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“Out,” Tomas’s murderer said, dagger pointed at me as another fairy opened the door and pulled me out. Three more, this time with a mix of guns and blades, waited.
He strode toward the building, and I followed, the rest of the fairies walking behind us with weapons pointed. I needed a weapon of my own.
The gatehouse was dark and empty, but the doors into the courtyard were open and light streamed through—along with the prickle of fairy magic.
Ruadan stood in the yard with several dozen fairies. This time, instead of the V formation they’d taken at Grant Park, they stood in a long, straight line that cut across the courtyard, and probably traced the ley line that ran below it.
They’d abandoned the castle because they’d thought they could bring the green land here from Grant Park. And when that hadn’t worked, they’d come back to the castle to try again.
Firelight from the torches they’d reinstalled shifted across their bodies as they waited to work their magic. They were in tunics, although like the fairies outside, some had switched their blades and bows for guns. I guess they weren’t so concerned about being authentic anymore.
“She’s here,” Tomas’s murderer said as one of the fairies behind me pushed me forward.
Ruadan turned and looked at me, and the excitement in his eyes made my skin crawl.
“Kidnapping is illegal,” I said. “You have no right to hold me here.”
“I don’t think you’ll want to walk away.” He walked forward, arrogance in his stride, and looked down at me, the scent of green decay lifting in the air with his movements.
“Trust me,” I said. “I want to walk away.”
“Not when you learn of my plan. It was you who inspired it, after all.”
That made the knot in my belly flip over. “What?”
“You see, bloodletter, the magic is old and complex, and the ley lines are not strong enough. The rivers not nearly deep enough to accomplish our goal.”
“To bring the green land here.”
“To bring the green landalive,” he corrected. “There is a finite supply of magic in the world. Fairies used to control much of it, but the world changed. Djinn. Demons. Vampires. Shifters. Goblins, even the elves, who share some of our biology. More creatures, but no more magic. And we suffer because of it.”
“You can’t destroy Chicago because your magic has faded. That’s not our fault.”
He spun around, and his eyes had gone to angry slits. “Thenwhose fault is it if not yours? Humans’?” He gave a considering nod. “Maybe. So we take from them.”
“And you toss aside your own queen?”
His eyes flashed hot again. “She would rather we die than renew our kingdom.”
“You told her there was a vampire-shifter conspiracy,” I said. “Convinced her the peace talks were some kind of revolution. You’re the reason she broke into the session.”
“She should have fought then and there. We made it inside the room. You were outnumbered and outarmed. But your father spoke, and she lost her nerve... as she ever does.”
“And Tomas? The vampire you killed at Cadogan House?” I shifted my gaze to the fairy who’d killed him. “You wanted to implicate the shifters to disrupt the process more?”
Ruadan’s smile was thin. “Disruption is the first step toward revolution. And revolution—upsetting the current order—is the first step toward getting the power and recognition we deserve.” His smile fell away, replaced by a pouty look that would have been better suited to a teenager. “Claudia believes magic and history have sealed our fate. We disagree, and sentimentality is not a weakness we share.”
I thought I’d seen desire in Ruadan’s eyes when he’d looked at Claudia. Maybe he was lying, or maybe it hadn’t been romantic desire at all. Just want and need for something he thought she could provide.
He moved closer, until his magic surrounded us both and I was forced to look up at him, and could see the shadows under his eyes and the fear that lived in them.
“I am too young to fade away, to become a shell of myself. A husk. So we put aside the obstacle to our resurrection.”
“Your queen.”
“She was wrong about this magic. But when we succeed, she will see that we were right, and she will celebrate it.”
“Given you kidnapped her and stuck her in an abandoned church, I doubt that. She’s not nearly as grateful as you seem to think she should be.”
