by M. J. Scott
“Very well,” the queen said. “You may tell the humans to be ready in three days, sa’Eleniel. I will return then.”
“My Queen, I—” Bryony faltered. I heard her take a single breath. “Very well, Your Majesty. I will tell them.”
“Good. Now leave us.”
There was a sudden tingling of power and I somehow knew that they were gone. I didn’t look up. Couldn’t bear to see the empty space where Saskia had been.
Instead I waited, head bowed. The queen’s footsteps were soft taps on the marble.
“So, hai’salai,” she said. “Let us see what you are truly capable of.” Her hands came down on either side of my head and the world went white around me.
Chapter Twenty-two
SASKIA
“Saskia? Is it true?” Holly’s voice came from the doorway of Bryony’s office, where Bryony had left me when I’d refused to go back to my family’s rooms. I wasn’t ready to face anyone just yet. Not until I was sure I could do more than breathe without dissolving in tears.
It had taken all my will during our journey back to the City to do just that. Each breath in and out was an effort when all I wanted to do was stop. To not be. To not feel.
Fen.
I couldn’t stop hearing his words in my head, seeing the pleased smile as he’d turned to the queen. Had I really been such a fool?
And now here was Holly, wanting to know all about it. I hugged my arms tighter around my knees. “It’s true,” I said dully. “Fen stayed in Summerdale.”
“I don’t believe it.”
I lifted my head, saw the expression of shock and disbelief on her face, mirror to what I felt. “Believe it. He wanted safety.”
Holly shook her head. “That’s not Fen.”
“Isn’t it?”
“She must have done something to him.”
“She didn’t even touch him.” My words sounded bitter. They tasted bitter. I swallowed.
“She’s the Veiled Queen. She doesn’t need to touch him. Maybe she bound him somehow.”
“No.” I shook my head. I had heard the truth in Fen’s words, seen the look he’d given the queen. “He wanted to stay. Guy was right about him.”
Holly’s expression was stony. “I don’t believe it. She must have done something. You’ve been gone for three days—”
“What?” I straightened, the shock of this information enough to burn through the fog of pain. “We weren’t even there a day.”
We stared at each other.
“Shit,” I breathed. “Bloody Fae.” We’d forgotten that time could move differently in the Veiled World. Nothing had appeared different when we’d exited the Gate and we’d hardly had a chance to check the date anywhere since returning less than half an hour ago. “What day is it?”
“Sunday,” Holly said. “Ignatius’ deadline is up in three more days.”
“The queen said she’d come back in three days. That’s cutting it fine.”
“She’s coming back?”
“Yes. So she says.” I was reluctant to place any faith in the bloody Veiled Queen at this point. She had Fen. My Fen.
I wanted to claw her eyes out.
Which was going to make the negotiations interesting. But even more than her, I wanted to hurt Fen. Hurt him like he’d hurt me. Grief rolled over me again, and I dropped my head back down to my knees.
“He chose her,” I whispered.
“Oh, Sass,” Holly said. “I didn’t realize. I swear, if I get my hands on him, I’ll skin him.”
“You can’t skin him,” I said. “He’s the queen’s pet now.”
“Pet or not, I’m going to—” She broke off as a sob escaped my throat. “I’m sorry. This is my fault.”
“I think it’s Fen’s fault.” My throat burned with his betrayal.
Holly sighed. “He never did know how to show any restraint.”
No. He didn’t. I remembered those unrestrained kisses and the passion of him in my bed all too well.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“All right,” Holly said. “But you can’t mope up here. There’s no time for moping. You can mope after the negotiations. I promise I’ll bring you all the chocolate and champagne a girl could want and help you curse his name. But you have to be strong just now.” She squatted beside me, took my hand in hers. “Can you do that?”
I thought of Fen. And the queen. Thought how they would be amused by my weeping. “Yes,” I said. “I can.”
“Good,” Holly said. “Because I want to show you something.”
* * *
“In here,” Holly said. She pressed her hand against the door of the hospital ward she’d practically dragged me to and I felt the buzz of the other kind of ward shimmer over me. We were still in St. Giles, though in one of the lesser-used wings. Why was the door warded?
The answer was sitting on a chair by the bed, one elbow resting on the sill of the window as she looked out of it.
Reggie.
Her expression was faintly puzzled as she turned toward us.
“Hello,” Holly said. “Do you remember Saskia?”
Reggie frowned, her blue eyes distant. “I . . . maybe. Did I make you a dress? Holly tells me I make dresses.” Her words were slow, her voice lazy, like someone slightly drunk.
I looked at Holly questioningly. She nodded at me. “Reggie’s been ill. She’s lost her memory. But the healers say she’ll get it back.” She crossed the room and leaned down to hug Reggie. “Isn’t that right, sweetie?”
Reggie smiled slowly. “I guess so.”
“Saskia wanted to come and say hello. She’s been worried about you, like all of us. She’s glad you’re getting better. Aren’t you, Saskia?”
“Yes, very glad.” I forced the smile into my voice, my mind whirring with questions. “And you did make me a dress. A beautiful pink dress. You have to get better so you can make lots more.”
“Pink,” Reggie said, with another slight frown. “With your coloring?”
“Pale pink,” I said. “It was lovely.” The ache in my throat burned more fiercely. I remembered how Reggie had tried to dissuade my mother from the pink. Mother, as usual, had insisted. Would Reggie ever make me another? I made myself smile, the expression stiff on my face.
Holly nodded approval at me over Reggie’s head. “It’s time for you to take a nap,” she said to Reggie. “Simon will come and see you soon, with your medicine. I’ll be back later on.”
“All right,” Reggie said placidly. She turned back to the window and I wasn’t entirely sure that she hadn’t completely forgotten that we were in the room with her.
Holly put her finger to her mouth and we left silently.
She shut the door behind us and reactivated the wards. I waited until we were a little way down the corridor before I dragged her into the first vacant room we passed.
“Care to explain what in hell’s name is going on?” I said.
Holly grinned at me. “Just a second.” She waved a hand and I felt an aural ward spring to life. “There.”
“Tell me!” Had Simon found the cure? After all this time?
“I did what Fen wanted,” Holly said. “Asked Simon to talk to Adeline about blood-locking and turning. Apparently something she said gave him an idea.”
“Which was?”
“Adeline said that any of the Trusted being turned are fed blood from only one vampire. Otherwise the ritual usually fails.”
“I don’t understand.”
Holly shrugged. “Neither do I, not entirely. But we know that the Blood become possessive, so by the time somebody is locked, they’ve usually been claimed by a single vampire and would only be consuming that vampire’s blood. Simon wanted to see what would happen if we gave the locked blood from more than one source. Not just Atherton’s blood but the blood of several vampires. Somehow he talked Adeline and some of the others into letting him take some of their blood. And when he gave some to Reggie . . .”
“She woke up? Is she better
?”
“She’s improving,” Holly said. “She still needs the blood—less often, but she still gets shaky—but you saw her. She knows who we are and she eats and she’s . . . aware.”
I rather thought that “aware” was too strong a term for the vague girl we’d left back in the ward, but I didn’t want to burst Holly’s bubble. And Reggie definitely seemed better compared to the last time I’d seen her. “What does Simon say?”
“He and Atherton think it has to be something magical. Competing magics weakening whatever has the hold over those who get locked. Simon’s been going mad waiting for Bryony to get back. He wants to see what she thinks. Maybe you can help too.”
“Me?”
“Simon said something about changes in Reggie’s blood. You can sense blood, can’t you?”
“I can sense iron in the blood—at least that’s what Simon says I’m feeling,” I corrected. “He says that’s how I know where my family is, but I’m not sure that’s all there is to it.”
Holly’s face fell and I hurried on. “But of course I can help. I’ll try to do whatever Simon needs.” It would give me something to do other than go crazy.
Holly laughed. “Wonderful. How about we go find him now?”
* * *
The next forty-eight hours passed in a blur of helping the delegates prepare a new venue for the negotiations—the Treaty Hall being out of consideration—and spending time with Simon in the hidden ward.
I didn’t entirely understand the medical jargon he threw at me, but I obediently bent my senses to vial after vial of blood, trying to determine if there was anything unusual I could sense about them. Turned out I could sense the difference between human and vampire blood and also the difference between the blood-locked and an unaddicted human. Reggie’s blood definitely felt different again to me, but I couldn’t tell him why.
Still, it was enough to convince him he was on the right path.
I was glad to be helpful. Because no matter what I did, there was a constant background of pain. Whenever I was alone, the tears came and I was unable to stop them. I didn’t know if I was crying because I’d lost Fen or because I’d been stupid enough to fall for him in the first place, but it hardly mattered.
What mattered was that he was gone.
I worked long into the night with Simon, needing exhaustion to find sleep.
When I finally crawled into bed, I was sure that I’d only been asleep for seconds when my door slammed open. I bolted upright, my heart hammering, fumbling for the lamp on the table beside me.
“Miss Saskia, it’s Liam.”
I saw his face as the lamp flared to life. Saw the sword in his hand. My pulse redoubled. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m here to take you to the Brother House.”
“Why?” I was already scrambling out of bed, grabbing for the first pieces of clothing that came to hand. I pulled pants on, then threw a tunic over my nightgown, not caring what I looked like. “Why?” I repeated, realizing that Liam hadn’t answered me.
“The hospital is under attack,” he said bluntly. “Hurry now.”
* * *
“What about my parents and Hannah?” I panted, jogging after Liam as he led the way down back stairs and into the tunnels.
“Others are fetching them. The attack is only on the main building for now. But we’re defending it.”
“But who?”
“Beast Kind,” Liam said shortly. “We think they’re after the Blood who came here.”
“Shouldn’t they be attacking the Brother House, then?”
“They’re not all in the Brother House. It was overcrowded . . . some of the Blood were put into some of the disused wards. But no one knew about that.” Liam spoke easily as though our pace didn’t bother him.
Bloody Templars.
I was growing soft away from my forge and the rigors of my studies. I hadn’t even had time to pick up a weapon to exercise since I’d joined the delegation. I carried weapons, of course, but I hadn’t needed to use them. Though I was glad enough of the pistol in my hand and the sword at my hip now. I’d forged the sword myself, and it was high in silver content. Any Beast wouldn’t find its bite pleasant.
Liam led me down another flight of stairs and I glanced out of the window—the last chance to do so before we would be belowground. Sure enough, I saw fires around the courtyard and dark figures moving on the grounds. I paused, frozen, not believing it. Why now, so close to the negotiations recommencing?
“Miss Saskia.” Liam’s hand tugged on my arm and I started to turn, but then I saw another flicker of flame out of the corner of my eye.
That wasn’t the main building. That was one of the other wings. I gasped as I suddenly got my bearings. Not just any wing.
“Reggie,” I said. “There’s a fire in Reggie’s wing.”
Liam protested as I turned and started to flee back up the corridor, pounding after me, calling my name, demanding that I come back.
“You said they were defending the main building,” I yelled over my shoulder. “They might not have noticed this yet. We have to get Reggie.”
My heart clutched, thinking of the wards on Reggie’s room. They probably meant that no one could get to her, but neither could she get out if there was a fire. If she was even capable of realizing she was in danger.
Liam caught up with me. “Saskia, Guy will kill me if anything happens to you.”
“Then you’d better make sure that nothing happens to me,” I retorted. I stopped as I reached one of the exit doors, trying to work out the quickest path across the grounds to the other ward. It wasn’t far. A few hundred feet. I had an invisibility charm, the one I used to get to the hidden wards. And, I realized with a sudden surge of relief, I had a second charm, a fresh one that Bryony had pressed into my hands earlier that evening, to replace the one I’d been using, which was nearing the end of its life span.
I grabbed the charms out of my pocket and thrust one of them at Liam. I had no idea which was which. “Do you know how to use that?” I asked.
“I’m a sunmage,” he said. “I can manage.”
“Good.”
I triggered my charm, wrenched open the door, and ran out into the night.
The air smelled like smoke and something acrid and oily that made me cough as I drew in a breath. I almost blundered straight into the path of a Beast racing across the courtyard. I pulled up and held my breath, but he was obviously intent on whatever he was pursuing and didn’t falter in his path. I ran on, my heart hammering, hoping that Liam was somewhere behind me.
It seemed to take an hour to cross the short distance, as though I ran through honey or toffee, each step an effort, but that was just the panic, I knew.
I reached the side door I’d been aiming for and sent a burst of power at the lock. The tumblers clicked into position obediently. I slipped inside, gasping for breath. There was a quick rush of footsteps and then Liam’s voice said, “Shut the door.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I sent another shot of power that would lock the door to anyone else but me and looked around. “Reggie’s room is upstairs,” I said. The air was smoky in here too. I couldn’t catch my breath. I coughed, and then covered my mouth with my hand.
“Turn off your charm,” Liam said.
I did as he asked. I’d no sooner seen myself blink back into existence than I felt a hand at my knee and Liam reappeared too, dagger between his teeth. I realized what he was going to do and bent. “Let me.” I took the dagger and cut two strips from my nightgown.
I tied one over my mouth and handed the other to Liam. Sunmages and metalmages are well schooled in how to deal with fire. The cotton masks would help with the smoke, though it would have been better if we could have damped them. No time to get to water, though.
“Can you put the fire out?” Liam said.
“Maybe.” I would need to be closer to the source and the fire would need to be not well established. Controlling a fire that I hadn’t started was
a Master-level skill.
“Let’s get to Reggie,” I said.
Liam nodded, his expression stern. “As soon as we get her, we go down into the tunnels and straight to the Brother House.”
No argument from me about that.
We ran again, our pace even faster, sprinting as though a whole pack of Beasts was at our heels. Liam’s hand closed over mine, and he half pulled me along, his longer strides propelling us faster than I could have managed alone.
We climbed the stairs at the same pace and I felt as though my heart was going to burst as we turned into the corridor where Reggie’s room was. From below us, I heard a crash of glass and knew that the fire was worsening.
I pushed harder, calling on the earth for strength as we ran toward Reggie’s door. A gleam of light shone into the corridor and I bit back a cry when I realized it was Reggie’s door, partly open.
Not caring what might be waiting for me inside, I crashed through, Liam tumbling after me.
Holly was sitting on the bed, Reggie cradled in her arms. The room reeked of smoke and gunpowder and, I realized, the stench of the Beast lying dead at the foot of the bed.
My throat closed as I turned back to Holly and noticed the horrible angle of Reggie’s head.
“Holly,” I breathed. “Oh no.”
Holly’s eyes were bright, her face stained with soot and blood. “I came to get her,” she said. “But I was too late. He broke her neck as I came through the door. He laughed. He said ‘Let this be a lesson’ and then he just . . . killed her.”
Liam sucked in a ragged breath. His eyes held a vast sorrow. And an equally vast fury. “Holly, we need to go. Saskia and I will help you with Reggie.”
“I was too late,” Holly repeated. “But I shot him. Even when he tried to get to me. I just kept shooting.”
“Yes, You did.” I spoke carefully. “But Liam’s right. We have to go now. Let us take Reggie. We’ll take care of her.”
“All right.” Holly’s expression was strange as Liam bent over her and slipped his arm around Reggie’s too still form, lifting her away from Holly. His face twisted with what I recognized as pure frustration that he couldn’t carry Reggie on his own. I stepped forward to help him, but as I did so, I saw Holly press her hand to her side, saw the dampness on her dark shirt.