Radiant Shadows

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?”

“Give me a minute.” Seth shuddered, looking as pained as Devlin had.

As she watched, he became different. Mortal. Suddenly, Ani was crouched on the ground in Faerie with no one strong enough to fight beside her. Rabbit was more mortal than not in his strength, and while he could fight, it wasn’t his greatest skill. Devlin appeared comatose, and Seth was a mortal.

“Well, this is going beautifully so far,” Ani muttered.

“It’s going to get worse if we don’t wake his ass up.” Seth sat down beside Ani. He was still shivering and sweating, but he looked less like he might vomit. “You trust me?”

Do I? He wasn’t Dark Court, but Rabbit trusted him. The Dark King trusted him. He’s not Pack. The Dark Kings’ mortal beloved, Ani—and Tish’s—friend Leslie, trusted him. He might not be ours, but he fought with the Hunt. And he wants to kill Bananach. Devlin trusted him.

“For now,” she said.

“Good enough. We probably only have a few minutes till she comes.” He reached out for her sgian dubh. “Can I take that?”

“Borrow.”

He flicked his tongue at his lip ring. “Fair correction. Borrow.”

She extended the blade, hilt first.

“He needs blood, Ani. That’s the part he didn’t want you to know.”

“Blood?” She’d watched the Ly Ergs absorb blood through their palms, seen her own family blend it into ink and wear art in their skin with it. The Gabriel always carried his king’s—or queen’s—blood in the living oghams on his forearm.

Blood feeds the magick. The words whispered in the air. Blood binds, and blood promises.

“Devlin requires blood to live,” Seth confirmed. “He has always required the blood of both who made him.”

Ani let her gaze roam over their surroundings, assuring that no one attacked without their noticing, verifying where her brother was, but she listened to Seth’s words.

“I see the future, Ani.” Seth stared up at her. “I see things that… are secret.”

Ani froze. Seth’s eyes held unspoken knowledge. He knew things he shouldn’t, things he hadn’t told her.

“Your blood is different.” Seth glanced at Devlin, who was motionless, and then continued, “It’s what they fight over. It’s what Irial tests…. And it’s unusual enough to nourish Devlin.”

“If I… What does it mean if I give him my blood?” She felt as much as saw the world shifting.

“You’d be bound to him,” Seth said. “It’s… your choice, but if you do this, he’s bound to you, not them.”

Behind him, the world was changing. A dead landscape was bursting into spring all around them. Trees were blossoming in a riot of scents. The grass under them was growing, brightening into a vibrant green. It was a world waking from dormancy.

Faerie will survive now that Seth has returned to Sorcha.

Seth didn’t look at any of that, though. “It’s the oldest magick, and the future will shift if you do this.”

“For the better?” she asked.

“I see threads, not answers.” Seth tugged his lip ring into his mouth. “I’m new to this world, Ani. Still guessing and hoping.”

She heard the things he wasn’t saying, the words he didn’t offer to her. “You think it’ll be for the better, though.”

“For the people I care about? Yes,” he admitted.

She glanced at her brother, who stood silently gazing on the peculiar landscape around them. “That includes Devlin? And Rabbit?”

“Yes. And others you don’t care for.” Seth gave her a very serious look. “And not better for Bananach.”

“Okay.” Ani took the sgian dubh and slashed open her forearm. She knelt on the soil beside Devlin and clasped his hand in hers, so that their arms were resting bloody sides together.

Seth told her the words and she repeated, “Blood to blood, I am yours. Bone to bone. Breath to breath. My hungers yours to feed, and yours mine to feed.”

The world shifted to shades of gray all around her as her blood flowed into Devlin’s wounded arm. Her wolves, the feral things she’d dreamed so often, lay alongside them in the grass. Their eyes were no longer green but red. No longer of the mortal world. The part of the Hunt that she carried was different here. Ours.

From the earth beside them, a hazel tree burst forth. It stretched to the sky, shading them with twisted boughs from which flowers hung. As she watched, a copse of smaller hazel trees surrounded them.

“And I am yours,” Devlin said.

She looked at him.

He had opened his eyes and was staring at her with the same eyes as their wolves. “Blood to blood. Bone to bone. Breath to breath. My hungers yours to feed, and yours mine to feed.”

He kissed her, swallowing her energy as she’d taken his, but it did not drain her—or him.

The growling of wolves pulled her attention. The creatures she’d dreamt of weren’t merely dream now: they were alive and snarling at the silver-eyed faery who approached.

Sorcha.

Her dress was that of some long-gone era; everything about her bespoke a more formal time. She was corseted and coiffed, and as she walked, veiled attendants accompanied her. This is the faery I’ve feared? She was utterly unlike the mad raven-faery.

Seth stood, placing himself between them and the High Queen. “Mother.”

For a moment, it felt that the world held its breath. Sorcha extended her hand to Seth.

He quirked a brow at her, before taking her hand and pulling her in for a hug. “I missed you.”

She pursed her lips as if she was debating chastising him. “Seth. That is not how one greets a queen.”

He laughed and kissed her cheek. His voice was low as he murmured, “It’s okay to hug your son.”

The High Queen nodded, but her gaze drifted over him like the most overprotective of parents seeking minute scratches or bruises. “Who injured you? I couldn’t see you the past few hours.”

“I’m fine.”

“It was Bananach, wasn’t it? Or”—she turned her gaze to Devlin—“you? Did you harm him?”

“No.” Seth stayed between them, drawing her gaze back to him. “My brother and I stood together against her.”

Sorcha opened and closed her mouth as she looked from Devlin to Seth and back to Devlin. Holding Devlin’s gaze, she said only, “I have one son.”

Devlin sat up. “I know that, Sister.”

Gingerly he came to his feet; as he did so, he kept Ani’s hand in his.

The High Queen took in the change in her world. Her expression was not one of pleasure as she looked at the copse of trees. “These are not of my will. Why are they not vanishing?”

No one spoke. Ani didn’t know the answer, and if anyone else did, they weren’t speaking.

The High Queen stepped toward Rabbit. “You, half- ling—”

The wolves growled. Rabbit was leaning against one of the trees, clearly under the watch of wolves.

“You are welcome here,” she continued. “You may stay and heal. There is now a cottage for you in the artists’ section. It will have what you require. Be welcome in Faerie.”

Rabbit bowed his head.

“But you”—Sorcha glared at Ani—“are supposed to be dead, yet you appear not to be. Why is that?”

“Sister, my Queen—” Devlin started.

Ani cut him off. “Because Devlin isn’t as much of a bastard as you want him to be?”

The wolves’ growling vibrated under her skin. Their eyes gleamed with the red she’d seen when she lay on the earth beside Devlin. His eyes were the same red, and she suspected her own were as well.

Sorcha stared only at Devlin. “Will you kill her? Set this right.”

“No.” Devlin clutched Ani’s hand tighter, whether to assure her or keep her still she didn’t know. “I would give any life before hers.”

“Any life?” Sorcha echoed. “Would you sacrifice my life for hers?”

“I would rather you were both well,” he said.

Sorcha opened her mouth as if to speak, but Seth touched her arm. The High Queen looked at him and was silent.

“I would stay here in Faerie with Ani, Sister.” Devlin started to kneel, but Ani refused to let go of his hand; he rose back up and looked at Sorcha.

Sorcha shook her head. “And who will feed you? Do you think to cast me off and still come to my table?”

The look Seth gave Ani was intense enough that she felt like he was trying to will words into her head. What did he say earlier? Ani replayed the things Seth had told her.

“I will,” Ani blurted. “I’ll give him whatever he needs… or find it or whatever.”

The High Queen scowled, but Seth smiled approvingly.

“So mote it be,” Sorcha whispered before turning.

And then she walked away with Seth.