Thirteen #3
The Luidaeg looked at me flatly. “You’re traveling down a nearly inaccessible road that you can use only because it allows you, using a candle that burns only for the one whose blood it bears to light your way, and you think that’s easy?”
“Compared to what I had to do the first time, yeah.”
“My brother is dead. Be grateful for that. And keep moving, because your road’s not finished yet.”
“Hear that, sweetheart?” I twisted to look down at the striped top of Tybalt’s head. “We need to get moving. Are your legs working again?”
“I feel as if I’ve been out drinking with Will and his players,” he said, in a bleary voice. “Those were men who could hold their liquor, far more than I have ever been capable of doing.”
“No booze this time, I’m afraid, but we did get to see the Luidaeg without her masks on, so there’s that.” I stood, tugging on his arm to try to get him to follow me. “Come on, kitty-cat, get up.”
“I am up,” he said, not moving.
“All right, stand.” I tugged his arm again. “I’m not going to ask you to carry me home in this condition. I’m calling Danny.”
“What?” Tybalt’s head finally snapped up, eyes open and focused. “No, we’re not doing that. I’ll carry you, as we had planned.” He stood, somewhat unsteadily.
I eyed him. “You try to carry me like this, you’ll drop me. Look at this logically, Tybalt, and let us take the simpler route.”
He sagged. “If you insist.”
“I do. You’re exhausted, and you were even before the Luidaeg knocked you out. You haven’t slept in a full day. I really don’t want to get dropped in the Shadow Roads.”
“Listen to the lady, tomcat, you’ll be happier in the long run,” said the Luidaeg.
I pulled out my phone. “Danny will be glad he can be useful, honest,” I said. “Just give me a second.”
I stepped off to one side and pulled up my contacts list, selecting Danny’s name.
The phone rang three times before it was cut off and a jovial voice boomed down the line: “Toby! You’re alive!
Of course you’re alive, you’re unkillable, but still.
You’re calling me! Does that mean you’re not mad at me anymore? ”
A brief zing of guilt ran through me, and I winced. “I wasn’t mad at you to begin with, Danny,” I said. “I just thought maybe you wouldn’t want me to bother you after everything that happened.”
“Toby, I always want you to bother me!” he said, voice loud enough that it set off a cascade of snarls and yelps in the background. Half-muffled, he yelled, “Quiet, all of you! Tilly, Iggy, behave!”
I smothered a smile, waiting for him to remember that he was on the phone.
Danny operates what I believe is the only Barghest rescue in the Westlands, nasty little semi-canine monsters with fangs, claws, and scorpion tails, none of which could pierce his stony skin.
As a Bridge Troll, Danny had less to worry about than many of us did.
“You home?”
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s early enough that most people don’t need me yet, and those new rideshare services have really been cutting into my short-haul drives. I figure I won’t be needed until around noon. Why? You need me for something?”
“Only if you’re sure I won’t be taking you away from paying work,” I said. “I just need a ride back to the house before Tybalt decides he’s awake enough to carry me after all…”
“Where are you? Is it in the city? I’ll be right there!”
“I’m at the Luidaeg’s apartment,” I said, glancing to her for approval. When she nodded, I rattled off the address, then added, “I can be outside in ten minutes if that works for you?”
“I’ll be there,” he said jubilantly, and hung up.
I did the same, turning to Tybalt as I did. “Danny’s on the way,” I said. “We’ll have you home in no time.”
“Much as I would prefer to accompany you to Shadowed Hills, I’m exhausted, and I fear you’re correct; I would be better served by going home and taking a nap with our daughter,” said Tybalt regretfully. “Milady will forgive me if I choose the restful route?”
“I suggested it. I won’t be mad if you agree to go for it,” I said, and smiled, before shifting my attention to the Luidaeg. “Appreciate the terrifying welcome, see you later, and keep you posted, yeah?”
“Yes,” she agreed, inclining her head. “I’ll be here.”
“Good.” I flashed her another smile, then started for the front door, Tybalt trailing along behind.
He really did look wrecked from the lack of sleep.
My own overclocked healing was clearing the fatigue toxins from my system as quickly as they could accumulate, but he didn’t have that sort of boost, and more, he was a cat.
Cats sleep a lot, naturally. Keeping him awake for this long probably constituted a form of torture.
Outside the apartment, it was still early enough that the fog off the bay hung thick and misty all around us, cooling the air and lending a faint aftertaste of salt to every breath.
I inhaled deeply, looking for signs of kelpies hiding in the nearby fog, but found only mortal tides.
That was good. The kelpies didn’t mess with me so much now that I was stronger and tended to go around fully armed at all times, but they were still a threat, and I really didn’t feel like trying to fight them off in a formal gown when I was tired, hungry, and needed a shower I wasn’t going to be getting any time soon.
Tybalt stood beside me, slightly slumped from the exhaustion that was threatening to rise up and claim him. He gave me a sidelong look. “How do you still look so fresh?” he asked.
“I heal like I breathe,” I replied. “Call it an unfair advantage, and focus on getting back to Andi. You know she’ll be glad to see you.”
“I wish you could come home with me,” he said. “I wish this was all done, and you could rest.”
“I wish for the same thing, promise,” I said. “I get restless, but I don’t like it when my work keeps me away from the two of you like this. It’ll all be over soon. And we’ll have Raysel back at home where she belongs, with her … us.”
I had almost said “with her family,” because more and more, it felt like that was what we were, more than the people at Shadowed Hills were: we were her family.
We were the people who actually knew her, not just the idea of her, the ones who cared about keeping her safe and sane rather than trying to force her into a box she was never going to fit.
Maybe there was a kinder version of the world where that Raysel would have been able to exist. But we don’t live there, and even Titania hadn’t been able to figure out a way to make it hold together long enough to throw it over us.
“I know,” said Tybalt. Then: “I don’t think I care much for coming to work with you.”
I managed, barely, not to laugh. “No, I didn’t think you would. You’ve never really been interested in hunting for adventure. Whereas I can’t go two steps without adventure coming hunting for me.”
“That’s as may be, but I will be sure the fire is always lit in our hearth, and I’ll always come when you need me.”
I tilted my head back and smiled up at him. “Yeah. I know you will.”
He smiled back, putting his arms around me, and we stood in the fog, waiting, until headlights split the gray ahead of us, quickly followed by the sound of Danny MacReady shouting, “Hey, blondie! Your chariot’s here!”
I laughed, heading toward the lights. “I’m not that blonde,” I called back.
Tybalt gave me a sidelong look. “Your magic has been bleaching you one shade at a time for years,” he said. “Soon enough, you’ll be able to compete with Amandine for the title of ‘closest resemblance to a wheat field.’”
I wrinkled my nose at him. “Don’t be a dick,” I suggested.
“I love your hair, and I remain a cat; if I didn’t tease from time to time, would you recognize me in your bed?”
Danny’s car was a generic yellow cab, the paint dingy and pocked with scratches and small patches of rust encouraged by the salty air.
He was leaning out the driver’s-side window, draped in the human disguise Tybalt and I had both forgotten to apply: between the hour of the morning, the thick fog, and the way the Luidaeg’s wards made humans just a little …
fuzzy, there honestly hadn’t been the need.
That wasn’t a good habit for me to be getting into, and I blamed the lingering effects of Titania’s spell.
In my actual youth, Devin had enforced the need for illusions with an iron hand, and there had been no attempt at wearing a velvet glove: we were expected to know what to do when interacting with the human world, and to do everything in our power to avoid giving the purebloods the slightest excuse to shut us down.
That meant being beyond impeccable any time we stepped outside, blunting our ears and recoloring our eyes to stay within mortal norms.
In Titania’s world, I had never interacted with a human.
There had been no reason that I should, not when I was born to be my sister’s servant and pampered pet.
So I’d never needed to get into the habit of disguising myself.
I still remembered to do it consistently enough that I hadn’t been caught or anything, but the fact that I was slipping worried me.
What else was lingering from her enchantment that I hadn’t managed to notice yet? What was waiting to bite me in the ass?
Not a Barghest, thankfully: when I opened the cab door and slid into the backseat, it was to find hair and shed scales, but no tiny monsters waiting to chomp my ankles. “Good job leaving the kids at home, Danny,” I said, buckling my seatbelt as Tybalt got in on the other side.
“I could say the same to you, Tobes,” said Danny, adjusting the rearview mirror so he could look at us.
Despite his illusions, the mirror reflected his true face, craggy gray skin and all.
On the rare occasion when he had human passengers, it would show the illusion.
Just one more custom trick installed by his Gremlin mechanic, who I had yet to meet but had heard a lot of good things about.
“Miranda’s too young to be running around the streets of San Francisco with her parents,” I said.