pop of power that tingled painfully through his body, as it did every time. The power arced toward Aislinn and Gabriel, but they dove out of the way at the last moment, and it made a crater in the floor instead. Bits of marble flew everywhere, exploding against his shield and hitting the roaming goblins and sluagh.
No matter. Aislinn and Gabriel weren’t getting away. He’d never really thought they’d willingly hand the book over to save the tower, anyway. Bringing it down—and killing them—had been on his agenda from the start.
He turned, targeting Aislinn. Kill her and he’d get rid of the goblins and sluagh. In the same moment, a blast of magick not unlike a lightning bolt struck his shield.
Gideon staggered backward, his shield vibrating like a tuning fork. If it hadn’t been there, he’d be a smoking heap of ash on the floor. His gaze swung to the Summer Queen, thinking she’d done it, but she was busy directing her magick toward a figure near the bank of elevators.
He was a huge man, ice-white skin blending with long, ice-white hair. Gideon recognized him and his unique power signature even after all these centuries.
So, the Shadow Queen had a champion.
Gideon swung his arms wide. “Kolbjorn! So good to see you after all these years. Still looking like a walking flake of dandruff, I see.”
&nbs
p; “Can dandruff do this?” he growled. Another lightning bolt shot toward his shield, making the whole thing shudder, shake, and whine.
The magick wavered under the force of the strike, and Gideon had a moment of unease. He wasn’t sure how much trauma the shield could take, yet a glance behind him showed his loyal contingent of Phaendir behind him, heads bowed, not budging, feeding not only their shield, but his own.
He glanced at Caoilainn. It was time they stood together. His magick was twice as powerful joined with hers. Aislinn and Gabriel wanted a fight, he was willing to give them one. They wanted him to take this tower down? No problem.
Gideon and Caoilainn stepped toward each other at the same time. United, they moved toward Kolbjorn.
SOMEONE touched Niall’s shoulder, and he looked up from Elizabeth’s unconscious face to see Emmaline looking down at him. “That’s all you can do for her right now. We’ll have to hope she wakes up and can shift.”
He stared down into her pale face. “I know.” After a moment, he rubbed a hand over his face, pushed it through his hair, and stood. “What time is it?”
“Almost noon,” answered Aeric, walking to the window and gazing out over the city to the pillar of black in the distance. “I don’t know if Aislinn and Gabriel will make it in time.”
Niall went to stand beside him. “By the looks of things when we left the Black Tower, I’d say that’s a negative.”
“Yeah.” Aeric paused. “Fine, so we do it ourselves.”
“Where’s the book?”
“It’s safe,” came a belligerent voice from behind him. It was Melia.
He turned to look at the red-headed battle fae, who was standing near Bran and her husband, Aelfdane, and was glaring at Elizabeth lying unconscious on the couch. “Do you have something you need to say, Melia?”
Melia swung her gaze to his and spat out, “She shouldn’t be here.”
“But she is,” he snapped back, “so get over it.” He motioned at her. “It’s not like she can do a lot of damage, anyway.”