Chapter Eleven
W e ended up back in our room in a pile, almost landing on the Horror Twins and setting them to screeching. I just lay there momentarily while everybody sorted themselves out, staring at the glittering ceiling and wondering how I got into these things. I had assumed that, eventually, I would start to morph into one of those serene, elegant, powerful women that the Pythian name evoked, and maybe I would.
But it was taking its own sweet time.
“Holy shit!” Alphonse said. “You gotta warn a guy when you’re going to do— what the fuck is that?”
It looked like his freak-out about shifting was about to be overtaken by a freak-out about the twins. And when a master vamp freaks out, it is a very scary thing. I looked up to see extra-long fangs fully extended, a knife he didn’t need in one hand, and the big body in a superhero pose ready to launch itself at—
“Don’t overreact,” Pritkin told him, which didn’t help. And neither did the knife, which Pinkie didn’t seem to like around me. Which was how the big bad vamp met the big bad demon, or at least a smallish pissed-off demon, who stuck out a tentacle and . . .
Bopped him on the nose.
It was less of an attack than a sit-down-and-behave move, such as a large dog might give the young, yappy member of the pack, but it was not well-received.
“Grab him!” I said to Pritkin, as my power had just gone AWOL again, and damn, that was getting old!
Pritkin did not grab him, maybe because there wasn’t time. Master vamps can move like the wind, which was why Alphonse completed the launch at Pinkie. And, this time, he was bopped all the way to the other side of the room, still screeching.
“Stop yelling!” I told him. I already had a headache.
And then Pinkie started mimicking him, or maybe he just thought that was what the gang was doing now; we were all yelling. Only he did it better than the rest of us. He did it better than everybody.
“What the fuck?” Alphonse shrieked, back on his feet and no happier, having just peeled himself off a wall.
“You said you knew we had them with us,” I reminded him, wincing.
“You— that’s your team?” he stared incredulously from the blob twins to me and back again. “The fuck ?”
It was the only word he seemed to be able to remember right now, which . . . okay. They did require a minor mental rewiring, but still. I’d have been worried about their feelings, except that Pinkie was still shrieking happily.
“I told you not to sit down,” Pritkin reminded him dryly.
“But . . . but . . . demons ,” Alphonse said. “They’re supposed to be—I don’t know—scary and shit!”
“Who just got thrown across the room?”
“I wasn’t ready! Cassie shifts us with no warning, and the next second, that . . . that . . . that . . . the fuck ?”
“They’re scary!” I said, feeling vaguely outraged on the twins’ behalf. It wasn’t their fault that the corporeal form they’d gotten stuck with was less badass demon than . . . phlegm with eyeball stick.
“They’re hideous,” Alphonse said with feeling.
“They’re not so bad—”
“Hideous!”
“Stop saying that!”
Pritkin helped me back to my feet. Only judging by his expression, that wasn’t a good thing, as he preferred to yell at people standing up. But I noticed something before he could start whatever lecture I was about to get.
“What is that?” I crossed to the bed, where Pinkie was sitting proudly, if you could call that sitting, in front of a variety of . . . things. Lovely slimy things, but I had no idea what the hell. . .
I picked one up, which was dark pink silk with what looked like rubies of various shades encrusting it in pretty flower patterns. There were also tiny emerald leaves, perfectly formed, each exquisite enough to adorn a ring on Earth. And even tinier diamonds scattered here and there like dew drops on the flowers.
Under that was a translucent piece of lavender fluff with what looked like eighty layers. Seed pearls carved intricate patterns across the weave on top, while some much larger ones adorned a belt. The piece under that was a beautiful sea green with drifting fields of kelp along the bottom made of emerald, tourmaline, and peridot, with tiny citrine fish playing amongst the leaves. And under that was a blue so heavily encrusted with aquamarine, sapphire, and blue topaz that I could hardly see the material.
They were gowns, I realized, dozens and dozens of beautiful, exquisite gowns in every color of the rainbow. All were gorgeous, to the point of making a human designer weep with envy, and entirely unlike the rather plain outfit I’d been provided previously. I wondered why the dress gods had changed their minds. . .
And then I understood, and my eyes got big.
“Oh, shit. Oh, no.”
“I think that deserves more than an ‘oh, shit,’” Alphonse said. “What is that stench?”
“They always smell like that,” Pritkin snapped, following me over to see what we had to deal with this time—and giving me no chance to hide the terrible truth even if I’d had the power to do so. “What is it?” he demanded.
“Trouble,” I said, looking at the mass of purloined finery. Because I doubted that either of our delinquents had a wallet stashed somewhere, so I assumed they’d taken the opportunity while we were at dinner to raid the surrounding rooms. And they’d raided a lot.
Pritkin must have reached the same conclusion because he looked at the pile of loveliness spread out on the furs and then turned to glare at Pinkie and the Brain. Before going off in some language that my translator didn’t know, thank God. I already knew more demon curse words than was healthy.
“This is what we got?” Alphonse said, still staring at the twins. “This?”
“They’re more competent than they look,” I told him. Probably.
“I need a drink,” he announced and started pawing through some drawers set into the walls that I hadn’t even noticed. “And can we open a window or something ‘cause I’m about to hurl.”
“The windows would flood the room,” I reminded him, and he sighed.
“That stuff could be a bioweapon,” he muttered because vamps have super sensitive noses, which was not a plus right now. “And what is all this?” he added, coming up with a bottle I hadn’t known we’d had and finally noticing the gossamer stuff on the bed.
“A thank you, I think,” I said, smiling weakly at Pinkie. Because it had been thoughtful, in a demonic kind of way.
He waved a few tentacles in return, which reminded me.
“Hey, you guys like octopus?” Because ?subrand’s little trophy had come along for the ride, only it wasn’t so little. The severed tentacle would have been longer than a car, except it was all curled up and had to weigh a few hundred pounds. And was still taking up most of the available room.
Pinkie looked quizzical for a moment before his eyestalk bent and peered around me. And then the pupil blew wide, and the screeching restarted, excitedly this time. After which, I was dragged into the bathroom for a confab because Pritkin had finished with the twins and was now ready to rake me over the coals, only he couldn’t do it properly because of all the tearing, ripping, and munching noises going on.
“Do they ever get full?” I asked right before I was pushed against a wall.
Yeah, you could really see the fey, I thought, staring up at him. ?subrand had had an almost identical expression when he’d slammed in that door. Only when it came to murderous fury demons had the advantage.
Too bad that Pritkin was both.
“Okay, what?” I said, crossing my arms.
“What? What? ” This was followed by some outraged spluttering.
Oh, yeah, this was going to be good. When the guy who could swear in a dozen languages and half of them dead, couldn’t even properly articulate the problem. . . We were gonna be here for a while.
And we were. But to my surprise, it wasn’t ?subrand that he was mad about. Or even the attempted disqualification for helping to murder a guy who wasn’t even murdered. Or the trashing of Nimue’s ballroom, which, in fairness, he’d done himself.
No, the problem was the promise.
“You gave me your word ,” he seethed.
“I know, but—”
“And the first time— the very first time —you get a chance to keep that word, you do the exact opposite!”
“Because you lost your damned mind and forgot about tactics,” I reminded him. “And stealth, and even basic—”
“Do not attempt to put this on me!”
“—self-preservation. Even Alphonse said it—”
“Hey, leave me out of this,” Alphonse said from beside the door. Where he was eating squid on a stick and leaning in the archway, watching the show. And was framed by the twins, who had already scarfed down their dinner and were ready for some entertainment.
I didn’t even care.
“—you went HAM on that thing,” I said, my blood pressure rising in memory. “And were about to get yourself eaten —”
Pritkin’s eyes flashed emerald. “You called it over! You didn’t just—you called for it! And I had just seen it kill you, seen your bloody body floating on the waves—”
“That was a doppelganger; I cast Chimera—”
“And how was I supposed to know that? I thought you were dead —”
“So, the idea was to go with me?” I demanded because I wasn’t any happier about that fight than he was. We might have won, but it hadn’t been pretty. And the worst thing was that it wasn’t even part of the Challenge. All that effort, all that risk, and we got precisely bupkis.
Not to mention that that hadn’t been an accident. Someone had sicced that thing on me so Pritkin wouldn’t leave. So that he’d stay around and get eaten. Or beaten to death against the walls, or drowned, or skewered.
And he’d done exactly that! Yet he was mad at me for not abandoning him or standing back and watching it happen? When he’d done the exact same thing?
Something that did not go down well when I pointed it out.
“It’s my job ,” he seethed.
“It was your job! I can take care of myself—”
“Yes, it looked like it!”
I felt my eyes narrow. “I wasn’t the one they were targeting, Pritkin! I was bait. It was a trap for you—”
“One you could have died in just as easily!”
“—and you gave them exactly what they wanted! I could have shifted out of there in a minute, but you had to go ballistic! You know, I thought we were past this. I thought that suicidal streak had worked its way out of your system, but instead—hey! Hey!”
I broke off because he suddenly wasn’t there anymore.
“Out of the way,” he growled at Alphonse, who . . . got out of the way.
Alphonse was big and bad and could throw down when he had to, but he looked like he’d had enough for one night. And did not seem interested in taking on a furious half-demon with an attitude, and neither was I. But I didn’t have a choice.
“Where are you going?” I demanded, following Pritkin into the bedroom. And then out of the door and into the hall, or at least, I tried. But there was a crowd out there already, although it seemed to be composed mainly of tall, sylph-like women and the flunky brigade from earlier. “Pritkin!”
“I’m going to quit,” he threw back over his shoulder.
It was currently naked because he’d lost his fancy vest in the fight, and I saw a fey woman with a cascade of rippling dark hair intertwined with tiny pearls, admiring what was visible. Which was a lot, as the skin-tight trouser/leggings didn’t conceal so much as highlight. I shot her a dirty look, got an amused eyebrow lift in return, and chased Pritkin down the hall since I couldn’t currently shift.
“What do you mean you’re quitting?” I demanded, catching up. “You risked your life to get here—”
“And it seems that I have to risk yours to stay.” He didn’t break stride or even slow down, making me have to run to keep up, damn him!
“You aren’t risking mine! What happened in there wasn’t part of the Challenge—”
“Like hell, it wasn’t!” And, okay, that got him to stop, if only to back me into a wall again. “Someone tried to poison you unless you’ve forgotten. And when that didn’t work, they used an illusion to separate us—”
I didn’t know what he was talking about for a second, and then I did. “That wasn’t an illusion! I saw Tony—”
“So did I—for half a second—then he was gone. So, unless he has the power to shift, what you saw wasn’t really there—”
“It was! It had to be! I’d know him anywhere—”
“And so would anyone else who’d met him, and plenty around here could have. This court is full of factions, some of which are on the other side. They knew what he looked like, heard us discussing him, realized how badly you wanted him—”
“All that in a couple of minutes?”
“—and did an illusion, which water fey are better at than anyone, to distract you. And it worked . You shifted off without a word and were almost gutted by ?subrand, who is as jumpy as everyone else at present. Which, if I can remind you, would have removed two birds with one stone for the rest of these bastards. ?subrand kills you, which weakens me and disqualifies him for taking out a rival combatant’s group member. And all the others win.”
I stared at him. “You think that’s what happened?”
“I know that’s what happened!” He grabbed me by my shoulders. “Cassie, you may think you know court politics, but you don’t, not on this level. This place will eat you alive, and I was a fool to make that deal with you. I am only glad that you showed immediately that it won’t work, that you can’t be trusted—”
“You can trust me!” I stared up at him, my heart in my throat, and his face softened. He still looked pissed but also conflicted as he stroked my damp hair with both hands, grasped my head, and kissed me on top of it.
“I can trust you to have my back, to risk yourself to save me, to refuse with blind, stubborn faith to leave me, no matter how grim it looks. You’ve proven that over and over in the past. Which is why I can’t stay here. You won’t leave unless I do, and if you don’t leave, you’ll die.”
He kissed me very softly, on the lips this time, then took off down the corridor before I realized what was happening.
So, I had to run after him again, which did not improve my temper! Which was why he got pushed against the wall this time, and harder than I’d intended. It wasn’t enough to knock that ridiculously sloppy fondness off his face, however, and that—
Oooh!
“I’ve died before,” I snarled. “I went toe to toe with Zeus, and yes, I died for it—and then he almost did! Because I’m not the weakling you seem to think—”
“I’ve never thought that—”
“—and I’m back now and fighting fit—”
“Only because Faerie chose to save you and was in a position to do so,” he reminded me. “What if she can’t next time? Or won’t? I don’t trust her—”
“You don’t trust anybody, it seems!”
His eyes flashed, and his cheeks flushed, which I liked much better than sappy male superiority.
“Pritkin, we need this army.”
“And I won’t trade you for it.” It was implacable.
“You don’t need to worry about me. They need to worry about me!” I flung out an arm in the direction of the assholes behind us, somewhere down the corridor, and all the others spread throughout this poisonous place.
It didn’t help. I could see it on his face; he wasn’t listening to me. He was the one person who always did, yet he was deaf this time.
“Faerie helped,” I said angrily. “But she didn’t fight that battle— I did. And it taught me something. I am Artemis’ daughter and stronger than I ever thought I could be. Maybe I do die in this war, permanently, finally; I don’t know. But I can tell you one thing. It won’t be anybody at this court who ends me!”
“And if you’re wrong?”
And it was all there, suddenly: the worry, the anger, the helplessness, the fear—especially that last one. Pritkin wasn’t afraid for himself, but he was terrified for me. He had always leaned to the overprotective side, but that damned camp had really done a number on him, and it was clouding his judgment.
There was more at stake here than me, but he couldn’t see it.
All he could see was that bloody corpse in the water.
So, I kissed him because it was all I could do, as there was no reassurance I could give that wouldn’t be a lie. “Then you’ll go on,” I whispered against his lips. “You’ll win this , and you’ll win the war in my memory. As I would do for you.”
“I’m not that strong,” said the most powerful man I’d ever known, his face contorted.
“Yes, you are,” I said, hugging him. “Yes, you are.”