I wanted to feel more relieved by that prospect than I did.
Since his return with Guthrie, Albigard had been lurking in the background of the discussion like a shadow. He had been seriously drained during the battle—both physically and magically. As had Nigellus.
Thinking about the renegade Fae and what he’d done for us, I realized that I’d overlooked something rather important during the aftermath of the fight. With a frown, I asked, “Wait. What happened to Caspian and Reefe’s bodies? Surely you didn’t just leave them there?”
“They were magically incinerated,” Edward said. With no humans around for him to fuss over or fetch drinks for, he was seated in one of Guthrie’s armchairs, his gnarled hands clasped loosely between his knees.
I thought of Caspian, the twisted Unseelie traitor who’d pursued me halfway across the globe... and of Reefe, the torturer whose heart I’d personally shredded with an iron blade. Again, I felt like I should be having more of a reaction to their deaths than I was.
“Good,” was all I said.
Albigard pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning against. There was a haunted look behind his green gaze; his normal haughtiness somehow diminished.
“I must leave now,” he said. “I will be marked by the Fae, once they discover I’ve killed a member of the Unseelie Court.”
My brows drew together. “Caspian was a back-stabbing double dealer. And besides, if there’s no body, how can they possibly find out what happened?”
He gave me a flat look. “Once he is missed, they will assume I was involved and question me. And I will tell them the truth.”
I still didn’t really understand the parameters of the whole ‘Fae can’t lie’ thing. “That’s... really fucked up,” I said. “You helped save the treaty. You stopped a war. Shouldn’t that be worth something?”
He lifted one shoulder in a small shrug. “I didn’t kill him to save the treaty. I killed him to avenge my brother and sister.”
I swallowed back a fresh surge of tightness in my throat at his mention of family.
Guthrie had been watching the exchange with interest. “Oh? What did he do to them, exactly?”
Albigard’s expression went flinty. “My siblings were powerful adepts—members of a flight of warriors under his command at the end of the last war. They were twins, which is rare among the Fae. Caspian ordered them to Earth to deploy a newly developed weapon.”
Rans tensed beside me. Albigard’s eyes fell on him.
“However, he conveniently failed to mention that the weapon would burn out their magic and kill them the moment they activated it,” he continued. “Or that it would wipe out an ancient and powerful race in a single stroke.”
Their gazes locked, ice blue and forest green—unblinking.
After a long moment, Rans broke eye contact, gazing through the window that looked out across St. Louis instead.
“They’ll send the Wild Hunt after you,” he said quietly.
“Perhaps,” Albigard replied.
I didn’t really understand the exchange, but something about it still sent a shiver along my spine despite the muffling layer of numbness surrounding me.
“If we can help, let us know,” I said.
He arched an eyebrow. “Doubtful.”
“Right... there you go hurting my feelings again, Tinkerbell,” I managed, aware of how flat the quip fell.
“You seem to be surprisingly resilient for a mongrel, demonkin,” he replied, in the same vein. “I daresay you’ll survive the experience.”
With that, he sent a final look around the room, his gaze lingering for a moment on Nigellus, who tipped his chin in acknowledgement. Then, the Fae turned and left, the front door of the penthouse opening and closing behind him a moment later.
The rest of us remained sitting, arrayed around the living room on Guthrie’s comfortable furniture. Ironically, while all of us were bloodstained and rumpled, Nigellus was the only one still suffering the physical effects of the brutal fight. Rans, Guthrie, and I had all been injured—fatally so, in their cases. But the energy to heal us had come from a combination of vampiric strength, and strength borrowed from the two demons who held all three of our souls bound.
Every few minutes, a fresh puzzle piece would drop unexpectedly into place inside my mind, cutting briefly through the haze of grief stifling me.
I’d flirted with the idea of asking Nigellus to bind me so I could get out of Hell the first time I visited, when I’d still been coming into my power and wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it out on my own. But at the time, I’d already been bound to Nigellus through the medium of my life-bond with Rans. He could have helped me through the gate whenever I’d asked. I just hadn’t known that I could ask.
Similarly, Rans was free to come and go from Hell at will, as long as Nigellus escorted him. My dilemma of separation from him had been utterly unnecessary. It was even possible that I’d be able to take Rans through the gate myself now, if I powered up sufficiently before the attempt.
When Nigellus had tracked me after Myrial kidnapped me in California, he hadn’t been following a beacon on the cell phone I’d borrowed from Edward. He’d been following his bond with me through Rans. He knew where both of us were at all times. Between my connections with Nigellus, Myrial, and Albigard, I might as well have a freakin’ GPS chip embedded under my skin.
But at least I wouldn’t have to worry about Myrial anymore. Not for a good, long time.
So many things made sense now... but there were still some huge questions to be answered. And apparently I wasn’t the only one to think so.
“You wanted to talk, Nigellus,” Rans said. “So talk.”
I could feel the tension in Rans’ body. His fingers lay twined with mine, resting in the valley formed where our thighs pressed together as we sat side by side on the sofa.
“It’s about bloody time,” Edward said under his breath...
