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She was damned if anyone was going to tower over her people in her own house.
“Dory.” That was Mircea.
“I don’t know if I can explain,” I told him. “I don’t know what Dorina wants, since I haven’t been able to talk to her. But I’ve been getting mixed messages.”
“Such as?”
“On the one hand, she’s sending me dreams about that mission you were on back in Venice, to find the people murdering vampires for their bones. You remember?”
“Vividly.”
Yeah, I guessed so. “Anyway, I haven’t got the whole story, but I saw enough to realize that the same thing is happening now. Only with fey bones instead of vampire—”
“Yes, Kit told me what you said. So that’s how you knew what was in those weapons.”
“Partly. There were other clues, but I wouldn’t have made that connection without Dorina, and I think she sent it to me on purpose. Like she picked up something when we were at the fights a few days ago, and wanted me to know.”
“And the other?”
“What?”
“The other hand. I assume there’s also been a downside?”
“Yeah, well.” I thought about the last few days. “That’s one way of putting it.”
“So delicious,” Burbles was saying. “So, so good. What was that again?”
The fey waiter said a word I couldn’t pronounce.
“And what is that?”
“I do not know the equivalent in English. Stuffed . . . field mouse?”
Burbles turned slightly green.
“How exactly would you put it?” Mircea demanded.
I hesitated. I don’t claim any diplomatic abilities myself, but even I have limits. And telling somebody “There’s a chance your daughter might hate you and also me and has every reason to do so” is a bit much.
But as it turns out, I didn’t have to.
“I know what Dorina thinks of me,” Mircea said grimly. “I locked her away. It was meant to be temporary, until you stopped growing and caught up.”
“But it wasn’t,” I pointed out. “Why?”
The dark eyes glanced around the room, distracted—or disingenuous. “I’ve told you. I was afraid I couldn’t raise the wall again once it fell. If you weren’t compatible, and couldn’t live as one, I would lose you both.”
“As it was, you just lost her.”
“I didn’t lose her!” The dark eyes snapped back to me. “The situation wasn’t ideal, but as you’ve seen, she wasn’t trapped. Physically, yes, unless you were asleep or let your emotions get the better of you. But mentally she could go anywhere. Anywhere she could find an avatar, that is.”
“And you decided that was
enough for her.”
It wasn’t harsh, or even inflected. I didn’t have the control over my voice that the vamps did, and right then I was too tired to try. But Mircea flinched anyway.
That must have really struck a nerve.
