Part 28 (2/2)

”She had her obligations to fulfill. And I lost track of time.” Her smile grew colder. ”Better late than never.”

”Is she awake?” Lethe asked, afraid it would show too much weakness in front of the queen to take Lannes' hand, even though she needed his comfort, ferociously.

I am here, he whispered, his arm still touching hers. You're not alone.

The queen nudged the woman's foot. ”My sweet fertilizer has ears. She can hear you, if you desire to speak.”

Lethe gathered up her courage and crept forward, trying not to allow the ferociously bizarre quality of the moment to incapacitate her with fear. Lannes held her arm, and when she was within a foot of the tree line, he refused to let her go further.

”Runa,” she called, straining against his arm. ”Runa, I'm here.”

”Speak louder,” said the queen, smiling. ”Reach into her dreams.”

Lethe s.h.i.+vered. ”Runa.”

A hum filled the air, as though the bark and leaves and roots of the forest had a voice soft and strong as spider silk, clinging to her mind, coating her heart with a heaviness that felt like death or sleep. She felt Lannes join her side, his thoughts trying to push against her, but it was impossible to respond.

The queen said, ”How short-sighted. You left nothing of your mind.”

And just like that, the world disappeared.

You're going to die, you're going to die, you're going to die.

Right now.

Hold on.

Alice. Alice, you dirty girl. Look what you made me do. Now be still. This will be over soon and never mind that man oozing s.h.i.+t beside you because he's dead gone anyway, soon enough, and it's your blood that matters, and your pretty little face. Little girl. Sweet little girl. My favorite grandniece.

Lethe could not open her eyes, but she did not want to. All she could hear, all she could feel, was that voice-sly and sibilant-filling her up as though there was a hole in her brain attached to a running hose. It was drowning her mind.

And then the voice s.h.i.+fted into something softer, kinder.

You're going to die. Don't know when or where, but just the how. A knife in your eye. Oh, G.o.d, I'm sorry.

Light bloomed on the other side of Lethe's eyelids. More voices.

The gallery is going under, darling, but don't worry, I'll take care of it. I just want you to smile again-and please, please, tell me where you were all that time. I don't know why you won't talk about it, and now with so many of us dead- Dead, not all of us are dead- We're monsters- Not all of us- I don't want to die, I wish I never knew, I can't live like this, I can't live- So don't, whispered another voice; Runa, familiar and old. Give yourself to me. Help me. You must. I will not let you go.

I will cleanse you of your pain.

Lethe felt gra.s.s against her cheek. She opened her eyes, or tried to do, but her eyelids felt sticky and there was a bad taste in her mouth.

I'm here, Lannes spoke inside her mind, words followed by a torrent of desperate concern. Stay with me.

She managed to peel open her eyes, just a crack, and was nearly blinded by the color of the gra.s.s and the sky. Every line, every detail, was crystalline in its perfection, as though she was seeing the world for the first time.

Lannes crouched beside her, and his irises glinted with veins of blue light. For a moment she saw past the illusion, her vision filled with lavender skin and sharp bone, but the mask faded back into place, though his eyes remained the same. He folded her into his arms, pulling her up so that she leaned hard against his chest.

I was with you, said Lannes grimly, his voice soft inside her mind. I heard everything.

The Sidhe queen stood at the edge of the woods, the vision of the oak, and Runa, fading into darkness behind her.

”Green eyes,” the queen murmured, meeting Lethe's gaze. ”That blood always runs true.”

She glided back a step and looked at Will. ”You continue to keep strange bedfellows.”

”I like to keep you amused,” he said, smiling faintly. ”And you are, as always, exquisite to behold. My Sidhe queen.”

She inclined her head, then pa.s.sed her gaze over the rest of them, lingering last on Rictor.

”Do not come here again,” she said quietly. ”I do not wish the a.s.sociation. Not if someday I am to be free.”

Rictor said nothing. The queen waited, as if she expected him to speak, and when he did not, her frown became dangerous. But she remained silent and drifted back into the forest, fading like a ghost, disappearing into the gloom.

”I don't know about all of you,” Koni said, after a long moment of silence, ”but I don't feel any better.”

It was late in the afternoon. Lethe was quite certain that the amount of weirdness her brain could handle had reached its limit, and so she found herself seated at a battered kitchen table feeling numb, suffering an odd disconnect between the mundane and surreal, as she watched William Steele don an ap.r.o.n covered in faded cherries and start whistling ”Lavender Blue.”

The kitchen was small, with hardwood floors, large airy windows and a giant fireplace at one end, currently unlit. Lannes stood behind her shoulder. No chairs were large enough to support him. Koni lounged at the table, running his fingernail through some old grooves. Rictor was nowhere in sight, though Lethe had a sense that he might be as close as the hall. He seemed like the kind of man that needed isolation but not distance.

”So you see,” Will said suddenly, pus.h.i.+ng sandwiches in front of them, ”things are complicated here.”

”Why haven't you told the others in the agency about this place?” Koni replied.

William picked something invisible off his ap.r.o.n. ”Because there are some things that must not be told. Not yet. Perhaps, not ever. This place, what it holds, is one of them. Not even my own grandchildren know of it, though that will have to change soon enough.”

”Are you referring only to the Sidhe queen?” Lannes asked. ”Or are there other secrets?”

”There are always secrets,” replied the old man. ”Now eat. Then rest. Not much else can be done at the moment.”

Lethe disagreed, but only out of principle. It was her mind on the line, not his. Her life that had been rocked to murder and magic, with no end in sight.

Her stolen life. A life she had stolen from herself, with help.

And what she had left behind, those voices in her head...glimpses of memories...

Her sandwich tasted like sawdust. She remembered Runa sleeping in the forest, and rocked slightly in her chair, overcome with a feeling of pure futility. There was no way she could go up against that. None.

Lannes laid his hand on her shoulder, and she reached back without thinking, sliding her fingers against his warm skin. She felt sinew and bone and recalled again her brief vision of him in the dome.

This is a fairy tale, she thought. But what am I? One of the monsters?

A princess, Lannes spoke inside her mind. A lost maiden.

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