The Iron Warrior
Page 33

“It’s too quiet,” she said. “Where is everyone?”
Of course. That was the thing that was bugging me. Leanansidhe’s mansion was a haven for outcasts, and they were usually here in droves. Exiles, half-breeds and runaways alike, this was a last resort for those who had nowhere else to go, and the mansion was always teeming with fey. Not to mention a number of gifted humans Leanansidhe had “collected” over the years. All brilliant, musical or artistic in some fashion, and all completely nuts from living in the Between so long. The mansion seemed empty, devoid of life. Now that I thought about it, it was weird that Leanansidhe herself had opened the door; she usually had servants do that sort of thing for her.
“Where indeed?” Leanansidhe said, smiling down at us. “That is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? You’ll have to forgive me, doves, if I seem distracted. I’ve been rather busy of late. You see—” she fixed me with a piercing stare “—not long ago, I was out and about in the mortal world—on a business trip, mind—when there was this...oh, how should I put it...this pulse that went through the air like an electrical charge. It nearly knocked me down, it was so strong. Naturally, I was startled and started to ask this nice young lady if she had felt it, too.
“Do you know what she did, darling?” Leanansidhe asked, though she obviously had no intention of waiting for an answer. “She screamed. In my face. Right in the middle of a busy street. I had no idea what she was going on about at first, but you can imagine my surprise when I realized she could see me. Really see me. In fact—and here is the hilarious part, darling—all of them could see me, the entire squealing, bumbling human crowd. The barbarians surrounded me, talking all at once, screaming, taking pictures, attempting to touch me.” Leanansidhe gave a dramatic sigh. “It was a rather trying afternoon.”
I grimaced. “What did you do to them?”
“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know, darling?” The Exile Queen gave me an evil smile. “But that is not the important bit of this story. Would you like to know the climax? After I...dealt with the mortals, I returned home. Or, I tried to return home. And do you know what I found, Ethan Chase?”
Her eyes were almost glowing now, an icy, dangerous blue, making my insides shrink. “Nothing?” I guessed in a small voice.
“Bravo, Ethan Chase!” Leanansidhe applauded. I jumped, and the lights around us flickered. “Nothing is exactly what I found. The Between was gone. My home, gone.” She snapped her fingers. “Vanished, like it never existed.”
“But...it eventually came back,” Kenzie ventured, and Leanansidhe turned her piercing gaze on her. “I mean, it’s here now.”
“Noticed that, did you, darling?” The faery’s voice was cutting. “Yes, the Veil eventually re-formed, and I was able to return to the Between. But you know what didn’t magically re-form?” She waved her hands around the room again. “This. My home. The center of my kingdom. That’s why I’ve been so busy of late, my dove. I’ve had to rebuild from scratch. And all my humans, my artists and musicians and composers I’ve grown rather fond of all these years?” She fluttered a hand at the ceiling. “Gone. Lost. Ran off into the mortal realm when the Veil went down, and I haven’t seen them since. I’m still rather perturbed about that.”
Oh, crap. This wasn’t going well. We’d escaped one dragon’s nest only to land in an even bigger, nastier one. The Exile Queen stopped staring at Kenzie and smiled at me again, and I felt my insides shrink.
“And then, I start to hear things about you, Ethan darling. Rumors trickled in, from all corners of the Nevernever and the mortal realm. Such interesting stories, my dove. About you, and the Iron Prince, and how you both were responsible for the destruction of the Veil.” She clasped her hands in front of her, giving me a mock inquisitive look. “Would you care to elaborate on that, darling? You see, I’m a little annoyed with you and the prince right now, and an explanation might make me less inclined to rip your intestines out through your nose and string my harps with them.”
“Keirran stabbed me,” I said, as Kenzie moved protectively to my side. I didn’t know what she could do against the insanely powerful Exile Queen, but I did know she would try to do something if Leanansidhe made good on her threat. I had to get a handle on this situation—now. “We went to see the Forgotten Queen,” I went on, “and she told him he could destroy the Veil and save all the exiles if he sacrificed someone whose blood tied him to all three courts. And then he ran me through and left me to die.” Leanansidhe raised an eyebrow, and I made a hopeless gesture. “I didn’t mean to destroy the Veil and make your kingdom vanish,” I said seriously. “I would have tried to stop it, but I was kind of dead at the time.”
She looked unappeased. “I’m afraid that is not much of an excuse, darling,” she said, making my stomach drop to the floor. “It was your blood that destroyed the Veil, your life that caused this disaster. Intentional or not, the fault still lies with you.”
“What about Keirran?” Kenzie demanded angrily. “He’s the one who stabbed Ethan. He sacrificed him, knowing it would destroy the Veil. If you want to point fingers, Keirran is the one who made the choice, not Ethan.”
“Oh, the Iron Prince has much to answer for,” Leanansidhe agreed in a scary voice. “And he will feel my retribution before this is over, I assure you. But...” Her gaze sharpened, glaring at me. “He is not here. And he is only half of the equation. Everything that has happened, everything he has done up until this point, was made possible only with your help, Ethan Chase.” She tilted her head, raising both brows. “Can you deny this, darling?”
Numbly, I shook my head. “No,” I rasped, “but I’m trying to make it right.”
“Make it right?” Leanansidhe let out a short bark of laughter. “Forgive me, darling, but it’s far too late for that. Can you return all my humans to me? Can you make the Forgotten disappear? Can you undo the prophecy, now that it has been set into motion?” The Exile Queen shook her head. “This is a war, Ethan Chase. And you are not like your sister. You do not command the power of Summer and Iron. You do not have the son of Mab and the infamous Robin Goodfellow at your side. You are a mere mortal with no power of your own, a girl who is dying and a gremlin. How do you expect to ‘make things right,’ Ethan Chase? How do you expect to stand against the Forgotten and their queen?”
“I don’t,” I said, suddenly feeling very tired. “I’m not trying to stop a war. I don’t plan to take on the Lady and the Forgotten by myself. I’m just... I’m trying to save my family. What’s left of it, anyway.” I felt Kenzie press closer, and her fingers briefly brushed mine, letting me know she was there. I squeezed her hand in return. “If you want to kill me for that,” I went on, making Kenzie stiffen, “turn me into a harp or a guitar or whatever, go ahead. But I’m the only one who can stop Keirran now. The prophecy wasn’t about the Lady, it was about him. And me. One way or another, we’re going to have to face each other again.”
“You can’t take this out on Ethan,” Kenzie broke in, now squeezing my fingers in a death grip. “This wasn’t his choice. He did everything he could to help Keirran save Annwyl, and Keirran repaid him by stabbing him in the back. And if you think I’m going to let you turn him into a guitar—”