Ashes of Honor: An October Daye Novel

by Seanan McGuire

  “Thank Oberon,” he said, and pulled me close, and kissed me.

  We were still standing there when the sun rose, our bodies pressed so close together that we might as well have been one person. Dawn ripped the air out of the world, but I already wasn’t breathing. Tybalt kissed me through the sunrise. It wasn’t until I smelled the ashy remains of dying magic that I realized we had no illusions on. I broke the kiss, pulling away.

  Tybalt blinked, looking faintly bewildered. I tapped the tip of one pointed ear. “Ah,” he said, nodding his understanding. He couldn’t keep the regret from his voice as he asked, “Will I see you tonight?”

  “No.”

  “What?” His earlier bewilderment had nothing on the look he gave me now.

  I smiled, taking his hands and pulling him onto the front step as I opened the front door. “You’ll see me right now.”

  Tybalt’s laughter as he followed me inside was one of the sweetest sounds I’d ever heard. I shut the door on the morning, leaving my long-cooled cup of coffee outside as I led the King of Cats through my silent house. Nothing stays the same for long, not in Faerie, not in the human world, not anywhere, but some things are worth starting, just like some things are worth fighting for. Li Qin would have Dreamer’s Glass. Chelsea would have her parents and a chance at a relatively normal life, under the circumstances. Maybe that was all Tybalt and I would have—a chance—but as he put his hands around my waist and pulled me closer, I found I didn’t care.

  Sometimes a chance is more than enough. Sometimes that’s all you need to have everything.

  Table of Contents

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  Twenty-One

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