I close my eyes and open my mind. Fragments of times forgotten flash past me so fast I see only blurs of color. I trust my heart to take me where I need to go and tell me when to stop.
The images slow, become static, and I am in another place, another time. It’s so real, I can smell the scent of spiced roses nearby. I love the smell because it makes me think of her. I keep the roses everywhere. I look around.
I am in a laboratory.
Cruce is gone.
I watched him leave.
He loves me, but he loves himself more.
I finish the fourth amulet without him. The first three were imperfect. This one does what I want it to do.
Balances the scales between us.
She will shine as brilliantly in the night sky as do I. Giants mate with giants or not at all.
I will take it to my beloved myself.
I cannot make her Fae, but I will give her all our powers in other ways.
Perhaps I am a fool to give her an amulet capable of weaving illusion that could seduce even me, but my faith in my love knows no bounds.
My wings trail the floor as I turn. I am enormous. I am singular. I am eternal.
I am the Unseelie King.
44
Dusk comes hard-edged and violet.
Dancer’d like that thought. He’s a poet, brilliant cool with words. Wrote a piece the other day ’bout murdering clocks ’cause they feck us up, keep us stuck in the past and keep us from living the day. Used to have this thing in my past riding me all the fecking time, but now she knows, and I say, fine, get the monkey off my back.
I shift, restless, staring down at BB&B. There’s a limo out front. Pulled up hours ago, ain’t moved since. Couldn’t see who got out. Somebody changed the sign. I think it musta been Mac, and it cracks me up but I don’t laugh from the belly like I used to. Swallow it instead.
Ain’t like she ain’t gonna try to kill me.
And I ain’t gonna die, so.
There we are.
Guess somebody’s gonna bite it.
Been watching the place off and on for days. Watching the watchers. Everybody’s nervous. Chewing each other’s heads off.
Book went nuts the other day. Turned some guy into a suicide bomb, walked him right into Chester’s. Lots o’ peeps died getting him outta there, blown up when it blew. They’re paranoid out at the abbey. Think it’s gonna be next. Ain’t nobody can track the thing, ’cause Mac’s gone missing.
So’s Barrons.
Without ’em, we’re stuck. Ain’t nobody can sense the Book ’til it’s on top of us. Dancer thinks it’ll make a nuke one day. End us all. He says we gotta put it down fast.
I watch, knees up, arms around, perched on a water tower. Nobody looking this high.
I been shut out. Ro won’t let me near none o’ the action. Kat and Jo keep me in the loop. They don’t know I killed Alina. Mac don’t know, ’cause I just found out, but there’s a third prophecy. Something ’bout mirror images and sons and daughters and monsters within being monsters without. Jo wasn’t done translating yet but she was worried big-time. Seems the longer the Book’s loose, the worse the odds get.
I heard Ry-O telling that white-haired dude with the freaky eyes that Mac’s gotta die. But not before the Book gets shut down. Pissed him off real bad that it came into his club and tried to blow it. You don’t mess with Ry-O.
He’s got dudes on top of the bookstore. They move funny.
Jo’s hanging on a roof a few buildings over, with Kat and her trusty little group of sidhe-sheep. “Baaaaa,” I say under my breath. They’re staring through binocs. Never look my way. Only see what they ’spect to see. What she tells ’em to see. Dickheads. Pull your heads out, I think. Smell the sheep shit.
The things I know.
The Scots are on top of a five-story in the Dark Zone. They got binocs, too.
These eyeballs of mine don’t need no help seeing. I’m supercharged, superwired, super-D! All-seeing, all-hearing, all-jamming, all the time.
I smell V’lane. Spice on the wind. Dunno where he is. Somewhere near.
Five days Mac and Barrons been gone. Since the night they tried to trap the Book.
Ro’s blaming it all on Mac. First, she was glad Mac was gone. Said we didn’t need her, didn’t want her. But she came to her senses when it strolled into Chester’s. See, she was there when the Book paid its little visit wearing a corset of dynamite, and ain’t nothing Ro likes better than her own wrinkly ass. Gah. That’s a visual I coulda done without.
Ry-O’s blaming the Druids. Saying they must’ve got the chant wrong.
The Scots are blaming Ry-O. Saying evil can’t trap evil.
Ry-O laughs and asks what the feck they are.
V’lane’s pissed at everybody. Says we’re all inept, puny mortals.
I snicker. Dude, got that right. I sigh, dreamy-like. Think V’lane’s got the hots for me. Wanna ask Mac what she—
I rip open a protein bar and munch it, scowling. What was I thinking? As if I’m ever gonna ask Mac anything again. I shoulda hunted those feckers that killed Alina. Shoulda got rid of ’em. She never woulda known. I smile, thinking about killing ’em. I scowl, thinking about how I didn’t.
“Dither much, kid?”
Voice like knives. I stiffen and try to freeze-frame out, but the feck’s got my arm and he ain’t letting go.
“G’off me,” I spit around a mouthful of chocolate and peanut, thinking, Who uses words like that? But I know who it is, and he worries me ’bout as much as the Book does. “Ry-O,” I say, real cool.
He smiles like I think Death must smile, all fangs and hard eyes that ain’t never held an ounce of—
I breathe in sharp-like without meaning to, ’stead of swallowing, and choke on peanuts. Throat squinches up, can’t breathe, start thumping my chest.
He dressing for Halloween? Ain’t here yet.
Pounding my sternum ain’t gonna work and I know it. I need the Heimlich but can’t do it on myself ’less he lets go of me so I can slam myself into the ledge. I use superstrength to yank my arm free, practically pull it outta the socket.
He’s still got me. Ain’t goin’ nowhere.
He manacles my wrist with long fingers and studies me. Watching me choke. Cold fecker. Watching me foam, my eyes get wild. I’m drooling! Dude—this is so not cool.
Gonna die up here on a water tower, choking on a fecking protein bar. Topple off, splat to the pavement. Everybody’s gonna see.