Realm of Mirrors (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 3) (6 page)

I suspected everyone could feel the chill between Sadie and Taeral, and wanted nothing to do with the impending explosion.

Reun, Daoin, and Taeral occupied the front-and-center big couch. I sat on the loveseat next to it, and Sadie took the furthest possible chair back. Apparently, I’d been placed on the list of overprotective idiots by association. A few times I considered slipping back there to try talking to her, but the go-to-hell look on her face stopped me.

On the screen, Michael Corleone was in the bathroom at Louis, looking for the gun to carry out his first mission. But I wasn’t paying much attention to the Godfather-in-training.

I was thinking about Arcadia.

From the first time I heard the word, I’d been drawn to it—even without knowing anything about the place. Taeral had only talked to me about it once. He hadn’t said much. Just that the moon was eternal, brighter than it was here. That in the Fae realm, it was always night.

All my life, nights had been the best time for me. I felt safer under the moon. And there hadn’t been much in the way of safety while I was growing up.

I didn’t even need Taeral’s constant reminders to know that Arcadia was a dangerous place. I could sense that myself, somehow. But part of me looked forward to going there, longed for it. And I had no idea why.

If Taeral really was going to help me figure out Fae magic, maybe I could get him to tell me a little more about the place. Like how to get there. I knew what crossing the Veil looked like, but only because of the Redcap who attacked me and Sadie in Central Park when we were looking for my mother’s body. The thing that looked like a cross between a leprechaun and a vampire wanted to take me to the Unseelie Queen, for some reason. He’d opened a shimmering hole in reality and tried to drag me through.

I’d managed to bash him through it with a shovel like an angry, oversized softball instead, but I’d just about dislocated my arms doing it. The little biting bastard was heavier than he looked.

I dragged my attention back to the present. Daoin was completely absorbed in the movie, and Taeral was half-asleep. Reun watched the screen and Daoin at the same time. I glanced back and caught Sadie glaring at the back of Taeral’s head.

We sure knew how to have fun around here.

Just as I was settling back, Daoin sat forward abruptly, startling Taeral into alertness. “Someone is coming,” he said.

My breath caught. The last time he’d said that was a few seconds before Reun busted through the front door in a rage, demanding an audience with Daoin—back when we still thought the Seelie noble wanted to kill us.

And I wasn’t the only one worried by the cryptic statement.

“Who?” Taeral said, looking wildly around the room. “Father, who is coming?”

Reun was already on his feet, moving toward the entrance to the parlor. “I will not allow them inside, whoever they are,” he said.

“They’ve found me.” Daoin stood, his gaze fastened on the television. “Taeral…run. Keep her safe.”

Suddenly a jagged crack of light appeared on the screen, splitting Marlon Brando’s jowled face in half. And a voice that definitely didn’t belong to the Godfather boomed a single word.

“
Cíunaas.
”

My throat closed up tight. I tried to shout for Reun, to tell him I didn’t think anyone was coming through the front door.

But I couldn’t say a word. Sound refused to emerge from my mouth.

Just as I realized everyone else was suffering from the same problem, and the word had to be a spell, a figure emerged from the TV—heading straight for Daoin.

For one crazy second, I thought the Godfather had somehow stepped into the parlor.

But the figure was nothing like Brando. He was tall, slender, and definitely Fae, wearing something that looked like armor made of blue light. A pointed metal headband with a blue gemstone in the center rested on his high forehead, and Celtic-style tattoos decorated his face and neck.

The curved, serrated dagger carved with runes that he clutched in his hand looked sickeningly familiar. It was exactly the same as the one Taeral had given me—the one Daoin had made copies of when he was Captain of the Unseelie Guard.

It wasn’t hard to deduce who this guy was.

Taeral lunged for Daoin, knocking him aside as the Fae from the portal dove at him. At the same time, another figure emerged…and another, and another, all of them identically dressed and similarly armed. Two of them grabbed Taeral. Just as he liberated a weapon from one of them and stabbed it through his assailant’s arm, the other sank an identical dagger deep into his side.

His mouth opened in a silent scream as a third Fae soldier helped restrain him, and two more came through the shimmering rip. Then another. A pair of them had almost reached Daoin.

I lunged at the newest invader and managed to knock him down. He swiped his blade at me, but I grabbed his wrist, twisted and slammed. A snarl lifted his lip, showing pointed teeth as the knife clattered to the floor.

There was a flash of motion to my left—Sadie, charging into the fray around Taeral. Somewhere in the room, I heard a shouted spell that might have been Reun, and a powerful blast of air washed over me. The television smashed into the wall behind it in a shower of sparks.

But the soldiers were unaffected, and the rip remained.

And Taeral was being dragged through it.

No!
I still couldn’t speak. As I struggled with the Fae I’d pinned, two more rushed past us—then seconds later, I heard Reun scream. Sadie was on the floor, apparently unconscious. I refused to believe she was dead. And the soldier beneath me was almost free.

I drew an arm back and rammed a fist into his jaw.

He barely flinched. And then, he grinned. “
Tuariis’caen
,” he said.

The dagger I’d twisted away from him flew back into his hand, and in a single smooth motion, he plunged it through my shoulder.

Not being able to scream almost hurt more than the knife.

He pulled the blade free, flipped me off and scrambled upright. For an instant I got a good look at him—dark brown braided hair, gleaming amber-gold eyes, thorny vines tattooed across the bridge of his nose and around his throat like a collar. His grin chilled me to the core.

“
Crohgaa
,” he said. “
Amaedahn…naech crohgaa.
”

Whatever that meant, it wasn’t a spell. I tried to stand, to go for him again, but only got halfway up before pain twisted through me and drove me to my knees. He grinned again, and dove through the portal.

I could only watch as the rest of them hauled an unresisting Daoin through the same way as Taeral—and the shimmering crack vanished.

C
HAPTER 8

A
s soon as the portal closed, the invisible stranglehold on my throat released. “Sadie!” I gasped, dragging myself toward her motionless form. At least I could see her, and I could get to her.

I couldn’t think about Taeral and Daoin yet. If I did, I’d lose it.

She was facedown with one arm flung over her head, and the other bent loosely behind her back. I moved to turn her over, momentarily forgetting about my shoulder until incredible pain surged through me and left my mouth in a hoarse scream.

Then I remembered the runes on those daggers were enchantments, designed to enhance the damage the weapons dealt.

My damage was definitely enhanced.

“Sadie…” I worked to flip her single-handed, dimly aware of the increased activity in the background that seem to come from another life. Motion and voices. I blocked them out and focused on Sadie.

She was breathing, at least. Her eyes were closed, and there was a small smear of blood at her right temple. I searched gently with my fingers, lifting her hair and feeling for injuries, before I realized that the blood was probably mine. My entire arm was soaked in blood that dripped from my fingertips.

But Sadie seemed untouched. They could’ve used the sleep spell on her—one of the few I actually knew. So maybe I could reverse it. Sometimes I could come up with Fae words I didn’t know if I relaxed my focus, so I closed my eyes and tried not to think about how to say ‘wake up.’

“
Diúsaegh.
”

I spoke the word almost before I thought it. Sadie’s body stiffened, and her eyes flew open. “Taeral!” she called harshly, struggling to sit up. Her distant gaze barely registered me, even though I was right in front of her. “We have to stop them—”

“Sadie, wait.” I grabbed her arm firmly, before she could bolt. “We can’t.”

Her lip curled as she wrenched away. “The hell we can’t! Turn your pendant on,” she said. “I’ll go wolf and…kill every one of those…” Her voice faded as she finally looked around and realized how quiet it was. How the parlor wasn’t full of Unseelie soldiers any more. How it was distinctly lacking Taeral. And Daoin—but she wasn’t looking for him yet. “No,” she said in a cracked whisper.

I shuddered and glanced over the rest of the room. Denei and Zoba, the two oldest Duchenes, were rushing toward Reun’s sprawled and groaning form, half-propped against an overturned table. Two of their younger siblings stood near the parlor entrance, and Grygg was just outside it, glaring through angrily as one of the Duchenes spoke to him with rapid, emphatic gestures. None of them had seen what happened—it was over too fast.

“Gideon.” Sadie’s voice trembled. “Where is he? Where’s Taeral?”

I wasn’t sure I could speak. The weight of it threatened to crush me, the sick certainty that we’d never get them back. Those Fae had swatted every one of us down like insects in the space of two minutes, and there had to be a lot more where that batch came from. But she had to know. “I’m not sure,” I managed. “But if I had to guess…I’d say Arcadia. Specifically, the Unseelie Court.”

“You’d be right.”

I barely recognized the splintered voice from across the room as Reun. He’d managed to stand with Denei supporting him, and now he limped toward us with an anguished expression. “They took both of them, didn’t they? Daoin and Taeral.”

I nodded, wincing at the fresh pain moving my neck caused.

“Oh, God,” Sadie said. “We have to go after them.”

“Who’s them?” Denei demanded. “Reun, what the hell happened? Why didn’t you call me down here?”

He eased himself straighter. “
They
are the Unseelie Guard. And you’d not have made it in time,” he said. “This was carefully planned. The new moon, the precise location. They intended to neutralize, grab and leave.”

“Well, when they come back, I’m damn sure gonna lay a hurt on ’em,” she said.

Just behind her, Zoba made a very unpleasant sound. I could only assume he agreed.

“They’ll not return. They have what they came for.” Reun stepped away from her, his hand lingering on her arm for a moment. Apparently the two of them still had a thing together, though I couldn’t imagine the attraction. “Gideon, your shoulder,” he said. “A
drais-ghan
?”

It took me a few seconds to puzzle that one out. Spelled dagger. “Yeah, that,” I said. I decided not to mention it was a copy of the one Reun’s wife had given to Daoin while they were having an affair. No need to rub that in at the moment.

“Jesus!” Sadie scrambled to her feet. “You’re bleeding all over the place. Why didn’t you say something?”

“Thought it was kind of obvious.” I was still on my knees, and I wasn’t sure I could get up. The slightest movement made my whole arm feel like it was going to explode.

She bent closer to look at the wound. “How bad is it?” she said, reaching for my shoulder.

“Don’t—”

She touched it. And I screamed.

Sadie snatched her hand back fast. “Sorry. I guess that means pretty bad, right?”

“Good guess,” I ground out.

Reun stepped up beside me and knelt. “I can remove the enchantment,” he said. “But I’ll not be able to heal it completely. And it will hurt.”

I managed a weak laugh. “Can’t hurt more than it already does.”

“Actually, it can.”

“Great,” I sighed. “Well, go for it anyway.”

“Hold on.” Denei made her way over, working something free from the pocket of her tight leather pants. I half expected one of her voodoo pouches. But what she produced was a block of wood about the size of a small candy bar, wrapped with flat strips of leather. “Bite down on this, handsome,” she said. “It’ll help.”