Steal the Sun (48 page)

“Your father believes the time has come to take out the Seelie plague,” Con explained, his raspy voice all rational logic. “They’ve threatened us too many times over the past few years. If Declan Quinn is allowed to take the throne in the future, he will do whatever it takes to kill us all. We must act now to ensure our continued survival.”

“Con is a traitor, Chima,” Nim said loudly.

“Now, Nim,” Con began. “There’s no reason to throw about such inflammatory words. I’ve served the king with everything I have. I’ve tried to protect him from those who seek to overthrow him, like your mate, the ascended god, Arawn. You can’t trust them, Your Highness. I know this girl is pretending to be your friend, but she’s plotting against you.”

“Chima knows who her friends are,” Nim insisted.

Con wouldn’t let up. “You must ask yourself why a ‘friend’ would put you at such risk. Why is Nim running about the countryside with not one but two fugitives? The Seelie royal is here to create trouble and your father has already declared Herne the Hunter an outlaw. Yet your good friend places your whole household at risk by bringing them here to you.”

“Asshole,” Nim shouted down at the king’s advisor. “You’re the one who sold Her Grace to me.”

“She is filled with lies,” Con protested, looking as innocent as someone with blood-red eyes could.

“Give me one good reason why my father wants the priest’s wife executed,” Chima said, ignoring Con’s accusation about her friend. I admired her ability to stay calm and get to the heart of the matter.

Con stepped forward and the entire army moved with him. “Your father will have his revenge on the priest for what he did to you. He left you to bear a child alone. He has no honor, and he will have no wife since he dishonored you.”

I saw Chima’s head shake. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh, Con, you prove yourself a traitor with every word your lips form. My father knows the truth of Sean’s birth. He would never seek to hurt Devinshea Quinn in this way.”

This seemed to confuse Con to no end. I watched as his mind sought out another avenue to go down, his jaw tightening as he thought. He gazed up and chose to give up the game. “I don’t understand and have no time to delve into your enigmatic words. Even now the armies are gathering on the battlefield. Angus has requested a meeting with the Seelie’s bitch queen to try to avoid a blood bath. I don’t want to avoid a blood bath. I need to make sure Her Grace’s head decorates one of our pikes. Then there will be no way Miria will listen to anything he says. If you refuse to listen to reason, then I’ll have to take a more direct route. Let us see what the truth of your son is now, Your Highness.”

He motioned to someone I couldn’t see, but I had a suspicion what was happening when Chima cried out.

Neil grabbed my hand and tried to pull me away. “Time to go, Z.”

I fought him and slipped from his grasp. I walked forward and saw the horrible sight of that sweet little boy being hauled out in front of the army of red caps. His legs kicked as he fought with everything he had. They cheered as he was held up for his mother’s inspection.

“He has already witnessed the brutal death of his nanny,” Con said with a satisfied smile. “I think it scared him to have to watch her heart being ripped out. I told him that if his mommy loved him very much, maybe I wouldn’t do it to him, too. How about it, Chima? Does mommy love him very much?”

“You bastard!” Chima screamed. “You let my son go!”

“As soon as Her Grace is in my custody,” Con promised soothingly. “I’ll exchange the boy you love for the human who means nothing to you. But Chima, don’t think for too long. My offer will expire soon. The red caps are crying for blood. The blood of one so innocent is very sweet. I would hurry before they decide they would rather have his blood than hers.”

Chima turned and her face had aged in those few seconds. All the safety and comfort of her world had been stripped away, and she had no choices left. Neil swore and he stepped between us.

“Not gonna happen, lady,” he growled. I looked down and saw his claws were out.

“Chima, you don’t have to do this,” Nim said but she sounded uncertain. “Arawn…”

“…would already be here if he could,” Chima completed the thought. She reached into a pocket on her trousers and there was a small knife in her hands. “They undoubtedly already have Arawn and the Hunter in custody or on the run. You know how they protect their hosts above all else. It’s their primary instinct. We can’t count on them.”

“The vampire,” Nim offered.

Chima laughed bitterly. “One vampire against two hundred red caps? I don’t think so.”

“You didn’t see the way he fought before,” Nim argued.

Brown curls shook. “No, Nim. He has spent too much time in Arawn’s company. And it’s daylight, if you haven’t noticed.”

“What do you mean he’s been around Arawn too long?” I asked. “Daniel can daywalk. It isn’t easy for him but he’ll do it to save us.”

“You don’t understand anything, Your Grace. We’re fucked,” Chima bit out. “Nim didn’t bother to mention that Arawn has been drawing energy from your vampire, did she? Has the vampire been overly hungry? Has he been on the edge of control? Has he made decisions that didn’t always make sense? I can see from your expression that he has. It’s because Arawn has effectively been feeding off him. Why do you think Nim wanted a vampire? Arawn likes the feeling. It’s like a drug. The death god has been getting high and your vampire needs time to recover, time that we don’t have.”

I turned to meet Nim’s guilty countenance. I could see the truth of Chima’s words in her violet eyes.

“I’m sorry, Zoey,” she offered weakly. “I didn’t mean any harm. It wouldn’t kill the vampire. It was just for fun.”

“Everything is fun with you, Nim,” Chima said sadly.

“I can come up with a spell.” Nim nodded, determination on her face. “I just need a few things.”

“We don’t have that kind of time,” I pointed out, hating what I was going to have to do. “Neil, you have to let me go with Chima.”

Neil turned, his lovely face savage all of the sudden. “No. Why is he more important than you? Why do you have to sacrifice yourself for these people? They haven’t done anything for you.”

I smoothed back a stray blond curl. “Sweetie, I have to. That’s a child out there. I can’t watch them kill a child, certainly not one that belongs to Dev.”

“Chima…” Nim implored.

“Not a word, Nim,” Chima replied. “This is all your fault. You stay out of it. Her Grace wants to do the right thing.”

“It’s right for you,” Neil shot back at her. He looked at me, his heart in his face. “Don’t do this. Please. Dev wouldn’t want you to do this. Dev loves you. Danny loves you. You owe them. I love you. Let’s just run.”

“And leave Danny behind?” I tried to soothe my friend with logic. “What do you think they would do with him even if running was an option? I’m sure they have the place surrounded. How far would we get before they ran us down?”

“We should try,” Neil insisted.

I shook my head. “No, we shouldn’t. I should go down there and while they’re occupied with lopping my head off, the rest of you should run because he can’t let you live.” Con would need to hide his betrayal, and there was no way to do that except to kill everyone who could possibly talk. I turned and looked at Chima. “Are you ready?”

Chima nodded her head, and there was a terrible guilt in her blue eyes. She didn’t like what she had to do, either, but she would do it for her son. She had no choice and I expected nothing less from her.

“I’m going with you.” Neil stood beside me.

“No,” I ordered. “You have to get to Danny. You have to get him up and moving. You know he can hear you. Tell him what’s happening. If there’s any way for him to move, he will. He’s the only shot I have.”

“All right.” Neil pulled me into a tight hug. “I love you, Z. Don’t you fucking die out there. I’m going to get Daniel up. We’re going to come for you. Stay alive.”

“I’ll try,” I promised. Neil turned to go. “Watch your back.”

He smiled, a sad little thing and I hoped beyond hope it wasn’t the last smile I saw from him. Neil slipped down the hallway, letting his senses lead him away from danger to his quarry.

“Let’s go, Your Grace,” Chima said, her voice filled with resolve. “You first and I will follow.”

“I’m not going to run, Princess.”

She moved close behind me. “I can’t take that chance.”

I walked into the hall and toward the stairs, praying all the while that Daniel would wake up despite what Chima had said. Daniel had done some impossible things when I needed him to. Chima followed and Nim walked in her wake, guilt making her cute pixie face look pale and sad. There was a lost look in her eyes, as though she’d finally figured out there was nothing she could do to stop what she felt she’d set into motion. I could have told her that if they hadn’t used her it would have been someone else, but I just marched down the stairs. Every bit of will I had I used to keep my feet moving when what I wanted to do was run to Daniel and beg him to save me. I wanted to live. I wanted to go home with Danny and Dev and have those babies I’d been promised.

If I ended up on the Heaven plane, Oliver Day was going to get such an earful. He thought losing his bet would be bad? It was going to be my job to make that angel miserable.

We reached the bottom floor and I saw clearly why we’d had no aid from the ascended gods’ contingent. Herne the Hunter and Arawn were each on their knees on the floor with their hands at the backs of their heads, fingers interwoven in the universal sign of “I got caught.” The Hunter looked grim and after his eyes slid off of us, he went back to staring straight forward. Arawn turned to watch us as we moved. Each was guarded by three red caps.

“Are you all right, Nim?” Arawn asked academically, watching his girlfriend with hooded eyes.

“Besides horrific gut-gnawing guilt, I’m fine,” Nim replied from behind me.

“If you get the chance to run, sweetheart, please do it,” Arawn said. “If they kill Roarke, I’ll find another host and look for you. It shouldn’t take long. Go to the Earth plane and I’ll meet you there.”

Nim continued shuffling along. “I know the drill, Arawn.”

“You’re a bastard,” I sneered as I passed the death god, who looked like he couldn’t care less that a whole bunch of people were about to die a horrible death. Would he get off on all that death? Maybe it would make him strong enough to break free and save his host and his girl. “Nothing matters as long as you and yours are all right, does it?”

Arawn pondered that briefly. “No, I suppose not. It’s not so different from your vampire. You can worry about the rest of the world, Your Grace. I’ve lived long enough to know that the rest of the world won’t care that you made a sacrifice. They won’t care that you’re dead. They’ll forget you quickly and another naïve idiot will take your place. There’s an endless stream of women such as you who refuse to see the world for what it is.” His eyes were cold as they turned from me and found his lover once more. “Do as I told you, Nim.”

“Keep moving,” one of the red caps ordered. His cap was dripping blood onto the formerly lovely carpet.

The door to the front lawn was open. It was nice to see the red caps weren’t making it hard for me to walk to my execution. There wasn’t exactly a red carpet, but it was pretty damn close. I looked across the lawn. There were so many men out there waiting on two small women, as Nim stayed in the doorway. It was just me and Chima and an army of males. I swallowed audibly and hoped that the whole beheading thing was as painless as the experts said. Not like the experts knew.

I was about to find out.

Chima came up against my back, her hand hauling my arm into a painful position.

“I told you,” I said, mad that she was making this harder. “I’m not going to fight.”

That was a lie. I was going to fight like hell, but not until she had her son back.

I felt something small and cold press into my hand. “And I told you, I can’t take that chance.”

I closed my palm around the small knife Chima had been holding. If I held it tightly against my side, I might get away with it. It wasn’t much but it was a shot.

“I am grateful to you, Your Grace,” Chima whispered. “I wish there was some other way. If I survive, I’ll tell everyone of your sacrifice. Arawn is wrong. We won’t forget. My father will honor you, and I’ll make it my mission in life to stop this war.”

Con was getting impatient. “Are you going to bring the bitch to me or not, Chima?”

“I want my son first.” Chima held me fast.

The goblin holding Sean moved forward at Con’s gesture. Chima pushed me along to meet the guard in the middle. I could see Sean’s eyes light up with hope as he saw his mother coming toward him, and I understood why Chima had to do this. He was so sweet and beautiful and he deserved to grow up. He didn’t deserve to die a pawn in some idiot’s war.

“Push Her Grace toward me and I’ll let your son run to you.” The goblin rasped his instructions. His claws were digging into Sean’s arm, a thin trickle of blood already visible.

Without hesitation, Chima shoved me hard toward the goblin. I stumbled even as Sean streaked by me to get to his mother. The tumble allowed me to better hide the weapon Chima had given me. Most of it was hidden up the long shirt I wore, but all I had to do was move my hand to use it.

The goblin wasn’t interested in my dignity. He strode up and, rather than waiting for me to get up and walk, he simply grabbed a handful of hair and started dragging me. Pain flared along my scalp and I scrambled. As I tried to keep up, I watched Chima wrap her arms around her son and join Nim. I saw the regret on their faces, but they disappeared around the corner of the house, attempting to make their escape.

I was alone with an army of monsters.

“Poor little human.” Con looked down on me as my goblin escort tossed me toward him and I fell at his feet. “You just wanted a good lay and you end up here. I hope the fertility god made it worthwhile for you.”

“Screw you,” I spat, looking up into his red, alien eyes. His long white hair looked wrong on his body, far too soft for someone so hard.