Radiant Shadows
Page 72

“There’s nothing left for me over there.” Rabbit still sounded weary, but not as much as he had when Devlin first saw him at the studio.
“Stay here,” Ani urged, “at least until we figure out what to do. Please, Rab?”
Rabbit nodded.
Without any further discussion, Devlin took Rabbit to the artists’ cottages.
After they had delivered Rabbit to a pristine cottage filled with various art supplies and tattoo equipment, Devlin led Ani to his own home.
When they reached his quarters within the queen’s palace, he found Rae in his previously unused sitting room. A smile played on his lips at the sight of her. No longer hidden away in a cave, she was dressed for court and awaiting him.
“She’s awake,” he told her.
Rae smiled. “And Faerie is intact once more. Such a simple thing, isn’t it? You bring Sorcha’s son home, and the world wakes.”
“Indeed.” Devlin wished he could embrace her. He couldn’t, but he could tell her what he felt. “You saved Faerie. Without you, I wouldn’t have known—”
“Without me, she wouldn’t have been lost in her dreams,” Rae corrected. “Do not forget how she was able to see Seth in the first place.”
“You can do all sorts of things in dreams, can’t you?” Ani’s voice was soft, but there was a fear in it.
“I didn’t create any illusions, Ani.” Rae stayed as still as any prey. She didn’t straighten her arms or legs. “I simply stitched your dreams together.”
“Why?”
Rae shrugged. “You needed each other.”
And in that instant, Devlin understood something he’d not admitted. “You knew.”
The world stilled for Rae. “Knew what?”
Devlin, the center of her world, crossed the room to her. His voice was soft. “All these years, you knew Ani was meant to be in my life. Did you know that when you asked me not to kill her?”
“Oh, Devlin, don’t ask me too many more questions.” She lifted her hand as if she would touch his shoulder. “I knew things I shouldn’t have… or maybe things I was supposed to. Who can predict what threads are the ones that were meant to be?”
“Threads?” He frowned as he tried to piece together some clarity from the clues she’d given him. “What all did you know?”
“I cannot answer that,” Rae whispered. “I wish I could.”
Ani sat on a high-backed chair with one foot tucked under her. The wolves in her skin shifted restlessly, but Rae couldn’t tell if that was in response to Ani’s worry or Devlin’s discomfort. The wolves were a part of the New Hunt, the one that belonged in Faerie, and they’d respond to both Devlin and Ani.
Will this Hunt protect me as well?
Rae waited as Devlin puzzled out the things he was learning. If Rae had her way, she’d tell him that he and Ani were meant to be in Faerie, that the whole order of Faerie was awaiting his understanding of what he could make real. If she had her way, she’d have told him everything years ago, but the Eolas’ injunctions were binding.
“Please, Devlin,” she said. “Think on what you know, but don’t ask me questions I am forbidden to answer.”
A knock at the door of the outer chamber made them pause.
“Stay here.” Devlin walked away to answer it.
Once he was gone, Ani looked at her. “You love him a lot.”
Rae sighed. “Your bluntness is not always charming, Ani.”
The Hound grinned. “I believe you’ve mentioned that before.”
As Devlin returned, the look on his face was dire. “She’s summoned me to the hall.”
Devlin entered Sorcha’s main hall. The insult of being summoned in front of all and any who cared to watch pricked his temper. He tried to suppress it as he had done for eternity, but he was failing. He’d been advisor, assassin, family to her for eternity, yet she beckoned him into her hall in front of the masses.
The High Queen sat on the throne looking emotionless. Behind her, Seth stood with one hand on the back of the queen’s throne. Like Sorcha, his emotions were hidden. Devlin, for a change, did not endeavor to disguise his feelings: he was furious. Sorcha had come near to unmaking Faerie, but she acted as if she were unfazed by her folly.
Devlin crossed the crowded room to the dais. He stopped in front of her, but he did not bow. For the first time, he did not bend his knee to the High Queen.
No one in the room spoke. But they watch—and she knows. He had not spent eternity simply killing for his queen; he knew how to wield unspoken as well as physical threat.
“How much have you hidden? That is the question I am forced to ponder now, Devlin.” Sorcha sounded calm, but there was an edge that was new. There, in front of the denizens of the High Court, she spoke to him like he was nothing.
He crossed a line then that he’d never crossed: he stepped up and grabbed his sister’s arm. “We will not discuss this here.”
“Cease!” she demanded. She tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip.
“You embarrass us both by doing this here,” he whispered.
Seth stepped forward, but in Faerie, he was mortal, and mortal movement was not fast enough. By the time Seth had moved, Sorcha and Devlin were well away from the dais.
Devlin glanced back and said, “The High Queen is not in physical danger.”
The assurance was primarily for Seth, but the rest of the assembled faeries heard the words as well.