Hallow Point (40 page)

I don’t remember makin’ a choice. I don’t even remember having an urge. All I remember is seein’ the hall through a haze of rippling hatred, hefting the Spear of Lugh, and shouting something harsh and awful in a language that was dead before the first of you discovered writing.

The lightning flared, tiny flames rippling along the sides of the snapping, flickering bolts. Grangullie danced, twitched, spasmed, dangled on the strings of a puppeteer having a seizure. Smoke poured from his nostrils and ears, his eyes bubbled and boiled in their sockets. His skin blackened, cracked open, revealing only the glow of the lightning, painting horrid pictures in brilliance and shadow.

Then he was gone.

A pile of ash, the metal soles of his boots, and a fedora slowly curling and shrinking as it burned.

He was gone, and I was me again, gazing sickly at the ugly death that was the reason I’d come to my senses. Wasn’t that I’d killed Grangullie, savvy? I’d been more’n prepared to do that already.

It’s that I’d rubbed him out without thought. Without conscious decision.

Casually.

I hadn’t been that casual about killing since before I… For a long time. The notion of goin’ back to that, to giving as much thought to ending a life as I do to tossing out a newspaper? Not even the Spear of Lugh could make me okay with
that
.

I got no idea how Ramona’d reacted to my magic redcap-ending tantrum. By the time I turned back to her’n Sealgaire, she wasn’t even lookin’ my way anymore.

Tryin’ to calm down, I took a gander around, a few deep breaths. Looked at the huge mess, the broken displays, the shattered artifacts, the scorch marks, and snorted. They’d close for a few days to clean up, give the newshawks some innocuous cover story, and that’d be that. I’d done enough tonight; wasn’t about to worry about the clean-up.

“I thought you were just observing!” Ramona snapped at Sealgaire, drawing my attention back right quick. “That you weren’t going to interfere!”

“That’s about the size of it, ma’am. This wasn’t interfering. This was me makin’ things right
after
gettin’ in the way.”

“What on Earth are you talking—?”

I broke in. “How did you know I’d be here, Ramona?”

“The little lady’s been on your trail like a bloodhound since the cemetery, son.”

Since she looked too busy snarling to expand on that, I turned Sealgaire’s way. For a short spell, at least, I was too beat-up, too tired, and too Spear-of-Lugh-having to be afraid of him.

“I been real careful,” I told him, “to lose any tails every evening. I’d have either noticed her or lost her.”

“Oh, you did. She was getting right frustrated with it, too. Always picked you back up the next morning, lost you again come sundown. Ain’t nobody loses
me
, though. I’m afraid tonight I slipped up good. Let her spot me following you, and let her follow me. Right careless of me.”

Ramona stomped away, muttering angrily, and I couldn’t really blame her. It’d be easier to tail me to Avalon than to tail Sealgaire from bedroom to kitchen. She was only just now getting wise that she’d been bamboozled, that he’d led her here in time to help me keep the others from winning the prize, then corrected his “mistake” by stopping her from snatching it up herself.

Which left only…

“So why’d you want
me
to have it?” I asked him.

He looked hard at me, and there was nothin’ even vaguely human about the expression he half-hid behind those cheaters.

“Because, boy, we got no pressing desire to hunt your city, and you the only one in this mess who might have the brains to make the right decision.”

“The right…?”

“’Bout what you’re gonna do with the thing now you got it.”

And you know something? He was dead right. No way either of the Courts could get hold of Gáe Assail: the result’d be chaos. Even worse if it was some random Joe, whether human or Fae. I didn’t much care for the idea of Herne throwin’ the cycles of the Wild Hunt outta whack, let alone taking enough control to bend the Hunt to a personal agenda. And I sure as
hell
didn’t wanna
keep
the thing! I had no notion of how to destroy it, and wouldn’t have even if I could, not this big a piece of our legacy.

Which meant I hadda find someone not involved in the politics of the Court, someone who wouldn’t care about wielding the spear’s power, and who wouldn’t be a whole lot worse with the damn dingus than they already were without it.

Sound at all familiar?

Actually, I was glad I had a good reason for handing it over. ’Cause see, if I hadn’t? Either he’da made me, or I’d have killed him with the damn thing and had the Hunt on my ass for the rest of my real short life.

I turned my wrist, holding the spear perpendicular in fronta me. Presenting it, basically.

“Take the fucking thing outta my town,” I told him.

Ramona barked something that was probably a protest, but I wasn’t listening.

Sealgaire reached out and took the relic about as casual as if I’d been passing him a cuppa Joe. Then he smiled, and I got pretty good view of wolfish fangs that I
know
hadn’t been there the last time he opened his trap.

“Smart move, boy. Much obliged.” He tipped his hat, made to step away, stopped again. “Keep an eye on the girl, too, or you’ll wish you had.”

I glanced at Ramona, but Sealgaire shook his head.

“Not that one. Adalina.”

“What?
What?
”

He was already walkin’ away. I followed.

“What does the Hunt know about her?
Why
does the Hunt know about her?”

He kept walking. And I basically forgot who I was talkin’ at, or else stopped caring that I didn’t have the spear to back me up anymore. I reached out for his shoulder, good’n ready to
make
him stop and answer some questions…

And he was gone. Between one step and the next, a sudden blur of motion—and I mean
blur
, so that even I couldn’t make out a damn thing—and then nothing.

I didn’t take it real well.

“I don’t even know what some of those curses
mean
,” Ramona said as I finally drifted to a stop.

“They weren’t all in English.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think I even got all the ones that
were
. Why’s this Adalina so important?”

“Who do you work for?”

“I already told you I can’t tell you that, Mick.”

“And I can’t tell you about Adalina.”

“
I’m
bound by magic not to. What’s your excuse?”

“I’m bound by not wanting to tell you.”

She blinked twice, then laughed. It was almost musical. I wish I’d been in a better mood to enjoy it.

“I suppose that’s fair.”

I didn’t much care for the softening in her tone. Or rather, I cared for it a lot, which is what I didn’t much care for. I turned my back; it didn’t much help.
Don’t get distracted, not again. Gotta figure out what Queen Mob’s endgame mighta been. Gotta go check up on Adalina. Gotta—

“We should talk,” she continued.

“Don’t got a lot to say, doll.”

Petulant as it may’ve been, I not only didn’t turn around, but stuck my hands deep in my pockets.

Her
hand, which just sorta appeared on my shoulder, didn’t help—though it mighta been more effective if I didn’t hurt like hell at the lightest touch.

“I think we do.”

“Never do run outta lies, do you?” I grunted.

“Mick…”

Don’t believe the hitch in her voice. You can’t afford to believe it.

“It wasn’t all a lie. It was supposed to be, I guess, but…”

“You manipulated me. I’m impressed, but that don’t make me square with it.”

“Yes, goddamn it!” She hauled me around so I had no choice but to look at her. “Yes, I manipulated your feelings. I had no choice.”

“Tell me another—”

“But I didn’t
create
them, Mick! Not all of them!”

She gazed up at me, expression wide and open. I thought I might break in half with conflicting needs.

“I am not in love with you,” I insisted, even though part of me—the part she still had her mitts on—woulda argued that.

“I know.”

Okay, not the answer I’d expected.

“But you could be,” she continued. “And you
do
care about me. What do say, Mick? Can’t we give it a shot?”

I was leaning in before I knew it, got so close I could taste her lips on mine even though we never…
quite
… touched.

All the travail and effort of that night, and the hardest thing I did—without contest—was turning away again.

“Why?” She kept the quaver out of her voice; I heard it anyway.

“Because I can’t trust you, Ramona. I’d never really know how mucha what I felt around you,
for
you, was bunk. Something you’d foisted off on me. If I wanted that back, I’d go home to Elphame.”

“I can try to turn it off…”

“How would I ever be sure? No. Maybe… Maybe someday. Not now.”

My shoulder got real cold as her hand slipped from it.

“Maybe. I guess… I’ll see you around, Mick.”

I swore I wasn’t gonna say anything more. She’d about reached the stairs before I changed my mind.

“Wait a minute. At least tell me
what
you are!” ’Cause I was damn certain now the answer wasn’t “human,” no matter how well she looked the part.

I dunno if she’d just put her mask back on, or if the last few minutes’d just been another performance. But she not only smiled again, she threw me a look so smoldering, it mighta washed out the Spear of Lugh itself.

“If you tail me long enough, maybe you’ll find out.”

I was still deciding what I could possibly say to that when the stairwell door slammed shut.

Áebinn [
ey
-b
uh
n]

aes sidhe
[eys shee]

Ahreadbhar [ah-
rad
-bawr]

bagiennik
[
baig
-yen-nik]

bean sidhe
[ban shee]

boggart
[
boh
-gahrt]

brounie
[
br
oo
h
-nee]

Claíomh Solais [
kleev
-soh-
lish
]

coblynau
[kawb-
lee
-naw]

Credne [
kred
-naw]

cu sidhe
[koo shee]

dullahan
[
d
oo
l
-
uh
-han]

dvergar
[
dver
-gahr]

Elphame [
elf
-eym]

Eudeagh [ee-
yood
-
uh
]

Firbolg
[
fir
-bohlg]

Gáe Assail [
gey
ahs-
seyl
]

gancanagh
[
gan
-kan-aw]

ghillie dhu
[
ghil
-lee doo]

Goswythe [
gawz
-weeth]

Grangullie [gran-
gull
-ee]

haltija
[hawl-
tee
-yah]

Hruotlundt [
hroht
-l
oo
ndt]

huldra
[
h
oo
l
-dr
uh
]

Ielveith [ahy-
el
-veyth]

kobold
[
koh
-bold]

Laurelline [
Lor
-el-leen]

Luchtaine [
l
oo
kh
¹
-teyn]

Lugh mac Ethnenn [
lugh
²
mak
ehn
-nen]

Oberon [
oh
-ber-ron]

phouka
[
poo
-k
uh
]

Raighallan [
rag
-hawl-
lawn
]

Rusalka
[roo-
sawl
-k
uh
]

Sealgaire [sal-
gayr
]

Seelie [
see
-lee]

Sien Bheara [shahyn
beer
-
uh
]

Slachaun [
slah
-shawn]

sluagh
[
sloo
-ah]

spriggan
[
sprig
-
uh
n]

Téimhneach [tey-
im
-nach
¹
]

Tuatha Dé Danann [too-
awt
³
-h
uh

de
⁴
dan
⁴
-
uh
n]

Unseelie [
uhn
-see-lee]

Ylleuwyn [eel-
yoo
-win]

¹
This sound falls between “ch” and “k,” as in the word “loch.”

²
“Gh” pronounced as “ch,” but more guttural.

³
This “t” is
almost
silent, and is separate from the following “h,” rather than forming a single sound as “th” normally does in English.

⁴
Strictly speaking, these “d”s fall somewhere between the “d” and a hard “th”—such as in “though”—but a simple “d” represents the closest sound in English.

W
hile none of the characters who
appear
in this series are historical figures—at least thus far—a great many of those
referenced
are. If you’re at all interested in learning more about them, this ought to be enough to get you started.

BATTAGLIA, SAM:
A typical (but successful) Chicago gangster, Battaglia joined Torrio and Capone in the Outfit in the mid-1920s. After Capone’s era ended, Battaglia remained a member in good standing of the Outfit, and went on to hold substantial power in the organization.