“I failed,” was So’la’s simple answer.
“Bullshit.” Mal struggled to push herself free from Law’s grasp, succeeding only in loosening his grip. “There wasn’t anything he could have done to stop it, so don’t go blaming him.”
Law didn’t even look at her, his gaze fixed on the demon, a muscle ticking near his eye. “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe him.”
She could tell him that letting her get dead was not in So’la’s best interests, so she hardly thought he’d want to let that happen, but she clearly wasn’t going to be able to reason with Law. Not until he calmed down, which might not happen for a year or two. She changed the subject instead. “Why weren’t you affected? Is LeeAnne okay?”
“I wasn’t in the line of fire,” Law said, which didn’t really answer the question. “Nor was LeeAnne.”
Mal looked along the ground where the bodies of giants—both big and small—pixies, nymphs, faerys, vampires, and a variety of other guests lay sprawled.
“Are they all dead?” she asked, her throat tight. Don’t let them be dead.Please, please, please, don’t let them be dead.
So’la bent and checked one giant then another then checked a few more.
“Looks like it’s hit and miss. Some dead, some not.”
“Pixies?” Mal asked.
He went and found a few. “Same. I can’t tell if they lived because the spell wanted them to, or because you and Law neutralized it.”
“If we assume it was on purpose, is there a pattern?”
That spell had been well planned, and nothing it had done had been random. She stepped out of Law’s arms and knelt beside the closest body. A small male giant. Alive, but his breathing was uneven. He might not last long. She moved on. The next person was a pixie. Male. Alive. The next was another male pixie. Alive. The next two were nymphs. Both alive. The next six were giants, four large, two small, two females, four males. All dead.
All the way back up the arcade, the only pattern that really stuck out was that no female pixies had survived and no male pixies had died, and few of the non-pixies and non-giants had died. A virdana had died an ugly death, her body collapsing and falling apart in meaty chunks.
Mal shuddered, remembering the feeling of falling to pieces. She’d come a little too close to that for comfort.
Law and So’la shadowed her as she moved through. Law appeared distracted, and she knew he’d turned a lot of his senses out into Effrayant’s infrastructure. That’s what he’d meant when he’d said he’d needed to bond more deeply. At least, that’s what seemed probable. Healing magic bubbled out of the ground and the walls as he and LeeAnne pushed out to revive their guests.
By the time Mal worked her way back to the courtyard, the living had begun to stir. There were more than she’d expected. A lot more than in the arcade. It appeared none of the pixies in the canopy area had been seriously hurt.
“How come more survived here?” she wondered out loud.
“I was able to kick out extra protections as soon as I felt the spell start to hit. I just couldn’t get to you in time.”
The muscles in his jaw kicked with emotion.
I failed.
So’la had said it, but Law is the one who felt it. It was written all over his face. Or maybe they both did. So’la looked just about as grim. His eyes burned orange and he made no effort to shut down the glow. The edges of his human disguise had started to blur, and the smell of brimstone drifted around him.
“Before you go letting all your ugly out, you should know that some of us damsels in distress can save our own damned selves,” she said, annoyed at both of them. “I mean, I get that the two of you get your rocks off doing the knight-in-shining-armor thing, or the Lone Ranger thing, or whatever your savior complex is, but you need to get over yourselves. I survived. I saved myself. Stop acting like you should get to have all the fun. Anyhow, you should be happy that I handled it on my own instead of snarling at each other about who should have saved poor, pitiful, incompetent Mal.”
“I don’t think you’re incompetent,” Law said, his gaze snapping back to her.
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“Mal—”
She held up an imperious hand to stop him.
“And, So’la, I don’t even know you’re sulking about. I’m alive. That’s your bottom line. I think your underwear’s in a wad because you disappointed Law, not because I almost kicked the bucket.
“However, I am feeling generous at the moment, and while I am more than entitled to feel extremely butt-hurt, I will allow myself to be appeased by mounds of bacon, foot massages, Belgian chocolate, mochas with extra espresso, and waffles. Plus, you know, effusive apologies and some groveling. And someone is going to have to watch movies with me. Of my choice.”
Mal dusted her hands together as if she were all done with that subject, as in fact, she was, and went back to work.
