Rise of the Magi (23 page)

The need to get Liam back, to return them all, filled me with something fierce and burning. A single-minded purpose. Everyone who would come to the Court needed to see it in my face. They had to be infected by it, to want to live as much as I wanted them to. As much as I needed my son to have a world to grow up in and the mother and father I never had. I would give it to him, so help me Goddess.

Still on my knees, I remained on the mound for a long time, listening to my mother’s voice, inviting it in to drive out the remaining doubt.

“We will see the dawn, Liam. It will be bright and pink, and once it breaks, no shadow will fall on us again.” I came to my feet. Empty. Ready. “Hear it. Remember it. Write it in a fucking book, because that is the future I’m starting us on right this second.”

“That almost sounds prophetic,” Brígh said. When she’d arrived beside me, I didn’t know.

“Believing it can be done is half the battle, or some crap. Isn’t that what Gallagher says?”

She snorted and looped her arm through mine, resting her head on my shoulder. “I miss the old fuddy-duddy.”

“Yeah, me too. We’ll get them back.”

“I believe in you.”

It was my turn to laugh a little. “A little corny, but thanks.” I reached up to wipe the tears away, but Brígh caught my arm.

“Leave them.” She fished a tissue out of her pocket and handed it to me. “Mop up the snots, but leave the tears. Everyone needs to see them.”

I turned and stared at her serious face in search of the punch line. “Why? It should be apparent enough in my eyes that I’ll do anything to fix this. Why does anyone need to know I’ve actually been crying?”

“Because you
told
them you’re hurting, but you didn’t show them, and they don’t trust you. They need to see evidence they can’t deny. They need to know it’s okay for them to cry, too.” At my frown, she folded her arms together, eyes challenging. “You made me your aide, and this is me aiding, so stop being a horse’s ass, and listen to me for once.”

I blew my nose to cover my growing smile. “When did you get smart and so damned pushy?”

“Oh, thanks!” She shot me an indignant look and shook her head. “I’ve always been smart, thank you very much. And as for pushy, I’ve been learning from the master, so deal with it.”

I threw my arms around her as she squeaked. “Don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Her giggle bounced her slender body. “When did Miss Hands-off start getting touchy-feely, anyway? And saying shit like that to me, for that matter.”

I snickered and squeezed her tighter. “Since I met you, I think. And Laerni. I seem to recall you invading my personal space a whole bunch when we rode the transport together that first time. You’re just so damned adorable; I guess I couldn’t help myself.”

Face flushed, she moved back and shrugged. Her sandal-clad toe gouged into the grass. “Yeah, well, I waited for, like, ever, for you to come, and your Light is just so … I don’t know, warm and nice and stuff. What’d you expect me to do, just stand over there and not touch?”

My stomach gave a howl as I realized Laerni hadn’t yet brought food. A glance at the gate revealed a body standing there, but not the one I wanted. “Nice to see you haven’t been snatched up like every other guy around here.”

Parthalan bowed as he always did before striding toward me, wearing black slacks and an ice blue button down the same color as his star-bright eyes. His dark wings lay flat against his back and brushed the ground as he walked. “Mistress. I am grieved of your loss. We, too, have lost all males who remained in Cargun, and the females who went in search have been … they are no longer here.” He touched his temple. “Those in the air at the time of the attack, a hundred, maybe more, are all who are spared.”

The royal we. The Sluagh were of a single mind linked to all of the undead former fae, so they moved and thought as one unit. Handy, but it had downsides, too. To lose so many would have been devastating to them—mind and body. Although I still had command of them when I needed to, I’d been able to lock that link up tight in a corner of my mind, or I’d have mourned right along with them.

“I’m sorry.” I meant it wholeheartedly. “Where are the others now?”

“They wish to hear what our queen would do about this threat with their own ears. They soar the skies above your gates.”

I didn’t have an issue with that, but I knew of one or two who might. “I don’t have all the answers, but I hope between those of us left, we can come up with some. The Host has every right to be here. The only problem is that I have two humans coming who’ve never been inside a fae city before, and one in particular doesn’t do well with anything he doesn’t understand.”

“Richard? The Federal agent.”

“Yep. That’s the one. Can you ask the Host to mix in with the rest of the fae when they get here so a whole flock of beaked bird men won’t be descending on them all at once?” If James and Richard hadn’t been snatched up along with the rest.
I hadn’t even considered the humans might have taken a hit to their testosterone brigade, too.

Stopping a few feet away from Brígh and me, Parthalan gave another bow. “We wish to convey our gratitude.” Head tilted in his weird bird stance, he cocked his head, still staring at me. “Your eyes are wet.” He tilted left, right and craned his neck around the Court before returning to me. “But there is no destruction. No fury. No cursing. Are you well, Mistress?”

Brígh burst out laughing, earning my elbow in her side.

“That’s not funny. I’m not like that anymore.” I shrugged. “Most of the time.” I’d blown up the infirmary door, but that was an emergency. Moving on to more important matters, I said, “Do you remember anything more about your former life than you did when you crawled out of the ground?”

His head tipped in the other direction. “Flashes. Faces. Sounds. Places I have no names for or perspective to tell me where they are. What is it you seek in my past?”

“The Magi?” I was reaching, but when a girl’s got nothing, what else could I do?

A hammer-to-the-forehead expression faced me. “What are you suggesting?”

“Oh, hell. I don’t know. Anything. Nothing. Only hoping you might have run across them since you’ve been around so damn long.”

The crackle of electricity sounded an instant before a dripping-wet James and one of the transporters blinked into existence in front of the dais. Lisa, I thought Neve had called her.

Yelping, the Canadian Mountie covered his junk with his hands. “Jesus, Lila. What the hell?”

I turned to the transporter, cringing internally. “I was kinda-sorta half joking about bringing them if they were butt-ass naked. Brígh, can you get the man some clothes?”

Lisa, a waif of a girl with deep blue hair, cowered as I approached, gaze cast down.

A stone thudded into the bottom of my gut. “Hold that thought, James.” I took a second to assemble the words in my head before I said something to the girl to make it worse. “Hey, you did exactly what I told you to. You did nothing wrong. Thank you …”

“Lisa, Queen.”

“Just Lila. It’s nice to meet you, Lisa. As you can see, you don’t need to look for Parthalan. Are you hungry? Can I get you something to eat?” I held my hand out to her.

Her head snapped up, and her lips parted before she clamped them shut. She slowly slid her fingers into mine, sighing as my Light spread up her arm. “You aren’t like everyone says, are you?”

My brow cocked up as I considered what the former Unseelie might have said about me. “The rumors that I’m a heartless, bloodthirsty tyrant are somewhat unfounded.” I said it with a smile, hoping to loosen her up a bit.

“She’s more of a bossy nag,” Neve offered on her way down with the Dun Bray ladies behind her.

“Pfft. You can just shut it, miss pink.” I turned back to find a tiny smile on Lisa’s face. “This is your home, no matter what anyone else says. Yeah, I speak for us, but I’m not much different than you. You don’t need to be afraid of me.”

“You wanna tell me what’s going on?” James accepted the shirt Parthalan shed and handed to him. I lowered my gaze as he tied it around his waist, leaving his left hip bare. At least the important bits were covered.

“Sorry to snatch you up this way, but we’ve got a major problem, and we’ve lost Gallagher, so I couldn’t contact you like I normally do.”

James drew in a sharp breath. “By lost, you don’t mean—”

“He’s not dead,” I blurted before clearing my throat of barbs. “At least, I don’t think he is. All of our men have been taken from all three fae cities, along with most of Parthalan’s people. Have you noticed anyone missing?”

“We’re still herding the last stragglers from the outposts. Most are holed up in one of the taller buildings in Toronto, but throw a bunch of paranoid folks together like that, and I think you can guess how that’s going over. At least the witches sent by the covens are confident their wards will hold—at least until the Magi start attacking full-blast.” Hands on his hips, his head angled forward as if in exhaustion. “Bethany and I have been supervising patrols around the perimeter of the city to watch for any forest encroachment beyond the ward line. This morning one of the cars never reported in.”

“Oh, no.” Neve closed her eyes.

I steeled myself for more that didn’t come. “The suspense might just kill me … or you, if you keep us hanging any longer, James.”

“Sorry, I … it just … never mind. I drove up the Don Valley Parkway after I got the call about the missing crew. Eight lane highway just ends. Trees grew right up through the pavement so thick I’d need a chainsaw just to walk through.”

“You need to burn it.” Hand to my throat, I fought my gag reflex. “Your people are still alive. You have to burn it, or they’ll suffer like you can’t imagine.”

“Christ, we tried. I was just showering to get the soot off and intended to get your telepath to contact Gallagher when your girl here snatched me out of the tub.”

Confused, I squinted at him. “What do you mean
tried
? Douse it with gasoline and light it up.”

A glaze of utter helplessness shined his eyes. “When we get within ten feet with flame of any kind, even flame throwers, the fire just goes out. We even tried dropping explosives from a plane, but it never goes off. Like there’s some kind of crazy force field that neutralizes fire on contact.”

“A ward,” I said. “Dammit!”

“But … what does that mean?”

We are screwed, is what it means.
“It means they’re getting smarter and craftier, two things we don’t need them to be right now. When they figure a way through your wards, you’ll all be entombed in trees—alive, and none of us will be able to help you.” I’d have bet a great deal that Alseides’ conduits of choice were the missing Black City fae. Or witches. I didn’t want to think about that possibility.

James tossed a hand up—the other holding the shirt around his waist. “I don’t like the sound of that, Lila. You’re supposed to tell me how to stop these carnivorous trees from getting any closer to the city. You’re supposed to tell me how to stop any more folks from dying that way.”

Frowning, I went to tell him off, but Richard blinked in beside us before I could get it out.

21

Richard stared at me, fully dressed to my relief, and completely at ease in the midst of the Court garden. “Mrs. Gray. Thank God.”

That just sounded so wrong, considering technically it would be Mrs. Kane if we did the human merging of names thing. “Just Lila. And I’m relieved you’re glad to see me because quite frankly I expected you to wig out.”

“I’ve been trying to get your telepath to contact you for hours.” His gaze roved around the Court, over the fae and Sluagh that had begun filling the daises at the top of the theatre seating. His eyes flared. “This isn’t the command center. How did I get here?”

Took him long enough. “You’re in the fae city of Iress. In our Court. One of our teleporters brought you.”

The brunette woman who’d done his snatch-and-grab glowered at me before strutting away.

“Thank you,” I called, having almost forgotten. She flipped me the bird over her shoulder. I wouldn’t be winning her over any time soon.

“What’s going on here?” Richard stared at James. “Why are you wet and wearing that?”

James’ cheeks took on a little pink. “Lila’s trick took me right out of the shower.”

Richard nodded as if that made perfect sense and turned to me. “What are you doing about the threat to our cities?”

“Not you, too.” I palmed my eyes, wishing I could shut them for a while.

“Tell us,” Neve said. She’d plastered on her serious face—stern eyes, a hard set to her mouth. It was a face Andrew was famous for and not even I would mess with.

“We moved everyone who was willing to New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Our command center is in New York, and we lost communication with the other two sites this morning. I sent out a team via car to Chicago with an update, but they didn’t make it out of the state because we’re now walled in with the Fort Knox of forests.”

“Stupid fucking Magi,” I growled as Brígh descended the main aisle with a bundle of clothes in her arms. The Mountie pulled on a pair of pants Brígh handed to him, as I explained the purpose of our gathering to Richard, shocked when the Fed nodded and sat beside James on the lowermost dais.

Grenick appeared in front of them. His screams blasted across the already rising din of voices. His transporter, a thick brute of a woman, collapsed face first at my feet. Open gashes crisscrossed her body from toes to forehead.

“Serena!” Lisa shouted and fell beside her, taking her hand.

“We were on our way,” Grenick cried. “They’ve turned our home against us! This is your doing!” His little elf finger jabbed at me.

Ice coated my veins as I knelt on the other side of Serena to check her wounds while asking him, “Where are your people now? How many were taken?”

Panting, he tilted his head forward, the rage dissipating from his posture to leave a broken man … elf. “This woman saved us. She brought us all to your city in bunches, saving me for last at my command. We almost didn’t make it out, but she held onto consciousness just long enough. She should be commended.”