―Learn how to make them,‖ she ordered. ―Set up a smithy in the old ways if we must. Select a third group to scout Dublin, and, Katrina—you have proved yourself again and again a worthy and valuable leader—I want you in charge of this group yourself.‖
Kat glowed.
I seethed.
At this point, I knew the wisest thing for me to do was stay silent. But it wasn‘t easy. There were a dozen biting comments I wanted to make. Reminders that I’d brought the guns, I’d found out about iron, I’d been the one advocating battle when their precious GM had been blindly and insistently against it. But I could read the mood of this crowd, and at the very root of it was an adage as old as time: Better the devil you know than the one you don‘t know. Especially if the devil you do know is about to give you what you wanted anyway. I couldn‘t compete with that. I was the devil they‘d known for only a few short months. And my press hadn‘t exactly been good. Not with Rowena in charge of the media. The Grand Mistress‘s voice soared in volume. ―I want to know the numbers of Fae in the city, so we can begin planning how and when to attack.‖ She raised her small hand into the air and made a fist. ―Today is the dawn of a new order! No longer will I allow my love for you to blind me as it has in the past. I will lead my daughters proudly into battle, and we will do what we were born to do. We will remind the Fae that we drove them from our world and forced them to hide for six thousand years. We will remind them why they feared us, and we will drive them from it again!
Sidhe- seers, to war!”
The crowd exploded into cheers.
Beside me, Dani said, ―What the feck? How‘d she do that, Mac?‖
I looked at Rowena and she looked at me and we had an entire conversation in a glance. Child, did you really believe you could take them from me? her fierce blue glare mocked. Touché. Watch your back, old woman.
She‘d won, for now.
But it wasn‘t a complete loss. Although Rowena was taking the credit for it, at least the sidhe seers were getting to do everything I‘d wanted them to do, short of exploring IFPs, and that could wait. I might have lost the war, but I‘d won a few of the battles. My first attempted coup had failed. My next one wouldn‘t.
―Politics, Dani,‖ I muttered. ―We‘ve got a lot to learn.‖ Nothing had been easy for me in Dublin. I no longer expected it to be, nor would I waste time complaining when it could be put to better use moving forward.
―Uh-huh,‖ she agreed glumly. ―But I still ain‘t giving her back my sword.‖
Rowena turned her cobra smile our way. ―Kat, it‘s long past time I bestowed this honor upon you,‖ she said. ―You will lead us to victory carrying the Sword of Light. Dani, give it to Katrina. The sword is now hers.‖
Five seconds later, I was on my hands and knees in the middle of a rocky field, vomiting the remains of the protein bar I‘d eaten an hour ago. I‘d never been on such a bumpy, horrible ride in my life. ―What was that?‖ I groaned, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
―Hyperspeed?‖
―I said,” Dani snapped, ―I ain‘t giving her back my sword!‖
I looked up at her standing over me—skinny elbows poking out, fists at her waist, fiery red hair flaming in the sunlight—and nearly laughed. The kid was a total wild card. But our disappearing act was going to have consequences. Left to my own devices, I would have stood my ground longer. I would have offered cooperation, protection, and tried to sell them on it, same way I‘d tried with Jayne. If that had failed, I‘d have had Dani whiz us out of there. But I would have tried first, and the trying would have spoken volumes to some of the girls. It was too late now. I had no doubt Rowena was exploiting the situation for all it was worth. Making us out to be complete traitors. Turning our backs on the entire order.
I rubbed my eyes. I was too tired to think. I needed rest. Then I would figure out how to salvage the things I needed salvaged. It wasn‘t that I minded being an outcast. I‘d been feeling that way ever since I‘d arrived in Dublin and had gotten downright comfortable with it. Alone, I had a lot less to worry about. But to accomplish my goals, I needed at least some of the sidhe-seers on my side.
―Did ya see her face?‖
―How could I? All I saw was a big blue blur of bus as we whizzed past it, then nothing.‖
―Was she ever wicked pissed! She really didn‘t think I‘d do it,‖ Dani said wonderingly, and I could tell she herself hadn‘t been entirely sure she‘d do it. Until she did, there was a chance Rowena might forgive her. Blame it all on me and take her back into the fold. There wasn‘t anymore. Dani was persona non grata. There was no going back from this one.
―It was goin‘ good, wasn‘t it, Mac? I mean, I wasn‘t just imagining it? The girls were listening to us and liking us?‖
I nodded.
―Man, it went bad really fast.‖
I nodded again.
We looked at each other for a long moment.
“Dude,” she said finally, ―I think we‘re outcasts.‖
―Dude,‖ I agreed, with a sigh.
At ten-thirty that night, I was back in Dublin and headed for 939 Rêvemal Street. I was pretty sure I‘d found Chester‘s.
There were three listings in the phone book under that name: a barbershop, a men‘s clothing store, and a nightclub.
I‘d opted for the nightclub because the advertisement had suited the voice of the man I‘d spoken to on the phone. Upscale, classy, with a touch of the risqué, as if anything one might want was available for purchase there, if one had the right currency, walked the walk, and talked the talk. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in a passing window and smiled. I was walking the walk. My hair was jet and a little wild. I‘d moussed it and let it do what it wanted. My lipstick was red and glossy and matched my nails. I was wearing black leather from head to toe, not for the statement it made but for the practicality of it. With the right kind of leather, you can sponge off just about anything. Fabric isn‘t blood-repellent.
There was energy in my step and fire in my eyes. I‘d finally gotten some much needed sleep. Dani and I had holed up in a deserted house on the outskirts of Dublin until late afternoon, then headed out for food and supplies. It had felt strangely intimate and uncomfortable, occupying the residence of someone who‘d either died in the riots on Halloween or fled Dublin, but we needed somewhere to stay and it seemed pointless not to take advantage of one of the tens of thousands of unoccupied homes.
Since both my MacHalos were back at the abbey, our first stop had been a sporting-goods store, where we built two new ones and stuffed backpacks with flashlights and batteries. Although the Shades seemed to have left Dublin, I wasn‘t taking any chances.
Then we‘d gone to the mall, where I dyed my hair in a public restroom, washed up, and changed. Dani had headed off for an electronics store, where I later found her sprawled in front of a computer, next to a small mountain of battery packs and a pile of DVDs. I toed a few of the DVDs out. My eyes widened. I glanced quickly at the computer screen. Fortunately for her, it wasn‘t one of them. ―Watch any of that porn,‖ I growled, ―and I‘m going to kick your petunia.‖
She looked up. ―Wicked-cool outfit, Mac!‖ Then she scowled. ―I hunt and kill things. What does it matter what I watch? These eyeballs seen it all, dude.‖ She somehow managed to swagger while cross-legged on the floor.
―I don‘t care how tough you think you are. You‘re thirteen and there are limits. You‘re not watching this stuff. And if you are, you‘d better hide it from me, because if I catch you, there‘s going to be hell to pay.‖
She shoved the computer from her lap and bounded to her feet. ―That‘s ridiculous,‖ she spat, green eyes sparking. ―I watch things die every day but I can‘t watch people feck? You‘re not the boss of me.‖ She grabbed her pack and began walking away.
―Those aren‘t just people fecking, Dani. Those are hard-core.‖
―So?‖ she sneered over her shoulder. ―What were you a few days ago?‖
―It wasn‘t like that.‖
―So you gonna tell me what it was like? Being Pri-ya was all poetry and roses?‖
There had been moments that had felt startlingly like that. Not with the Unseelie Princes. But later with Barrons. I crammed that thought into the padlocked box in my head where I keep all those things I can‘t deal with. Soon I was going to have to sink the thing in concrete to keep it shut. ―I‘m not telling you not to watch people having sex, although I wish you‘d wait a few years. I‘m telling you to make better choices. Watch the soft-core stuff, the ones that show sex as something good.‖
―Mac,‖ she said flatly, ―get a grip. The world sucks. Ain‘t no good left in it.‖
―There‘s good everywhere. You just have to look for it.‖ I nearly choked on my words. I sounded just like my daddy and was surprised I still believed what I‘d said, after all I‘d been through. Looked like the rainbow wasn‘t entirely black.
She whirled on me, cheeks flushed, eyes furious. ―Really? What? Name some of those good things for me, will you? Why don‘t you tell me about ?em? I got a great idea. Let‘s make a list. Let‘s write down all the wonderful things in the world. ?Cause I been looking really hard lately, and I ain‘t been seeing a fecking one!‖ Her hands were fisted and she was shaking. It had taken me until I was twenty-two to be carved by tragedy. How old was Dani when its razor-sharp teeth drew first blood? She‘d told me her mother was killed by the Fae six years ago, which would have made her seven at the time. Had she watched it happen? Was that how long she‘d been with Rowena? What had the ruthless old woman been doing to her all that time?
―What happened to you, Dani?‖ I said softly.
―You think you have the right to just ask me that? Like I‘m gonna peel myself open and let you poke around inside me? Like you can pour me out like some little teapot, ?cause you‘re dangling me by my handle?‖
―I‘m not dangling you by any handle, Dani.‖
―You‘re trying to! Trying to force me to spill my secrets! Dump ?em all over the place so once you know ?em you can throw me away like a piece of trash, same as the Unseelie Princes did to you! Like some stupid fecking stupid fecker that shouldn‘t have even been fecking born!‖
I was stunned by the intensity of her reaction, baffled by the direction our conversation had taken. ―I‘m not trying to pry into you, and I would never throw you away. I care about you, you prickly little pain-in-the-butt porcupine. So buck up and deal with it. I worry about what you‘ll become. Enough to fight with you about it. And I‘m telling you, choose better movies, eat your vegetables, floss, and treat yourself with respect, because if you don‘t, nobody else will. I care!”
―You wouldn‘t if you knew me!‖
―I do know you.‖
―Leave me alone!‖