Her expression didn’t overtly change. But I could feel the rage rolling off her. Good Lord. She was boiling.
My own rage leapt up, snarling in answer.
I took another deep breath.
“Look,” I said quietly. “Today will go better for everyone if you stand down.”
“There are five of us and three of you,” Ilyana noted.
“And all eight of us are on a public street, in a town full of people who have recently been traumatized by supernatural violence,” I said. “This could go sideways in about a million ways.”
Ilyana’s pale brows beetled. “The full weight of the White Council is behind us.”
Molly stepped up next to me, smiling a little too wide with a few too many teeth. “Oh, darling. Are we having a size contest now?”
Ilyana’s cold eyes swept to Molly.
“This city is not recognized territory of the White Council,” Molly said. “It is an independent barony. I trust you have a letter of permit from the local Accorded lord to exercise force in his territory?”
Of course she wouldn’t. The White Council was used to going where it wanted to go, and for the most part nobody wanted out-of-control warlocks running around their territories, so they’d let the White Council come clean them up for centuries, even before the Accords came into being.
Bear moved suddenly and swept the four-bore out from under her long coat, staring hard at one of the Wardens in the rear rank, one of the older members, a grizzled man with what looked like a dueling scar on his cheek. One of his hands was behind his back. He froze. Then stared hard at Bear.
“Easy,” I said quietly, to everyone. “We’re just talking right now.”
“If you do not carry a letter of permission,” Molly continued, “then since Baron Marcone is an Accorded member in good standing, under the Accords, the Winter Court will defend his territory against official incursion from another Accorded nation.”
“You expect me to believe you’d start a war,” Ilyana snarled, “over a handful of petty warlocks?”
“I’ve started a war for one soul,” I said gently. “You think I won’t fight for half a dozen?”
Ilyana blinked, but the older Wardens behind her rocked gently at the statement. They traded uneasy glances, and I could feel their resolve wavering.
“And what makes you think there’s only three of us?” Molly asked merrily, her smile getting wider and more unsettling. She walked forward a few slow steps, and while I couldn’t see her face, I could see Ilyana swallow in reaction. “Do you honestly think the Winter Lady travels anywhere without an escort detail? Whether you can see them or not.”
Molly snapped her fingers, and there came a low round of snickering laughter from an alleyway behind the Wardens, and another across the street. Shadowy figures moved in the latter. Goblins. Which are not atall like the things you may have seen in certain films or games. They are to be feared, and the faces of the more experienced Wardens standing behind Ilyana told me that they knew it.
Ilyana stared up at Molly for a moment. Then her pale face turned scarlet and she drew in a breath.
“Ilyana,” the scarred Warden said.
She shot a furious glance over her shoulder, and then glared at Molly, and then at me.
“This will be reported to the Senior Council,” she snarled.
“Tell them the Winter Knight sends his greetings,” I said.
“This isn’t over.”
“You know where to find me,” I said.
Ilyana snarled again, spun on a heel, stalked through the group of Wardens, and slashed at the air with a hand and a word infused with her will. She opened a Way to the Nevernever, the world of spirit existing beside the natural world, tearing open a seam in the fabric of reality like a band of dim red light, and stepped through it without slowing down.
The Wardens followed her, two of them leaving while two watched us, and then those two bailed as well, vanishing on the open street, in front of God and everybody.
I glanced around. There were maybe a half dozen people in sight. All of them were walking away. Briskly. Scared. And they’d go home and not want to talk to anyone about what they’d seen for fear of being reported as exposed and shipped off to an HBGB treatment center.
Secrets. Fear. Lies. All boiling under the surface.
