“Or someone inside Fairy is helping her,” Soren finished. “You'd best get back to the Fairy Realm, Ambassador. It looks like you have a little housework to do.”
“Housework?” Gradh asked.
“Someone needs to take out the trash,” I explained. “But before we can do that, we need tofindthe garbage.”
“Simple. Just follow the stench of an evil relative,” Soren suggested.
Chapter Forty-Three
When I returned to Gentry, I found it on lockdown, preparing to go into a business hibernation. My father had decided that he wanted to travel home with his brother instead of using the In-Between with me. I argued against it. I wanted to see him safely ensconced within the magical walls of the Twilight Castle before I left for Craos-Teine. Dylan agreed with me, and between the two of us, we changed Keir's mind.
Brendan had returned to the Council House, with the borrowed extinguisher gear, to make his report. The Human Council had jurisdiction over the elven criminals because the crimes had been committed in HR, so we had to leave the men in extinguisher custody. I didn't think we'd get any more out of them anyway, so I was okay with that. And any sympathy I'd had for the elves had vanished when they shot an iron arrow into my father.
Soren and his biter team had been given orders to help in any way they were needed. I decided to send them to help guard one of the main raths into Unseelie. The rath was in Japan, and I was able to contact the rath lord to let him know the biters would be joining him. I offered the use of my father's private plane, but the Coven had their own plane for Soren and his team. I was a little sad to see him go, the biter was competent, and I needed competent soldiers at my back. But I knew he'd be even more valuable to us at the rath.
I told my father and uncle about the possibility of a traitor in Fairy. We had debated whether this traitor was a single person or a group. If it was just an individual, we didn't have as much to worry about. But, depending on its size, a group could attack us. Moire didn't even have to be there. Then there was the question that was really haunting me; were they really traitors if they were obeying our goddess? I tried not to ponder that one too long.
Then I told them about Moire's proposal. There was a much longer discussion over that. I suggested that we could always accept, and then after we had Bress safely away from his psychopathic mother, we could just kill Moire. Unfortunately, there were fey laws about agreements made during a time of war. Once you entered into such a contract, you couldn't welch. It was a Sluagh enforced offense.
So, I offered another solution. I could marry Bress, then we could kill Moire, and I could divorce Bress. This made Dylan and Dad frown, then scowl, as they considered it. Uncle Dylan said it was too risky, stretching the boundaries of the contract. My father agreed. It wasn't worth the possibility of the Sluagh coming for me. They'd been ordered after me two times already, and I had escaped, something which I pointed out. Keir had rolled his eyes and told me that having the Sluagh sent after you by order of the Unseelie King, and having them compelled to kill you by breaking a fey law, were two different things entirely. The first allowed the Sluagh a little leniency, they could choose to give up the chase. The second allowed no such choice. Once summoned by the breaking of a fey law, the Sluagh would hunt until either their quarry was dead, or they were. And the safe bet was on the Sluagh.
So we weren't getting Bress back by trickery. At least not my type of trickery.
After these headache-inducing discussions, my family and our guards headed down into the basement of Gentry, where a rath resided in a grassy, sunlit meadow that defied reason and the laws of Nature. I didn't wonder about it anymore, just accepted that there was sunlight inside a building. When you thought about it, the sunlight mystery wasn't nearly as impressive as the rath itself, which took us through space, and deposited us on another planet entirely.
My father, our guards, Cat, and I stepped off the rath, and straight into the In-Between so that we could twilight home. Dylan would travel on by foot with some of the Gentry Tech soldiers. Most of the Gentry employees were twilight fey, so they were following me and my father into the Between. Some were going with us to Twilight Castle, but most were going to their various residences for a nice vacation. Aideen and her mother were walking the rath with Dylan since Aideen's tree was so close to the rath in Twilight, and her mother was seelie, so she couldn't walk the Between. Watching my father bid Eibhleann goodbye was equal parts awkward and entertaining. I'd have to talk to him about his game later. Obviously, it had gotten a little rusty.
I walked out of the reviving coolness of the In-Between and stepped foot on the smooth stones of the main courtyard in Twilight Castle. I released the grip I had on Cat's fur, and she immediately ran off to relieve herself in the side garden. I totally understood, something about walking the Between made you have to pee. Maybe it was the chill.
My father and our people stepped out behind me. All movement around us stopped and then started more boisterously. We were fawned at and fussed over as we strode into the main hall, the twilight fey of our court coming out to welcome their royals home. I thought I'd find Killian there, but there was no sign of him. I had to ask one of the servants.
I was told that Killian was in the knight's training yard. Which made me frown. Killian had military skills, but I'd never seen him hone them. I headed to the training courtyard with only Cat beside me. It was at the rear of the castle, and I had to pass several fairies, all expressing their relief over my safe return, as well as my father's. So the trip took a little longer than usual and had me distracted. I was totally unprepared for what I found. Not that I could have prepared for it. There was no way I could have known what I'd be facing.
The courtyard was one of the smaller training areas, but it was private, and spacious enough for the knights to practice their swordplay. All the training paraphernalia was put away neatly to one side of the yard, leaving the space clean and ready for the next group of knights. Killian didn't need the training tools. He wasn't practicing swordplay or even archery. He was practicing his new magic, just as he'd promised Raza.
At least, I assumed that thing was Killian.
There weren't any knights in the courtyard. Not a single person. Instead, a massive snake shifted its glistening, rusty-red coils as it lifted its head several feet above me. The sound of scales rubbing together made for an eerie soundtrack to the horror movie playing out before me. Cat growled, snapping at the air, and the snake reared back, setting its acid green stare on the puka. Venom dripped from fangs as long as my forearms, and a tail slithered to the front, showing off three deadly spikes, each one slightly longer than the previous. The spiked tip lifted.
“Killian!” I shouted.
The snake stare shifted to me. It cocked its flat head and narrowed its eyes. A shiver of fear went through me. There was no recognition in that cold, reptilian gaze. The look was all predator, no protector left. It wasn't like seeing Raza in his dragon form. Even when Raza was nearly lost to his beast, I still saw him in his dragon eyes. I still knew I could reach him. I wasn't sure where Killian was inside that snake, or if I couldeverreach him again.
“Killian Blair!” I shouted. “You are Killian Blair! Remember your human self. Rememberme, Killian!”
The snake hissed, dropping its head to come level with mine. I saw my reflection in those glassy eyes and the fear that was practically flowing off me. I took a deep breath and reined it in. The snake was responding to the scent of my fear, the scent of prey. It was not helping. Neither was Cat's vicious barking.
“Cat!” I snapped. “Shut it.”
Cat whined, but quieted, and set herself firmly in front of me. I spared a moment to feel an overwhelming love for her, that she would stand firm with me, even when faced with a monster. That love bolstered me and my fear dissipated. I squared my shoulders, leaned forward, and punched the snake right between the slits of its nostrils.
It pulled back in shock, shook its head, and prepared to strike.
“I swear to Danu, Killian Blair, if you don't snap out of this right now, I'll never kiss you again!”
It was the most insane thing to shout at a giant snake, but miracle of miracles, it did the trick. A haze appeared around the russet scales, and the tingle of magic coasted over my skin. The form before me blurred and shrunk. Magic faded and focus returned. Killian was left behind, curled in a fetal position on the cold stones.
“Princess!” Sir Torquil shouted as he entered the courtyard with the rest of my Guard.
