'Is he evil, boss? I mean, what he did to you…'
Rashan was silent for a time. 'You will drive yourself mad trying to answer such questions,' he said finally. 'You've learned how difficult it is to apply such categories even to sorcerers. Let it suffice that different rules apply to King Oberon, just as they do to us. Never doubt, he is capable of great cruelty-but also great kindness and beauty. Perhaps such balance is the only thing to which any of us can aspire. Perhaps we must leave good and evil to mortal men.'
'If you say so. Anyway, we just have to take out the gate. That's his Achilles' heel. It's the only reason he really needed Papa Danwe. For everything else, he could have used his own minions if he'd had to. But he needed someone in this world to throw open the door and let him in.' Just as Honey had needed me.
'I concur,' Rashan said.
'I'll take a few guys to hit the gate. I'll mobilize the rest of our soldiers and hold them in reserve, just in case some of those tactical teams slip through.'
'I think I chose well, Dominica.'
'I better get down to Crenshaw, boss. When he finds out his changeling is dead and his plan has gone sideways, Oberon will move fast.'
'There's one other thing.'
'What's that?'
'Perhaps you didn't tell me the truth about your relationship with Adan, with the changeling, because you thought I wouldn't approve.'
I didn't say anything.
'You should know that if you're good enough to be my champion, you're good enough to be my daughter. It would have made me proud.'
'Thank you, sir.' I had to fight against the sudden tightness in my throat to get the words out. I thought there might be a lot of other things I wanted to say, but I didn't have the guts. I switched off the phone and put it away. Thirteen 'I'm coming with you, Domino!' The pixie dust was flying off Honey like Kansas topsoil in a tornado, and most of it was deep red.
'I said no, Honey. This isn't your fight. I could never have made it this far without you, and you know how much I appreciate it. But I'm going to war with your king. I can't let you put yourself in the middle of that.'
'I'm already in the middle!'
'You can stay here-all of you-for as long as you want. I'll protect you and your family. But you're not coming with me.'
Honey started singing in that strange language of hers. I couldn't understand any of the words, but suddenly I understood why she had to come with me.
'Oh,' I said. 'Yeah, I guess you're right. You have to come with me. You can help. If I try to do this without you, I'll just get myself killed.'
Shaking her head in disgust, Honey flew up to me and blew green pixie dust in my face. Why had I just agreed to let her come with me?
'I just put a glamour on you, Domino.'
I shook my head, trying to clear out all the pixie dust that seemed to be dancing around in there. 'Jesus. Kinda like the Jedi mind tricks I use on bouncers.'
'And I didn't have to release you from it if I didn't want to. I only did that because we're friends.'
'Yeah, thanks. So like I was saying…'
'No, Domino. Don't you see? You had no protection from my glamour. You'll be helpless against the Seelie Court. You're not prepared for fairy magic. You need me.'
Honey had a point. How was I supposed to fight the fairies if the bastards could drop spells on me right through my defenses? I looked over at the soul jar where it still sat on the living-room floor.
'Don't even think about it, Domino!'
I went over and picked up the soul jar and sat down on the couch. I looked at it. I looked at Honey.
'No, Domino!' Honey screamed.
I shrugged and opened the lid. I let the juice of my three fallen soldiers evaporate out into the air. I only took the changeling's juice. I tapped it just as I would tap the ley line under my building, but I didn't spin it into a spell. I just took it all in, letting that bone-cold juice seep into my mind and soul.
I knew how to do it, but I'd never squeezed anyone before. It had never come up. It wasn't like learning a new spell, or even learning to use magic for the first time. It wasn't like learning at all. When it was over, when I'd sucked every last drop of the changeling's juice out of the jar, I just had his magic in me.
'Cool,' I said, and tossed the soul jar onto the couch.
'That should have killed you, Domino,' Honey said. Her face was pale and she was trembling.
'Didn't.'
'I can see that. I don't understand it.'
'I am Dominica Riley, called Half-elven. My father was a fairy prince exiled to this world long ago, and he hooked up with Mom when he was passing through L.A.'
'Really?'
'No. He was a deadbeat drunk. Split on us when I was two.'
'Not funny. So did it work? Can you…'
I nodded. 'Yeah, I have it all, I think.' I pictured Anton in my mind, and just like that, I was an obese Russian man.
'That's disgusting, Domino.'
'I am becoming to be hungry,' I said in my thick Muscovite accent. 'You have chips?' I laughed. The word sounded like 'cheeps.' It sounded exactly like Anton. 'R-r-ruffles have r-r-ridges,' I said, rolling the Rs dramatically.
'Ya umeu govorit' po russki,' I said in Russian.
'What are you saying, Domino?'
'I said, 'I can speak Russian.'' I laughed again, and shifted back to my own, more feminine Mexican-Irish form.
'That's great, Domino, but you still have to let me come with you.'
This time, I actually saw the cloud of pixie dust come billowing toward me. It was golden and glowing, like sunlight through a window, and I knew I was only seeing it because of the fairy magic inside me. I took a deep breath and blew. My breath was laced with sapphire juice. It cut through and dispersed the cloud of pixie dust.
'Damn,' Honey said.
I looked at the walls of my living room, and now I could see Honey's paint job wasn't real. I saw the magic pulsing there, and I could see through it to the white drywall.
'Okay, Honey, you can come with me.'
'What changed your mind?'
'Now I know what you people can do, I'm going to need all the help I can get.'
Mom still lived in East L.A. in the house where I was born. I'd offered to buy her a condo in a gentrified neighborhood in Eagle Rock or Highland Park, but she said she'd never leave the barrio. As an outfit girl, I've learned to pick my battles. This was one I'd never win. Anyway, the barrio was still on Rashan's turf-she was probably safer there than she'd be in Beverly Hills.
Honey was nervous about coming to dinner. I guess fairies are a little skittish about revealing themselves to humans-unless they're playing an angle.
'You want to come with me? Okay, this is my first stop,' I said.
'I could be invisible,' Honey suggested, a worried frown tugging at the corners of her mouth.
'Mom's a medium. She'd probably sense you anyway. Better if you just play it straight. Besides, I already told her I was bringing someone.'
'You did?'
'Yeah. She probably thinks you're a new boyfriend.'
Honey mumbled something I couldn't quite make out.
'What?'
