“Who are you talking to, human?” the goddess demands.
I look at Darroc, who shrugs. “I told you the first Seelie that saw me would try to kill me. Hence they do not see me. My princes keep me concealed from their vision.”
Now I understand why V’lane’s gaze slid over him like he wasn’t there. He’s not. “So it looks like I’m the only one standing here? They think I’m running your army!”
“Never fear, sidhe-seer,” V’lane says coldly. “I smell the foulness of what was once Fae and now cannibalizes our race. I know who leads this army. As for his being your friend, the one you so unwisely walk with has no friends. He has always served only his own purposes.”
I tilt my head. “Are you my friend, V’lane?”
“I would be. I have offered you my protection repeatedly.”
The goddess gasps. “You offered our protection and she refused? She chose those … things over us?”
“Silence, Dree’lia!”
“The Tuatha Dé Danann do not offer twice!” she fumes. “I said, ‘Silence!’ ” V’lane snaps.
“Clearly you do not under—”
I gape.
Dree’lia has no mouth. There is only smooth skin where her lips used to be. Delicate nostrils flare beneath ancient, hate-filled eyes.
The golden god moves to embrace her. She rests her head in the hollow of his neck and clutches him. “That was unnecessary,” he tells V’lane stiffly.
I’m struck by the absurdity of the moment. Here I stand, between opposing halves of the most powerful race imaginable. They are at war with each other. They despise each other and are vying for the same prize.
And the Seelie—who have enjoyed absolute freedom and power their entire existences—are squabbling among themselves over trivialities, while the Unseelie—who’ve been imprisoned, starved, and tortured for hundreds of thousands of years—patiently hold formation and wait for Darroc’s orders.
And I can’t help but see myself in them. The Seelie are who I was before my sister died. Pink, pretty, frivolous Mac. The Unseelie are who I’ve become, carved by loss and despair. Black, grungy, driven Mac.
The Unseelie are stronger, less breakable. I’m glad I’m like them.
“I will speak with the sidhe-seer alone,” V’lane says.
“He will not,” Darroc growls at my side.
V’lane extends his hand when I don’t move. “Come, we must speak privately.”
“Why?”
“What subtle nuance of the word ‘private’ do you not understand?”
“Probably the same subtle nuance of the word ‘no’ you never understand. I’m not sifting anywhere with you.”
The god at his right gasps at my disrespect of his prince, but I see a small smile shape the corners of V’lane’s mouth.
“Consorting with Barrons has changed you. I think he will approve.”
The name is poison in my veins, from which I will die a slow death every minute I have to spend in this world without him. I’ll never be on the receiving end of one of those looks again. Never see that infamous mocking smile. Never have one of those wordless conversations in which we said so much more with our eyes than either of us ever was willing to say with our mouths. Jericho, Jericho, Jericho. How many times did I actually ever speak his name? Three? “Barrons is dead,” I say coolly.
The Seelie rustle, murmur disbelievingly.
V’lane’s eyes narrow. “He is not.”
“He is,” I say flatly. And I’m the queen bitch from hell that’s going to make them all pay. The thought makes me smile.
He searches my eyes a long moment, lingers on the curve of my lips. “I do not believe you,” he says finally.
“Darroc burned his body and scattered the ash. He’s dead.”
“How was he killed?” he demands.
“The spear.”
The soft murmurs swell and V’lane snarls, “I must have confirmation of this. Darroc, show yourself!”
My sides are suddenly icy. I am flanked by Unseelie Princes.
V’lane stiffens. The entire Seelie army goes still. And I think, Darroc may have just started a war.
How many hundreds of thousands of years ago did Seelie and Unseelie royalty last look each other in the face?
I hate looking at the Unseelie Princes. They mesmerize, they seduce, they obliterate. But there is something happening here that no human has ever seen. My curiosity is morbid and deep.
I position myself for a better view to see them both at once.