Rosemary and Rue

—I really didn’t. If you’d just stopped when I asked . . .”

“You’d have killed me anyway, eventually.” I stepped forward, eyes narrowed. “I haven’t belonged to you in a long time, and honor doesn’t protect me anymore. I’m not stupid, Devin. You know better.”

“You won’t shoot me,” he said, and smiled. “You can’t.”

“I can’t?”

“No. You still love me. You’re still too human. You can’t kill someone you love.” He sounded completely sure of himself. “I know you. You can’t fool me.”

“No, Devin, you know a girl who didn’t know enough to get away from you.” My hands were shaking, aim wavering as my focus slipped. Anger makes everything personal. As if this wasn’t already personal enough. “Love you? Love you? You killed Evening, and you killed Ross, and you tried to kill me. You put your kids in harm’s way, and now you have the . . . the audacity to say that I love you? Oberon’s blood, Devin, will you just grow up already?”

“Yes. You love me.” He lowered his hands. “You always have, and you always will, no matter what I do to you. All changelings are crazy, Toby. You know that. Your madness is your loyalty.”

“Screw you,” I said, and steadied my aim.

I shouldn’t have waited so long. Dare shouted, “Manny, no!” and I whirled, letting Devin out of my sight. That wasn’t my first mistake; it stood a good chance of being my last.

Manuel—sweet, innocent Manuel—was holding a revolver, feet braced at shoulder width, the barrel of the gun aimed at my chest. He was trembling. I froze. I was willing to bet that he’d never shot anyone, that he didn’t want to shoot me, but I wasn’t going to test it. Smart people don’t gamble with guns.

“He said . . . he said we wouldn’t have to . . . hurt you . . . if you’d just stop getting in the way. You could come back here. You could be family like you used to. But you wouldn’t listen!” Manny was almost crying, face slick with sweat. “Put down the gun, Ms. Daye.”

“Manny?”

“Just put it down.”

“I thought Evening was your friend, Manny. What are you—”

He gestured violently with the gun, looking upset enough that I didn’t trust him not to fire without meaning to. “She didn’t listen! You won’t listen! You want to stay alive around here, when the boss talks, you listen!”

I knelt, careful to move slowly as I placed my gun on the floor. “Where’d you get the gun, Manny?” I asked, not rising. “Did Devin give it to you? He did, didn’t he?”

“Be quiet, Toby,” Devin said. His voice was flat. Maeve’s bones, had I really let him touch me? Had I really touched him? What kind of a fool was I? “Manuel, shoot her. Don’t kill her, just hurt her. The leg, I think.”

Manny was crying now, and his hands were clutching the gun so tightly that his knuckles had gone white. I cleared my throat, pulling his attention back to my face. “Do the bullets burn, Manny?” I asked, in as conversational a tone as I could manage. “Do they make your skin crawl? That’s iron, Manny. He wants you to shoot me with iron bullets.”

“Manuel, shoot her now.”

I stood carefully, holding my hands up at shoulder level. “Can you do it? Can you torture me with iron, for him?”

“Manuel, are you listening to me?” Devin snapped. “Don’t make me take that gun away from you.”

“He won’t do it himself.” I kept my hands raised. “Don’t you wonder why?”

“Be quiet, bitch.” Devin stormed over to me, grabbing my arm and twisting it behind my back, just like I’d done to Dare on the day we met. His fingers dug into my elbow. I winced, gritting my teeth against the pain. “Don’t confuse him.”

“Why not, Devin? Don’t you want him to understand? You always told me that knowledge was power.”

“October . . .” For a second—just a second—I thought I saw the man I knew behind the blankness in his eyes. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

“Don’t you want him to grow up just like you?” I could see Dare out of the corner of my eye, creeping toward Manuel. Be careful, little girl, I thought, please, be careful . . .

His hand tightened. I could almost feel the bruises forming. “I didn’t want to kill Evening. I worked with her, for you. I let her pretend you were still alive, and so she helped us. She never did it for us. Just for you. I never wanted her dead. But she wouldn’t give me the hope chest, and I needed it, Toby, more than you can dream. You played at being a pureblood, but you know you’ll never be one. You know why I needed it. Changeling time runs out so fast.” He sighed. “She had to die.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I needed to keep him talking, if only for Dare’s sake. That girl was still doing her damnedest to turn me into a hero. “Scooby and the gang aren’t here yet.”

Devin released my arm, stepping away. “I want you to understand that it wasn’t personal. I missed you. I wasn’t lying when I told you that.”

By moving, Devin had given Manuel a clear shot at my entire body. Dare was too far away to reach him in time, and in a way, I was grateful. She wouldn’t get hurt trying to save me.

“You changed.” I turned to look at him, resisting the urge to rub the circulation back into my arm. If I was going to die, I was going to do it with something resembling dignity.

“So did you.” He sounded almost sorry. Then his eyes hardened, the moment passing, and he turned to Manuel. “Take your time, make it hurt. She’ll tell us where she hid it.”

Manuel raised the gun, whispering a prayer. I closed my eyes, hoping his aim was bad and the first bullet would do the job. That it would end quickly.

I didn’t see what came next. I opened my eyes to see Dare leaping onto her brother’s back, momentum sending them both crashing to the floor. The gun went off when it hit the floor, bullet punching through the ceiling. I dove for my own gun an instant too late, shying back as Devin grabbed it from under my hands.

“Toby, get the gun!” Dare shrieked, trying to keep Manuel pinned. He had fifty pounds and six inches on her: there was no way she’d keep him down for long. I pushed myself to my feet, keeping my eyes on Devin. His attention was entirely on Dare, face twisted into an expression that went past rage or sanity. He was gone.

He’d been gone for a long time.

“No one disobeys me!” he snarled.

Dare looked up, eyes going wide, and screamed as the first bullet hit her in the side. Blood sprayed over the wall behind her, hitting Manuel across the face. The terror in her eyes turned to pleading as she glanced toward me, like she was hoping I could take it back. Even then, she thought I’d be her hero.

She finished her scream and jerked back, trying to curl into a ball. It was too late. The next two bullets were close behind the first, and by the time I’d recovered enough to lunge for Devin, her screams had stopped. Manuel was doing the screaming for her. My shoulder caught Devin in the ribs, bowling him over and sending the gun sliding across the floor. I had an instant to wonder where it landed before his foot caught me in the stomach, flinging me back.

I curled around myself, retching, as he climbed back to his feet; his second kick caught me in the chest, sending stabbing pains through my ribs and sternum. “Look what you did! You killed her.” There was no sanity left in his voice: he believed what he was saying. He pulled the trigger, and he still blamed me. Not that it mattered. I’d blame myself enough for both of us.

“Devin . . .” I gasped.

“Shut up!” The scope of the world had narrowed, becoming nothing but Devin, pain, and the growing taste of roses. I think his world had become just as small. He’d abandoned his sanity in the twisting maze of changeling time, and the balance of his blood had thrown him to the point from which there was no coming back. Sitting on the fence isn’t easy. Sometimes the fence breaks, and you fall.

Neither of us expected the gunshot. Devin raised a hand to his chest, touching the stain blooming there before looking back to me, eyes gone terribly wide. Mouth moving with words he never managed to finish, he folded and fell.

Behind him, still crying, Manuel lowered the gun.

The taste of roses rose and burst in the back of my throat, choking me as it dissipated. I hadn’t realized how