by M. J. Scott
Reggie would be even less to him.
My hands clenched involuntarily, my short nails digging into my skin. He would hurt them. Kill them maybe. And who knew if he would set them free even if I delivered Simon’s secret?
He wanted this secret badly. Badly enough to want to ensure that I was bound to his will. And what better leverage than keeping my family hostage? I couldn’t let him hurt them. But I had no idea how to go about finding the information he wanted. Or how to stop him.
“Holly?” Fen broke the silence. “What do you need?”
I looked up into the green eyes that understood all too well what it was to be cast off by a Fae lord. To be viewed as a possession to be discarded or picked up according to another’s whim. And then I found myself looking past green to blue. To the warrior whose strength I suddenly needed.
“I need to speak to Sir Guy,” I said to Fen. “Could you give us some time alone please?”
He didn’t look happy but he gave in when I insisted.
“Well?” Guy said as the door closed behind Fen. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
I wanted to. The problem was that I didn’t know how much I would be able to tell him. And I definitely didn’t want to have to explain going into some sort of paroxysm if I involuntarily triggered the geas. “I can’t,” I said. “Not all of it.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s dangerous,” I said. There. That sounded plausible. Plus it was true.
“Are you going to tell me any of it?”
“Perhaps.” I forced myself to look him straight in the eye and not give in to the panic still beating at me every time I thought of my mother and Reggie left to Cormen’s not-so-tender mercies. “But first I have a proposition for you.”
“Yes?” He sounded wary now.
“I’ll help you—I’ll spy for you—if you help me.”
“Help you with what, exactly?”
I stopped for a moment, not sure that what I was about to say made any sense at all. But right now I couldn’t think of anyone else who might actually be able to help me take on Cormen and succeed. “I need you to help me get them back. My mother and Reggie.”
“From who?”
“I can’t tell you that. Not all of it. One of the Fae. That’s all I can say.” Even that made my skin crawl a little under the sting of the geas. There was no way I could say “my father.”
“Do you know where they are?”
“No.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“No.”
He folded his arms. “Do you have any idea what it is you’ll need me for?”
“No.” I was starting to feel vaguely stupid. And hopeless.
To my surprise, Guy smiled. A somewhat grim smile but a smile nevertheless. “Good. Sounds like my kind of situation.”
I gaped at him. He sounded as though he was looking forward to it. “Excuse me?”
“Hopeless causes. It’s what the Templars do best.”
I forced my jaw shut. “Are you making fun of me?” My rule was more to run away from trouble when I could. But I wasn’t a Templar. This attitude was exactly why I needed him.
He shook his head. “No. I’m being honest. It is what I do best. Now, how are you going to find out where they are?”
That much, I did know. The prospect didn’t exactly delight me, but the only other way to find out where Cormen had taken my mother was even less appealing. I squared my shoulders. “The same way we’re going to find out what you want to know about the Beasts. We’re going to go play in the Night World.”
Guy’s blue eyes turned intent. “You said that wasn’t a good idea.”
“It’s not a good idea,” I said. “But I don’t have a better one. You want information. I want my mother and Reggie. So we can make a deal. But the Night World is our only option.” Which meant we both better start praying to whatever petty saints and deities looked after hopeless causes, because it would take a miracle or two to pull this off. “So if you can’t deal with that, say no.”
“Oh, I can deal with the Night World.”
“Can you? Because this means you can’t go in waving your sword.”
“I know that.”
“It also means,” I continued before I could stop to think too hard about what I was about to say, “that you need a cover story. Tell me you’ve got one. Other than playing my lover.” It was a vain hope that he might have come up with something else that made sense when I hadn’t been able to. Even if he could come up with a story to explain why Guy DuCaine was suddenly slumming it in the Night World, I couldn’t think of anything that explained the two of us spending time together other than us being lovers. I had no time to waste to come up for other ways for us to meet and exchange information without anyone knowing. Not with my family in Cormen’s hands.
“I haven’t,” he admitted. “But you’re right, it is the only thing that makes sense.”
Lords of hell. Bad idea, Holly girl. But I didn’t have another. I was just going to have to make certain that playing lovers didn’t go any further than that.
Which might be another vain hope, when even now there was a part of me that wanted to touch him, to try and ease some of the pain and weariness I saw in his face, despite my better judgment. I curled my fingers into my palm, determined to keep my hands to myself. “You still need a reason that people will buy for you being there with me in the first place. They need to think you’re not a Templar any more or nothing else will matter.”
He nodded. “Leave that to me.”
His expression did invite any questions on my part, so I just nodded in return. “How long will it take?” Every hour that Cormen had Mama and Reggie was an hour they were in danger, an hour closer to the point where his temper might snap.
“Plan on leaving tonight,” he said.
GUY
“Are you sure about this?” Father Cho asked gravely. He leaned across the desk, as if proximity could persuade me to abandon my plan.
“As sure as I can be, sir.”
“You trust this girl? This Night Worlder?”
An interesting question. Did I think I should trust Holly? No. Did I somehow feel that perhaps I did, despite myself? Yes. And, in truth, she wasn’t a true Night Worlder. But I wasn’t going to be foolish enough to let myself be swayed by my instincts. “Not particularly. But she needs my help. I believe that will keep her in line. At least until she gets what she wants.”
“And after that?”
That was a bridge I hoped I wouldn’t have to cross. “I intend to see to it that we get what we want first. It’s worth it if we can get to the bottom of these ambushes and stop them,” I said firmly.
Father Cho shook his head. “I don’t like this, Guy. We need you here.”
“We need the information more. I’m not letting her go after it unprotected.”
We stared at each other.
“There is another way.”
“Lily is not up for discussion, sir. Besides, I need to use Simon and Lily for my cover story.”
“I don’t like that either. If you make your brother knights doubt you, believe what you want them to believe, it might take a long time to win back their trust. You might never get it back fully.”
I wasn’t going to think about that. The order was a part of my family. But for family, you made sacrifices. Did things they might not like to keep them safe.
Paid the price willingly.
So I would pay. And hope that God, at least, would grant me forgiveness if my brother knights wouldn’t. In the end, that was all that mattered.
“I’m aware of that. I’ll live with it.”
Father Cho’s dark brown eyes were sorrowful. “I know you will. That’s why I wish you wouldn’t. You’re a good man, Guy. But you’re stepping into darkness here.”
“I’ve come through darkness before, sir. I’ll find my way, with God’s grace.”
“I really can’t convince you otherwise?”
“No.”
He pursed his lips, bowed his head for a moment. Considering my fate. If he refused to grant permission, I didn’t know exactly what I would do. I believed I was choosing the right path. Would I step onto it against the order’s wishes? I waited, ignoring the tension riding my gut.
“Very well,” Father Cho said. “I will let you do this thing. I will pray for your success.” His tone suggested he thought I would need his prayers.
I hoped to hell that he wasn’t right. “Thank you, sir.”
He straightened, all business now that he’d made his decision. “When do you want to begin?”
“I need to speak to Lady Bryony first.” I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was just after midday. The Night World was asleep. If Holly and I were going to make a splashy entrance, then we needed to arrive after it had come to life. After dark. “And I have some other things to arrange.”
Lily to convince, as a starting point. She and Simon were going to be just as unhappy with me as Father Cho was.
“How long do you need?”
I calculated time against the list of things to do forming in my head. “I think if we set things in motion after the afternoon services, that should work.”
“All right. Go do what you have to do.”
I nodded. “Yes, sir.” I saluted him and turned to leave.
“Guy?”
I turned. “Yes, Father?”
“Make sure you don’t forget who you are.”
Chapter Eight
HOLLY
The pile of charms was awfully small. One invisibility charm, three hear-mes, the look-away, and the forget-me. Worse, I didn’t have any of the things I needed to fashion more.
Charms are odd beasts. Peculiar, contrary, and volatile. Everyone fashions them uniquely. Some use metal, some wood, some fabric or even leaves and grasses. The material isn’t actually important, it’s just a place to store your magic, but everybody has to find the way of coaxing that magic that works for them. I work with metal and glass and use leather and oils.
And blood.
Just trappings, Miss Evendale. I could almost hear the prim tones of the reluctant tutor my father had hired to teach me when I’d first shown signs of having power. We hadn’t gotten very far past the rudiments before it became evident that my charms only worked well on me. Not useful in Cormen’s eyes. No point wasting any more coin on my education.
But the basics had been enough and I picked up the rest myself over the years, honing the craft until I could make almost anything I needed.
Anything I needed. I’d never been able to produce something that I could rely on to work consistently for somebody else.
Which was exactly what I needed now.
I swallowed against tears of frustration. I needed this to work. I was leaving St. Giles tonight. But I needed a way to keep doing what the geas wanted me to do. Otherwise, for all I knew, it would force me to turn around and come straight back as soon as I stepped over the boundaries of the hospital.
I needed a way to spy on Simon when I couldn’t actually be here to do it.
And, in the almost endless few hours since Guy had left to do whatever it was he was going to do, the only option I could come up with was a charm. Something to be my eyes and ears. Something to get through those wards guarding that iron door so far below.
I didn’t want to do it. Not if I could find my father and get Mama and Reggie back first. Not if I could figure out how to rid myself of his hells-damned geas.
But I’d run out of time. So I had no choice.
I stirred the charms with a finger.
Think, Holly girl.
The charm I needed wasn’t anything I’d ever thought of making. Or even heard of anyone else making. The most reliable charms did one thing and one thing only.
I needed one that did many things and hid itself as well.
Question was, could I conjure the impossible?
GUY
“Sir Guy,” Lady Bryony said with a nod, straightening from the plant she’d been tending. “What can I do for you?”
She wore a dark purple dress, which almost matched the unnatural Fae shade of her eyes, her black hair piled on her head. The light caught the sapphires in her Family ring as she beckoned me forward.
“A favor, my lady,” I said, feeling awkward. Simon thought I had a “thing” for Lady Bryony. Perhaps I did. She was undeniably beautiful, but it was a dangerous beauty. Sharp and deadly like a knife’s blade. She could heat a man’s blood, sure enough, but like as not she could also boil it dry in his veins with a look. And beyond that, she made the air prickle around her. As though she had a thunderstorm under her skin.
Wiser to keep away. Not risk the lightning strike.
The Fae were nothing to trifle with. Nor beg favors from. A debt to a Fae was dangerous. Lady Bryony spent most of her time in the human world, and her affection for my brother might mean that she treated me as she would him and would take no obligation from me. But then again, it might not.
I waited while she considered this, head tipped to one side, one hand toying with the ever-changing chain around her neck. Behind me, I heard the door close firmly. Another reminder of her power. “Go on,” she said.
I held out my hands. “I need to go into the Night World for a time. These are going to cause problems. Can you glamour them?”
“You want to hide your tattoos? Why?” Her voice sounded genuinely shocked. “What does the Abbott General have to say about this?”
“The Abbott General is well aware of it,” I said. “But I can’t tell you why. And I must ask for your word that you will not speak of this.”
The chain around her neck darkened a little as her brows drew down. “Secrets, Guy? Haven’t we had enough of those lately?”
“Troubled times, my lady,” I said. “This way is safest.”
“Is it that you don’t trust me or you’re trying to protect me?” she said, the frown still marring her face.
“Father Cho and I agreed that this is necessary,” I said, trying to avoid the question. I wasn’t going to tell Bryony I didn’t trust her. And she’d probably laugh in my face if I told her I was protecting her.
Bryony pressed her lips together as though she wanted to argue, but knew better than to question me further if I had Father Cho’s blessing.
“Hold out your hands,” she said.
I did so and she took my hands in hers, inspecting them closely. “How old were you when you got these?” she asked.
“I took my final vows at nineteen.”
“I see.” Her grip tightened and something tingled through my skin, like the brush of icy feathers. Then Bryony looked up at me, shaking her head.
“These will be hard to hide with a glamour, Guy. They’re part of you now. I think you would fight the magic. Besides, in the Night World there will be many who’ll be able to tell you’ve glamoured your hands. Some won’t question it, but there will be those who do. Those who are capable of seeing right through the spell.”
I bit back the curse. Holly had said as much the very first time I’d proposed going with her into the Night World. I’d hoped she was wrong. “Is there something else you can do?”
The chain around her neck slid rapidly through several colors before settling on greenish silver. “That depends on what you’re going to be doing.”
I shook my head at her. “Nice try, my lady. But I can’t tell you that.”
She let go of my hands, smoothed her skirts, and sat down. “There’s no easy way to hide these. They’re old and the color is deep. I could come up with something to change the color, but it might do permanent damage to your skin.”
I looked down at the crosses, familiar to me as my reflection. Imagined them scarred and distorted. My gut twisted.
“Guy?”
I looked at Bryony, anger and disgust mingling as I realized what I was going to have to do. Father Cho had been right. This path was going to take me places I didn’t want to go. But
that wasn’t a reason to turn around. I could live with a little darkness if I got what I wanted, if it protected my family and the order. “Thank you,” I said. “Looks as though I might have to do this the old-fashioned way.”
HOLLY
I was running out of time. Guy had said “tonight.” It was already midafternoon; the sun through my window was turning languid, losing the bite of the hottest part of the day. If I was going to act, I had to act now.
So, then. A charm to do what no charm did. Simple.
A threefold charm. To listen. To disappear. To protect itself. Any one of those alone I could do. But how to turn three into one?
My hand froze over the charms. Could it really be that simple?
Maybe not. But it wasn’t as though I had endless options available to me. I scooped up the invisibility charm, the hear-me, and the look-away. Three dangling circles of metal and glass glinted in my hand, their leather and silk thongs twisted around them.
I had no flame to melt them, to combine them, so I was going to have to do something more basic. More primal.
Three into one. I let my mind go blank, seeking that place where the magic flows without thinking.
I stood, carried the charms over to the window, let the light pour over them as I untied the thongs and then twisted the three onto a single loop, pressed tightly together.
The feel of them changed slightly under my fingers but not enough. They needed something more.
Change. Combine. Connect.
The old ways would say that the most basic key to bind something to your will is blood. Yours or theirs. That was, as far as I could tell, the reason that Cormen could bind me when nobody else could. Blood ties.
Charms weren’t flesh. They didn’t have blood of their own, though they did have a strange sort of life. Usually it took a tiny drop of blood to spark that life.
This time I would need more.
I thought for a moment. The cutthroat cut finely, but that didn’t feel right. Magic requires power. Desire. Emotion.
