Page 50 of Be the Serpent

“Oh, is that all?” asked the Luidaeg, mulishly. “I don’t have what I need to give you what you ask for while we’re in Muir Woods, you realize. And even once we get back to my place, there’s the matter of payment. You’re asking me to give you protection from the mother of half of Faerie. That doesn’t come easy, and what doesn’t come easy doesn’t come cheap, either.”

“Don’t I have any credit built up from helping you bring back the Roane?”

“That was clearing a debt that already existed. Overpayment buys you nothing.”

We had entered into a new bargain shortly before bringing back her descendant line, if not her actual descendants: two of the three things she had asked of me had already been fulfilled. Simon Torquill was home, and safe, and protected for maybe the first time in his long and too-often-brutal life, and I had spent a very pleasant day at her house, eating ice cream and increasingly surreal sandwiches while she bled me into a variety of jars and vessels. Honestly, it would have been enough to qualify as a vacation day, if not for the fact that I healed so quickly she’d needed to keep stabbing me every minute or so for the entire occasion.

I looked at her in silent pleading.

The Luidaeg winced, glancing briefly away. “She bound me, and I can’t set someone against her who intends to do her harm,” she said.

“I won’t hurt her if she’s still Stacy,” I said quickly.

“No, if you want my help, that’s when you have to hurt her,” she said. “Titania has never claimed Stacy Brown. Her blood may be a beacon shining through the woman’s self and seeming, but they aren’t the same person, not really, not below the surface. Because Titania never stood before Faerie and claimed Stacy as her own, I can still help you hurt the woman, where I can’t help you hurt the queen.”

I blinked. “That’s not even splitting hairs. That’s twisting a technicality until it cries.”

“I get that,” she said, tone sour. “So we’re at an impasse. I can help you hurt a woman who doesn’t exist, and who you’d rather find a way to save, like the ridiculous hero you are, but I can’t help you hurt a woman I hate and would rather see given over to the night-haunts than allowed to destroy a family and disappear to repeat the cycle. And that alone should tell you why I hate her so much, if you didn’t already know. She created this situation with her damned geas. I want to see her rot for it.”

I straightened, the word “hero” ringing in my ears, and turned to Tybalt. “You need to take me back to Oberon,” I said. “I know how I’m going to do this.”

“He loves her,” said Tybalt. “I wouldn’t help someone destroy you, even if you somehow became a monster of her magnitude.”

“If I became a monster of Titania’s magnitude, I’d expect you to destroy me yourself,” I said. “And you and the Luidaeg both know I’m going to try to kill her for what she’s done to Stacy and what she did to Jessica. That’s not up for debate. Oberon, though? Oberon doesn’t know me that well. He’s catching on, but he hasn’t witnessed any of the really stupid shit we get up to when our backs are against the wall. All I have to do is ask for help without telling him exactly what I’m going to do with it.”

“This is a dangerous game, October,” said the Luidaeg. “Attempting to deceive my father is not a good idea.”

“Do you have a better one?” I demanded. “We’re standing here trying to workshop a perfect solution while a monster runs around with my best friend’s face and tries to kill members of my family! If your dad doesn’t like me going after his precious Queen of Flowers, he shouldn’t have let her kill Jessica. He shouldn’t have let her kill Stacy.”

“You should still try to find a different way,” she said.

“Are you going to stop me?”

She looked at me sorrowfully, but she didn’t move. Her hands stayed by her sides, and her eyes stayed green. When she spoke, her teeth were blunt and human. She didn’t like what I was doing, but she wasn’t going to oppose me, either, and under the circumstances, that was about as good as I could expect.

“Good,” I said, and stepped into Tybalt’s waiting arms. He stepped backward into the shadows, pulling me with him, leaving the sea witch behind. Alone.

The way she always seemed to be.

THIRTEEN

We stepped out of the shadows, me shaking ice out of my hair, Tybalt not even out of breath. Oberon was gone. His throne was still there, rooted to the reception room floor, and Arden was circling it with a frown on her face. She looked up at the sound of our footsteps, frown melting into relief.

“Nolan came back with Walther and the Browns,” she said. “I was starting to get worried that the two of you had run into trouble.”

Meaning Titania. I would have been worried too. “Are they someplace safe?” I asked.

Arden nodded. “I sent them to the orangery. All the conservatories are warded to keep out people who aren’t in the company of a member of the household. It’s old magic from before we had decent produce sections in the grocery store, back when we really needed to worry about citrus thieves—Mom’s magic, or I would have already had it dismantled. I just can’t bring myself to throw anything of hers away.”

My throat was tight, even as my flesh was thawing. It felt like I still couldn’t breathe. “Titania is supposed to have been the strongest of the Three when it came to illusions and wards,” I said. “We can’t count on the wards keeping her out if she comes back. Where’s Oberon?”

“You mean now that he’s done damaging my floors?” Arden hooked a thumb toward the balcony doors on the far side of the wall. “He went outside to brood in peace. You can probably catch him if you hurry. He seems to let you see him most of the time.”

She almost managed not to sound bitter about that. Almost. Still, this wasn’t the time to work through that particular social wrinkle, and so I just bobbed a shallow bow and took off for the balcony, Tybalt in pursuit.

We were almost there when she called, “Your father’s with him.”

Simon was alone with Oberon? Great. A wave of unease swept over me, followed quickly by a wash of shame. He hadn’t sold himself to Evening for power; he’d done it for August. The temptation might be there. He wasn’t going to give in unless he felt like it was the only way to keep his family safe.