Iron Kin: A Novel of the Half-Light City (33 page)

“I—”

I held up a hand. “No. I’m not going to argue about this anymore. You owe Fen an apology and you will not bring this up again. Or I will melt every sword and piece of armor you own. I swear it.” I glared up at him, willing him to see that I was serious. It scared me a little just how serious I was. I hadn’t realized exactly how I felt about Fen until just now, when I’d seen the pain in his face before he’d left.

I needed Guy to understand, once and for all, that he didn’t run my life.

Guy met my gaze, giving me his best “I am a Templar warrior and I always win” expression. Fortunately I was relatively immune to that particular gaze, though I’d seen him make Templar novices quake with it. He wasn’t going to get his way this time. “The only words I want to hear are ‘Yes, Saskia,’” I warned. “Or it’s puddles of steel for you and you can explain to Holly why you’re charbroiled.”

The side of his mouth quirked. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me,” I said sweetly. “I’m just as stubborn as you or Simon. After all, I had both of you as role models. Well?”

Guy sighed. “I don’t like this.”

“You don’t have to like it. You just have to accept it.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

“No. I accept that you are a Templar and that you risk your life daily. I grant you the courtesy of respecting your choice and doing my best to live with it. So you can try and do the same for me. Doesn’t your God preach acceptance, amongst other things?”

Guy pressed his fingers to the space between his eyebrows, as though his head hurt. “Yes.”

“Well, then. What do you have to say to me?”

“Yes, Saskia.”

“Good.” I smiled at him, then stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Now, I’ll bid you good night. I have to go find Fen.”

* * *

I was worried that Fen might have left the hospital altogether, but as I moved farther away from the hidden ward and its iron, I could sense his chain again. Outside.

Perfect. He was aboveground in the middle of the night with Blood all over the place and Ignatius throwing his weight around. Still, I wasn’t going to leave him to think that Guy’s stupidity had made any impression on me. I had to find him.

I followed the small song of his chain to one of the sheltered garden areas in the midst of the hospital buildings, where he sat with his back to the trunk of a massive oak. The moon was full, or near enough, shedding a silvery light over the expanse of grass and plants, turning them deep and mysterious green. Like the eyes of the man I was seeking.

“My brother is an idiot,” I said softly as I settled down beside him.

Fen stayed silent.

“I told him as much. And that he needed to mind his own damned business. I’m sorry he spoke that way to you.”

“Maybe he was right.”

I sighed. “Please don’t make me lecture you too. I’ve had enough for one night.”

“I’m not good for you,” Fen said. “I’m not good for anyone.” He sounded miserable. I shifted to my knees, leaning back on them so he could see my face.

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true. I’ve never been good for anyone. I make a living spinning pretty tales and half-truths to part people from their money. I have no family. No loyalty.”

“You’re loyal to Holly and Reggie.”

“And look where that got Reggie.”

“You’re as bad as Guy,” I said. “There was no way you could have guessed that Reggie would be in danger. Besides,” I added, “Adeline thinks Ignatius is taking Fae women. So it was Viola they were after. Reggie was just in the wrong place.”

For a moment Fen looked interested but then he shook his head. “I’m meant to be a fucking seer, Saskia. What use am I if I can’t see?” His chain clinked softly, the iron very dark against his skin in the moonlight. “All this pain and I couldn’t even see that my best friend was in danger.”

“But you saved her,” I said. “You got her back. Simon can cure her.”

“What if he doesn’t?”

“Bad things happen, Fen. Even if you can see them, maybe sometimes you aren’t meant to stop them. Maybe sometimes they need to happen.”

“Do you think your sister needed to die?” he asked softly.

“No. But she did. Simon tried to save her and she died anyway. The world doesn’t always work the way we want it to.”

“All the more reason you should stay away from me. You think you can change the world to suit you. All you DuCaines do. But you can’t, Saskia. Guy’s right. You’re human. Your family is important. You shouldn’t be with someone like me.”

“Guy and Simon have hardly made conventional choices.”

“All the more reason you should.”

I shook my head. “No. All the more reason I shouldn’t. Our society isn’t perfect. Maybe it needs shaking up a little.”

“I don’t want to be your rebellion.”

The breath rushed out of me. “Is that what you think this is? Rebellion?”

“Isn’t it?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Then what is it?”

Love, maybe. The word quivered on the tip of my tongue. But I didn’t think he was ready to hear it. Not so soon after Guy’s little performance. “I don’t know, exactly,” I said. I rocked to my knees, straddled him, suddenly not giving a damn about Blood or Beasts or danger. The only important thing was Fen and finding a way to take the ache out of his voice. So that it stopped hurting me. “But I know that I like being with you.”

He looked away, hands flat on the earth beside him.

“I like talking to you.” I traced my hand over his cheek, then laid it on his shoulder. “I like who you are.” I repeated the gesture with my other hand.

He lifted his head, his eyes searching mine.

“I like touching you,” I breathed and I dropped my mouth to his.

Soft. So soft, this kiss. Soft as the moonlight and as heady as the scent of green and earth and damp surrounding us. I felt as though I were melting into him as his mouth moved against mine, as though skin was trying to say what words couldn’t.

He tasted sweet and hot and dark. Of Fen. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get enough of the taste of him. I made a noise deep in my throat and his hands came around my waist, tight and strong. He pulled me tighter against him and the kiss turned fierce. Wilder than the moon and the earth beneath us, heat sparking between us quick and true.

I tugged at my skirts, trying to free them where I knelt on the fabric. My bare knees hit the earth and a surge of power mingled with the roar of desire in my blood.

The world dissolved to a dizzying whirl of Fen and heat and the sensation of skin on skin. Hands found buckles and buttons and removed obstacles, though I doubted either of us could have said who did what. All that mattered was the drowning kisses that built the fire between us, sparking the flames as sure as the bellows’ breath over a banked forge fire.

Fen’s hands slid beneath my skirts, found me, moved against slick skin, driving me higher. I writhed against him, but fingers weren’t enough. I wanted him inside me, as close as he could get. I pulled him toward me and toppled backward, almost screaming when his weight settled against me.

His eyes were so green in the moonlight, nearly glowing. For a fleeting moment I wondered if his Beast Kind heritage meant that he felt the moonlight like I felt the earth. But then the thought passed as he angled himself against me, teasing me. I wrapped my legs around him and arched my hips, drawing him into me, feeling the slide of him through every inch of my body, relief and desire and a sense of rightness like the turn of a key in a lock I hadn’t known I possessed.

“Fen,” I whispered and he smiled down at me.

“I’m right here,” he said and then he began to move, his rhythm exactly what I needed. Strong and sure.

I tugged his head down to mine again, wanted the taste of him as he filled me, completing the circuit between us, mouth meeting mouth and skin meeting skin.

Not soft any longer. Hard now, and hungry. Frantic. I heard him groan and then his hand found me again, those clever fingers pushing me over the edge in time to fall with him.

F
EN

* * *

All of the human delegates were bleary-eyed and disheveled when we reconvened far too early the next morning. My own eyes burned as though I’d dipped them in raw alcohol. I hadn’t snatched more than an hour or so of sleep by the time I had finally returned Saskia to her family’s rooms within St. Giles and then taken myself back to the Brother House. I’d half expected that the brothers guarding the gate would turn me away on Guy’s orders.

But they let me through with no more than a slightly raised eyebrow from one of them. Fortunately he was too well trained to inquire as to where exactly I had been.

Guy hadn’t said anything when I’d taken my seat beside Saskia this morning. He hadn’t really looked pleased to see me, but that was better than trying to take my head off with that bloody big sword he carried, so I would take it for now.

Simon’s gaze was also somewhat disapproving, from which I deduced that Guy had shared his discovery with his brother, but he too held his peace. Saskia greeted me with a pleased smile, though perhaps in deference to her brothers’ sensibilities, she didn’t do anything more than that.

Not surprisingly, none of the Blood were present. Adeline and, I assumed, quite a few of the others she’d brought with her were old enough not to need to sleep the day away, but the Brother House wasn’t designed for vampires, and the room we had gathered in had stained-glass windows that let in multicolored sunlight, tinting the faces of the delegates. The orange patch floating on Guy’s forehead made him just a little less intimidating.

I swallowed coffee and waited for Father Cho to open the proceedings. He did so soon enough, dismissing the problem—or opportunity—of the Blood refugees for the moment and returning to the equally thorny issue of the Veiled Queen.

The conversation quickly revealed that the majority of the delegates were still in favor of an envoy being sent to Summerdale. Lady Bryony reasserted her case that she was the logical one to go.

The discussion circled for some time as the last lingering objections were raised, but it didn’t have the heat of the night before. It seemed that Adeline’s news of Ignatius’ bid for power had focused everyone’s minds on the urgency of returning the queen to the negotiations.

Finally Father Cho called a vote. I wasn’t surprised when it pass
ed with very little objection.

“Very well,” Father Cho said gravely. “Lady Bryony will be the one. Have you changed your mind on those you would have to accompany you, Lady?”

Bryony shook her head. She wore a dress of a deep, deep red today, a color I hadn’t seen her wear before. The chain around her neck sparked with flashes of the same color, and the red also glinted off the purple and blue jewels in her Family ring and the matching dark jewels in her hair. She looked beautiful.

Beautiful and deadly. If I’d been Father Cho and the other delegation leaders, I would have just murmured, “Whatever you wish, Lady” and fled before I was turned into a frog.

“No,” Bryony said. “I will take Fen and Saskia and Brother Liam.”

Liam, who was sitting a few chairs farther down the table, bowed his head at this news. I wondered if he was trying to hide fear or satisfaction. It couldn’t be easy being a maimed Templar, kept away from the action. I just hoped this chance wouldn’t drive him to do anything stupid if we should stumble into trouble.

“How long do you need to prepare?” Father Cho asked.

Bryony considered the matter. My stomach began to churn and I regretted the coffee.

“There are some matters I need to organize at St. Giles,” she said and I sucked in a breath, hoping I might at least get a day to prepare myself for what was to come. A fate I’d worked to avoid since I was old enough to understand what could happen to me in the Veiled World.

“But those won’t take more than a few hours,” Bryony continued. “I suggest we leave by midday. That will get us to Summerdale with plenty of daylight left.”

Father Cho nodded agreement and I slumped back in my chair, feeling suddenly sick.

Fuck.

I was going to Summerdale.

Chapter Twenty

S
ASKIA

Summerdale.

I was going to Summerdale. I gripped the seat of the carriage, trying not to bounce with excitement. I knew that our mission was serious but I couldn’t help the joy bubbling up inside me.

Summerdale.

I’d wanted to come here since I’d been a child and my nanny had told us tales full of the wonders of the Fae. And once my power had come in I’d wanted nothing more than to study with the Fae smiths and learn their secrets. Learn how to make metal do some of the things I had heard they could do.

I curled my fingers tighter into the leather, determined not to smile. No one else seemed to feel as I did. Bryony and Fen were both grim-faced, though if I’d had to guess, I would have said that Bryony was worried and Fen was alarmed. Liam was, perhaps out of respect for the mood in the carriage, silent, his good hand holding a leather book of treaty law. He flipped it open occasionally and read something before returning to staring out at the countryside we were passing through.

I looked too. I’d been to the villages around the borders of Summerdale once or twice, but I’d never come to the actual Gate that guarded the Veiled World before. I’d seen pictures, of course, but pictures rarely did justice to Fae-wrought things.

The closer we got to the border, the more the earth hummed around me with a slightly unfamiliar sensation, as though the presence of the Fae was changing the earth itself. It was both unsettling and enticing and I reached out my power a time or two to lightly touch the earth and reassure myself that my connection was still there.

Finally the carriage drew to a standstill, the driver clucking to the horses in a tone that was meant to be reassuring but sounded somewhat nervous.

I was the first out of the carriage, eager to get my feet onto the ground and study the difference in what I was sensing more closely.

But my attention was turned from the changes in the earth’s song by the massive marble tower that confronted me. It blazed white in the sunshine, a vast structure that stretched toward the sky, its smooth curved walls unbroken by anything except a single massive door at its base. It looked like it had been carved from one vast piece of marble, no sign of mortar or seam. Surely that wasn’t possible? It had to be a facade of marble over a normally constructed tower. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how the tower might have been built if that wasn’t the case.

Some of my jubilation receded. The tower was taller than any of the buildings in the City, taller than either the Cathedral or St. Giles’ huge dome by a good measure. And this was just the entrance point to the Veiled World.

Perhaps Fen had the right attitude after all.

But no, I wasn’t going to be scared until I had to be. I turned back to the carriage, watched Bryony climb down, followed by Liam.

Fen came last, his face settling into even grimmer lines as he took in the tower. He turned on his heel almost immediately and moved to help the driver unload the small amount of baggage we’d brought with us.

Delaying the time when he had to face that tower, I thought.

But with so few bags, there was a limit to how long even Fen could procrastinate. After only a few minutes, our small party was assembled, baggage in hand, all four of us gazing at the tower.

Behind us, the carriage was retreating at a speedy pace.

The driver only wanted to get back to the City before nightfall, I told myself. He wasn’t nervous about lingering here on the borders of the Veiled World with the Veiled Queen presumably somewhere within, her fury over what had happened at the Treaty Hall still to be dealt with.

Summerdale.

I held my breath as Bryony stepped up to the door and pressed her hand against the dark wood.

The urge to grin and bounce up and down where I stood flared again. Luckily my mother had trained me well and I managed to tamp down all the emotion and merely toy with the buckle of the belt at my waist.

Beside me, Fen was still and silent. For him this was a completely different sort of homecoming.

One that could be far more dangerous for him than for the rest of us, despite Bryony’s promises that she could keep any stray members of his father’s Family from trying to lay claim to him.

I didn’t think he truly believed her.

I wasn’t sure I did either.

Some of my ebullience melted away. Fen could be trapped here. We all could.

Or worse.

But worse was nebulous. The risk of being separated from Fen had a more immediate impact and I wasn’t sure I liked the fact that it upset me so. He had settled himself under my skin, sliding in without me noticing, like the smooth-tongued charmer he purported to be. I felt as though he’d marked me somehow, leaving a trace of himself, something I could no more get rid of than Guy could erase the Templar sigils on his hands.

My hand moved to my prentice chain, warming under my fingers. The Fae would be able to feel the magic it carried. Would they also be able to decipher the emotions that charged it when my control slipped?

I could just imagine the expression on Master Aquinas’ face if I gave myself away like a raw first-year student.

I’d told everyone that I could handle this, that I could represent the Guild and face down the Veiled Queen. Now I had to prove it.

I took a deep breath as the door finally swung inward and Bryony turned to beckon us forward.

Summerdale.

Where everything was at stake.

I wanted to reach for Fen’s hand, but we’d agreed to try and be circumspect here. No one could say what the queen might choose to take offense over, so it was important to be on our best behavior.

The room we entered was large and echoing. More white marble lined the walls. Here, though, it was intricately carved, flowers and trees and all sorts of fantastical creatures from tiny to life-sized cavorting over the walls and ceiling. Tiny stone tiles covered the floor, their colors forming patterns as well.

I took in the details, letting the beauty of it distract me from everything else, but eventually my attention was drawn back to the far side of the room. Three doors of bare, gleaming wood stood out starkly against the carved walls. One of them was the true entrance to the Veiled World and the Fae lands that lay beneath the ground. I didn’t know which one. But once we passed through that door, the Fae would have control over us.

The leftmost door opened and a tall Fae woman, robed in white and silver—the same silver as her coiled hair—moved toward us at a stately, gliding pace. We came to a halt behind Bryony. When she bowed to the stranger, we copied her.

The woman returned our courtesy with a much shallower bow. “Bryony sa’Eleniel,” she said. “It is long since you were in this place.” She looked past Bryony to the three of us. “Now is not the time to bring in those who don’t belong to the Veil.”

Bryony inclined her head. “I understand,
al’car
. But I am here on a matter of great importance.”

Al’car
. I knew that one. This woman was the queen’s Seneschal, keeper of the Gate, in a sense that went beyond just answering the door. As I understood the court hierarchy, she wasn’t quite as high in status as the Speaker but she was powerful nonetheless. She could deny us entry—stop our mission with a word—unless any of us attempted the riskier route into Summerdale by facing the trial of the Door. Holly had told me a little about her experiences with the Door and I’d never managed to persuade Guy to tell me anything about his. Which made me hope that it wouldn’t come to that.

“You wish to speak to the queen.” The Seneschal’s voice was flat. “She is not in a receptive mood.”

It wasn’t an out-and-out denial, at least. I made myself stand very still, not wanting to do something that might sway the Seneschal’s opinion against us.

“She has closed the Court?” Bryony asked.

The Seneschal’s lips pressed together. “No.”

“Then she has to hear my petition, does she not?” Bryony said. Bryony was formidable at the best of times and she ruled St. Giles with a grip of gentle iron, but I’d never seen her quite so icy and regal as she was here. I knew that she was from a high Family, but I didn’t exactly know how high. By the careful politeness with which the Seneschal was trying to persuade her, I gathered it was high enough.

“She will hear, perhaps. But I do not think you will garner an answer that you like.”

“That is my choice,” Bryony said. “So will you let us pass, or do I need to summon my father?”

Her father? Who exactly was her father? The Seneschal’s expression had turned even more careful.

Interesting
.

“That won’t be necessary. You may enter.”

“And my companions? They are necessary to me here.”

“Really? A
hai’salai
, a mage barely out of childhood, and a crippled knight are necessary to your well-being? Life in the outer worlds must be very . . . educational.” The Seneschal managed to make the words somehow sound far more insulting than they actually were. I could only see Bryony’s necklace where it ran across the back of her neck, bared by her piled-up hair, but I saw the brief flare of dark purple that shimmered across it all the same.

“My well-being is my own concern. If the queen has not closed the court or the borders, then it is my right to bring whomever I wish. So again, will you admit us or shall we discuss the matter with my father?”

The Seneschal looked like she’d like to argue but apparently thought better of it. She bowed. “I will admit you.” She straightened, then paused, as though considering adding something more to her statement. Something along the lines of “but don’t say I didn’t warn you when it all goes horribly wrong” perhaps?

“Thank you.” Bryony’s icy politeness probably would have extinguished my forge fires. Fen and Liam and I stayed deathly silent by mutual unspoken agreement as the Seneschal led the way across to the far door.

“Before you can go through, I need to check your belongings.”

“We don’t have anything illegal,” Bryony said.

“No?” The Seneschal tilted her head, then pointed at Fen. “That one carries iron.”

“Merely a chain around his wrist.”

“That can be enough.” The Seneschal’s mouth set in a stubborn line.

“He needs the iron,” Bryony said.

“Why?”

It was Bryony’s turn to look stubborn.

“Either you tell me, sa’Eleniel, or you will not enter.”

Bryony looked back at Fen. He grimaced.

I nudged him. “Fen, you have to.”

I knew how he felt about the Fae knowing about his powers, but really, I doubted it was a secret that there was a half-breed seer in the City. “Fen.”

He scowled. “The iron blocks my visions.”

The Seneschal’s eyebrows shot upward. “You have the Sight?”

“I have something,” he agreed.

“You need iron to control it? How is it that you have remained untrained for so long?”

“Because I chose not to turn my life over to either the Beasts or your kind,” he said bluntly.

“You would rather wear iron?” She sounded appalled.

“Yes.”

Her mouth flattened again, her eyes narrowed as if she was trying to determine whether there was something more to the story, more that she wasn’t being told. She held a hand toward Fen for a moment, then snapped it shut. “You are part Beast?”

“My grandmother was
immuable
.”

“Is your power from her?”

Fen shrugged. “No one seems to know.” He held out his wrist, pushing his cuff back roughly to bare the chain. The Seneschal fell back two steps as if worried that he might try to touch her with the iron.

“Do you want me to take this off?” he asked.

“It is a burden on the land, to have iron inside the court,” the Seneschal said.

“It’s a burden on him not to have it,” Bryony replied. “It is not a weapon. I will pledge my word that it will not be used against any of the Fae.”

The Seneschal looked as though she didn’t particularly think that was enough. “I will allow it. Under one condition. Once inside, the
hai’salai
will present himself to one of our healers. They may be able to bind him a different way. Then the iron may be removed from the court.”

Bryony looked at Fen. “Is that acceptable to you, Fen?”

Would he refuse? And if so, what then? Would Bryony go on without us? And what did that mean for the agreement we’d made?

We couldn’t turn back. Not with everything that was at stake. I could feel the hours slipping by, each one ticking away like a gear winding down, propelling us toward the moment when Ignatius would be free to carry out his threat and dissolve the treaty.

Before the war started.

The queen had to change her mind. We had to make her change her mind.

I watched as Fen studied Bryony and the Seneschal. He touched the chain on his wrist, twisted it against his skin, then pushed his sleeve back down. “Yes. I agree with your conditions.”

Beside me, Liam made a noise that might just have been a stifled sigh of relief. His hand uncurled, the red of the Templar sigil muted against his dark skin but comforting somehow. I knew that he, for one, wouldn’t break his word or abandon us.