She's No Faerie Princess

by Christine Warren

  Rule looked down at the sheet of paper in his hands and his stony face hardened even further. He swore in a language Fiona didn't understand, one that was rough and low and full of consonants. "You were right about two things. First, the fiends are bound not by a common summoning spell, but by an amulet. One that was forged a long time ago. Before the Wars. I didn't think any like it still survived. We made it a point to seek them out and destroy all we could find centuries ago."

  "Why?" Walker asked. "Didn't want to have to answer the phone?"

  "No. Because we didn't like how the calls were placed. The amulets are powered by death magic."

  Fiona felt her eyes widen. "No one practices death magic. It's absolutely forbidden. I don't think the defenses against it are even taught anymore."

  "For good reason," Tess broke in. "They don't call it death magic for nothing. I know the Witches' Council banned it so long ago I doubt they'd remember when. It was either that or watch the population of the world dwindle to nothing from magic users killing things left and right for the power of their deaths. The last witch discovered practicing it was nearly five centuries ago, and she was executed very publicly."

  "There is no possibility of a human having discovered the proper spells?"

  Tess turned to Rule and snorted. Trust her not to stand on ceremony. "Okay, I get that you guys have been out of the loop for a couple millennia, but it's been at least that long since humans were able to work magic. That's where we witches came from. The general human populace has about as much supernatural juice as the average rutabaga."

  "Death magic isn't practiced in Faerie, either," Fiona said. "Like I said, it's forbidden. And I mean taboo. Not even the Unseelie Court could get away with that kind of thing. Not on any kind of scale like this."

  "It's banned everywhere," Rule agreed, "but that doesn't mean it never happens. And it doesn't seem to be stopping someone from practicing it right now."

  "And I think that's what we need to focus on." Walker leveled his gaze on Rule. "How close are the fiends to breaking the grip of the amulet?"

  "I think they've already figured out how. They're just looking for the tools."

  "What do they need?" Fiona demanded, her voice angry. "You can't tell me they have't killed enough innocent creatures by now."

  "I forget that none of you have had to deal with this variety of magic in many generations," Rule said. "It seems having won our last battle might have done your kind a disservice in the long run."

  Fiona opened her mouth, but the demon cut her off. "It's not how many they've killed. It's who." He looked at Fiona and the chill of his black gaze made her shiver. "They've performed the ritual for breaking the bond every time they took a victim. By now they've realized that they need a particular kind of blood to make it work."

  Fiona felt Walker tense. "What kind?"

  "High Fae. They need to kill a sidhe."

  If that wasn't enough to kill a person's mood, Fiona didn't know what was. "That's why the fiend in the park was ignoring Walker. It wanted me."

  Her mate snarled and tightened his grip around her. "It's not going to get you. I don't care if we never sleep again, we're going to find it, and we're going to stop it."

  "I don't think killing the fiend is going to solve the problem." Rule watched them calmly, but he didn't look all that much happier than Walker. "As long as the amulet is out there and someone knows how to use it, they'll keep calling fiends. And as long as there are fiends in this world under its control, they'll be looking for ways to break that control." He turned to Fiona. "If I were you, Princess, I'd cut my vacation short and head back to Faerie as fast as my legs would carry me."

  She snorted. "Yeah. Did I forget to mention that someone sealed the gate so no one can get back to Faerie? That's what Babbage was trying to do when he was killed. At the moment, Rule, I can't go anywhere, even if I want to."

  "And that's not an acceptable solution," Rafe said. "Even if the fiends can't find a Sidhe to break the grip of the amulet, they can still find plenty of other things to snack on in the city. We need the amulet found and the summoner stopped."

  Tess rolled her eyes. "Right. Why didn't any of us think of that?"

  "You know what I meant." Rafe glared at his mate. "We don't want to put a bandage on the problem; we want to cure it. And in case everyone else has forgotten, there's another high Fae in town at the moment. I don't think Dionnu would be all that happy to suddenly find himself on the dinner menu, do you?"

  Fiona's eyes widened. "Oh my Goddess, I forgot. We have to warn Uncle Dionnu. He might drive me crazy, but I'm not about to be responsible for his death. Not if I can prevent it. I have to tell him what's going on."

  Rule's head snapped up. "King Dionnu is here? In this city, right now?"

  "I know. It surprised me, too, but apparently he came over for the negotiations. I'm sure he just wanted to get some leverage with the humans that he might eventually be able to use against my aunt." Fiona shrugged. "It's normal political scheming, as far as I can tell. We went to see him, and he didn't seem to know anything about what was going on."

  "I think he may not have told you the complete truth."

  "What makes you say that?"

  "The amulet," Rule answered. "I've been trying to work out where it came from. Remember, I said we thought we had destroyed all the known examples of it, but I should have said 'all but one of them.' We knew where the last amulet was located, but we never considered it a potential threat."

  "Why not? I mean, it looks like you miscalculated there."

  "We thought the amulet would be safe where it was." Walker looked the question and Rule gave a forbidding answer. "It's been in the library of Mab's Summer Palace."

  * * *

  CHAPTER 27

  A moment of stunned silence filled the room. Even Squick's mouth hung open as if he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Fiona certainly couldn't.

  "That's impossible! The library isn't just warded; it's guarded. No one could possibly get anything out of it without Aunt Mab's express permission, which she definitely would not have given to Dionnu."

  Rule looked at her. "Your uncle is a powerful sidhe, Princess. And was once half of your aunt's whole. Is it so hard to believe that his power to undo wards could rival her power to make them?"

  Fiona shook her head, not in answer to his question but in an attempt to make it stop spinning. "I'm telling you it can't happen. And even if Dionnu did manage to get his hands on the amulet, what in the world could he be doing with it? Summoning demons? For the Lady's sake, Fae and demons are mortal enemies. He's not going to do anything of the kind. Especially not when he can't possibly get anything out of it. What point is there in summoning demons to earth and then using them to sabotage the human-Other negotiations? No matter how those go, it's not going to have much effect on the Fae. We're entirely separate from this world."

  "I don't think the goal is to interfere in the negotiations," Rule said. "I think the fact that they're happening at all is just a convenient excuse for him to spend an extended amount of time in the human world. If they hadn't been occurring, he might have invented something similar, just to have that cover." He pointed at the sigils Fiona had sketched out. "Your interpretation of most of them was close, but ours is a complex language, and the differences between certain glyphs can be subtle. The fiend that sketched this wasn't just trying to free itself from the hold of the amulet. It was trying to destroy it completely and free any fiend that was tied to it."

  Walker frowned. "So?"

  "So this glyph is multiple, not singular. It means 'host of fiends.'" He looked up. "In other words, an army."

  Fiona went pale. Her vision went hazy and for a moment the room around her swam out of focus. She heard a strange buzzing sound in her ears that faded just enough for her to hear Walker's incredulous question.

  "I'm with Fiona. Why the hell would Dionnu do that?" he demanded. "What does the Winter King of Faerie need with an army of fiends? He's got h
is own army of Fae."

  "But the Seelie and Unseelie Courts are too evenly matched," she whispered, her voice and her hands shaking. "Dionnu needs a secret weapon if he ever hopes to take over the Summer Court. That's what he's always been after. And that's why he sealed the gate back, too. He didn't want to take the chance of anyone sneaking back into Faerie to warn Mab. He's planning an invasion."

  Walker stared at his mate in disbelief. "An invasion? Of his own world? What the hell are you talking about?"

  Fiona jumped off his lap and began pacing around the room. "Dionnu has never been content with the division of Faerie. 'Acrimonious' would be a mild term for the split between him and Mab. He's not happy ruling only the Unseelie Court. He wants, has always wanted, to be High King over the whole of Faerie. That was probably a good part of the reason why he married her in the first place. He thought he could unite the kingdoms and then seize power over both of them. He just didn't count on the fact that Mab is at least as powerful as he is. Maybe more so. That's one of the reasons he's always after the cousins to agree to be named his heir. He thinks he can use us as bargaining chips, or failing that, as hostages to get Mab to surrender. He's never understood that the kingdom is a lot more important to my aunt than a few uncooperative nieces and nephews."

  "And your uncle is wise enough to know that he can't summon fiends directly into Faerie," Rule said. "He'd need to do it on neutral ground. Like here. The human world isn't as well warded as Faerie, and fiends have always been able to enter when invited. He could raise an army of fiends here, then bring them into Faerie from here."

  "But how would he do it? He'd still need to get past the Fae wards."

  "The amulet. Death magic is one of the strongest forces there is. All he would need would be a suitably powerful death and he could break the wards. Or at least crack them enough to slip through. The wards between here and Faerie are not designed to hold demons out the way the ones between there and Below are. They could do the job in a pinch, but with enough pressure, they'd never hold."

  "We need to tell my aunt. We should warn her."

  Rule shook his head. "How? The way into Faerie is still closed, and every death your uncle's fiends cause only strengthens the barriers he has erected. We would need to take those barriers down before we could reach Mab, which we cannot do while Dionnu retains control."

  Fiona whirled on him. "So we just let her ex-husband invade her land and seize control by whatever means are necessary?"

  "No, but there are still things we can do right here to prevent that from happening. We need to find Dionnu and get the amulet back. With it, we gain control of the fiends and the ability to send them back Below. After that, the invasion will lack an army, and your uncle will lack his secret weapon."

  "Right," Walker growled, not liking this plan at all. "Which means we're sure to be back in time for dinner."

  "I know where to find my uncle," Fiona said. "If you can think of a way to get the amulet back, I can lead you to him."

  Rule's grin flashed dark with malice. "I'm sure I can think of something."

  "This has got to be the dumbest plan ever invented by Fae or demon," Walker muttered in the back of the private car Rafe had lent them. Walker, Fiona, Rule, and the imp had piled into the seats less than an hour after concocting a harebrained scheme that Walker was pretty sure would result not just in death for all of them, but quite possibly in dismemberment as well. Maybe even gibbeting.

  "Everything will be fine," Fiona reassured him. She sounded calm, but he could smell her uneasiness. One of these days he was going to have to tell her that it didn't do any good to try to lie to a mate. "If we're lucky, Dionnu won't have his little army with him, and besides the three of us, Rafe, Graham, Tess, and Missy are in the car right behind us. Between all of us, I'm sure we'll find a way to get the amulet back."

  Walker just grunted. If any of them were lucky, none of this would be happening in the first place, so he figured that was a flaw in Fiona's pat little theory.

  "Remember, we need to retrieve the amulet without damaging it," Rule said. "If it's destroyed, the fiends will be released from its influence, which would be almost as bad as if Dionnu sent them into Faerie."

  "I wish you had agreed to stay behind," Walker said quietly, staring intently down at her. "You haven't had a chance to replenish your energy after the incident in the park. I don't like the idea of you going in there defenseless."

  "I'm not." She smiled up at him in the dim light shining in through the car windows. "I have you to defend me."

  Walker felt his stomach tighten.

  "We need her," Rule pointed out. "Somehow I doubt we'd get past Dionnu's front door if the rest of us showed up unescorted and unannounced."

  Walker opened his mouth to offer another protest, but the feel of the car pulling to a halt cut him off. He glanced out the window. "This is it."

  Fiona climbed out of the car and looked up at the familiar edifice. She frowned. "Where's the doorman?"

  It wasn't likely either of them would have misremembered the fact that Dionnu's building had one. Not after the little show they'd put on for him last time. Walker felt a twinge of unease. "Some buildings switch to a security guard for overnight," he said. "Maybe this is one of them?"

  "What's the matter?" Rafe asked as the others piled out of the second car and hurried to join them. "Is something wrong?"

  "Not wrong necessarily," Fiona said. "It's just that when we visited a couple of days ago, there was a doorman at this building. Now, I don't see one."

  Rule's eyes sharpened. "If you notice anything else out of place, tell me."

  They pushed through the front door and into the marble lobby. The atmosphere reminded Walker of a crypt, cold and pale and silent. He couldn't even hear the hum of the elevators running. The uneasy feeling in his gut turned into the feel of the hackles at the back of his neck standing at attention. "I don't like this."

  Graham glanced at him. "Is something else wrong?"

  "No," Walker admitted. "It just seems too quiet to me."

  "That might not be a bad sign. Fiends aren't known for their discretion, or their quiet."

  Fiona led the way to the elevators and pushed the up button. The reflective gold doors slid smoothly open and she took a step forward. Then she froze.

  "Uh, I think this counts as out of place," she said, and pointed to a pool of dark crimson blood on the floor of the empty elevator car.

  * * *

  CHAPTER 28

  Fiona stepped back, fighting the urge to panic. She had seen and smelled too much blood in the past week to mistake it as anything else. The brave front she'd been projecting to keep Walker from worrying about her threatened to crumble, and she closed her eyes for a second to draw in a deep breath. Through her mouth.

  Walker looked past her and swore. "It's human, and there's enough of it to mean someone isn't doing well without it. Fiona, you should go back to the car. Graham, take my cell phone and call the club. Get the rest of the pack—"

  "No," she interrupted, squaring her shoulders. "I'm fine. I was just startled. I'm not leaving."

  "Damn it, Princess—"

  "I said no." Her voice sounded stronger this time, and her gaze met his steadily. "I'm staying. You heard what Rule said. If you want Dionnu to talk to you, I have to be with you. Now let's go."

  Missy shook her head. "Someone was killed in here. There may be other people in this building in trouble. Someone has to check to see if the fiends are here. If anyone else needs help."

  Graham glared at her, the picture of a protective Lupine mate. Fiona had come to recognize the sight.

  "It's sure as hell not going to be you, Melissa," the alpha growled.

  She glared back up at him. "Then you might want to come with me, because I am not leaving a building full of defenseless humans at the mercy of a madman and his herd of attack fiends. These people need help."

  Tess cut in quickly. "We'll call the pack. The building is too big for us to search
alone, anyway. All right?"

  "Fine." Rafe took out his cell phone and turned a stern gaze on his mate. "In the meantime, you and Missy will stay here in the lobby and wait for them. You can direct the search." Both women began to protest, but they got no further than indrawn breaths. "That way you can also be here if anyone comes down from their apartment in need of help. They will likely be traumatized, and I don't need to tell you it would make them rest easier if a small spell gave them a more… understandable memory than that of a demon attack?"

  Tess threw her husband a dirty look, but she didn't protest. He had, unfortunately, made sense, and Fiona guessed that both couples had been together long enough for the women to recognize when arguing would be futile.

  "Fine," Tess snapped. "But don't think I won't know if anything serious happens, Rafael, and don't think I'm going to stay down here like a good little mate if it does. Understand?"

  Missy crossed her arms over her chest and stepped closer to Tess, giving her own mate a matching look of challenge.

  "Understood," the alpha growled.

  Positions settled, Fiona stepped into the elevator car, carefully avoiding the pool of blood. Squick popped his head out over the top of the canvas bag and looked down. "Ew. Messy."

  She knew Walker wasn't any happier having her get in the elevator than Rafe or Graham would have been if their mates had done it, and it wasn't even the way he stomped in behind her that gave it away. His glare made his opinion pretty plain. When they got home, she was going to get a lecture. She just knew it.

  Taking small, shallow breaths through her mouth, Fiona fixed her gaze on the elevator keypad, watching the numbers of the floors ding by. When the doors slid open on number 17, she hurried out and tripped over her own feet. The apartment building hallway didn't look anything like she remembered.

  Maybe that was because of the doors that had been torn off their hinges and thrown to the ground. Or maybe it was the streaks of blood on the walls or the sickly sweet smell of death in the air, as opposed to the rich scents of wood and furniture polish and fresh flowers she recalled from their last visit. Whatever it was, she didn't like the change.