“It’s cool. I can do more good there, but”—Seth pointedly looked at each of them—“once she is well, I’ll be back here. If there’s fighting with Bananach, I’ll be a part of it.”
Devlin said, “I’m not sure you, Niall, should be away from your court. Things in Faerie are untenable. They are used to seeing me as her voice and hands… if she is as unwell as I fear, I need to go.”
The Dark King looked at Seth, who nodded.
“So Ani and Rabbit come to the house with Irial and me.” Niall’s gaze flicked toward the doorway through which Irial had vanished. “Devlin can deliver Seth to Faerie.”
Ani had stayed quiet far longer than Devlin would have expected. He’d watched her expressions as her life was being decided. He knew that their plan wasn’t going to please her, but he wasn’t going to step in and give voice to Ani’s objections. That wasn’t his place.
She looked at them all. “And then what? We wait? I live in seclusion, under watch forever?”
Irial returned to the doorway between the living room and the kitchen. “Is our company so awful, pup? Niall isn’t always glum.”
She went over to Irial. “You know the Hunt doesn’t do well in a cage,” she murmured. Then she turned to Gabriel. “Could you live caged?”
Gabriel growled. “’S different.”
Rabbit spoke finally. “It’s not.”
Ani flashed a grateful smile at her brother.
Devlin suggested, “You could remain here while I take Seth to Faerie. I’ll return as soon as I’m able, and we’ll keep roaming…. Or come with me now.”
She looked over at her father and then at Devlin.
“Come with me,” Devlin said.
She didn’t speak, and he hated that in the wake of Tish’s death she was having to deal with the consequences of Sorcha’s mawkish behavior. He hated that she had to deal with any of the losses in her life that his sisters had caused.
Irial’s voice interrupted the strained silence. “You are a child of the Dark Court, beloved by the last Dark King and”—he glanced at Niall, who nodded—“under the protection of the current Dark King.”
“And mine,” Devlin added. He walked over to stand in front of her. “Whatever punishment the High Queen would offer, whatever anger she has for either of us, is only on my skin, not yours. She will not ever harm you as long as I draw breath.”
For a heartbeat, no one in the room moved. A vow of such extremity was rare, but to have a High Court faery offer it was unheard-of. His life, his safety, all were secondary to Ani’s now.
Ani immediately said, “No. I release you from—”
“Yes,” Devlin interrupted. He took her hand in his. “My vow, Ani: whatever punishment she might mete out is mine to accept, not yours. I am not asking for anything in return. You are not bound to me or beholden, but you are mine to keep safe. Neither my queen nor my other sister will harm you while I live. My life for yours. That is the answer we have. Should they need blood or death, it is my body that will absorb the strike.”
Suddenly, Gabriel growled. “Move.”
A gust of wind battered the building, and the howls of the Hunt rose up.
Gabriel shoved to the front so that he stood facing the door to the studio. “Behind me.”
From inside the studio, glass shattered.
He tilted his head, listening. “She’s here. Ly Ergs.”
“Back door?” Niall took command. “Devlin, get Seth and Ani to Faerie as soon as you can get passed them.”
Gabriel and Irial stayed facing the studio; Devlin and Niall turned toward the kitchen door. That left Ani, Seth, and Rabbit in the middle, protected on both sides.
Bananach came through the doorway to the studio in a blur of bloody feathers. “What a lovely little vow you’ve offered the pup, Brother… but I don’t see why I need to strike only one of you. The more bodies, the better.”
CHAPTER 31
Bananach’s face was painted in patterns drawn in wet ashes and woad. Her wings were charred at the tips, and the blood on her arms was still fresh. “Your Hounds fought well, Gabriel.”
He growled, but didn’t go to check on them. “They’re not done yet.”
“Yet here I am.” Bananach spread her hands wide.
Ani felt the Hunt. Her mortality was gone. For the first time, she could feel a connection to the Hunt. Those not here already fighting would come, would knock down the walls, would bring blood and death into her home. But not soon enough. Gabriel knew it too.
A full score of Ly Ergs filed into the house. Other faeries, some Ani did not recognize, followed.
Devlin stepped forward. “Do not do this.”
None of Bananach’s faeries attacked, but they had spread out so that the exits were blocked. They waited—for Bananach to act or speak. Her faeries weren’t strong enough to overcome all of the fighters in the room, but they were numerous enough that there would be injuries.
Silently, Ani slid out a sgian dubh and handed it to her brother. Beside her, Seth had a short sword and several of his own knives. She pulled out one of the holy irons; her other sgian dubh was in her ankle holster.
As Bananach advanced into the house, Irial continued to move so that Ani was directly behind him; Niall did the same with Seth. Gabriel positioned himself so he was behind Devlin, but still in front of both Niall and Irial.
Devlin took another step forward, away from them, closer to War. “Talk to me. We can talk, can’t we?”
She lifted a bone knife and slashed open his arm dispassionately—muscles severed and flesh ravaged. “You were nothing more than an idea Reason had, but without my pulse… without me, you were lifeless.”
He grabbed her wrist with his other hand.
Bananach reached out and pressed her fingers into the wound. “I think I want that pulse, that blood, my blood, back now.”
“If you give your word that Ani will be untouched, I will give it to you freely.” Devlin was motionless as she ripped open his skin. “Sister, please, spare Ani.”
“Stop,” Bananach screeched. Her hand was still dug into his bleeding arm. “I must do as I must. Seth was never meant to live. The Hound didn’t do as she was told, but there are choices. There are always choices, Brother.”
She turned her gaze to Ani. “Come to me, little Hound, and I’ll spare them. Two lives I will give you. Your choice.” Bananach’s wings opened wide, and the shadows in the room shivered at the sight. “Would you save your king? Your lover? Your father? Two lives if you give me yours.”
Ani stepped up between her former king and her father. Her blade was unsheathed, but no one there—including Bananach—thought that a Hound with a blade was strong enough to be a threat to War.
“Spare all of their lives,” Ani said. “I’ll give you—”
“You can have my life,” Devlin interrupted. He put himself back in front of Bananach. “You can have my allegiance if you stop this.”
“You. You betrayed me. You took her, hid her. Why?” Bananach looked devastated. “You were my own. Our child…” She lunged at Ani with two bone knives—one in each hand now—as she spoke.
Irial shoved Ani to the side, and Bananach drove both knives hilt-deep into his stomach. Instead of falling, though, he stayed upright between Ani and Bananach, keeping his body as a barrier to reaching Ani.
“Iri!” Ani screamed. She wanted to go around him, to launch herself at the raven-faery, but to do so belittled the sacrifice Irial had made. He’d taken the wound that was to be hers, and she wasn’t about to ignore that in order to satisfy her own rage.
Not now at least.
Devlin grabbed Bananach and pulled her away from Irial and Ani. She didn’t resist as he held her to him. Instead, she released the knives, sliding her hands over the white bone and letting Irial’s blood coat it.
Only then did Irial move. Now that Bananach was contained, he stepped backward. Niall caught him and lowered him to the ground at Ani’s side. Irial’s characteristic grace wa
s absent; instead, he moved with almost mortal clumsiness as he tried not to jar the blades that pierced his abdomen.
The abyss-guardians that clung to both the former Dark King and the current one suddenly stood like warriors in the room. Ani had never seen so many of the shadowy figures. The entire room seemed populated with them. Steady flames of darkness formed an impenetrable wall of shadows encircling the Dark Kings—and Ani.
War smiled at them from the other side of the black wall, and behind her, Devlin, Seth, and Gabriel fought the Ly Ergs.
Inside their shadow fortress, Niall knelt beside Irial and pulled back the shredded shirt that covered Irial’s wounds. “Iri…” He looked like he was in as much pain as Irial.
“Hush.” Irial reached down and yanked out the first knife. Blood spurted from the wound, and Irial let out a small grunt of pain.
“Hold on for—” Niall started, but Irial had already taken hold of the second one and pulled it free as well.
In Irial’s hand was a bloodied hilt: the blade itself was missing.
“Left hand for poison. Not solid now.” Irial turned his head and smiled at Ani. “Not your fault, pup.”
“Iri…” She dropped to the floor. “We need… you can’t…”
“Devlin’s what you need. Go with him.” Irial looked away from her then. His gaze was only for Niall. “Trust yourself. I…” His words faded as a spasm of pain shook him.
Niall pulled off his own shirt and pressed it to the bleeding gashes. “You’ll be fine. Just—”
“No. Listen.” Irial wrapped his hand around Niall’s wrist. They seemed to forget that there were others in the room, that War was there, that a battle waited outside their shadowy barrier.
Irial kept his hand on Niall’s wrist and whispered, “Wish I hadn’t been king when we met.”
“Iri—”
“Get them gone. Safe. Not here.” Irial let go of Niall and pulled himself away. “You too. Get out of here. Now.”
The expressions that crossed Niall’s face were ones Ani didn’t dare name, but she tasted everything. Irial wasn’t the only one wishing things had been different. Hoping they still could be. The Dark King stood. Niall’s softness was only for Irial—and Irial had asked him to repress that tenderness. The shadows in the room shuddered as Niall crossed the barrier that they’d formed.
Ani started to stand, but Irial took her hand in his. “Not yet.”
Niall was every bit the King of Nightmares in that moment. The rage that played under the edge of his emotions welled up like black tar. Ani thought she would choke on it—the loss, the fury, the vengeance. Here was the true Dark King.
“Twice now you’ve struck what is mine.” Niall bit the words off as he stalked toward Bananach. “The girl Tish was mine to keep safe. Irial is mine.”
“Was,” Bananach pronounced. “He’ll not survive the fortnight. He knows it.”
A roar filled the room as Niall gave voice to the rage and grief that they’d all felt. He punched Bananach, shoved spikes of dark light into her skin. “You do not hurt what is mine.”
She stayed motionless, said nothing.
Niall didn’t look away from her as he spoke. “Leave here. Leave Ani alone. You are banished.”
Bananach tilted her head, looking inhuman, but her words were calm. “War cannot be banished. You know that, Gancanagh. You aren’t going to win. One by one, you lose. I grow strong as you fall.”
Niall didn’t take his attention from Bananach. “You gave me a vow of fealty. I could kill you for—”
“No, you couldn’t,” Bananach crowed. “My betrayer told you. Sorcha will die, and then all of you will die. Kill me, and I still win. Is the little Hound worth it? Is your anger over Irial reason enough?”
Then Gabriel’s voice whispered inside Ani’s mind: Go to Faerie.
Ani looked up and saw her father in the doorway to the kitchen with Rabbit and Seth. They were opening a path for her exit.
Ani, Gabriel snarled inside her. Get them out of here.
She felt it then: the Hunt was here. The Hounds filled the too-small house.
Now, Gabriel added.
Seth, Devlin, and Rabbit weren’t making much progress against the Ly Ergs, but they were keeping the tide from reaching her and Irial.
“Please, pup?” Irial said. “The Hunt won’t fight as well with you and Rab here.”
“Come with—” she started.
“No.” He had pulled himself to a sitting position with the aid of several abyss-guardians. “I stay with Niall…. Can’t really run right now anyhow.”
Gabriel and Niall were in a blur of violence with Bananach. In the hallway, Ly Ergs and other faeries Ani didn’t know were already fighting with Hounds. One Hound toppled a shelf onto a cluster of Ly Ergs. The red-handed faeries were scurrying everywhere like vermin. Several thistle-fey accompanied them. One female Hound grabbed the fire poker and speared it into the leg of a thistle-fey, pinning him to the floor with the brass shaft.
Ani made her way toward the kitchen, where Devlin was launching knives from the kitchen block. His aim was still precise one-handed, and despite the blood running down his other arm, the look in his eyes told her that he’d rather fight.
If they didn’t get Seth to Faerie, there soon wouldn’t be a Faerie. If they stayed, they wouldn’t all survive. This wasn’t a fight they could win.
But it still took every once of control, more than Ani thought she possessed, to say, “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 32
As they made their way through the fracas, Ani kept Rabbit behind her. Seth brought up the rear, and she and Devlin cleared a path. Even with blood streaming down his slashed arm, Devlin was fierce. His movements were clinical, though; there was a precision to the strikes. Hounds aided them, keeping their route open.
Once their small group was away from the studio, they maintained a triangle formation, but with Ani joining Seth at the back. Without speaking, they each scanned their respective sides of the street. He didn’t try to watch her area—or fail to monitor his own.
For a nonpack faery, he’s not bad.
As they proceeded farther from the fight, Seth’s uneasy glances at Devlin seemed to match her own. Why? Seth’s watch over Rabbit made sense: they were friends of a sort. The attention he paid to Devlin was equal to his regard for Rabbit.
“Let me help.” Seth spoke quietly. “Devlin?”
“No.” Devlin didn’t even look at Seth. “Be silent.”
The terse way Devlin spoke made her think that the unspoken topic wasn’t about protecting them. They passed a number of mortals, and Ani was grateful that everyone other than Rabbit had the ability to don a glamour to hide their bloodied and bruised state. Rabbit, who walked in the middle, was spared attention by his position.
The few faeries who saw them passed either gaped at them or scurried away quickly. Seeing bloodied Dark Court faeries was not unusual, but seeing the Summer Queen’s beloved in matching condition was noteworthy—as was seeing the High Court’s assassin in the company of Hounds. If not for the worry and fear, she would find the fleeing faeries’ reactions amusing.
Silently, she followed Devlin and waited for word from her father. Even at this distance, she could feel her link to the Hunt. She didn’t speak to Gabriel, but she listened, knowing he’d warn her if any of Bananach’s faeries escaped the Hunt.
Devlin and Seth both stopped. They had reached a graveyard at the edge of Huntsdale where Ani had attended more than a few parties.
Seth shot another worried look at Devlin’s arm. The bleeding hadn’t stopped, but it had slowed.
“Let me help,” Seth offered again. “You need blood.”
“Not here.” Devlin had a thin sheen of sweat on his face. “I can wait.”
“Let—”
“No,” Devlin snarled. A shadow flashed out from his eyes. “Do not offer a third time. You will not manipulate me thusly.”
Ani stepped up beside Devlin, not to get between them but
to be nearer Devlin. “You want to clue me in?”
“That’s what he doesn’t want,” Seth muttered. “He’s lost too much blood, but my brother is being uncommonly stupid.”
“Your who? What?” Ani looked between them. “Less clarity by the minute, guys.”
Devlin swallowed with effort. “Can we not do this yet?”
“If you bleed out, what good are you?” Seth spoke gently to Devlin, but his attention was still on their surroundings.
“Once we reach Faerie, Brother,” Devlin said.
Rabbit and Ani exchanged a look. Rabbit shrugged and then asked, “So we’re here? At the gate to Faerie?”
“One of them.” Devlin stretched his bleeding arm into the air in front of him to grasp something that Ani couldn’t see. His blood sizzled as if something in the air burned him. He closed his eyes briefly, not enough that his pain was obvious, but enough that he dropped the shield around his emotions—and Ani almost stumbled in the flood of pain and fear that washed over her.
A veil appeared as if out of empty air. A gate. To some degree, she’d always assumed that she would see the doorways to Faerie if she passed near them.
“Dev?”
He glanced at her—and then he toppled forward into a silver veil that stretched like moonlight between the earth and sky. Waves ripped through the surface when he fell; the shimmering silver light was displaced by his form. Just as quickly, though, it stilled. It looked like liquid, but the weighty fall of it was that of thick drapes.
Ani dove after Devlin, slipping from the mortal world into Faerie without the fear or hesitation she had expected. Seth and Rabbit came after her, and the veil fell in place behind them. The glimmer of light lingered for a moment, and then was gone as if there’d never been a door there.
“Seth?” Ani looked up at him. “I’ve never been here and… help?”