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Damn it. “What do you want?”
“You may take a drink.”
A long trestle table that nearly filled one side of the room was suddenly groaning with platters of meat, potatoes, bread, silver chalices, and golden wine. But fairy food and drink was not to be trusted in the best of times, much less when they’d been offended. They were tricksy folks.
“No, thank you.”
She watched me for a moment. “I will accept a secret,” she decided. “From you.”
I watched her carefully for a moment, debated which secrets were safe enough to share. Not that I had terribly many. The obvious one wasn’t fully mine to share; monster was its ownconsciousness, or so I believed, and the fairies’ knowledge that it existed could have repercussions I didn’t have time to consider now.
On the other hand, Claudia’s moods were erratic, and she was getting impatient. The longer I stayed here, the more dangerous this visit would become. So I made the invitation to monster.
Shall we?
When monster agreed, I glanced at Claudia again. “You agree the fae won’t harm, or cause to be harmed, anyone because of our intrusion, or any acts committed on your property tonight?”
Her smile was slow. “Your bargaining skills have improved, Bloodletter. Your mother was rarely so careful. And I agree.”
I gave monster the nod, let it stretch into me, sending warmth through my arms and legs and enjoying for once the buzz of fairy magic. My eyes turned red, the color of blood and rage, and curiosity rose in Claudia’s.
I felt the tendrils of her magic, heavy as iron, cold as a hilltop spring. But unlike the ghosts’ fog, hers was alive with growth and desire and dancing.
“Bloodletter,” Claudia said, and the word was almost tangible with power. “You are a surprise I did not expect.” She rose and walked toward me, magic swirling in the room, and peered at me like a carnival curiosity.
“Our debt is clear,” she said, and it felt as if the room’s magic lightened a bit. “But as you have done a turn for me in moons past, I will offer you one now.”
“At what cost?” Nothing was free.
“At no cost,” she said, “because to be silent is to damn us all.” She paused. “You can hear them, far away,” she said, and my throat went tight. I knew she meant our parents.
“Yes.”
She nodded.
“Do you know where the House is now?” I asked.
“Only that they are safe where they are. I can hear them, too, although the sound is faint as dew. But their time is limited.”
“Limited?”
“She has made happen that which ought not happen.”
“She,” I presumed, was Rosantine. “The improbable,” I said. “The unlikely, coalescing together.”
The chaotic.
“Yes,” Claudia said. “The magic she has wrought is old, and it is inflexible. There are ties that will not bend. They willsnap,” she said, and the power in that word seemed to shake the entire castle.
She waved a hand toward the table. The food and drink disappeared, replaced by a floating and three-dimensional visage of the waxing moon, the far side shadowed, the near side glowing.
“There are limits to even a demon’s power in this plane, and soon the choice will be irreversible. Soon,” she said again, and the shadow across the moon shifted, grew smaller, disappeared, leaving a glowing silver orb.
“The full moon,” I said quietly, and was suddenly heartsick. “That’s only in a few days, right?”
“Three. On the third day, the die is cast.”
“And the House stays where it is.” I looked back at her. “If we don’t bring them home before then, they don’t come back at all.”
