“A binding promise. I want you to take me to Van Zant.”
I wanted her punished for her violation of the netherwhere, but I’d survived that ordeal and could take it up again later if I felt the need. Right now, there was a vamp dealing deadly blood, and I wanted him off the streets so he couldn’t endanger any more innocent people.
She started struggling again, and we fell to the ground together in a tangle. A dumb move on her part. I could have easily sliced her neck by accident.
“Oh for the—” I grumbled.
I leaned back to make a little space, lifted my sword, and smacked the flat of the blade against the side of her head, as if swatting a fly. Bryna went down in a heap.
I heard Nicole gasp behind me. “Oh my god, is she dead?”
I pressed my fingers to Bryna’s carotid artery and felt a faint thump of pulse. “Nah, she’ll be fine.”
I quickly released my magic, sheathed Mort, and then hauled Bryna’s limp body up and over my shoulder.
“We need to go before the guards think to come looking for us out here,” I said.
I trotted out to the road and went at a fast clip toward the clearing. Nicole jogged along beside me.
“Who is this girl?” she asked.
“The illegitimate daughter of the man who kidnapped you,” I said. “And she’s the wench who sent a wraith to kill me.”
“And who’s the Van Zant person you mentioned?”
“My mark. He’s a vamp.”
“Mark?”
“I’m a freelancer with the Mercenary Guild,” I explained. “Van Zant is a bounty I’m supposed to bring in. He’s been a real slippery bastard. Bryna’s working with him.”
I glanced at Nicole. She shot worried looks at the limp girl I carried over my shoulder.
“Don’t get too sympathetic,” I said. “Aside from trying to murder me, she’s working with a man who’s selling VAMP3 blood on the black market. It turns people into murderers after a couple of highs. If Van Zant hasn’t already been responsible for the deaths of innocent people, it’s only a matter of time, and Bryna’s trying to protect him.”
“Oh,” she said. “I’ve heard of the Guild. I didn’t know about the VAMP3 blood.”
We’d reached the edge of the clearing.
“There’s a doorway over there,” I said, nodding at a very old-looking stone arch. “It’s a sort of magical portal that connects to other doorways. The three of us are going into it.”
“Are you taking me back home?”
I shook my head. “We’re going to the stone fortress. It’s the home base for the New Gargoyle Fae.”
Her brows drew down in anger, and she flicked a look back up the road. Her muscles tensed as if she were ready to spring away.
“My advice is not to run,” I said, my tone heavy with warning. I really wasn’t in the mood to dump Bryna to chase after Nicole. Carrying two unconscious women into the New Gargoyle stronghold, especially when one was technically one of us, would raise the kind of attention I didn’t enjoy. “You’re King Periclase’s captive here, and Unseelie territory isn’t a safe place for a changeling. It’s not a particularly safe place for anyone. At the stone fortress, you won’t be a prisoner. You’re one of us, there.”
Her mouth tightened into an unhappy line, but she unclenched her fists and her shoulders slumped in a posture of defeat.
I wasn’t being quite a hundred percent forthcoming with her. She wouldn’t be a prisoner at the fortress, that much was true, but she also wouldn’t be allowed to leave right away. Once a changeling was brought into Faerie, there was a protocol to follow. It involved staying on this side of the hedge for a certain length of time before any other decisions could be made. I didn’t think Nicole was in the right frame of mind for that news. But it didn’t matter, anyway. We couldn’t just set her free in the Earthly realm because Periclase would kidnap her again. And the next time, he’d probably make it a hell of a lot harder to bust her out.
We went up to the arch, and I shifted Bryna’s weight so I had one hand free to trace the sigils in the air.
“Hold onto my arm or my shoulder,” I said to Nicole. “You’ve got to be in contact with me to go through the doorway, since you don’t know how to do it by yourself. It’ll all be over in a second, so just try to relax.”
She gripped my forearm that was clamped over Bryna’s legs so hard I was pretty sure Nicole would leave indentations in my skin. I didn’t blame her. The doorways were some freaky shit, even when you were used to them.
I drew the symbols and said the magic words, and we stepped through into the void.
We entered the stone fortress through a doorway that was near some administrative offices.
Nicole spun around, slipping a little on the marble floor. Her eyes were huge and wild, and her chest was heaving. She was on the verge of hyperventilation.
“Hey,” I said softly. “It’s okay. Take a breath. You made it, and you’re still in one piece.”
She cast me an accusing look. “Why didn’t you tell me it was like that?”
“Would you still have gone through?”
She pressed her lips together and looked away, clearly angry. But at least her panic was subsiding.
I hiked Bryna higher on my shoulder. “Come with me to get rid of her, and then we’ll get you some food and a place to rest.”
It was late enough that most New Gargs were in bed at this hour, and during the short walk to the fortress holding cells, we didn’t encounter anyone.
The guy on duty at intake was young, and he drew back a little when he saw me come in with a limp body slung over my shoulder.
“You want her locked up?” he asked, giving us the side-eye.
“Yep.”
“Charges?” He was already tapping and swiping away at his tablet.
“She tried to kill me in the netherwhere,” I said.
That made him pause. He flicked another look at Bryna.
By Faerie law, I could have her held for a day as long as the charges met certain requirements. Attempted murder definitely made the list.
“Accuser is Petra Maguire, by the way,” I said.
I glanced at the nameplate—Patrick.
He spent another minute or so filling in the paperwork on the tablet and then held it out for me to sign with my finger.
“Where should I put her?” I asked.
“I need to scan her for charms first,” he said.
He quickly waved a slim divining rod over Bryna, finding a ring, a necklace, a hair clip, and a brooch that were charmed. He removed all of them.
He beckoned me around the counter to the door that led to the cells and held it open for me. The lockups were all empty, their doors standing partway open down either side of the hallway. He gestured to the first cell.
I went in and dumped Bryna on the bed, which was little more than a metal pallet with a thin mattress, and Patrick closed the door and traced the sigils that sealed Bryna inside.
“I’ll be back in the morning to speak with her,” I said. I still needed her to get me to Van Zant.
As Nicole and I left the fortress jail, I rolled my shoulder, trying to work out the tightness and fatigue from carrying Bryna.