Burning Bright (Ivy Granger) (28 page)

I rode the visions that the apple gave me, my own tears
falling to join those of Ailinn and Manannán mac Lir.  Their tragic story was a
lesson that I would take to heart, if I survived.

“F
eeling
better?” Kaye asked.

I blinked against harsh light, memories falling into place. 
Sidhe assassins, Humphrey the gargoyle, Kaye’s voice, the taste of apple…

“It worked?” I croaked.

I turned over onto my side and wretched, dry heaves wracking
my body.  I’d been brought back to life, pulled from the endless visions of
Ailinn and Manannán mac Lir’s tragic romance, but, for the moment, I wished I
were dead.

“The pain and nausea will subside,” she said.  “You will
live.”

The faerie courts had sent their assassins and they’d
finally caught up with me.  They’d shot me full of poisoned arrows and left me
for dead.  If I hadn’t grabbed that second apple…well, that was something to
think about later.  The universe sure worked in mysterious ways.

“Ceff?” I asked.

“I am here,” he said.

I looked up into his face, taking in the dark rings that
circled his red rimmed eyes.  He looked like he’d been crying.  Normally, I’d
look away or make some kind of joke, shrugging off our messy feelings.  But
memories of Ailinn and Manannán mac Lir flooded my mind and I reached out to
hold his hand with my gloved one.  I was done with being careful, with pushing
people away.

“I missed you,” I said, letting all those messy emotions
into my voice.

“I never left,” he said.

“Yeah, but I did,” I said.  “I’m sorry about that.”

“It was not your fault,” he said, dark green eyes going
black.  “It was the Moordenaar.”

“Yeah, but I was going to do this to you anyway,” I said.  “The
Moordenaar just beat me to it.”

“I forgive you,” he said.  “I will always forgive you, Ivy,
but I will never forgive the faerie courts.  The Moordenaar tried to take you
from me.  That is not something I can ever forget.”

The lights flickered and a booming sound like a gong rang
throughout the building.

“What the hell is that?” I asked, trying to sit up.

“Something’s tripped the wards,” Arachne said, rushing over
to Kaye’s side.

Kaye was at her scrying bowl.  She looked up, a slow smile
sliding onto her face.

“It looks like we have visitors,” she said.

Great, just great.

“Is it the Moordenaar?” I asked, pulling myself to my feet. 
“Fire imps?”

My knives hit my palms and I shook my head, clearing away
the mental cobwebs.  I needed to be alert if this came down to a fight.

“Even better,” Kaye said, a glint in her eye.  “Two demons
and a
cat sidhe
.”

I sighed, slipped my knives into their sheaths, and rubbed a
hand over my face.

“Whatever you have planned, don’t kill them,” I said. 
“They’re with me.”

“I was only going to have a bit of fun,” she said.

 “There isn’t much time to prepare our attack on The Green
Lady,” I said.  “We can use their help.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she said, frowning.

“So can they come in?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said, tapping her fingers beside the scrying
bowl.  “War certainly makes for strange bedfellows.”

“You have no idea,” I said, marching toward the door.

“P
rincess,
you’re alive!” Torn exclaimed, eyes wide.

“It appears that news of your imminent demise is highly
exaggerated,” Forneus said, tugging at his gloves.  “More’s the pity.”

“What are you both doing here?” I asked.

At my voice, Sparky peeked out from behind Forneus’ legs and
ran at me, nearly knocking me off my feet.  The little guy may not be
linebacker material, but my knees were still wobbly from my recent brush with
death.

“Iveeeeeeeeeeee!” he squealed, grinning from ear to ear.

Sparky did a twirling dance, his floppy ears bouncing while
he spun, my pant leg clutched in his tiny hand.  Dang, but the runt was cute.

“Come on in you guys,” I said, waving them all inside. 
“Better get in off the street.”

Torn seemed to relax into the shadows, but Forneus hesitated
on the sidewalk and continued to fidget with his gloves.

“Is the witch here?” he asked.

I knew he wasn’t referring to Arachne.  Kaye and Forneus
hadn’t got off on the right foot, and he’d be a fool not to wonder what she had
planned, but the two were going to have to go the night without killing each
other.  If not, I’d do the honors for them.

We were all going to have to work together.  The fire imps
had to be contained, the glaistig needed to be taken down a notch, and we had
to break the hold that her incubus had on Jinx.  If nothing else worked, I
figured that last point would get the demon on board.

“Yeah, Kaye is inside with Arachne and Ceff,” I said.  “Play
nice.”

“Jinx?” he asked.

“She’s still sleeping,” I said with a shake of my head. 
“Now come in before someone else gets filled with poisoned arrows.  We’re fresh
out of magic apples.”

Forneus raised an eyebrow, but stepped inside, the door
slamming shut behind him.  Apparently, Torn hadn’t filled the demon in on our
successful trip to Emain Ablach.  Or who knows, maybe he did but they still
thought I was dead.  Magic apples aren’t the most predictable of safety nets.

With all of our guests inside, I held my breath and scanned
the room for signs of hostility.  The Emporium creaked and groaned, but it
didn’t lash out against the demons and
cat sidhe
.  That, strangely
enough, made the shop a safer place than the street.  I didn’t need to risk
being shot by anymore poisoned arrows, and Humphrey had looked ready to tear
our guests limb from limb.

Judging by the way Forneus eyed Torn, the demon was having
the same ideas about the
cat sidhe
lord.  I shook my head and winced. 
These two were giving me a headache.  It was going to be a long night.

“Yes, how is our Jinx?” Torn asked.

He smiled and winked.  Damn the cat, he was toying with the
demon.  I’d wondered why Torn had shown up, and I didn’t think it was solely
out of concern for my wellbeing.  We were allies, not besties.  But Torn had
been flirting up a storm with Jinx lately and the two had been spending a lot
of time together ever since that night at Club Nexus.  If I knew the meddlesome
cat sidhe
, he was here to mess with Forneus and screw up the demon’s
chances with my best friend.

I grit my teeth and tried to change the subject.

“So, learn anything new?” I asked Forneus.

Forneus was supposed to be doing recon.  If we were lucky,
he’d have learned something that could help our assault on the carnival.

“For some reason, they relaxed security half an hour ago,”
he said.  “I came here to report back, but when this one relayed the
information he had gathered from his spies, concerning your shooting, I assumed
that the change in security meant that you were dead.  But here you are, in the
flesh.”

The glaistig had relaxed security?  It had to be in response
to the completion of our bargain.  She would have felt it and assumed that Kaye
was dead.  Little did she know that the witch had come back to life, and was
stronger than ever.

I just hoped that the glaistig couldn’t sense that there was
no longer a second bargain between us.  So long as she didn’t figure that out,
she’d keep me around, a tool to be used when needed.  As far as she was
concerned, I’d followed her orders and taken out the most powerful witch in
Harborsmouth.  She’d think I was a useful tool, indeed.

“Yes, princess, you look good for a dead chick,” Torn said,
suggestively licking his lips.

“I got better,” I said with a shrug.

“I gather by your resurrection that you successfully
completed the trials of Emain Ablach?” Forneus asked.

“Yeah, not my idea of a tropical getaway,” I said with a
grimace.  “But I got the apple we went there for…and I managed to grab a second
one on my way out.  Good thing too, since Kaye was determined to use one of the
apples.  The second apple was half rotten, but it still held enough of Ailinn’s
magic.”

“Hence your resurrection,” he said.

I nodded.

“Ah, princess,
tsk tsk
,” Torn said, wagging his
finger.  “You’ve been keeping secrets.”

“Like you haven’t?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Touché,” he said with a wide grin.

We strode into Kaye’s spell kitchen and into a makeshift
spell circle that pulled us up short.  Damn, I should have noticed the chalk
marks on the floor.  Kaye had us trapped with her magic, unable to move a
muscle.  Forneus, Torn, Sparky, and I all hung in place like flies on fly
paper.

“I have let you all into my domain because we have a battle
to plan,” Kaye said, eyes glittering.  She pointed her wand at us and a trickle
of sweat ran down my back.  “But first, some ground rules.”

Oh yeah, it was going to be a long night.

I
held my
breath against the stench of the alley, but I wasn’t complaining.  Anything was
better than being trapped inside The Emporium with my ragtag group of friends
and allies.  Forneus and Torn had managed to behave while we planned our attack
on The Green Lady, but it was a close thing.

I rested my elbows against an overturned crate, steadying
the binoculars I held in gloved hands.  Lights winked out and the last few
human stragglers were finally exiting the carnival turnstiles.

“Looks like they’re closing things down,” I said, my voice
low and nasally.

I pinched my nose and tried to breathe through my mouth to
avoid the stench, but it wasn’t working.  This alley had a clear line of sight
perfect for observing the carnival gates, but it smelled like stale piss, French
fries, and rotting fish.  I wrinkled my nose, wishing we’d chosen a different
spot for doing recon.

“About bloody time,” Forneus muttered.

I nodded in agreement.  At least we wouldn’t be here much
longer.  With the humans clearing out of dodge, we were up next.

The plan was for me to carry the spelled demon vessel
through the gates and onto carnival grounds.  I figured the glaistig would be
eager to hear all about how I took down Kaye for her.  That should get me in
through the front door and, hopefully, gain an immediate audience with The
Green Lady.  For maximum mayhem, I needed to give the glaistig an up close and
personal introduction to the demon vessel.

A grin tugged at my lips.  I’d never played at being a
Trojan horse, but there was a first time for everything.

“Ceff, your people are in place?” I asked.

I stole a sideways glance at where Ceff crouched to my left,
beside an oil slick puddle.  Somehow he was using his water magic to stay in
contact with the head of his royal guard.

“My guards are in place,” he said, nodding.  “They will
remain in the harbor, on the perimeter of The Green Lady’s domain, ready to use
their magic if needed.”

“Good,” I said, giving him a curt nod.

The kelpies were the key to keeping any fires that the fire
imps started contained.  None of us wanted unnecessary casualties.  Well, most
of us didn’t.  Kaye looked like she was out for blood.

I handed my binoculars to Torn and turned to Kaye.

“Okay, let’s charge this thing up,” I said.

Kaye touched the demon vessel with her wand, strange words
tumbling from her lips.

“That’s it?” I asked.

“Yes, it is done,” she said.

I gingerly slipped the artifact inside a zippered jacket
pocket, one of the few remaining pockets without holes or tears, and checked my
weapons one last time.  I had my full complement of blades, holy water, and
iron weapons.  I was ready as I’d ever be.

“They closing up shop yet?” I asked, turning to Torn.

His cat spies hadn’t reached me in time to warn me of the
Moordenaar’s attack earlier, and he seemed eager to prove their worth. 
Cat
sidhe
now lurked in nearly every shadow along the harbor.  If anyone knew
if the carnival had flipped their closed sign, it was Torn.

“They’ve powered down and the humans are gone,” he said. 
“Only two satyrs at the front gate sharing a cigarette.”

“Sloppy,” I said.

Torn shrugged.

“The Green Lady thinks Kaye is dead and that you’re her
lapdog,” he said.  “With the rest of the city scrambling to deal with fire
imps, she’s probably feeling pretty confident right about now.”

“Good, we want her careless,” I said.

I ran a hand through my hair and pasted on a smile.

“Those satyrs still smoking?” I asked.

Torn nodded.

“Then that’s my cue,” I said.

My gut tightened as I stepped out of the alley and strode
across the street toward the carnival turnstiles.  I was about to go deep into
enemy territory and unleash a swarm of pyromaniacal demons.

Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

“H
ey boys,” I
said, suggestively licking my lips.  “What does a girl have to do to see The
Green Lady these days?”

 The satyrs perked up, ready for duty—and I’m not talking
about their security detail.  The hairy, goat men stared at me, their
cigarettes long forgotten.

“So, is that a flute in your pocket, or are you just happy
to see me?” I asked.

I flipped my hair and gave them a girlish giggle.  Geesh, I’d
rather clash blades than flirt, but these were satyrs.  Their weakness was that
their brains were located between their legs.  If I wanted to get inside the
carnival grounds without a fuss, this was the best strategy.