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Liliana backed slowly away from the goblin until her heel touched the toe of Pete’s big boot, one blade still held up defensively to the goblin and the sprite. The other blade dragged the huge club stuck to it. She saw truth in the goblin’s mind, but she couldn’t quite believe it. She had never doubted her eyes before, but this just didn’t make sense.
Unseelie Fae and red wolves were the worst of enemies.
In any normal version of reality, the goblin should be trying to kill the red wolf. The best that could be hoped for between them would be an uneasy armed truce. Instead, she saw fond affection, protectiveness, even a fatherly sort of love in the goblin. For Pete.
With a disorienting jolt, she realized where she stood: her back to the red wolf, her blade to the two Fae. She trusted her back more to the Celtic wolf than to the kind goblin or the well-armed sprite. Things had shifted in the twisting maze of her mind so much more than she could process. She needed to go home. She was cold and confused, hungry and tired.
Her blades shook as she shivered.
“Lilly, it’s okay,” Pete said. “I trust them,”
She looked at the wolf with every eye.
“I’m safe now,” he told her.
Liliana looked at the still bound and defenseless wolf and saw truth. Liliana, the spider-kin he had accused of murder and tried to kill, stood there with her blades out. The oak goblin stood there in demi-tree form, eight feet of inhuman strength covered in tough, barky skin and twiggy hair, the scent of past bloodshed lingering in his soul. The sprite stood there too, cute human face creased with irritation, holding her hand where Liliana’s first blow had bruised it while taking away her small machine gun.
Pete believed it when he said he was safe. He no longer feared her at all. Nor did he fear the goblin or the sprite. He counted them among his closest friends. What kind of a Celtic werewolf considered Fae of both courts to be his closest friends?
A wolf she did not need to fear?
“Pete,” she said, looking into his handsome face with all her eyes. “Am I safe now?”
“Yeah, you’re safe too, Lilly. I believe you didn’t kill the soldiers.” He met her human eyes with his. Her six other open eyes didn’t bother him as they often did others. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Truth. She saw pure white truth, uncolored by doubt. It was as real as an oath. He would not hurt her.
His emotions swirled in mixed colors between amusement and embarrassment on the surface for the situation he found himself in, shaded with guilt for trying to kill her when she was clearly innocent and an awed sort of gratitude that she fought to protect him, even after that.
No fear.
She looked down. The intensity was too much to bear for long, like staring into a bright light.
If the wolf didn’t fear her, then he wouldn’t hunt her unless someone ordered him. And he insisted he would never kill just to obey an order.
She believed him.
A powerful sense of relief swept over her.
It took a hard shake to get the goblin’s heavy club off. She flicked her wrists to sheath both blades and stepped aside, letting Doctor Nudd get to Pete.
The goblin started cutting Pete free of her web using one of the sharp knives she left at the wolf’s feet.
Liliana stepped back into the shadows, rubbing her arms and shivering. Her arm hurt and sluggishly oozed blood where the bullet grazed her. Her foot hurt where Pete’s claw cut the top during their battle.
Now, she could go.
She looked up to find a good hanging line to climb.
“Lilly, wait,” Pete said. “Doc, give Lilly your sweater.”
“What! I knitted this sweater myself. It took me weeks.”
“She’s freezing. She’s been stuck outside all day with just a thin dress, no coat or shoes. Give her your sweater. She’ll give it back. Won’t you, Lilly?”
The wolf cast the question into the darkness. He couldn’t see her, but he knew she was still there.
“I’ll give it back,” she said.
