The Winter Long

The moment of transition between Faerie and the mortal world was jarring as always. Paso Nogal Park was deserted this early in the morning, and we didn’t see anyone else as we made our way along the narrow walking path that wound down the side of the hill. Leaving Shadowed Hills was always easier than getting in. Maybe there was a deeper meaning to that, but if so, I didn’t want to think about it too hard.

At least my headache was almost gone. I always deal better with emergencies when I’m not actively in pain.

Tybalt put a hand on my shoulder when we reached the bottom of the hill, pulling me to a stop. “This is where I take my leave of you,” he said.

I turned to stare at him, all the tension I thought I’d lost in the snow flooding back again. “What?”

“I said—”

“I heard you.” I turned again, tossing Quentin my keys. “Go get in the car. You don’t need to hear this.”

He was a smart boy. He took off running, and he didn’t look back. I focused my attention on Tybalt.

“Why are you leaving me?”

“Duty.” The word was grim. “I need to notify the Court of Cats that there is danger in the city, and set them to watching for Simon. I’ll ask them to watch your house as well. He won’t take us by surprise a second time.” He smiled a crooked smile, clearly trying to get me to do the same; clearly trying to keep me from worrying.

“All right,” I said. “Will you meet us at the Luidaeg’s?”

“I will,” he said.

The tension slipped away again. His logic was sound, and more, it didn’t carry any hint of him going to track down Simon without me. “Then I’ll call May and let her know where we’re headed. If she doesn’t pick up, we’ll swing by the house instead, just to make sure she and Jazz are all right.” If Simon had circled back, they could be in trouble. May couldn’t be killed, and she would recover from most physical wounds just like I would. That didn’t mean she couldn’t be incapacitated. Jazz had no innate physical defenses, and she’d been unconscious when I’d last seen her. This time, I managed to force a smile. “So if we’re not hanging with the sea witch, come save us.”

Tybalt reached up and pressed the knuckles of his right hand lightly to my cheek. “You are very fortunate that I love you, for I doubt I could endure you otherwise,” he said.

My smile grew. “I love you, too.”

“Of course you do. I’m wonderful.” With that, he turned and walked away, vanishing into the shadows beneath a nearby clump of trees.

“Okay. Now we move.” I turned back to Quentin, who was watching me with concern. “What?”

“Nothing. I’m just . . . I never met Simon. He was before my time. How worried should I be?”

I hesitated. He needed to know what we were up against—but I could explain just as well while we were moving. “Get in the car,” I said.

He got.

Once we were safely on the road, heading toward the freeway, I said, “Remember Oleander?”

Quentin shuddered. “I don’t think I could forget her if I tried.”

“That’s good. When you forget your enemies, you give them the power to come back and surprise you. Never forget her, or the things we learned from fighting her.” Mostly what I learned from fighting her was that if someone really wanted to poison me, I’d need to be in a hermetically sealed bubble to prevent it. Then again, that was when I’d been more human; my body might just shrug off the poison if something like that happened to me now.

“So what does Oleander have to do with anything? She’s dead.”

“When she was alive, she was Simon’s . . .” I hesitated, not sure how to finish that sentence. I’d always assumed they were lovers, but if he was married to my mother, would that really have been true? Yes, I finally decided. He’d fallen far enough that he would have been willing to cheat on his wife on top of everything else. “She was his lover, and his accomplice. She went to see my mother once, to ask if Simon had been allowed to see me. The way she looked at Amandine, and the way Amandine looked at her . . . there was so much hate there.”