by E. A. Copen
But there was another reason I couldn’t trust Noelle. Winter and Summer were bitter enemies holding together a fragile peace. Remy was the Summer Princess. There were all kinds of nefarious reasons Winter might want to put me in their debt. Getting to Remy was just one of many, but it was probably the worst one.
“Winter Knight?” Emma looked to me for an explanation.
One of the zombies on the floor groaned. Noelle lifted her sword and stabbed it between the eyes. “We shouldn’t stay here. Your location is compromised. He will find you.”
“He?” I asked.
“Your fetch.” Noelle jerked the sword out of the zombie’s skull.
Emma elbowed me. “Ha! I told you it was a fetch.”
“Whatever he is, he’s bad news.” I nodded to Noelle. “What is it you want? Fae don’t help for free.”
“I am happy to kill these abominations for nothing more than the sport of it.” She nudged one of the dead zombies’ arms. “And I will guide you to safety if you agree to hear the rest of my offer. That is more than fair, no?”
That offer didn’t seem to have a drawback, but I was sure she had her own agenda. Fae always did. Either way, she was right. We couldn’t stay there, and I didn’t know where else to go.
Emma finally lowered her gun. “What guarantee do we have that if we leave, the zombies will stop coming here? We can’t just leave this mess for Darius to clean up either, can we?”
Emma was right. If someone walked by and saw the bloody mess, they’d call the cops. I didn’t want more bodies to explain away.
Noelle slid one of her swords back into its scabbard, lifted one hand, and snapped. The bodies all around us vanished. “It’s only glamour,” she advised, “but no mortal will be able to see the mess. To your senses, it will be as if nothing is here.”
“Unless someone trips over a body,” I grumbled. That seemed a likely possibility with as many zombies were lying around. Someone might also slip in the blood.
“I’ll send people,” Noelle promised. “It’s the least I can do. My queen will be upset if I leave a mess behind for mortals. So, do we have an agreement? I will take you safely somewhere beyond the reach of the Summer fetch, and you will hear my offer?”
Emma grabbed my shoulder and turned me so my back was to Noelle. “We can’t trust her. Not if she’s fae.”
I nodded. “We can trust her to be fae. That’s about it. She can’t lie outright, which means she’ll have to do as she promised. However, if we don’t accept her offer, we might find that safe place isn’t so safe anymore. I don’t know what else to do though, Emma. Everywhere I can think of to hide out, he probably knows about.”
A fetch was more than just a physical copy of me. He’d have my powers, my knowledge, and my memories. I couldn’t hide in any of my usual places. He’d just keep sending zombies after me, or come after me himself. The last time I confronted him without preparing, he’d almost killed me. Now that I knew there would be no coming back if I died, I wasn’t willing to risk it. We had to be smart, smarter than him. Considering he was me, only twisted by whatever fae had created him, that wasn’t going to be easy.
I took Emma’s hands in mine. “You can back out of this if you want. You don’t have to go. This isn’t your fight.”
“The hell it isn’t.” She pulled away. “Those bastards took Remy just when I was starting to get the hang of this babysitting thing. They don’t get to do that and walk away. I’m in. Wherever you go, I go.”
I nodded and turned back to Noelle. “We accept your terms with one small revision. You have to promise that no harm will come to us if we don’t accept your offer. We’re only obligated to hear it, not to accept.”
Noelle smirked. “Clever. All right, then. No harm will come to you at my hands, or the hands of my people, whether you accept or refuse the offer. All I ask is that you hear it. Is this satisfactory?”
“It is.”
“Then let us go.” Noelle turned, took three steps forward, going further into the house, and then stopped, extending her hands in front of her.
Magic flowed out of her and rippled through the air, distorting the image of the surrounding hallway. My breath fogged as a chill settled in the house. Emma shivered.
Noelle glanced back at us before stepping into the magic portal and disappearing.
Emma’s fingers closed tightly around mine. “Together?”
I nodded. “Together.”
We stepped through the portal hand in hand.
The world beyond was coated in a blanket of snow. Skeletal trees loomed on either side of a snow-covered stone path. Ice dripped from the boughs like liquid, frozen in time by the frigid temperatures. The path curved toward a massive structure that looked like it had been constructed entirely of ice. It glowed an ominous, deep blue light. Huge parapets towered high enough to disappear into the swirling gray clouds. Lanterns along the path emitted a soft, violet glow, casting eerie shadows.
Of course we’d go to the Winter Court. My fetch was in service to Summer, which meant he wouldn’t dare venture here. It was the one place in the entire universe we’d be safe from anything coming out of Summer. That didn’t mean we were safe though.
My teeth chattered. I crossed my arms over my chest and wished I had a heavier coat, one meant for sub-zero temperatures and not the mild winters of New Orleans. I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen snow in person. At least not enough to accumulate. Maybe never. We only ever got it once every few years, and even then, never enough to pile up.
The snow ate the sound of my footsteps as I moved further down the path with Emma at my side. Noelle was nowhere in sight. Funny way for us to get to hear her offer.
After we’d advanced a few paces, she appeared on the path ahead, walking toward us. Noelle had shed the silver armor and the swords in favor of a blue gown so pale it almost looked white. Warm, white fur hugged her shoulders and covered her head. She looked every bit the part of a courtly lady except for the sword hanging at either hip.
“Welcome.” She flashed a predatory smile.
“H-h-how’d you change so fast?” I bit down to keep my teeth from chattering more. It was so cold, my fingertips and nose had already gone numb. That was probably a bad sign.
Noelle stopped. “You of all people should remember that time flows differently in different pockets of Faerie. Come. You’ll be more comfortable inside by the fire.”
Winter was eerily quiet. No birds called. No insects buzzed. In Summer, even when it was quiet, there was always some sound. The clink of armor as the guards patrolled, the murmur of soft voices in some hallway just out of sight. Winter was just quiet. Too quiet.
I scanned the walls of the icy palace ahead, searching for movement, and just barely picked up some. The guards were dressed in white armor and armed with swords that matched the glow of the palace. They stood incredibly still, as if they were a part of the structure itself.
Noelle led us up an icy stairway and through doors large enough for giants to pass through. The first hall was a work of art, sporting a stained-glass dome depicting snowflakes falling around a sleeping woman. I paced to the center of the huge, empty room. Looking up at it made me feel more than a little dizzy.
“Nice place you’ve got here.” Without the snow and trees to soften it, my voice echoed through the empty chamber, painfully loud. “More like a tomb than a palace.”
Noelle folded her hands in front of her. “That’s because it is a tomb, Horseman. Or it will be.”
I studied her, expecting to see her quirk her full lips up into a smile, but she remained solemn. “There’s no death in Faerie. Why would there be a tomb?”
“Because death is the inevitable result of life. Even we know that. At least the wise fae do.” She gestured to the ceiling above. “Not so very long ago, death was a foreign concept to many fae. Few living fae recalled the last death among us. It was considered too sensational an event to speak of. To bring it up was social suicide. Yet death was th
e thing we feared most, as everyone fears what they don’t understand.”
Her footsteps echoed through the room as she closed the distance between us. “And then you brought death to Faerie. The day you led the armies of Summer against Shadow, more of our kind died than had been born in a millennium. We were suddenly faced with the very real possibility that we may not be as immortal as we believed.”
“It was Remy’s presence that allowed death to come to Faerie,” I said. “Titania has her hidden away somewhere at the edge of her territory. If you help me get her out, I’ll take her out of Faerie and you’ll never have to face that fear.”
“I don’t want death to leave Faerie.” Noelle tilted her head up to smile at the mural above us. The move exposed her throat, showing off delicate white skin. “I want to use it to kill my queen.”
I suppressed a shudder. Killing a Faerie queen was no small task. For her own knight to carry out the assassination, that should’ve been impossible. I suddenly realized why she’d approached me. I was probably the only being alive that had done it. I’d killed Nyx, the Shadow Queen, which meant I knew how to do it, even if Remy left Faerie. More than likely though, her proposal would take the simpler route. She’d want Remy to remain in Faerie, at least until she achieved her purpose. Something I couldn’t allow.
“No,” I said firmly and crossed my arms.
Noelle lowered her head and frowned at me. “But you haven’t even heard my proposal, Horseman.”
“I know what it is you want, and I can guess at how it is you want to achieve that. Either you’ll want to use me or my daughter to help kill your queen. The answer is no either way.”
“Why?” she demanded, hand straying uncomfortably close to one of her swords. “It’s not as if you’re averse to killing. You murdered Nyx and her knight. You killed Kellas in single combat and slew a dozen of his finest warriors in battle. How many gods have fallen by your hand?”
“You’ve misjudged him.” Emma stepped up beside me. “All of that was in self-defense.”
“What about Hades? What threat did your friend pose to you when you ripped his soul out in that boiler room?” Noelle beamed.
I scowled at her in silence.
“Lazarus?” Emma turned to me, her expression worried.
“Oh, you didn’t know?” Noelle’s snake-like smile widened. “Such were the terms of the deal he struck with Loki. His life and my assistance in exchange for three names crossed off Loki’s list. Hades was only the first of the agreed upon names.”
Her assistance? Loki had promised me a means to get to my daughter. Noelle must’ve been what he meant. She could move back and forth between Earth and Faerie, and she would’ve known where the palace at the edge of Summer was. She’d also be the one person besides me with the power to kill Titania.
“I didn’t have a choice,” I told Emma without taking my eyes from Noelle. “I was backed into a corner, Em. She’s twisting this.”
Noelle sneered. “If I am, then just deny it. Tell her you didn’t do it. Go on.”
I fixed my gaze on the floor. No matter how bad I wanted to, I just couldn’t lie to Emma. Even if the magic bond had let me, I couldn’t. She deserved better. Better than a killer. All I could do was mutter in a small voice, “I didn’t have a choice.”
Emma slid her hands under my chin and lifted my head, so I had no choice but to meet her gaze. “Why?”
I couldn’t answer her. My throat was too tight, and my tongue was rougher than tree bark. No answer I could come up with would be good enough to excuse my actions. Not to Emma. She wouldn’t buy that the ends justified the means, not even if I explained everything to her. She was too good a person. Asking her to accept what I had done would be like asking her to change the core of who she was.
“I’m sorry.” My voice sounded strange, as if it belonged to someone else.
Emma let me go. Her jaw shook, but she didn’t let me see her cry, choosing instead to cross her arms and turn her back to me.
“Sorry,” Noelle said in a sing-song voice.
It’s always been my policy never to hit a woman unless she hits me first, but I was about to make an exception in her case. What a bitch. I don’t know why I was expecting anything different from a fae.
“Nevertheless,” she continued, “you have killed. Your objection to assisting me cannot be because you abhor murder, especially since you’ve declined my offer without even hearing why my queen should die. You of all people know the queens are...unstable.”
“The why doesn’t really matter. In the end, it’s about you. I know your kind,” I spat. “Power hungry. You’ll do anything to get what you want.”
Noelle leaned in. “That makes two of us then, doesn’t it? Or is this the one thing you won’t do for your little girl?”
I swallowed. “Loki promised me.”
“He promised you my cooperation in exchange for three dead gods.” She held up three fingers and quickly dropped two of them. “You’ve given him one. You can either kill two more gods on his list, Lazarus, or you can give me what I want. Either way, someone dies and you get your precious daughter back. But tick-tock. My offer’s only good a few more minutes. After that, you’re on your own getting into the prison where they’re holding her.”
I could do it, get into the fae tower on my own now that I was in Faerie. It wouldn’t be easy, especially since I didn’t have many friends left, and I didn’t know where it was, but there had to be a way. I just couldn’t think of it, not with my brains scrambled.
Even if I got into the tower, what then? I had no way to get home from there without Noelle’s help, and I couldn’t fight all of Summer by myself. Summer had some fierce warriors. I knew because I had fought alongside many of them.
I closed my eyes and exhaled. “I won’t kill the Winter Queen for you, but if you choose to kill her while Remy is in Faerie, that’s your business. I won’t help you beyond providing the opportunity.”
She spread her arms wide. “That’s all I ask.”
“And in exchange, you have to give me your word that Remy will be returned to Earth, unharmed.”
Noelle pursed her lips. “Titania may have already harmed her.”
I pushed the thought of what Titania might’ve done to Remy away. “Then give me your word that you’ll do everything in your power to return Remy to Earth in my custody.”
She smiled and extended a hand. “Done.”
I gripped Noelle’s hand. Icy magic raced up my arm and kissed my cheek in a gentle caress before snapping back. Noelle winked at me. I looked over to where Emma stood with her back to me. What had I done?
Chapter Seventeen
Noelle showed me to another room where a huge map was spread over a large round table. Four knives held the corners in place. While she spoke about battle plans, I fantasized about picking each of them up and stabbing her with them. If I was going to go down for murder, it might as well be for murdering someone who deserved it, right? Too bad she was the only person who could help me.
I would still owe Loki two more kills once this was over. If I didn’t keep my word, he’d probably kill me, and I had no plans to die. Maybe I could negotiate on which names next time, find a god worth taking out. Not all of them were as good as Hades. His face flashed behind my eyes and I shook my head to clear it.
“Are you okay?” Noelle asked. “You need to pay attention.”
“I’m fine,” I lied. “And I heard you. Getting there is the easy part.”
She pointed out a structure on the upper half of the map. “The princess is being held in a tower that lies on the edge of Titania’s territory. It is not, however, neutral ground. The moment I cross into her lands with the intent to do harm, I’ll be in breach of our treaty. It will be an act of war. I want you to understand that. I’m going to war to help you.”
“Technically, you’re forcing your queen to go to war, but who’s counting?”
Noelle rolled her eyes. “Not you, obviously. My spies report th
e tower doesn’t have many guards, but all of them are elite warriors. They also claim to have sighted a dragon in the area.”
I placed my hands on the table and leaned over the map. “Let me guess. Big guy. Breathes fire. Has a little bun of hair on top of his head?”
She blinked. “How did you know?”
“I know the guy.” I cringed. “He’s not a Summer fae. That’s Prince Roshan of the Light Court. Remy’s mother was sort of promised to him.”
“Did they wed?”
I shook my head. “Odette died in childbirth before that could happen.”
Noelle nodded. “Then the alliance was never made official. I don’t know why he’d be in the area. As far as I’m aware, the Court of Light is unaware that Titania has her.”
“Maybe he’s trying to figure out why Titania built the tower at the edge of her territory. Could be he’s a spy too.” I shrugged. Doubted it. Roshan wasn’t exactly a go-getter. He was more of a dragon with an emotional eating problem. I couldn’t guess why he’d be around, but I hoped I didn’t have the opportunity to ask him either. Roshan might’ve been a coward, but once he got motivated to do something, he was hard to take down.
“There’s only one entrance.” Noelle tapped the tower. “They’ll be holding her at the top. The only way to get to her will be fighting our way through dozens of enemies.”
“Or maybe not.” I turned away from the map to face her. “The fetch version of me took her, right? He’s probably been hanging around too, since he’s working for Titania. All I have to do is convince them that I’m him and walk right in.”
She folded her arms and rubbed a thumb on her bottom lip. “It’s risky, but it could work. What’s the backup plan if they discover you’re not the fetch?”
“Run like hell and kill everything that gets in my way, I guess.”
“Our way,” Noelle corrected and pulled up two of the daggers. She spun them in her hands before setting them aside to roll up the map. “We’re in this together now, Lazarus.”
