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“But Fergus!”
“No.” Starling was shaking her head, blond strands flying in the wind. “This is what he wants. He made me promise.”
The Dog was already rocketing down the glassy path. I stumbled some, trying to keep up, and Athena took Darling from me. The cold numbed my feet until I thought to wish up my cross-trainers. Stumbling through the dark, I felt the adrenergic response pumping through my system begin to ebb and then crash.
The horror of it all leaked through the edges of the silence I’d created in my mind, worming through the edges with whispers of insanity. I wanted to flee from the images, what I’d seen and done. What I had done to Rogue.
That I was pregnant.
The tiredness, the constant drain on my energy, that feeling of being attenuated—I had denied what they all knew.
I fought the red-black edging in around my vision, knowing my blood pressure must be dropping, shock setting in.
I turned my head, to warn Starling, but the dark overcame me.
Chapter 26
After theAftermath
‡
Sometimes the fae seem to have no emotions at all. Other times, I think their frame of reference is just so wildly different that it only seems thatway.
~Big Book of Fairyland, “TrueLove”
Icame toslowly, aware first of the aching pain in my hands, of their frozen rigidity.
Almost against my will, I flexed my fingers, crying out at the stab of agony.
Darling Hercules brushed against me and the pain receded, washing away again. He sent me loving thoughts, to my gasping gratitude. He slipped away again, but stayed near. I became aware of the cadence of a horse and that I was cupped in someone’s arms. And the scent of sandalwood and Stargazers.
“Rogue.”
My voice came out creaky, mouth dry. I cracked my eyelids open, flinching at the bright light of day. He looked down at me, the left side of his face full of winding thorns, the right impassive.
“You’re awake now?” he asked.
Hello, Captain Obvious. Rogue smiled a little, clearly hearing the thought. But it didn’t move past his lips. He, ever the perfectly powerful one, looked exhausted.
“You’ve been talking since you passed out.” He looked off into the distance. “Calling my name. Sometimes screaming it.”
Oh.
He shifted me in his arms and I realized he had me cuddled on his lap as we rode, held in a grip that would never break. My hands were wrapped in mittens of fabric, curled up against my chest.
“We’ll fix them,” he said. “You’ll be okay.”
“Everyone else?”
“Fine. Riding ahead since I must go slowly with you.”
“But Darling is here.”
“Yes. Insisting on being called Goliath now.”
“Oh yes. Long story.” An uncomfortable silence settled. “I’m amazed the Queen Bitch didn’t kill him.”
“She can’t. That’s why he’s a cat. He used to be a powerful wizard, with certain immunities to her magic. Trapping him in this body with his minor abilities was the worst she could do to him.”
