“Of course.” The smell of cedar smoke and limes rose again, and Etienne was gone. He would intercept Officer Thornton, and if he couldn’t calm him down, he could knock him out. That might be enough to buy us the time we needed. I hoped.
Tybalt’s hand tightened on my shoulder. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Got a better idea?” He didn’t say anything. I sighed. “Didn’t think so. Come on.” I pulled away from him, heading for the dark alcove that had been my initial destination on this floor. With Samson running wounded, presumably for Riordan, and the Folletti somewhere in the hall with us, we didn’t have much time.
Tybalt walked with me, frowning. “October—”
“Just watch my back, okay?” I raised my knife before he could say anything else, and ran my tongue along the flat of the blade.
Samson’s memories slammed into me, a thick cloud of resentment, jealousy, and unresolved hatreds. They were a tangled mass of images, hard to sort through or comprehend. I staggered, trying to figure out why it was hitting me so hard, and felt Tybalt’s hands catch me. Then the world dropped away, taking reassuring hands and the Annwn night with it, and everything was the red haze, and the weight of Samson’s bitter memory.
Bastard. He gets everything he wants—he always has, Prince of Londinium, King of San Francisco, and how much of it has he worked for? How much of it has he earned? Not a bit, and yet there he sits, and here I stand, hoping he’ll exploit my son enough to grant me the power to pull us away from this cursed place, these cursed people who walk and talk and call themselves our equals.
I’d always known that Samson was a cruel, resentful man, but I’d never understood how angry he was until that moment. Angry about his place in Cait Sidhe society, angry at the accident of birth that made Tybalt a King and him a subject, angry at the fact that his only living child would eventually have that same level of power and privilege. He resented Raj, even as he viewed his son as the one opportunity he’d ever have to achieve the status he thought he deserved.
I was dimly aware that I was on my knees on the cold stone floor of the hall; I could feel a hand gripping my shoulder, fingers clutching hard enough that I could feel them despite the leather of my jacket and the distance imposed by the heavy veil of blood between us. I clung to that sensation—to the knowledge of self, and the even better knowledge that there was someone ready and waiting to call me back—as I forced myself deeper into the spell.
“So you can get me the girl?”
“I can.” I do not brag—cats do not brag—but I still speak the truth. Riordan came to me with rumors, and I proved them to be reality. An untrained, unwatched Tuatha changeling. She could have amounted to nothing. Instead, she came to be so much more.
“How?”
“She walks the same route every day. I can take her into the shadows and bring her to you before she musters her senses enough to run.”
“If you fail me…” She does not complete the sentence. She doesn’t need to. I know the price of failure better than she does, because I understand what this is. She thinks it’s an escape from the eyes on her borders. I know it for something more.
This is a coup.
“I will not fail.”
Riordan says nothing. She simply nods, and I think again that power is the one thing the Divided Courts got right. They understand that power should belong to the strongest—if you can take a thing and hold it, it should be yours. She would have made a fine cat. A pity, then, that she must belong to the lesser Courts. Unlike some, I will never dirty myself.
But still, she’s lovely in the moonlight.
Ashes of Honor: An October Daye Novel
Seanan McGuire's books
- Bed of Roses
- Son Of The Morning
- Cover Of Night
- Affairs of State
- A Profiler's Case for Seduction
- Because of Rebecca
- Conflict of Interest
- Eclipse of the Heart
- Flames of Attraction
- Illusions of Love
- Keeper of the Moon
- Keeper of the Shadows
- Legacy of Love
- Love Proof (Laws of Attraction)
- Miles of Pleasure
- Of One Heart
- Off Limits
- Off Sides
- Out of the Dark (The Brethren Series)
- Out of the Depths
- Pool of Crimson
- Prince of Wolves
- Rules of Entanglement
- Shadow of My Heart
- Sins of a Ruthless Rogue
- Something of a Kind
- Son of a Preacher Man
- Taste of Desire
- Taste of Love
- Translation of Love
- Web of Deception
- Words of Love
- The Lady of Bolton Hill
- The Scars of Us(Scars Series)
- Dreams of Lilacs
- House of Ivy & Sorrow
- A Question of Honor
- The Owner of His Heart
- The Heir of the Castle
- Tower of Glass
- The Last Prince of Dahaar
- Terms of Engagement
- Secrets of a Bollywood Marriage
- David Lord of Honor
- Return of the Prodigal Gilvry
- Killing Me Softly(A Broken Souls Series)
- Starting Over(Hart of Seattle)
- The Resurrection of Aubrey Mill
- OFF SIDES
- Confessions of a Royal Bridegroom
- Stolen: Warriors of Hir, Book 3
- The CEO Buys in (Wager of Hearts #1)
- The Law of Moses
- A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1)
- Arouse: A Spiral of Bliss Novel (Book One)
- Awaken: A Spiral of Bliss Novel (Book Three)
- The Art of French Kissing
- Leo (A Sign of Love Novel)
- Echoes of Scotland Street
- Jesus Freaks: Sins of the Father
- Stinger (A Sign of Love Novel)
- Ten Days of Perfect (November Blue #1)
- The Song of David
- The House of the Stone
- The Weight of Feathers
- A Man for Amanda
- Dance Upon the Air
- Moon Island(Vampire Destiny Book 7)
- A game of chance(MacKenzie Family Saga series #5)
- Death Angel
- Loving Evangeline(Patterson-Cannon Family series #1)
- A Changing Land
- A Clandestine Corporate Affair
- A Gentleman Never Tells
- An Inheritance of Shame
- And Then She Fell
- Anything but Vanilla
- Anything for Her
- Anything You Can Do
- A Rancher's Pride
- A Stranger at Castonbury
- An Act of Persuasion
- An Unsinkable Love
- Angel's Rest
- Be Good A New Adult Romance (RE12)
- Beauty and the Blacksmith
- Beauty and the Sheikh
- Blood and Kisses
- Captain Durant's Countess
- Cardwell Ranch Trespasser
- Cavanaugh on Duty
- Chances Are
- Cinderella and the Sheikh
- Currant Creek Valley
- Cowboy Enchantment
- Dance With Me
- Dangerous Refuge
- Dicing with the Dangerous Lord
- Down and Dirty (Dare Me)
- Ein Mann fur alle Lagen