Midnight Enchantment (26 page)

Oh, yes, the day after tomorrow was going to be a very, very interesting day.

Somewhere below him a window broke. Somewhere down the street a car alarm blared, people yelled, and horns honked. He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath. Ah, the sweet sounds of chaos.

He felt certain he could make more.

Turning, he reentered the apartment and sought his cat-o’-nine-tails, hidden in the closet of one of the bedrooms. Sinking down in the center of a group of rocking, murmuring Phaendir, he pulled off his coat and yanked his shirt over his
head. Then, cock hard as a rock, the way it always was when he did his devotions, he picked up his cat and swung it in an arc over his head. The first lash didn’t penetrate the scar tissue, and his erection flagged. Putting all his considerable strength into it, he swung it harder.

His back snapped, bowing in, and he gave a shivering gasp of mingled pain and pleasure as the ends of his beloved cat ripped through flesh and delicious pain flared through his body. The warm rush of blood trickled down his skin. Smiling, he brought the cat down again and then again. His hard prick throbbed.

Praise be to Labrai.

THERE were soldiers instead of goblins on either side of the doors of the Black Tower.

Liam approached them cautiously, hoping like hell they weren’t going to detain him. It seemed like everywhere in the city the human soldiers just stood. Guarding. Occupying.

Waiting.

Waiting for what Liam had no idea. The good news was that they didn’t appear to have orders to shoot, or imprison. Just to stand with their rifles at the ready. They talked to no one and moved for no one.

He entered the building with no trouble and made his way through the throng in the main foyer. He needed to see the Shadow Queen. He needed that book, needed the pieces. The situation was getting desperate now, and he was ready to take some chances. He had no time to lose, no time left to play with that fucking asrai.

He’d shown mercy and he’d paid the price. As much as he hated to admit it, he should have listened to Gideon. He should have whipped the bitch bloody instead of feeling all warm and kindred.

She wanted to protect her mother, yeah, well,
he had people to protect, too
.

Now his plan was to get to the Shadow Queen and reveal all he could about Gideon’s plan without telling her who he really was. He’d say he’d been working on his own to find Elizabeth and had run across Gideon somehow, learned of his plan. Hopefully that would earn him some brownie points. Maybe she would let him close to her.

Maybe he could get close enough to snag something of value.

It was a long shot, but it was the only shot he had right now.

Aideen.
The vision of her lovely green eyes and her long blond hair never left his mind’s eye. His heart ached constantly from his separation from her.

Pushing past a gaggle of Seelie, he made his way down the corridor to Aislinn’s receiving chamber. Once there, he argued with the guards to be let into the room until Gabriel stuck his head out to quiet the commotion and invited him in.

“Queen Aislinn,” Liam said in a loud, clear voice.

She turned from where she stood on the opposite side of the room, talking with another woman. Frowning, she tilted her head to side. “Liam, right?”

He nodded. “You need to know that the archdirector of the Phaendir is in Piefferburg City even as we speak and plans an assault on the Black Tower two days from now for the Book of Bindings.”

Saying nothing, she stepped toward him. “How do you know that?”

The dark-haired woman who had been talking with Aislinn had been staring hard at him. For the first time since he’d walked into the room, he gave her his full attention.

Oh, shit.

Charlotte Bennett, the nearly full-blooded human woman he’d fought with in Ireland the year before, the only person in the whole of Piefferburg who could identify him, narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth.…

He turned and ran for the door.

“Stop him!” Charlotte yelled.

The guards on either side of the door grabbed him immediately. Liam fought them, kicking and pulling, but the Shadow
Guard were about as big as he was and he couldn’t fight off two of them at once. Holding him by the upper arms, they turned him to face the queen.

Ah, Aideen, I’m sorry.

The time to lie was past. It would be better for him if he told the truth.

“Everything I just said is true. I know all of that because I’m a free fae and have been working with Gideon Amberdoyal,” he said before Charlotte could speak.

“Guards! Restrain his magick,” commanded the queen without missing a heartbeat. Two more Shadow Guards by the entrance immediately moved to him and cuffed his hands behind his back in charmed iron. His power disappeared right away, leaving him feeling weak.

Charlotte pointed at him. “He’s one of the fae that met me and David Sullivan at the Stone of Destiny. He tried to kill me to prevent me taking the pieces. He
did
kill Calum, a good man whose soul is now waiting for the Wild Hunt beyond the walls of Piefferburg.”

True, all. He’d stabbed Calum in the sternum. He remembered it vividly.

The Shadow Queen peered at him like someone trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle. “Why are you here?”

“To warn you. I had every intention of telling you who I was before I saw her.”
Lie.
He jerked his chin at Charlotte. He didn’t bother to dampen his accent now. “I came to warn you that Gideon is working with the Summer Queen and they plan to attack the Black Tower.”

Queen Aislinn’s skirts rustled as she moved toward him. “And we’re supposed to believe you? You and your free fae have been working to keep the walls up. You haven’t done anything that hasn’t benefited yourself since we first learned of you. Why tell us about Gideon’s plan? What do you get out of it?”

“Gideon wants the pieces and the Book of Bindings. Once he gets them he can’t be trusted not to use whatever is in the back of the book for his own purposes.”

“Yet you were working with him.”

“I never intended to allow him unfettered access to the book. I was only working with him to prevent the walls from
falling.” He leveled his stare at the queen. “But now I’ve been separated from him, which means I can’t stop him once he gets the book.”

“You mean you can’t
steal
the book from him when the time comes.”

He grinned. “Something like that.”

“Do you really think you could have stolen the book from him in the first place? He’s the archdirector of the Phaendir, powered by their hive magick.”

He shrugged. “I would have done my best. I want the walls up and the fae behind them, specifically the Wild Hunt. I don’t want the fae dead.”

Just then Gabriel Cionaodh Marcus Mac Braire, the Queen’s husband and honorary Unseelie King, entered the room. Liam narrowed his eyes. Mounted on his black stallion, Abastor, Gabriel would lead the Wild Hunt to Aideen and his friends if the walls broke.

The Shadow Queen brought her husband up to speed. Then Gabriel turned toward him, a look of fury on his face. “He’s wasting our time. Throw him in the dungeon.”

The guards immediately began pushing him toward the door. “Wait!” he called over his shoulder. “I can help you!”

The Shadow Queen gazed at him coolly. “Why would you want to do that?”

“Like I said, I don’t want the Phaendir to have the book any more than you do. I have spent time with Gideon. I know how his mind works and what his magick is capable of. I can let you know what to expect from him when he attacks.”

“How can we trust you?”

“After all I’ve done, you can’t trust me. Not really.” He grinned. “But I’m all you’ve got.”

She stared at him, jaw tight. Finally she said, “We still don’t need your help, Liam. Gideon isn’t getting the book. Not in this lifetime. Guards, take him away.”

Aislinn turned away from him, and the picture of Aideen he held in his mind’s eye transformed to blood.

ELIZABETH scrabbled in the dirt, her fingernails breaking on the hard packed earth. When she’d knelt to check on the
pieces, she’d had the eerie sense the ground had been disturbed, but she’d brushed the suspicion aside and blamed paranoia.

Apparently there was something to her paranoia.

A cold endless pit in the center of her stomach, she rocked back on her heels, staring at the hole and the dirt coating her fingers. “Not here,” she whispered, her heart pounding. “How can they not be here?”

Even though she knew someone had dug them up and they were gone, she dug a hole about three feet in diameter anyway, hoping, that by some miracle, she was wrong about their exact placement at the base of the tree.

She looked around to orient herself—boulder to the left of her, oak and an elm to her right, berry bush right there.…

No, she had the right location.

And, now, looking around her, she saw that this wasn’t the only place in the clearing where the ground had been disturbed. Someone had come here and dug at the bases of all the trees and had moved rocks, too.

Pushing up to stand on shaky legs, she stared down at the hole and panted, her breath showing white in the cold air. The pieces were gone. Someone had taken them.

Gone.

Her mother.

Of all the people in the world, Thea was the only one who could have possibly guessed the location of the pieces. That’s why Elizabeth had taken such a huge chance by coming here to relocate them. She’d intended to move them to a location that not even her mother could guess.

If her mother had taken them, she’d moved fast. If it
had
been Thea, she hadn’t even thought about it—not for a second. The moment Elizabeth had left her house, she’d come here to dig them up.

Elizabeth closed her eyes, feeling the onset of a headache. This was the location of her father and brother’s death. Only feet away lay the double grave where she’d buried them. It wouldn’t have been difficult for her mother to surmise where Elizabeth might bury something of great value, something that symbolized the preservation of the last member of her family.

After all, she’d already buried two things of very great value at this location.

She dissolved immediately, traveling as her water self with all great haste to her mother’s house. Re-forming on the snow, shivering, she looked down at her hands and saw the shift had scoured them clean.

Lurching to her feet, she ran into the cottage where her mother had been staying. The fire was long cold, and there was no sign of her. She ran into the bedroom and saw that Thea’s clothes were scattered over the room. She’d packed. Elizabeth’s heart stuttered.

Piefferburg City. The Black Tower.

Of course that’s where she’d gone.

NIALL rounded the corner and headed for the front doors of the Black Tower. Entering the thronged foyer, he glowered at the noisy crowd. This area was Seelie Grand Central these days, a sight he’d never thought to see in all his years. Fucking
Seelie
in the Black Tower. Pretty soon they’d be hosting balls in here.

Of course, he was pretty cranky these days. Going to find Thea and discovering that Elizabeth had moved her did not make him happy. After he’d discovered that, he’d come back to the Black Tower, gathered up Kolbjorn, and had ferried the colorless freak all over the Boundary Lands “in pursuit” of Elizabeth.

Of course, somehow she always seemed to get away. Imagine that. Darn their bad luck anyway.

Now back at the Black Tower, he was busy weighing options and found them light as a feather.

Pushing past a group of well-heeled, designer-clad Rose denizens, he caught sight of an older woman, dressed in clothes that seemed out of place in the crowd, clothes that almost seemed homemade. Niall did a double take, then headed straight for the woman, who was milling around looking lost.

Perhaps his options had just gained some weight.

“Thea? What are you doing here?” His heart rate ratcheted upward. Was something wrong with Elizabeth?

Thea turned to him and grasped his forearms. “Niall! Thank the Lady, a face I know.”