City of Fae

“I know …” He puffed a sigh. “I will.”


“No. Don’t.” Andrews had stayed mostly quiet since I’d freed him. But he’d been watching the two fae closely. Taking it all in, probably filing it away in his head for later use. “Twenty thousand people in one place? Cancel it, and then what? If she gets out, she’ll roam the city, right? That’s the last thing anyone wants. At least we’ll know where she’s going. Shit, this is insane … Why aren’t we bringing Special Ops in on this now? Firearms Command SO-Nineteen?”

“What are they going to do?”

“Shoot the bitch.”

“They can’t get to Under. Nobody can unless they’re fae. You said it yourself. You’ve searched Chancery Lane and couldn’t find a damn thing out of place down there. They’ll just get lost in the tunnels. Bring the SAS, bring the army, but they can’t do anything before she’s out. If she gets out … She can’t get out unless Warren’s dead—”

“Wrong again.” Warren grinned, revealing a glimpse of sharp fae canines. “Three Keepers dead. I’m the only one left. When we bound her, we were younger, our draíocht fresh from Faerie, and much stronger. Centuries have passed, and we’ve not had enough strength to reinforce her prison. There isn’t enough draíocht here. As each Keeper fell”—his gaze skipped to Reign, who winced and dropped his head back, squeezing his eyes closed—“their binds unraveled. I’ll do what I can, and keep her trapped for as long as possible, but there’s a chance she’ll escape, given time.”

“How much time?”

Warren’s throat moved as he swallowed. He bowed his head, and with a sigh admitted, “I don’t know.”

Andrews spat a curse. “There must be something …”

Warren’s glare cut deep. “We have the queen’s own construct right here, and her hound.”

Reign jolted, as though startled. I caught a glimpse of the disgust on his face before he turned away, and glowered at Warren. “Don’t.”

“You might not like it, Sovereign, but the truth of what you are isn’t going away.”

Reign was on his feet and pacing within seconds. Teeth gritted, head bowed, his gaze flicked, thoughts working. “I can’t.”

“You could. The hound will kill anything in its way.”

Andrews caught my eye with a question in his gaze, but all I could do was shrug. “What is this hound?” I asked both fae.

A growl, more beast than human, rumbled from Reign’s chest, up his throat, and bubbled from his lips. Instincts, human or fae, wrenched me to my feet and had me staggering back. What the hell?

“A nightmare.” He flicked his eyes to me, and in a glimmer between one moment and the next, something else looked out from inside him. His eyes widened with fear and he whirled on Warren. “I can’t control it!” He threw his hands up. “I’m not discussing this.”

“You’re afraid.”

“Yes, I’m afraid. Which is what you should be. All of you.” He scooped up his coat and strode from my apartment, slamming the door behind him.

Andrews, beside me, shrugged slightly. “Touchy subject.”

Warren’s gaze on me felt like the crawl of those spiders. “What is the hound?” I asked again, softly, refusing to let the prickly ancient fae wriggle out of answering.

“The reason he pushes you away.” Warren’s lip curled.

Andrews tensed. “We don’t have time for him to have a crisis. Whatever it is, he needs to deal with it. Can this hound thing help us?”

“As much as any force of nature helps anyone.”

Vague, much. “Warren, what about me? I’m her construct. Reign said you could use me. What can I do?”

He leaned back against the wall and rubbed at his chin. “You’re able to get closer to her than anyone this side of Faerie.”

I shivered. Did he know just how close I’d been? “Reign was close when I saw them meet.”

Warren raised his brow. “She’s in your blood. In the way you move. I hear her in your voice. You’re as close as mother and daughter. She can’t control you physically, not once you’ve been set on your task, so you could walk right up to her now and look her in those red eyes, and she wouldn’t stop you.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Bow down to her maybe. The memory of doing just that turned my stomach. What had I been thinking? I hadn’t. That was the point. She’d been thinking for me. I couldn’t go back there. I didn’t want her in my head again. I didn’t want to be that thing again.