raised his gaze, and we made eye contact.
His pale blue eyes shone with anger—and more. Essence flickered there, the telltale reaction of angry fey. In a flash, a body shield blossomed around him, pushing Leo and Meryl back. He stalked toward me. With a snap of his wrist, his hand burned incandescent white with essence. In reflex, I tapped my own body essence and shuddered as the darkness squeezed my mind. Kevin let the essence fly. The strike lanced toward us, shearing through Rand’s shield and throwing him off his feet. My head burned with heat as the stone pulsed and my shield—exploded was the only word I could grasp. It wrapped itself around both Rand and me, a solidified barrier. Kevin’s bolt hit with a splash of fire that washed over and away from us.
More essence launched through the air as Rand and Meryl recovered, ribbons of binding spells dropping over Kevin. They spun around him, cinching his arms to his sides, and he staggered to a halt. He remained calm, yet defiant. His gaze bored into me, his pale blue eyes burning with essence. Cops flooded the space between us, pushing Kevin back and pulling their guns on me and Rand.
My jaw dropped at the sound of his voice in my mind. The shield, the essence fire, and the sending were all high-level work. Regardless of where he was training, Kevin didn’t have the level of experience to achieve such ability. It was all raw talent.
Leo pressed into the crowd. “Hold fire! Hold fire!” he shouted.
“Leo….” I said.
He glared, his eyes tired and red-rimmed, and held his hand up to my face. I snapped my mouth shut. He pointed at Rand. “Get him out of here. Tell your boss she better take my call, or there will be hell to pay.”
Rand extinguished his essence and bowed. He took my arm and escorted me through the officers. As we passed Kevin, Rand removed his binding spell with a druidic hand gesture.
At the mouth of the alley, a tree fairy, her face rough and stern, waited in a black car on the sidewalk. Rand guided me into the back like I was under arrest, then slid into the seat next to me. The tree fairy edged the car through the officers. The interior of the car rang with the sound of batons hitting the fenders. The tree fairy remained calm, though, and took us to Old Northern Avenue without further incident.
“That went better than expected,” Rand said.
31
Rand ushered me through heightened security at the Rowes Wharf Hotel. The death of a police officer at the hands of one of her people had brought protesters to the street out front. The National Guard had increased its presence, claiming it was about crowd control, but they didn’t seem much interested in calming anyone.
Eorla, on the other hand, acted as if it was another day in the life of the Unseelie queen. We arrived in her private office to find her calmly fielding phone calls. She gestured me to the guest chair. Rand waited at attention by the window. “No, I’m not concerned,” she said into the phone. “I will make a public announcement when I make my final decision…. I have guns pointed at my front door, sir. I apologize if I seem a bit distracted…. It is my understanding that the man was disguised, did not identify himself, and was firing on a civilian…. Fine. I will let you know.”
She ended the call and leaned back in her chair. “How are you holding up?”
“I’ve had better days,” I said.
“You look exhausted. I’ve had a room prepared for you,” she said.
“I shouldn’t stay here, Eorla. It complicates things for you. My place in the Tangle will be secure once the news cameras go away,” I said.
Eorla pursed her lips. “What do you plan to do?”
“I need to get some sleep before I can process all this,” I said.
“Publicly, I’m putting you on restricted duty, Rand. We need to deflect attention,” she said.
“Understood, Your Majesty,” he said.
I peered at him. For weeks, I had been noticing curious things about Rand, small things, things that didn’t add up to my understanding of an elven warrior in general and him in particular. In front of Eorla, he was all business—the picture of a high-level elven operative. When we had been alone together, though, his façade slipped, letting some of the man behind the image show through. I assumed it was because we had become friendly. Contrary to popular belief, elves were not dour and taciturn at all times. They were reserved in public, but among their own, they were like anybody else, high-spirited or low, with every personality between.
“What were you doing down in the Tangle anyway?” I asked. I kept my voice nonchalant and conversational. I didn’t want him to think I was accusing him of anything.
Rand glanced at Eorla with a mild flutter of a sending. “I was checking Ceridwen’s defenses.”
“Is there a problem?” I asked, couching the question to seem concerned about me rather than him.
“I think that would be obvious after what happened. Many approaches are unguarded,” he said.
“That’s true. Security is difficult because there are no clear boundaries in the Tangle. But I wasn’t attacked by someone from the Tangle. Someone has been training Kevin and Gerry Murdock to use their abilities.”
“You must have noticed their strategies and execution. I suspect they’ve found training from the Guild,” Rand said.
“MacGoren did say Maeve was behind the attack at Eagan’s, and I know Gerry Murdock was there,” I said.
“It would rehabilitate their image with the family after their involvement with their father’s death,” Eorla said.
“Kevin and Gerry hate the Guild,” I said.
He glanced at Eorla again with another sending. The pause made me wonder which one of them didn’t like the direction the conversation had taken. “I confirmed their Guild training. I saw it as necessary and neutral,” Rand said. “Regardless of who trained them, I was more concerned about the individuals’ being safely trained than who their trainers were.”
“Yeah, that didn’t work out so well tonight, did it?” I asked.
Rand stared down his nose at me. “You are alive. I’ll make no judgment whether that is for good or ill.”
I had to appreciate a rebuttal wrapped in a subtle insult. “So what went wrong?”
He considered before responding. “I was more concerned about Kevin Murdock. He appears inordinately powerful. I had full surveillance on him, but only daytime watchers on Gerald. With macGoren dead, it remains to be seen what they do next,” Rand said.
Keeva didn’t seem like she was going to be broadcasting macGoren’s death anytime soon. The events in the safe house happened less than twelve hours ago. Another reason to be curious about Rand. “How do you know macGoren’s dead?” I asked.
“My contacts at the Guild are high level, Connor. An extraction for you was in process when Keeva macNeve intervened,” he said.
“Have you ever been in the research labs at the Guildhouse?” I asked.
The question threw him, as it was meant to. “Excuse me?” Rand asked.
“The research labs on the second-level subbasement. Ever been there?” I asked.
His face became neutral, hiding whatever emotions he was feeling. “May I inquire the point of the question?”
I smiled to hide the fact that I was going to bait him with a lie. “Oh. Sorry. My mind was leaping around. The Guild was working on body-signature tracking. They’ve been trying to develop a method for tracking someone by body-signature markers. Pretty sophisticated stuff.”
“I’m not aware of this,” he said.
“Really? I would have thought you heard about it when you went down there. The guys working on it tell everybody,” I said.
“I have never been in those labs.”
