by SM Reine
“I’m not,” Seth said. “I’m really not. I can handle rounds at an emergency room, but that’s worlds different from being responsible for everything.”
“You also ran my pack for ages.” She smiled weakly. “I struggled after Genesis without you.”
He frowned. “When I visited, you said everything was fine.”
“Yeah, I told you everything was fine,” Rylie said. “But it wasn’t. God, it wasn’t fine, Seth, nothing was fine.”
She might as well have punched him, it hurt so much. “Why didn’t you tell me that? I’d have stayed to help.”
“You had always wanted to become a doctor, and you were doing it. You were finally living the life you always wanted before I ruined it.” She took a long, slow drink of her tea, shoulders trembling as though she was trying to hold back tears. “I wasn’t going to ruin it for you again.”
“Elise took care of the ruining for us this time,” Seth said.
“She knows what she’s doing. As a god, you’ll be able to save countless people, just like you always wanted.”
It wasn’t just like he wanted. Not even a little bit. “I’m supposed to be the god who kills everyone. Even you.” Seth glanced at her, and he couldn’t shut out the vision of her death. Not this time. “When you die, Rylie—”
She lifted her hands to stop him. “Please don’t.”
“Deirdre Tombs kills you. Arrest her, have Abel murder her, whatever. You’ve got to stop her before she can do it.”
Rylie heaved a sigh. “Oh, Seth. I told you I don’t want to know.”
“But now you do,” he said, a little too fiercely. “You have to do something about it.”
“Deirdre Tombs is a good woman.” She set her teacup down. “A good woman, but I’m not at all surprised she kills me. If it’s going to be anyone…well, at least it’s her.”
He stared at her in shock. “You’re happy about that?”
“Deirdre does nothing without good reason. If she kills me, I trust that it needs to happen.” She took Seth’s hands, her fingers still as soft as he remembered them, her eyes as gentle. “You need to trust it, too.”
“You’re not at all shaken by this.”
“I’ll need time to think about it.” She raked her bottom lip between her teeth. “God, I wish you hadn’t told me.”
Rylie stood up and paced away from him.
Seth felt numb inside.
He shouldn’t have told her.
But he had, because he selfishly wanted her to do something about it. He thought she’d fix it.
Instead, she was going to let it haunt her.
“I’m sorry,” Seth said.
“Leadership sucks,” Rylie whispered, so quiet that he was compelled to cross the icy room to stand beside her. “We make sacrifices. We change.”
“You haven’t changed that much. You’re still as beautiful to me as the day we met at summer camp.”
A flicker of a smile crossed her lips. “You haven’t changed much, either. You’re still sweet. When we were at the sanctuary together…” Rylie swallowed hard and reached up to cup Seth’s cheek. “Even before you left, I hadn’t seen you look happy like that in years.”
He put his hand over hers. “I’ve missed you.”
“It’s not me you’re looking at when you’re happy,” Rylie said.
“I don’t…” His mouth was too dry to finish the sentence. He swallowed hard. “She’s getting married to someone else.”
Rylie sagged. “Okay. Wow.”
“I’m just saying that nothing’s happening there,” Seth said. “I like her a lot, but…nothing’s happening.”
“Maybe it should. You have to let me go, Seth. You should have let me go years ago.”
“Yeah, like how you let me go and married Abel.”
She grimaced. “That’s different.”
“And this isn’t about you,” Seth said with more conviction. “Marion’s getting married and she’s Elise’s sister. And…”
And he had promised he’d love Rylie forever.
Failing that, he’d promised to be alone.
He walked away from Rylie, seeking somewhere he could breathe a little more easily. There was no air left in the room. His heart was laboring to beat.
Rylie touched his elbow. “It’s okay, Seth. If you have feelings for Marion, it’s not your fault. It might not even be a coincidence. After all…God works in mysterious ways.”
It didn’t take long to move the wedding. With all of the Raven Knights employing the full force of sidhe magic, they transplanted decorations, guests, and their belongings while it was still nighttime in the Autumn Court.
Marion didn’t feel safer in Myrkheimr than Niflheimr, even though the wards in the Autumn Court were much stronger, and the grounds were teeming with more security than merely the Raven Knights. Every one of the council invitees to Marion’s wedding had moved to the Middle Worlds, taking their entourages with them. So much security patrolled the gardens that it was safer than magical Fort Knox.
If they’d had the engagement party in the Autumn Court, then yes, those protections would have stood up against Dana. Marion just wasn’t confident they’d have the same effect against Arawn.
At least she’d started to turn her Niflheimr bedroom into something that felt homey. Her room in Myrkheimr still felt uncomfortably alien to her, even if the breeze was much warmer and the closet was filled with clothing in her size.
“It’s almost over,” she murmured, gazing out at the gardens as sidhe swept through, draping cloths from tree branches and shooting pixie lights among the leaves.
They’d be having the reception among the fountains of honey after the wedding. The wedding that was now only sixteen hours away.
Marion had nothing left to do that night, but she felt too sick to sleep.
She turned to go to bed anyway. A figure stood in the doorway.
Her heart leaped into her throat at the sight of the tall, willowy figure. She’d had an assassin enter her bedroom through the balcony before, and his silhouette had looked very much like that one, framed by the fluttering curtains.
This time, when he stepped forward, it was not a nameless killer, but Konig.
“Hey,” she started to say, but the other words vanished from her mind when she saw his expression.
Konig looked angry.
“My mother saw you,” he said.
Even at that distance, she could smell the wine on him.
“Excuse me?”
“You and Seth,” he said. “My mother saw you sneaking off with him at our engagement party. Heather found you in a closet with him.”
“We were searching the Hardwicks’ room for secret passages. That’s all.”
“So it’s true. Violet told me that she saw you running around with someone, but I thought she was lying until I saw you in the dungeon with…him.” He looked so angry. An empty wine goblet hung from one hand.
She edged around him into her bedroom. “You were busy or else I would have told you.”
“Sure you would have. Sure.” He took a step for each of hers, sliding along the opposite wall. He didn’t just smell like alcohol. He looked like a man who’d been beaten down and crushed under heel. “My mother’s always been overbearing, but she loves me. That might be the problem, I think. She wants the best for me.” He stopped in front of her cabinet, opening it to find a bottle of wine Marion hadn’t known she had. He surveyed the label. “Good year. Want a glass?”
“I don’t think this is the time to drink,” Marion said.
He slammed the point of the bottle opener into the cork so hard that she couldn’t help jumping.
Konig filled his cup, drained it, and filled it again.
“You’re not overbearing,” he said. “You’re independent. That’s what I’ve always admired about you. You don’t need me. A free agent! How fucking nice that is, after so many years choking under my royal parents’ fists.”
Another long drink.
“This is quite the mood,” Marion said lightly. “Did you have trouble with your business at the engagement party?”
“Trouble? Other than being openly defied by Deirdre Tombs, finding your stupid sister trying to blow up my ballroom, and learning that you’re screwing a god? What kind of trouble would there be?”
She couldn’t talk to him when he was being like that. There was no point. She braced herself and said, “I think you’ve had enough wine now. Why don’t you crawl into bed?”
“Alone?” He barked a laugh. “Why bother? Do you get off on seeing me suffer?”
He hurled the goblet to the floor with a loud clang. Marion leaped back.
“My mother is overbearing, but she loves me,” he said. “You’re not overbearing. And I think you don’t love me.”
“You know that isn’t true,” she said.
“Then why the fuck did Heather see Seth on top of you? That’s why it’s so easy for you to hold out on me. You’re getting plenty of dick on the side.”
The blood drained from her face. “I’m not. I would never.”
“Don’t lie to me,” Konig said. “Heather saw you.”
“She didn’t see what you think,” she said.
The last word was barely out of her mouth before he swung.
The next thing she knew, Marion was on the floor, dazed, fingertips brushing a hot bruise on her cheekbone.
He had backhanded her.
The man she was about to marry…he had struck her.
Confusion and denial were too strong to leave room for anything else. Certainly there was no room for thoughts about self-defense, because the idea she’d have to defend herself against Konig at all was insane.
Her friend, her ally, her lover—someone she was utterly safe with.
He’d hurt her.
Konig seemed to realize he’d crossed a line. All the fury that had drenched him in earlier moments was replaced by shock.
“Marion,” he said, dropping beside her.
She flinched away. “Don’t.”
His cold fingers brushed along her wounded cheek. “You see what you do to me? You see how much I need you, and how it hurts me when you do this?”
“Hurts you?” She was the one who’d gotten slapped.
“If you hadn’t been so gods-damned intimate with Seth—and if you weren’t holding out on me…” His hands tightened on her shoulders. “I love you too much, princess. You can’t treat me like this after everything I’ve done for you. I’m risking my life for you. My title. Everything.”
For all that she should have feared him, the heartache in his words only made her want to cling to him. Hurt and comfort, all encapsulated in one man.
Marion wrapped her arms around his ribcage, tucking her head under his chin. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry? You’re sorry? You should be a hell of a lot more than sorry, princess. It’s your selfishness that left Niflheimr open to Leliel’s attack in the first place. Now your selfishness is going to make us lose the vote. Don’t be sorry. Be better!” Konig shoved her off of him. In his absence, she was colder on the inside than the Winter Court.
“I’m trying to do better. I am.”
“I’m afraid your best just might not be good enough.”
She stood on wavering legs. She’d fallen more from shock than because he’d hit her too hard, but she still felt the ripples of the impact through her entire body. “What more could I do, Konig? You keep talking about what you’ve given up, but what about me?”
He laughed. “Dana was right. It’s always about you.”
“I’m giving up my life for this! I wouldn’t have even agreed to marry you after all you’ve done if I weren’t!”
Konig stopped moving.
He turned slowly, and his look was as hard as another slap.
“Amazing,” he said. “Your best will never be good enough for the world, and it seems like my love will never be good enough for you, either.”
“Konig—”
“Are you in love with Seth?” he interrupted.
“No,” she said reflexively, without thinking about it. If there was anything she knew at this point, it was that confessing complicated feelings for anyone but Konig would do nothing but get her into trouble.
“So you’ve been sneaking around with him because you’re a slut.”
Her eyes widened. “No! Gods, Konig, I didn’t even think words like that were part of a sidhe’s vocabulary. You have orgies rather than shaking hands with people to say hello. Slut? I mean, really.”
“But you’re no sidhe. Sometimes I doubt you’re an angel.” His hand came out of his pocket. He was holding a golden cuff—the truth bracelet that Marion had made for the summit. “Are you in love with Seth? Are you lying to me?”
She stepped backwards. “I told you already.”
“How am I supposed to trust you?”
Konig flashed forward, using the power of the sidhe to leap within their worlds to slam into her. Her back struck the wall.
She slipped. Fell to the floor.
He pinned her down with his weight, fingers shackling her arm. He shoved the bracelet over Marion’s hand. The magic sank into her immediately.
“Are you in love with him, or are you just some whore?” It was horrifying to hear those words coming from Konig’s face—his perfect, princely sidhe face, which Marion had so often gazed at adoringly. But while he spoke venom, he looked broken. Vulnerable. Afraid.
She wouldn’t have responded if she’d had any choice.
“I love him,” Marion said, unable to help it. “He’s my friend, Konig. More than my friend. He’s my God.”
The silence weighed heavily on them.
He pushed back to sit on his knees, leaving her pinned underneath him even though he no longer held her arms. Marion ripped off the bracelet and tossed it across the room. It vanished underneath her couch.
Konig got up.
Marion did, too.
They stared at each other from opposite sides of the couch.
“You’re lucky I’m still willing to even try to marry you after this,” Konig finally said softly. “I’ve always known you were selfish, but I never realized how cruel you could be.”
He turned to leave.
She watched him going with sickness gnawing at her gut—a desperate need to fix things, to make him forgive her.
“Please wait,” she said.
“Don’t speak to me!” Konig roared with shocking, overwhelming fury, spinning on her again. He flung a hand out as his magic exploded.
They were too distant for him to strike her physically again. But unseelie energy knew no limits in the Autumn Court. It connected with her flesh even as it electrified her innards, hurling her off of her feet so that she smashed into the bookshelf beside her balcony door.
Marion fell in a rain of books and trinkets and burning tears.
She knew nothing but pain.
When the pain subsided enough for her to lift her head, Konig was gone.
17
By the time Seth left Rylie’s bedroom, the other wedding attendees had relocated to the Autumn Court. Only a few Raven Knights remained to guard the palace, and in Marion’s absence, the wards were weak enough that Seth could go anywhere he wanted.
The Onyx Queen’s wedding decorations were also wearing down quickly. The Winter Court wanted to revert to its barren nature, untainted by the magic of the Autumn Court, and everything green had already been encased in ice. It wouldn’t be long before it was gone entirely, absorbed by the glassy walls or torn down by harsh wind.
Seth didn’t come across a single living soul on his way into the depths of Niflheimr, though he knew there should have been some around. A few refugees Marion had managed to save; a handful of Raven Knights.
And Dana McIntyre, far below ground.
It was trivial to phase himself beyond the sidhe guarding her. Nobody saw him going into the cell where Dana McIntyre was being kept.
She
was napping on the floor, but her eyes popped open the instant he appeared at her side.
“The hell do you want?” she asked.
“I want the same thing you do,” Seth said. “I want the darknet. I know what I need to get from it. Question is, what do you want out of it? Are you after the weapon?”
“I’m after all kinds of information. The darknet servers have private information on people you don’t even know exist, who are running a lot of shit in the background of our world. I want to get up in that.”
Seth wondered how she’d react if she knew that she wanted the servers for the same reason that Lucifer did. Dana hunted vampires—getting compared to one couldn’t have been a compliment. “So you’re not trying to find the ethereal plane that balefire comes from.”
A smile spread across her round face. “Don’t tell me you want balefire.”
“I want to know how to get past it,” Seth said. “How to control it, how to destroy it. Would that be on the darknet?”
She stood up slowly. “Maybe.”
“Where did you expect to find the servers?”
“Free me and I’ll show you,” Dana said.
Seth grabbed her elbow and phased both of them out.
He took a quick step back when they both reappeared in the courtyard above, far from the guards keeping the dungeon on lockdown. He expected Dana to attack him.
She only started walking.
Dana surprised him a second time by starting to talk while she headed deeper into the halls of Niflheimr. “I looked into the goat-woman thing for Marion.”
“You said you didn’t want to.”
“I’m a sucker.” She shrugged. “Actually, Penny’s a sucker. She thinks I need to be nice to Marion. Anyway. What I found doesn’t make any sense. There’re not a lot of goat-type critters running around these days. None of the ones that are still alive could present any threat to Marion.”
“What about dead ones?”
“There was one that hasn’t been seen since Genesis,” Dana said. “A librarian from Hell.”
Seth’s eyebrows lifted. “Hell librarian?”
“Laugh it up, but this librarian throws up all kinds of red flags. Her information’s been stripped from every the database I know how to access. I only found out she exists because pre-Genesis diaries from Hell mention her. Her name’s Onoskelis.”
