“They weren’t throwing marshmallows around,” I said. “That spell I intercepted wasn’t the sort of thing that would have made you sing arias and see sparkling unicorns. It was a nasty piece of work. They intended their target to die a horrible, horrible death.”
“Yet you survived.” Niall contemplated me as if he knew a secret I didn’t.
I shrugged, affecting nonchalance. “I got lucky. A friend gave me a charm to ward off attacks.”
“Your friend is very powerful then.” Cadell said. His tone made it clear he wasn’t entirely convinced with my explanation.
I didn’t respond to that. Too many people already knew my secrets. There was no need to add four more to the mix.
“Why here? Why now?” I asked.
Niall seemed slightly uncomfortable. “That’s hard to explain.”
“I’ll try to keep up,” I said with a hard smile. My patience with these games was wearing thin. I was tired and my bones ached, to say nothing of the mental and emotional fallout from this evening I still hadn’t worked through. I was done with all the tap dancing.
“The Wild Hunt is important, but it’s just one piece of a larger puzzle,” Niall explained.
I got that, but I still didn’t know why.
Irritation crossed Cadell’s face. “Stop dancing around it. The Wild Hunt is pure, untamed magic, wild and primal. When the prey is killed, it acts as a sacrifice to the old gods. For a very brief moment in time, its potential is nearly limitless.”
“The barrow,” I said.
He nodded. “Every inch of the Summer Lands is spoken for. The only way to move up is to kill those above you. A new barrow—especially one with such strong ties to the human world and its magic—would open up new possibilities.”
“Our politics tend to be drenched in blood and death. A change of power is rare but when it happens it usually results in a high body count. There are many who would welcome the creation of a new barrow,” Niall said in a soft voice.
And Thomas had been asked by the vampire council to let it happen. It made me wonder what benefits such a barrow would have for them. Because there would be a benefit. Vampire politics were no less deadly and bloody than the Fae’s. They never did anything without a reason. It was finding the reason before you were dead, that was the tricky part.
“How do the witches fit into all this?” I asked.
“Niamh is using them. When they fulfill their purpose, they’ll be discarded like all the rest,” Lowen said in a low voice.
Inara looked startled at his interjection, then realization dawned on her face. Outrage filled her as she rose several inches above the shelf she’d grabbed as a perch.
“You went spying for Niall?” she asked.
He ducked his head. “We needed to know what Niamh and Arlan were up to.”
“She could have killed you,” Inara screeched. “You know how dangerous she is. Was her destroying our court not clue enough?”
Grief and devastation were obvious in Inara’s face as she stared at her consort. Watching the two of them felt awkward, as if we were spying on a private fight between lovers.
“That’s why I had to do it,” he said, lifting his head and meeting her gaze. Inara was the more dominant of the two, a tempest waiting to blow. Lowen had always been calmer and less inclined towards anger. He had a steadiness that made one listen. “You know her. She’s already spun her web on half the Fae in the city.”
He turned to me. “Your old boss is caught by one of her glamours. He has no choice but to help her.”
I figured as much. There weren’t a lot of reasons Jerry would abandon all he’d built over the years.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“That’s how she caught our old court. She uses geases and glamour to entrap people. Once trapped by such vows, they have no choice but to obey.”
That would explain why Jerry had been acting so weird, why he’d looked like he’d wanted to be anywhere but there, and why he had brushed me off.
“Shit,” I said. A thought occurred to me. It was insidious and I didn’t want to give it credence.
“Can she use the hold she has on him on the rest of his couriers?” I asked. I know Jerry had his Fae employees swear different vows. I wasn’t sure, but I’d heard one of them was a vow of loyalty and fealty.
