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She didn't even flinch. "I'm sure."
"Okay, then . . . let's do this."
And we were off, out the door, into the storm that had finally broken.
Two hours of travel meant that we'd reach the Marburry Barrow around three in the afternoon. Still daylight enough to take advantage of the plague Lainule had unleashed on the Indigo Court. As we silently crossed the yard toward the ravine, the wind snapped at our heels and the snow swirled in a mad dance around our faces. The hike into the ravine would be harder this time; the storm was barely getting started.
We don't have storms or snow like this often.
Ulean whistled past. Myst rules the winter. She is of the Unseelie and still carries the cold weather magic in her veins, Vampiric Fae or not. She brings it with her and I'm afraid winter for this town will be hard and long this year, as long as she is rising in power.
Were you with Lainule for a long time?
Yes. Ulean's answer was faint, as if she were looking over her shoulder as she spoke to me. Lainule and I go back a long, long, long way.
Back to when Grieve and I were together before?
A very short yes, and she fell silent and I got the distinct feeling she had no interest in pursuing that thread of conversation.
The path was covered over and, while still visible through the trees, was difficult to navigate. The rocks and branches littering the trail were covered and it would be entirely too easy to twist an ankle or trip and fall here. I focused on leading the way, cautiously testing my footing every time I came to a suspicious lump under the blanket of white.
The forest was silent, the silence of sick rooms and hospitals, of muffled cotton, of a world lost in the frozen white. We picked our way along the trail as the snow fell thick and heavy. Wet, it would pack in and freeze tonight and I thought about what Ulean had said. Myst had the power of winter at her fingertips, and she'd nestled in for a long night's journey in New Forest. If her people now could only come out to play at night, and with the true vampires walking the night, it crossed my mind that maybe we should change our sleep schedules so we weren't so vulnerable during the darkness.
Thirty minutes in--we were going slower because of the weather--and we came to the ravine. I wanted to take a different route down--they might be watching us--but we didn't have the time to check out how safe the descent would be off path. Taking a deep breath, I plunged down, one step at a time, using a deadfall branch to test the way. With the bracken and vine hidden beneath the snowpack, it was doubly dangerous.
I thought I was avoiding all the traps, but without warning, caught my toe underneath a blackberry sucker and went sprawling face-first to roll about ten feet down the ravine before managing to slam into a tree.
"Are you okay?" Kaylin scrambled down the hill, kneeling beside me.
"Fuck." Wincing, I pushed myself to a sitting position. "That smarted. The snow kept me from getting too torn up by the brambles." As he pulled me to my feet, I checked to make sure nothing was broken and dusted off my jeans.
"Warning--incoming!" Leo's voice ripped through the air.
I jerked around, looking back up the hill to see one of the Indigo Fae slipping out from behind a tree. The look on the man's face was tortured, and his eyes--mad. He lunged for Rhiannon, grabbing her around the waist from behind and forcing her head to the side. He bared his teeth and dove for her neck. She screamed as Leo grabbed for the Fae. The man swung wide, backhanding Leo into the snow as if he were a dust speck. Fuck, he's strong!
I scrambled up the ravine, but Kaylin was ahead of me. He had whipped out his daggers and with silent, deadly accuracy, sent both spiraling through the air to plunge into the side of Rhiannon's attacker.
The Shadow Hunter let go of Rhia and whirled around, crazed and bleeding. He let out a low hiss and lurched to the left, the daggers still embedded in his side. As he swung around, moving twice as fast as Kaylin was, even with blood gushing out of his side, he held up one hand and Kaylin dropped to his knees, a dazed look on his face. Damn it, he was using magic.
The bleeding man turned his face to me, his mouth open in a hideous stretch, his fangs glistening next to the razor-sharp teeth. He began to morph, his body twisting as he changed form into a hideous, twisted doglike creature. The next moment, he leapt, lunging for Kaylin's throat.
Without a second thought, I swept the fan twice at him, whispering, "Gale force." And a huge gust of wind hurtled toward the creature, knocking him over and knocking me on my butt in the backlash.
Leo grabbed his walking staff and cracked the creature over the skull while Rhiannon thrust out her hands and whispered something.
A short burst of flame seared the monstrosity's skin and he screamed, disrupting his shift. Within seconds, he was back to normal--or at least, I supposed it was normal; maybe it wasn't--and groaning as he rolled on the ground, trying to douse the flames.
Kaylin, shaken out of his trance, leapt up and, using two of his shurikens, threw them to land directly in the throat of the Indigo Court Fae. With one last shudder, the Shadow Hunter lay still.
I crept up beside him, staring down at the unblinking man. He was handsome, strangely compelling even in death, with rigid cheekbones and glassy eyes, in which the stars had gone out.
"Christ, that took work," Kaylin said, retrieving his daggers. He wiped them in the snow, then dried them on the bottom of his shirt. "And he was hurting. Did you see his expression?"
"He looked crazed--and yes, in pain." I stared at him. I'd never killed anybody before. Or helped kill anybody before. It was an odd sensation. I searched for guilt, but felt none. He'd been out to kill us and he wouldn't have hesitated to tear us apart. "I wonder if his shape-shifting . . . is that how they feed?" I was thinking about Grieve. Did he shift into that form now, too?>"Then you know--"
"It's time to leave. Stay longer in my domain and the years will fly by outside. For now, you leave but a moment after you entered."
As we turned to go, she called out, "Kaylin--the Court of Dreams is but a step away from my own domain. Watch closely. Your demon is about to awake."
