Burning Bright (Ivy Granger) (26 page)

W
e appeared in
a different alley than the one we’d left from, thank Mab.  That was good
thinking on Torn’s part.  When we traveled to Emain Ablach, we’d left behind a
firing squad of fae assassins.  I was happy not to be going toe-to-toe with the
Moordenaar, not while shivering from fatigue and a case of the giggles.

A glance at what was left of my leather jacket was enough to
stop my laughter dead in its tracks.  The leather was stiff and crusted with
white rings of salt from my dip in the corpse filled sea of Emain Ablach.  The
collar was sliced where Manannán mac Lir had held Fragarach the Answerer to my
throat.  There were holes big enough to put my fist through where the leather
had been eaten away by spider venom and I was dripping goblin blood all over
the cracked pavement at our feet.

A sound escaped my lips that sounded suspiciously like a
sob.

“Here, let me clean you off,” Ceff said.

Ceff’s eyes glowed faintly as he used his water magic to pull
moisture from the air.  I held myself rigid as water flowed over me, washing
away the worst of the blood and gore.  But nothing could ever wash me clean.  My
lungs tightened and it hurt to breathe.

I forced a deep breath and closed my eyes.  I was shutting
out the reality of my battle ragged clothing, but the feelings that held my
chest in a vice stemmed from more than a ruined jacket.

I’d killed spider fae and duergar today without a second
thought.  Sure, they were vicious killers themselves, but they were living,
breathing creatures.  When had taking lives become so easy?

 “Better?” he asked.

I nodded and looked away.  It was a relief not having to
worry about touching my own clothes without risking a vision, but that wasn’t
the reason I was on the verge of tears.  I wanted to explain that to Ceff,
unload some of the guilt that was bubbling to the surface, but I couldn’t trouble
him with that now.  Because if I started, I didn’t think I could stop—and this
wasn’t the time or place to fall apart.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I said, lying through my teeth.

“Good,” he said, eyeing me warily.  “Now who was shooting at
you back there, before we traveled to Emain Ablach?”

Oh, right, the faerie assassins.  Another thing that I’d put
off talking to Ceff about.

“The Moordenaar,” Torn said, answering for me.

Ceff blanched.

“Then the courts have discovered your secret,” he said. 
“They have marked you as a traitor.”

“Yeah, sorry, I was going to tell you…I just ran out of
time,” I said.

My faced burned.  That sounded lame, even to me.  I could
have told Ceff about the Moordenaar while we traipsed through the forest
hacking away at spider webs, but I hadn’t.

I let my messy hair fall into my face, shielding me from
Ceff’s strained smile.  I should have told him about the Mooredaar sooner.

Ceff cleared his throat and I forced myself to meet his
watery gaze.

“They will not stop until you are dead,” he said.

He was right.  The Mooredaar are trained assassins, zealots
who believe wholeheartedly in wiping out those who threaten the secrets of the
faerie courts.  They will come for me, and eventually they’d kill me.  That
truth sucked, turned the blood in my veins to ice, but shaking in my boots
wouldn’t help us.  I tightened my hands into fists and gave Ceff a curt nod.

“Well, they can get in line with the rest of the creeps who
want something from me,” I said.  “I doubt the glaistig would appreciate them
destroying her tool before she has a chance to use up her two bargains.”

Feeling sorry for myself, me?  Okay, maybe just a little. 
It had been a rough two days, and the battle was far from over.  At least I
hadn’t gone fetal like the gibbering voice in my brain kept suggesting.

“You could seek sanctuary with The Green Lady,” he said. 
“Many of the carnival fae cannot create a glamour, but the glaistig has special
dispensation from Mab and Oberon to rule over her kingdom as she sees fit. 
Humans think that the oddities of the carnival are just part of an elaborate
parlor trick and since they do not believe the carnival fae are real, fae who
cannot control their powers are allowed to live there.  You would no longer be
considered a threat to the faerie courts if you removed yourself from the human
world.”

He held his body rigid, his face an impassive mask, but I
could sense how difficult this was for him.  If I sought sanctuary with the
glaistig, I would become her lapdog.  I would survive, but my ties to friends
and family would be severed.  The relationship that Ceff and I had only just
begun would be over the moment I knelt and swore fealty to The Green Lady.

We both knew it, but he said the words just the same.  He
didn’t want to lose me, but he also didn’t want to see me die.  And he
obviously didn’t trust his ability to keep me safe against the Moordenaar.

“No,” I said, shaking my head.  “I’m not a follower.  I’d
rather die first.”

“Well, princess,” Torn said.  “You might just get your wish.”

Ouch.
  Leave it to Torn to go for the jugular.

“Yeah, well, it might be preferable to what the glaistig has
in store for me,” I said.  “I might be able to weasel my way out of our first
bargain, but I still owe her one more favor of her choosing.  Whether I swear
fealty to her or not, I’m still bound to the woman—as much as I hate to admit
it.  And I doubt she’ll be as easy to fool the next time.”

“Too bad Ailinn didn’t give you two apples,” Torn said. 
“You could fool the glaistig by bringing your witch friend back and release
yourself from your second bargain with the glaistig.”

“Wait, what?” I asked.  “How could an apple get me out of my
bargain?”

Ceff and Torn didn’t know about the second apple I’d grabbed
on our way out of Emain Ablach, the half rotten twin safely tucked away in my
jacket with its silver sibling.  Until I fully understood what Torn was getting
at, I wasn’t sharing that little secret.

Torn rolled his eyes.

“Because, princess, dying gives you a clean slate,” he
said.  “It’s drastic, sure, but it’s also possible if, you know, you had a way
to come back to life.”

Like if I had a magic apple.

I gently bit my lip, a plan already forming in my mind.  I’d
kill myself and use the apple to bring me back.  I had in fact grabbed that
second apple, but it was rotten and may not work.  But that was okay, because
if dying absolved me of my bargains, then I didn’t have to kill Kaye.  She
didn’t have to die—only one of us did.

But why hadn’t anyone thought of this sooner?  Did Ceff know
about that little loophole?  I looked over to see Ceff wince.  Oh yeah, he
knew.  Who else knew about this?

“Does Kaye know that there’s a way for me to break the
bargain without her having to die?” I asked.

“Maybe,” Torn said.  “But then again, maybe not.  It’s not
something we go around advertising to the supernatural world.  And most fae
can’t bring themselves to fight the rules of a bargain.  But I’m thinking with
your mixed blood and pain in the ass stubbornness, you might be crazy enough to
give it a shot.”

If this worked, I’d be out from under that second bargain I
owed The Green Lady.  And if it didn’t, well I wouldn’t be around to find out
what kind of nastiness the glaistig and the Moordenaar had planned for me.

“Kaye wouldn’t have to die,” I said.

“Ivy, please,” Ceff said.

“No, you know I have to do this,” I said.  “You said it
yourself, I’m a hero.”

Today I’d gone on a hero’s journey to Emain Ablach, faced a
sea diety with a legendary sword, plucked a magic apple from the grave of
Ailinn, and lived to tell about it.  I was a hero—and heroes don’t let their
friends die in their place.

T
oo bad Kaye
had other ideas.

“We will both die and ride the apples back to life,” she
said.  “It is obvious that’s why Ailinn’s spirit gave you two apples.”

I wasn’t so convinced.

“She may have told me to take the apples, plural, but I was
the one who grabbed the second one off the ground—it’s not like she handed it
to me on a golden platter,” I said.  “And it’s half rotten, so it probably won’t
even work.”

We’d left Torn to deploy his network of
cat sidhe
spies to keep an eye out for the Moordenaar and proceeded to take a circuitous
route to The Emporium, hoping to keep any potential assassins off our trail. 
But it was a brief reprieve.  If I’d known how difficult Kaye was going to be,
I might have tried doing this without her help.  If nothing else, I should have
listened to Torn’s parting advice—don’t piss off the witch.

The moment Ceff and I arrived Kaye grilled me for details on
our trip to Emain Ablach.  She demanded that I tell her everything that Ailinn
said, word for freaking word—over and over again.  She also wrung the truth from
me about the second apple.  Ever since then, she’d berated me about how this
was going to go down—and I didn’t like her plan, not one bit.

“Oberon’s eyes, Kaye, I don’t even know why we’re having
this conversation!” I yelled.

I breathed hard, trying to get my temper under control. 
Here I was, trying to do the right thing, and Kaye was bucking me every step of
the way.  It was enough to drive a girl insane.

My death would give me a clean slate, cancelling out both of
my bargains with The Green Lady.  Once that happened, I would be under no
obligation to kill Kaye.  Sure, not having sealed Kaye’s actual death would
make entering the carnival grounds nearly impossible, but that was a chance I
had to take.

I’d use the fire imps as a distraction, and if I got caught
on carnival grounds without permission, I’d face the consequences.

“Stop being so stubborn, girl,” Kaye said.  “You know you
need my help, so let me do my part.”

“But why?” I said.  “I get you helping me and protecting the
city from the fire imps at the same time, but you don’t even like Jinx.  Why
help me gain access to the incubus?”

“Revenge, dear,” she said.  “That goat woman demanded my
death.  You could say we have a debt to settle.”

Kaye’s dark eyes glinted, lips pulling up into a grin, and I
stifled a shiver.  Torn was right.  Don’t piss off the witch.  I sure as hell
hoped I didn’t end up on Kaye’s bad side.  But that didn’t keep me from taking
the rotten apple for myself.

If Kaye was crazy enough to follow through with this plan,
I’d at least give her the best possible chance at survival.  She just didn’t
know it yet.

“Fine,” I said.  “It’s your funeral—literally—so how do you
want to do this?”

 “I have just the potion,” she said.  “Though I never
thought I’d be drinking it myself.”

Poison, we were talking about poison.  My gut twisted and I
tamped down the fear that rose in my throat.

“Will it be painful?” I asked.

“No, dear,” she said.  “You won’t feel a thing.”

“Arachne, come give me a hand,” she said, pointing to her
purple-haired apprentice.  “Fetch a bottle of wine.”

I watched Kaye and Arachne brew a death potion and mix it
with wine.  Kaye was smiling and chatting as if she were teaching the kid how
to bake cookies.  Meanwhile, Jinx slept in the spell circle covered in the
blanket that Forneus had covered her with just hours before.  The entire scene
was so surreal that it was hard to believe that any of this was really
happening.

Ceff came to stand beside me, his silent presence giving me
strength.  We stood like that for awhile, just enjoying being close to one
another.

“I love you,” he said.

I blinked away tears and gave Ceff a wan smile.

“I know,” I said.  “I love you too.”

I wanted to reach out to touch Ceff, to have him fold me in
his arms and pull me close, but I didn’t have time to experience the visions of
his tragic past.  So I leaned against the counter, hands fisted at my sides.  I’d
wanted to get away with Ceff, spend a few days somewhere peaceful, just the two
of us.  Now, there was a chance that may never happen.

The rap of metal against metal brought me out of my brooding
thoughts with a start.  Kaye was beating a large spoon against the cauldron
she’d carried from the stove and set on the counter between us.  Mab’s bloody
bones, this was really going to happen.

I was going to die, and eat a magic apple to come back to
life—if I was lucky.  My mouth went dry.  Yeah, probably not the best idea I’d
ever had.

“Ready, dear?” Kaye asked.

I avoided looking at Ceff, instead keeping my eyes on Jinx’s
prone form, and nodded.

“Yeah, I’m ready,” I said.

“Are you sure about this?” Ceff asked.  “We could find
another way to free Jinx from the incubus and keep you safe.”

“I’m sure,” I said, sliding away from the counter to stand
up straight and meet his gaze.  “This is my best chance at freedom and Jinx’s
best chance at survival…and Kaye wants revenge.  If we had more time, we might
have found another way.  But time isn’t a luxury we have.  We need to do this
now.”

“I just wish it was not such a risky plan,” he said.

“You know me,” I said with a shrug and a wry grin.  “I never
do anything halfway.  This will be risky, no matter the plan.”

“I have faith in the apples,” Kaye said, her tone brooking
no argument.  “Now let’s stop dilly dallying.  Give me the blighted apple.”

I pulled out the perfect, silver apple and set in on the
counter between us.

“Don’t be silly, child,” she said, narrowing her eyes and
pointing a tattooed index finger at me.  “That apple is for you.”

I heaved a sigh and ran a gloved hand through my hair.

“The other apple is more risky, you know that,” I said.

Kaye pounded a fist on the counter, liquid from the spoon in
her hand spilling onto the stone surface.  Arachne blanched and stepped away
from the counter, her eyes ping ponging between us.