Fifty
Mab and Mother Winter both stood facing me, standing between me and the column of true ice that held Justine’s bound form. Alfred loomed in the background behind them, his cloak composed once more, green-gold eyes glowing softly within the depths of the hood.
The queens’ expressions were unreadable.
Mab looked at Mother Winter and cocked an eyebrow.
The crone’s seamed, lined face was axe-shaped, cheekbones standing out starkly from skin that, while wrinkled, in no way looked soft. Like a rhinoceros. Her eyes were pale, pale green, rheumy and piercing. She stared at me for a long, long moment before she said, grudgingly, to Mab, “Tears. Laughter. He’s still soft.”
Mab’s frozen mulberry lips spread into a slow, wide, wide smile. “Give me time.”
The crone snorted. “He’s far too mortal.”
“That shall change,” Mab murmured, bouncing the bronze knife against one silk-covered thigh. “By and by.”
There was a soft sound of movement, and Thomas, held up by Lara, appeared at my side. He was shaking and could hardly stand. He fixed a sunken, steady gaze on Mab and Mother Winter and said, to me, “Okay. Let’s do this. You want the pretty one or the one with the fake teeth?”
“Thomas,” Lara said severely. She faced Mab and said, “Please excuse this behavior.”
“He but attempts to protect mate and offspring,” Mab said. “This behavior is simple but should not be discouraged.”
“It was a fake-out,” I said. Then I blinked slowly. “You…The one thing you can’t do is directly kill mortals. That’s why you have a Knight.”
Mab smirked.
“You lied,” I whispered.
“Is that what you think?” Mab replied, lips curling. “You haven’t considered the technicalities.”
“Technicalities?”
“The woman bears not one but three lives within her at the moment. The child’s Hunger, of course—and the entity possessing her. I could have struck at either, and the other lives lost would have been mere…What is the mortal phrase?” She smiled more widely. “Collateral damage. The cost of war.”
“You…” Thomas said and surged forward. Well, he sort of leaned forward. Lara sighed, let him go, and he fell.
“Oops,” Lara said wearily. She looked at Thomas and said, “If you’d asked me for help instead of riding off to start a war with Etri on your own, Thomas, none of this might have been necessary.” Then she stepped between him and Mab and said, “That said, he’s one of mine.” She pointed at Justine. “So is she. So is her child. If I’m to be one of yours, I expect your support in helping and protecting them.”
Mab lifted her chin, her eyes narrowing. “Do you?”
“It’s what I expect of myself. I ask no more of you.”
Mab’s frosty gaze turned to me. “And you, my Knight? What do you expect of the Queen of Air and Darkness?”
I stepped up beside Lara.
“I expect you to use your reason,” I said. “The entire point of signing the White Court on is to build alliances. You can’t do that by being an absolute asshat to the people whose support you need.”
Mother Winter’s gimlet eyes swiveled to me, and her gnarled old fingers rippled along the handle of their cleaver, securing their grip. “An absolute what?”
Mab glanced aside at the crone. “I told you I was willing to tolerate much of his insouciance.”
“For this weak, sentimental fool?”
“Do not be deceived by his demeanor as others have,” Mab said. “Ethniu lies bound within these very caverns because of him. He has mastered the island yet remains unmoved by its temptations. And already, in his youth, he has overcome the resistance of not one, buttwoOutsiders and bound their allegiance to him while yet he suffers the psychic wounds of bearing a banner of will and leading others to their deaths.”
“Ethniu was a spoiled little princess,” spat Mother Winter. “And Hungers are among the least of those Outside with whom he must contend. If this is the strongest the mortal world can offer, then perhaps this cycle will be its last.”
“Perhaps it will,” Mab agreed. “But that is not for you to decide. Nor me.” She tilted her head and stared at me unnervingly. “Note that he stands ready to do battle against us both, though he knows it hopeless.”
