AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And instead, you bring her here!?
?? Caleb gestured sharply. “Middle of goddamned Vegas in the middle of the goddamned night—”
“She’s perfectly safe—”
“—with one fucking bodyguard—”
“What do we look like?” Jules demanded.
“—and half the world looking for her!”
“I think the term is ‘chopped liver,’ ” Fred said.
“They’re looking for her at the hotel,” Pritkin snapped. “Not here.”
“How the hell do you know?” Caleb demanded. “You don’t know what this thing is—you told the old man as much yourself!”
“You called Jonas?” I asked, deciphering that.
“To ask if he had any ideas about what attacked you,” Pritkin said. “After what David Dryden told us, I had a suspicion, but this isn’t my area of—”
“Suspicion about what?”
“What we’re dealing with.” He pulled something out of his coat and handed it to me. It was a pencil sketch, heavily shaded, that looked a lot like—
I looked up. “Where did you get this?”
“I had one of the Circle’s artists do it, from some old drawings.”
“Old drawings of what?”
“The Morrigan.”
“The what?”
“The wife of the Dark Fey king. After the description you gave me of what you saw, and what David said about the High Court dialect, and what your servant mentioned about the gods having the ability to possess . . . well, I thought it possible. Particularly in light of the name.”
“What about the name?”
“It’s a Celtic title. Some translate it as ‘Great Queen’ or ‘Terrible Queen.’ But the oldest version, and, I believe, the correct one, is ‘Phantom Queen.’ The ancient texts speak of her being able to take both physical and spectral form.”
“But . . . this is Fey?” I asked, looking at what appeared to be a raven caught in a thunderstorm. A really wicked, pissed-off raven.
“Yes and no. Her mother was Dark Fey, but her father was one of the old gods.”
I felt my stomach sink. Please, please, please—
“Would you care to guess which one?” he asked.
“Not really.”
“Cassie—”
“This doesn’t have to be about Ragnarok,” I said stubbornly. “The Dark Fey king isn’t my biggest fan—you know that. Maybe he sent her—”
“It’s possible. But the fact remains that the Morrigan was worshipped by the ancient Celts as a goddess of battle, because her father was believed to be—”
“Don’t say it.”
