Realm of Mirrors (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 3) (8 page)

“But—”

“Sadie.” I took her hand gently, and a lump formed in my throat. She was still shaking. “Please, try to relax. A little,” I said. “We’ll get through this. But we can’t do anything….crazy right now. Understand?”

For a minute I thought she would anyway. Like start screaming, or punch me and then start screaming. But she closed her eyes and swallowed once, and her spine stiffened. “You’re right,” she said. “I just…”

I squeezed her hand. “I know.”

With a sobered expression, Nix pulled the chair closest to Sadie away from the table. “All right. Sit down,” he said. “Please. Before you fall.”

She looked at him blankly, then shivered and lowered herself into the seat.

Shade watched me as I sat in the chair between her and Sadie. Her eyes widened a touch. “You’re bleeding,” she said in a surprisingly soft tone.

“Huh?” At first I thought she was doing the psychic thing again, until I glanced down and saw the dark, wet spot seeping into my shirt. Probably should’ve taken a bit more time with the bandage. “Er, yeah,” I said. “A little.”

“That’s not a little.”

Nix made a low, distressed sound. “I’m sorry, mate,” he said. “Hadn’t realized you were that bad off. I can go fetch Cobalt—”

“No need,” a new voice said.

I breathed an inward sigh of relief. Finally, someone I knew. Sort of.

Cobalt came up beside Nix, looking from Sadie to me with concern. “I’d ask if everything was all right, but I can see it’s not,” he said. “Your brother hasn’t joined you tonight?”

A wrenching sob escaped Sadie before she could cover her mouth.

“Ah, so that’s it.” Cobalt turned a calm expression to Nix. “Tell Malik we’re closing early,” he said. “Can you help him clear the place and lock up, and then meet us upstairs?”

“On it, mate.” Nix immediately headed back the way we’d come in.

“Don’t worry,” Cobalt said to me. “We can talk in private. And I’ll heal that arm of yours, too—it looks bad.”

I frowned. “We weren’t trying to mess up your business,” I said. “I mean, you don’t have to do all this.”

“Of course I do. You need help.” He gave an encouraging smile. “It’s no trouble,” he said. “I meant what I said earlier. If I can help you, I will.”

I almost started crying myself. “Thank you,” I managed.

One step down. And countless, impossible steps to go.

C
HAPTER 10

T
he reactions I got after I explained what happened didn’t exactly inspire me with hope.

We were in Cobalt’s apartment. Sadie and I on one couch; Cobalt, Nix and Shade on the other. Will was at work. Cobalt had mentioned he usually didn’t get home until one or two, depending on how much post-show stuff he had. I’d just given them the short version—basically, the Unseelie Guard teleporting through The Godfather and dragging Taeral and Daoin back to Arcadia with them.

All three of them looked horrified.

Cobalt was the first to speak. “I must call Uriskel,” he said, dragging a hand down his face as he stood.

“Er. Must you?”

His disappointed look made me regret the words. But I couldn’t help it—his brother scared the shit out of me. “Yes, I must,” he said. “Uriskel knows more of the Unseelie Court than all of us together. “Believe me when I say that you’ll need his counsel, at the least. If he’ll consent to offer it.”

I let out a sigh. “I believe you. And I’m sorry,” I said. “Look, I’ve only known about all this Other stuff for a couple of months, including that I’m Fae. I mean, half Fae. And your brother is…really badass. That’s all.”

“Months?” Cobalt’s expression softened. “I assumed you’d known for years,” he said. “
I’m
sorry for that. And I’ll only ask that you be patient with Uriskel.” He closed his eyes briefly. “He’s a good heart, but my brother has been through…difficulties, which are not my place to discuss.”

Without knowing it, he’d just told me a whole lot about his brother. I recognized abuse when people were trying to hide it. So maybe I could give him the benefit of the doubt—for now, at least. “I can do that,” I said.

“Thank you. Please, excuse me for a moment.”

Cobalt walked away, and I glanced at Sadie with concern. She hadn’t said a word since we came up here. At the moment, she was staring toward the big window and the glittering sprawl of Manhattan beyond—but I doubted she was seeing any of it.

I patted her leg, and she stirred and gave me a slight smile. At least she was still in there somewhere.

“So,” I said to the odd couple. “You guys are Fae, right?”

Nix smiled crookedly. “Nah, we’re bloody unicorns,” he said. “Course we are.”

“Oh.” I wondered if there was a tactful way to ask if they were Seelie or Unseelie. Taeral always seemed to know, but I was still having trouble figuring out whether someone was human or not.

Then I remembered Shade could hear thoughts that wanted to be heard. Maybe if I thought hard enough, I wouldn’t have to ask what was probably a stupid question out loud.

Just as the idea crossed my mind, she raised an elegant eyebrow. “It’s not a stupid question,” she said. “But it is something of a complicated answer.”

“Holy shit. You heard me?”

“Aye. You wanted me to, didn’t you?” She actually smiled a little, and even Sadie took notice. “We’re not high Fae, Nix and I,” she said. “At least, that is the term, though I’ve never agreed with it. High Fae, pure Seelie and Unseelie, control the Summer and Winter Courts. But there are many other…variations, all of us labeled low Fae.”

“You mean like Redcaps,” I said. That’s what Sadie had called the pointy-toothed leprechaun—a low Fae.

Nix stared at me. “You’ve seen a Redcap?” he said. “Here?”

“Er, yeah. Once,” I said. “Long story.”

“Don’t interrupt, you daft bit,” Shade said, not unkindly. “They should know this.”

He grinned. “Sorry, love. I’m an insensitive tool, a bloody flake, and so forth.”

“That you are.” She shook her head. “As I was saying, there are many types of low Fae. Dryads, nymphs, Redcaps, gnomes, brownies. My thick-headed mate here is a Pooka, and I am Sluagh. And we, the low Fae, are Seelie or Unseelie depending on where in Arcadia our kind dwells, and which Court’s rule we’re subjected to.” Her lingering smile slipped away. “Meaning he’s Seelie, and I’m Unseelie.”

“Aye. Arcadia forbids the union of Seelie and Unseelie—it’s the one thing both Courts agree on.” Nix took his wife’s hand gently. “That’s why we’re here, instead of there.”

Damn. I knew they didn’t get along, but this seemed somehow worse than killing each other. It sounded like the high Fae had basically forced a bunch of other Fae who didn’t have anything to do with them to take sides, and then made loyalty a requirement. “So you couldn’t be together at all over there?” I said.

“We couldn’t
survive
there,” Shade said. “The penalty for such a union is death.”

I decided not to ask what the Courts’ policies were on human-Fae unions. Figured I could probably guess.

Before I could horrify myself further, Cobalt returned from wherever he’d gone, tucking a phone in his pocket. “Coincidentally, Uriskel is aware that you’re here,” he said. “And despite swearing he’d no longer protect me when I don’t need it, he’s already on the way. He’ll be here momentarily.”

“Fantastic,” Nix said. “Your brother’s presence always livens the place up. I’ll nip down and let him in, shall I?”

“Please do. I’d rather he didn’t break my door down. Again.”

Nix stood and headed for the stairs. And I tried to stay calm, reminding myself that at least I had a vague idea why Uriskel acted the way he did.

Unfortunately, it didn’t make him any less terrifying.

When Uriskel joined us, I had to repeat my little story. But he wasn’t satisfied with ‘a bunch of angry fairies came through the TV and stole my father and brother.’

“You must know
something
.” Once again, the red-haired Unseelie had refused to sit down. He stood at the end of the longer couch, staring at me in disgust—like he’d just decided he owned underwear that was smarter than me. “Why would the Unseelie Guard want your brother?”

“Look, I have no idea,” I said. “I’m pretty sure they were after Daoin, and they only took Taeral because he was there.”

“Daoin?” Uriskel said hoarsely.

“Yeah, Taeral’s—well, our father. He’s supposed to be banished, so I don’t know why they’d take him back.”

“Lord Daoin Ciar’ Ansghar, Captain of the Unseelie Guard.” Uriskel took a menacing step forward. “
That
is your father?”

I tried to shrink into the couch. “Look, I don’t know anything about him,” I said. “I just met the guy a few months ago, and he was already…”

“Already what?” he demanded.

“Gone, okay?” I nearly shouted. This was starting to piss me off. I lunged to my feet and paced toward the window, my hands clenched tight. “Whoever Daoin was before, he’s not anymore. He hasn’t been for a long time,” I said without turning. “He doesn’t remember anything about his life, and he barely remembers Taeral is his son. Hell, he doesn’t know who
he
is half the time. So I don’t fucking understand why the Unseelie Court came for him, but I’m getting both of them back, damn it!”

A resounding silence answered my rant, and I looked back to find everyone gaping at me. Including Uriskel.

“What’s happened to him?” Uriskel said in an almost normal tone.

I released a pent breath. “You guys ever hear of Milus Dei?”

“Gideon, don’t.” Sadie sat forward with an alarmed expression. “We shouldn’t talk about that.”

“Yeah, we should.” I knew what had her worried. If they found out what I was, besides half Unseelie, they might not help us—because there was a distinct possibility Milus Dei would target them, too. But I wasn’t going to let anyone risk their lives without knowing what they were getting into. “Have you heard of it?” I repeated.

Cobalt frowned. “Aye, but only rumors,” he said. “They’re supposed to be some kind of cult looking to destroy all non-humans. The men of legend—and I’d assumed that’s what they were. Legends, stories to frighten children.”

“Well, they’re real.” I crossed my arms and focused on nothing in particular. “Milus Dei is what happened to Daoin,” I said. “They held him captive for twenty-six years. Kept him in a room with cold iron walls, experimented on him, tortured him. When we got him out of there, they’d left him to bleed to death—he had no magic left, so he couldn’t heal himself.”

I could barely look at their stricken expressions. At least they believed me.

Sadie got up and walked over to me. “They had Taeral too, for almost a year,” she said. “That’s how he lost his arm. And they caught me twice.”

“Where is this Milus Dei?” Uriskel said.

I frowned. “Good question. We fought them, thought we’d stopped them—but then we found out the group in New York was only a branch,” I said. “Apparently they’re all over the world. We just got back from fighting another bunch of those bastards in Pennsylvania. They’d taken Sadie’s pack.”

“My God, I’m so sorry,” Cobalt rasped. “Gideon, you said you’d only known about the Others, and your own heritage, for a few months. Is
this
how you found out?”

“Yeah. They came after me pretty hard, so I had to figure everything out fast—and not die while I was doing it.”

Uriskel raised an eyebrow. “If you’d not known what you are, why did they come after you?” he said.

Of course he’d ask that.

Sadie mouthed
no
, but I had to tell them. And if they weren’t willing to help, we’d find another way. I drew a steadying breath and looked directly at the Unseelie.

“Because I’m the DeathSpeaker.”

C
HAPTER 11