Black Heart (20 page)

I have to admit that I was tempted, just for a moment, to set them on Bryson. As soon as I had this thought, they turned on the Agency’s captain, growling. Bryson backed up several feet, shock and terror on his face.

“No, no,” I said to my new pets. “Stay.”

Hill stared at me in amazement touched with fear. The third Agent had fled some time after the Retrievers arrived.

“Go back to the Agency,” I said to Bryson. “And tell Sokolov that if he comes after me again, I’ll deliver the same punishment to him that he would have given to me. The Retrievers are mine now.”

“Your heart is as black as Lucifer Morningstar’s,” Bryson said. “One day, someone will bring you to heel.”

“Possibly,” I said. “But it won’t be today. And it won’t be you.”

Bryson and Hill took off in the direction of the Agency. Hill looked back once over his shoulder at me, floating in midair, surrounded by the Retrievers that were supposed to destroy me.

“Now, what am I supposed to do with the three of you?” I murmured. “I hope you don’t like pizza, because I don’t think Beezle will share.”

I continued flying north again, toward the place where my house used to be. The Retrievers loped along in the air beside me. It seemed that the more doglike I thought of them, the more doglike they became. Their ears and heads grew more defined, and they all let their tongues loll out as they ran.

I flew over my street, unsure what I was doing there. I just wasn’t sure what else to do with myself. After I defeated the big bad monster, I always went home. This was where my home was, even if the house was gone.

Except that the house was there.

I landed on the sidewalk in front of the building. It looked just like the house I’d grown up in. The porch was painted red, and the paint was peeling. The bricks over the second-floor window were crumbling. Beezle’s nest of sticks and blankets was perched on the roof over the porch. Lights were burning inside on the second floor.

I walked forward as if in a dream, wondering whether this was a glamour, a trick. But the steps felt solid beneath my feet. The front door opened when I turned the knob.

I climbed the stairs to the second floor. The carpet was worn in the same places. I reached the top landing, and heard someone moving around inside my apartment. The Retrievers had silently followed me inside, and crowded around me, nudging my legs with their wet noses.

I opened the front door.

Daharan was setting the dining room table. There was an amazing array of food set up there—a roast chicken, mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus. He turned and smiled when he saw me standing in the doorway, but his smile was touched by sadness.

“How?” I said.

“Magic does not only destroy,” he said. “I thought that this was the least service I could do for you, especially since . . .”

He trailed off, shaking his head. “Not now. First, you must eat.”

I let him lead me to the table. I wasn’t aware until I sat down that I was still wet from my dunking in Lake Michigan, and that the water that drenched my clothes didn’t smell all that great.

“Um, maybe I should change,” I said.

Daharan nodded. “The meal will stay warm for you. I have contacted your gargoyle, and told him that you are well.”

“Is he coming home?” I asked.

“Soon,” Daharan said.

I went into the hallway to the bathroom, where my shampoo and soap waited for me, just as if the house had never burned down. The same towel was thrown over the rack, just as if I’d hastily left it there the day before.

The Retrievers had trailed me to the bathroom door, and I pointed them back to the dining room. “Wait for me there,” I said.

The three gigantic dogs reluctantly returned to the other room. I was going to have to come up with some names for them. I wondered what Beezle would think of the new additions to our household.

I wondered what he would think when he saw the way the darkness had spread inside me.

I showered, dressed in clothes that had magically returned to my closet, and tied my hair in a braid. My belly protruded slightly above my jeans, exposed by a too-short T-shirt. I was going to have to buy maternity wear soon.

Beezle would probably have some choice words about maternity shopping, too.

When I returned to the dining room, I found that Daharan had set my plate with heaping servings of food. The Retrievers were flopped on the furniture in the living room, resting but watchful. All three perked up their ears when I entered the room. Daharan was drinking a glass of red wine, and appeared to be brooding.

“I note you have gained some new companions,” he said, glancing at the Retrievers.

“Yes. I’m not really sure what to do with them yet. They seem to want to keep me,” I said.

“They will be powerful allies for you,” Daharan said. “They will protect your child.”

I hadn’t thought about that. Any advantage I might gain in keeping my baby safe was a good thing. I gave the three giant dogs an appreciative glance.

“They seem to be getting more doggy by the minute,” I said, putting a forkful of chicken in my mouth. It was delicious, perfectly roasted and crisp outside and juicy inside. Beezle would die of happiness if he could get some of this.

“They were born of the same stuff that created the universe,” Daharan said. “And they never found a perfect form. Thus they have been malleable, prone to the whims of those who rule them.”

“Were they never free?” I asked, glancing at the three dogs.

“Once they might have been. But Michael tamed them long ago, and they were put to the Agency’s service.”

“Michael?” I asked. “The archangel who was friends with Lucifer?”

“If anyone can truly be friends with Lucifer, then Michael was,” Daharan said. “The Retrievers terrorized humans, killing them and eating their souls.”

“But Michael showed them mercy?” I asked.

“If you could call what he did ‘mercy,’” Daharan said. “He entrapped them, forced them to serve the Agency. The creatures were only acting upon their natures. It is not fair to shoot a tiger simply because it behaves like one.”

“Are you saying the Retrievers will be good now that they belong to me?” I asked.

“That depends,” Daharan said. “Are you good?”

My cheeks colored. “I think so.”

“I am not passing judgment upon you. I am asking if you still believe that you are, as you would say, one of the good guys,” Daharan said.

I thought about smothering Titania within a cocoon of darkness.

“I try to be,” I said.

Daharan fell silent at this, and I returned my attention to my dinner.

“Aren’t you eating?” I asked, shoveling food in my mouth. Everything was amazing, and as usual, I was famished.

“I have already done so,” he said, but something in the way he said it made me pause.

“No, you haven’t,” I said. “Why would you lie about that?”

Daharan looked surprised. “You know when I say a falsehood?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, I don’t know if I could before. But I can now. Since I . . .”

I trailed off. I didn’t know whether Daharan knew about the Titania thing yet. And I was a little afraid that he did know, and that he would disapprove.

“Since you killed the Faerie Queen,” Daharan said.

There was no judgment in his tone, only a statement of fact.

“Yes,” I said, putting my fork down. “She thought I killed Bendith.”

“Of course she thought you killed her son. Because it was arranged so that she would think that.”

His voice was still calm, but I could see the anger banked in his eyes. The anger wasn’t for me, though.

“Do you know who set me up?” I asked. Whoever it was had a lot to answer for.

Daharan took a large sip of wine, swallowed it, and gazed directly at me. “Yes.”

“Are you going to tell me who it is?” I asked.

“I am sorry I did not return to you as soon as you expected me,” Daharan said. “So much of this could have been avoided.”

“Where were you, anyway? And don’t think I haven’t noticed that you didn’t answer the question,” I said.

“I was detained by Alerian,” he said.

“Alerian?” I asked, alarmed. “Why? What’s he up to?”

“Nothing that he will reveal to me. He simply wanted to see me, as we have been out of contact for many centuries,” Daharan said. “But our powers are in such direct opposition to one another that it has a dampening effect on our magic when we are together. You may have felt the connection between us break while I was in my brother’s presence.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I thought you left, went to some other universe or something. It was the same feeling that I used to get when Lucifer went to the land of the dead.”

“It was because of Alerian’s presence that I did not feel the threat to you when the faerie king’s apartment was under attack,” Daharan said. “Else I would have rushed to your aid immediately. And if that had been averted, none of the rest would have followed.”

“So who was it?” I asked.

“The same person who has interfered so often in your life lately,” Daharan said.

“Lucifer,” I swore. “I don’t know what he’s up to, but when I—”

Daharan shook his head. “Not Lucifer. Puck.”

“PUCK?” I ASKED. I DON’T KNOW WHY, BUT THAT TOOK
me off guard. “Puck did this? But why would he kill his own son?”

“He has another,” Daharan said.

“Kids aren’t usually that interchangeable to their parents,” I said.

“I would not know. I have none,” Daharan said.

“You don’t?” I said, momentarily distracted. “Lucifer’s got them coming out of his ears.”

“Lucifer is not as discriminating as I,” Daharan said. “And my true nature makes it difficult to mate with human women.”

I made a concerted attempt to refocus. “Still, even if he does have Nathaniel, it makes no sense for Puck to kill Bendith.”

“There is something you do not know about Puck,” Daharan said. “Many millennia ago he was tricked into binding his life to Titania. He has served her ever since.”

I stared at Daharan. “And let me guess. The binding is only broken with Titania’s death.”

“Yes,” Daharan said.

The darkness rose up inside me, swirling as my fury rose. “He set it up to make it look like I murdered his son so Titania would blame me. And he used me to kill Titania and free him from his servitude.”

“Yes,” Daharan said sadly.

I stood from the table. The Retrievers came to immediate attention in the living room. I stomped through the hallway and into my bedroom. If Daharan had restored everything else in the house, then the object I was looking for would still be there.

On my dresser a bright blue jewel winked like Puck’s merry eyes. I grabbed the jewel off the dresser and went back to the living room.

“Puck!” I shouted.

Nothing. He was supposed to come when I called, when I used the jewel.

My power rose up, furious now, and Daharan made no move to calm or stop me. He simply waited. The Retrievers lined up in a row before me and sat on their haunches, as if awaiting my command to attack.

“PUCK!” I said, and pushed my power into the jewel.

“There’s no need to shout,” he said from behind me. “I’m right here.”

I spun around. Puck leaned against the doorframe, his arms crossed, his usual expression of merriment on his face. He was dressed in a pair of jeans and a black Neubauten T-shirt, and he wore engineer boots. His hair had been artfully arranged with some kind of hair product. He looked like he was going to a concert at the Metro.

And while Puck was grooming himself for a night out, I was drawing upon the darkness in my soul to unwittingly kill the Faerie Queen for him.

“I am going to kill you,” I swore.

I raised my hand to throw a spell at him, but Puck waggled his finger at me.

“Uh-uh-uh,” he said. “I think you’ll find you can’t do that.”

I paused. I was pretty sure that, having taken Titania down, I could definitely put the hurt on Puck, but he seemed very confident.

“Why in the name of all the hells not?” I said.

“Remember what I told you about magic leaving a trace of itself behind?” Puck said.

Back on the far-distant planet, when Puck had given me a boost of energy when I’d been flagging, he’d told me that the spell would not leave permanent damage. But that it would leave a trace of itself.

A bond. And that I might find that I would be unable to harm him should I ever wish to do so.

“You didn’t just arrange Bendith’s death,” I said. “You arranged the whole damned thing from beginning to end.”

Puck twinkled at me. “Of course I did. And let me tell you that it was no simple thing. I had to cull you away from your herd of merry men by sending you to Batarian’s world. I had to maneuver you into trusting me, into unleashing the dark power inside you. Without it you never would have been able to defeat Titania. I had to make sure that I left a mark on you so that you could not harm me. And I had to give Nathaniel and Bendith enough time to form a bond so that you would all chase after him if you thought he was kidnapped. So many pieces to arrange, but I must say that I am pleased with the way my jigsaw turned out.”

I felt sick to my stomach. “So there never was a threat from the Cimice? Titania wasn’t going to unleash them on Chicago? You just put me there and told me that story so I would exercise a part of my power that I had never touched before?”

“Yes, basically,” Puck said. “It was a pain to plant the Cimice there, too, with Lucifer’s thrice-bedamned portal restrictions.”

“And Batarian’s fae?” I said. “What of them? Did you even care that they might suffer because you had put an alien species on their planet, in their forest?”

“Oh, those fae were never there in the first place,” Puck said dismissively. “They used to be, long ago, but Lucifer killed them all. I simply summoned the memory of them to help convince you to take care of the Cimice. You do so seem to enjoy protecting innocents,” Puck said.

I’d told Batarian that his people were nothing more than pawns on a chessboard. But I hadn’t realized just how right I was when I’d said that.

“That means you sent that Cimice here to kill Jayne Wiskowski,” I said slowly, as I put the pieces together. “All this time, all along, you were leading me here, to this place, so that I would get rid of Titania for you? How dare you? How dare you?”

“How dare I what?” Puck said, and the merriment vanished from this eyes. “Use you? I would have done anything if only it meant that I could be free of that witch. I suffered for centuries at her hand, treated like an inferior creature when my power was far greater than hers. When you appeared in court it was as if you had been sent to me by fate. I knew as soon as I saw you that you would be the one. Only you would have power enough to do it, and only you were human enough to be manipulated into place.”

I turned furiously to Daharan, who still sat at the table, watching, saying nothing. “And what did you know of all this?”

“I was not aware of all his machinations. But when Puck broke Lucifer’s decree and placed the Cimice on that planet, I went there to attempt to limit his mischief. I did not know he had drawn you into his web. When finally I did know, it was too late to stop it. Events had already been set in motion,” Daharan said. “I would not deliberately harm you, Madeline. You must believe that.”

I did believe that. I knew it in my bones, because he couldn’t lie to me. But my anger surged and seethed inside me with no outlet. I wanted to destroy the one who had done this to me, but by his own prescient behavior I was unable to do so.

I’d never before felt so impotent, so helpless. All along I’d thought I was doing the right thing. But I was nothing more than a pawn in Puck’s bid for freedom.

I’d killed the High Queen of Faerie. I’d killed one of the oldest creatures in the universe, because I thought I was protecting the people of Chicago, because I thought I was protecting my child. But none of it had been real, and still the queen was dead.

“Wait,” I said. “What else do you get, besides your freedom?”

Puck smiled. “The throne of Faerie, of course. There will be challengers, but none that can match me in power.”

“And then?” I asked, dreading the answer.

“I will have an army, of course. I imagine I might need one someday,” Puck said.

“To start a war with Lucifer?” I asked. “You had me take one of the most powerful pieces off the chessboard so that you would have an easier path to victory over your brother?”

“Now, little Madeline. What fun is there for me if you know all my plans?” Puck said, and he touched the tip of my nose with his finger.

The three Retrievers came to their feet and growled. Puck looked askance at the dogs.

“I see you’ve obtained some new pets,” he said.

“Yes” I said, enjoying his obvious discomfort. “And I bet that there would be no restriction on Lock, Stock or Barrel harming you, as there is on me.”

Puck raised an eyebrow at the names. “It’s a good thing I have business elsewhere, then. Until we meet again, Madeline. Daharan.”

Puck whirled in a dramatic little circle and disappeared.

I considered calling him back with the jewel and setting the dogs on him just for the fun of it, but I didn’t.

Although I wanted to. I really, really wanted to.

I sat down in one of the dining room chairs. The dogs crowded around me, putting their muzzles in my lap. My baby fluttered gently inside my belly, as if he were pleased by the presence of the Retrievers.

Daharan stood. “I imagine you do not wish to see me at this moment.”

“You didn’t know everything,” I said. “But you knew some things. And you didn’t tell me.”

“I have no children of my own. I wished to protect you,” Daharan said.

“But you couldn’t,” I said sadly. “You didn’t.”

“The apartment downstairs is empty. Do I have your permission to use it?”

“Yes,” I said. “For now.”

My uncle walked out of the front door without another word. I heard his footsteps softly creaking on the stairs.

I rubbed the head of the first Retriever, the one I’d named Lock. “I hope that he doesn’t sleep in his dragon form. There isn’t enough room down there.”

“Or enough fire extinguisher,” Beezle said from the hallway.

Beezle and Nathaniel were there, both with identical expressions of worry on their faces.

“How long have you been there?” I asked.

“Long enough that you don’t have to give us a recap. We know all about the Puck manipulation thing and the killing of Titania thing and the rising of the dark inside you thing,” Beezle said. “Ooh, dinner!”

He flew to the table and dove headfirst into the roast chicken.

“I hope you weren’t hungry,” I said to Nathaniel.

“Give her the thing,” Beezle said, his voice muffled because he was inside the chicken.

“What thing?” I asked Nathaniel.

He approached me cautiously, giving the Retrievers an unsure look. They lifted their heads and growled.

“It’s okay,” I soothed. “He’s a friend. It’s okay.”

Nathaniel continued toward me. I noticed he had a piece of paper in his grip. He handed it to me while Lock, Stock and Barrel gave him the beady eye.

I unfolded the slip of paper. All it said was, “We know who you are, and we know where you are. We are watching.”

I turned it over, hoping for something more. “Where was this?”

“On the porch,” Nathaniel said. “Beezle seems to think it’s from someone named Jack.”

Jack Dabrowski, the blogger who wanted me to be mayor, who wanted to broadcast my business on the Internet. Apparently I hadn’t done a good enough job of scaring him off.

The Retrievers let Nathaniel put his hand on my shoulder. I covered his hand with my own and leaned my head back against his body.

“Nathaniel,” I said. “You need to be careful. Puck killed Bendith to serve his own purpose. I don’t think he feels particularly warm toward his children.”

“I know,” Nathaniel said. “But I am not in any more danger than you. Now that you have killed Titania, you will have many more enemies. You have established yourself as something to be feared, something to dread.”

“I am something to be feared,” I said. “Puck made me this way. And Puck had better watch his ass.”

Beezle stopped stuffing his face long enough to say, “I hope you’re not thinking of revenge. Because I think Puck has already proven that he’s much better at thinking long-term than you are.”

Maybe Puck was better at strategic planning. I was more emotional, more spontaneous. But he had twisted me into this shape and used me like a weapon.

There was no reason why that weapon should not, could not, turn on him.

I smiled, thinking of Puck suffering at my hands.

“Maddy?” Beezle said. “What are you thinking?”

Inside me, the darkness smiled, too.