Iron Kin: A Novel of the Half-Light City (18 page)

“You and I have different ways of looking at things, then,” Guy said.

“Yes, I suppose we do,” Fen said. “You grew up in safety and comfort. Your family are the kind who build places like this hospital.” He waved his arm at the room. “I grew up in an attic above a whorehouse. You can afford to be black and white about the world, Templar. I can’t.”

“Is that so?” Guy’s voice was starting to stretch to a drawl. Never a good sign.

Simon held up a hand. “Calm down. It’s late and we’re all tired. Why don’t we—”

“No, Simon. I want to hear what he has to say,” Guy said.

“And I want to hear Simon answer my question,” Fen said. “Is it even legal, what he’s doing?”

“That’s a gray area,” Simon said carefully.

“Gray as in ‘nobody knows’ or gray as in ‘we’re all in it up to our necks’?” Fen said.

“We don’t know,” Lily said.

“Is this why Lucius tried to kill Simon?” Fen said.

“He never gave me a reason,” Lily said. “But I would assume so.”

“Which means we can also assume that maybe some of the Blood know about what you’re doing. And that they really don’t want this to happen.”

“I don’t think any of us particularly care if Ignatius Grey and his cronies are unhappy,” Lily said.

“Only those of us who have to live with the consequences of that unhappiness. What if they use this at the negotiations? Surely Lucius didn’t keep it to himself.”

“I had heard no whispers of it in the court,” Lily said. “But we think it’s wise to plan for that.”

“And if they do, what if the Fae side with them? It could be a disaster,” Fen said.

“Or our salvation,” Lily countered.

“If there is a cure, maybe. Is there? You said there were others. Were they cured when Lucius died?”

“It’s complicated,” Simon said slowly.

“Why? Seems like a yes or no answer to me.”

“That sounds very black and white,” Guy said to Fen.

“You don’t like this either,” Fen shot back.

“True, but that hasn’t convinced Simon to stop, as yet.” My brothers exchanged a scorching look. My stomach churned. No. I couldn’t handle this if my brothers were fighting as well. I didn’t want our family to splinter.

“And now you want to experiment on Reggie?” Fen said. “Make her part of this—”

“Fen.” Holly’s voice cracked across the room. “This is Reggie’s best chance.”

“How is it even a chance? Better that she died than stay like this.”

“Simon will find a cure,” Holly said stubbornly. “He will.”

Fen scowled. “I like Guy’s idea better. I vote for going back to the warrens and chopping off heads until we find the bastard responsible for this. Better yet, we can set fire to the whole fucking place. Let them burn.”

“Killing all the Trusted and the Nightseekers and the Blood who do not feel as Lucius and Ignatius do in the process?” Lily snapped. “Oh yes, excellent plan. Of course, you’d probably die before you got too close. Do you want to do that to Holly?”

“Not to mention that an attack on the warrens would blow the treaty negotiations all to hell,” Guy said. “But maybe you don’t care about that.”

Fen’s eyes flared brilliant green, then darkened again. His mouth twisted. “I—”

“If you won’t help, then you can leave,” Holly said coolly. Her eyes were very large in her face as she looked at Fen and I got the feeling she was only stopping her voice from trembling with a fierce effort of will. “Simon’s right. It’s late and it’s been a difficult night. You should go home, Fen. Go home and think about what you want to do. Think about whose side you’re on exactly. Think about what Reggie and I mean to you.”

Fen flinched. Ever so slightly, but I saw it. I was watching him far too intently to miss even the smallest move he made.

Then he spun around and stalked to the door, pulling it shut behind him with a thump that reverberated through the room like the final toll of a funeral bell.

Chapter Eleven

S
ASKIA

The
echo of the door’s slamming seemed to take a long time to fade away. I stayed where I was, looking at the beds around me—and the people in them—trying to understand what Simon had just revealed. That he had secretly been working on a cure for blood-locking, working with one of the Blood. For
years
.

“Well?” Simon said. “Anybody else have anything to say on the subject?”

“You already know what I think,” Guy said. His voice was grim. I glanced at him, took in the set of his jaw and the way his scarred eyebrow was drawn down. Guy disapproved. Though obviously he had decided to side with Simon at the moment. Would he continue to do so?

“Saskia?” Simon said.

I looked back to where Reggie lay. Holly had taken a seat beside her and Bryony and Atherton stood on the other side of the bed. The vampire’s ruined face was tilted down toward Reggie, his hand on her wrist, his manner so like Simon’s when he was with a patient that it stole my breath for a moment.

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. A cure . . . it was something straight out of the pages of the cheap novels Hannah devoured. The stuff of legends, not reality. Even if it could be true, it had come too late to save the one person our family had needed to save. And it might yet have a terrible cost. “I need . . . time.”

“You have until the negotiations start,” Simon said. “You need to make up your mind.”

“Are you going to announce this during the negotiations? Does it even work?”

Simon and Lily exchanged a long look. “It’s hopeful,” Simon said eventually. “We’re moving in the right direction. We know it has something to do with bloodlines amongst the Blood.”

“When Lucius died, did it help any of the others? Or just Lily?”

“Some of the others responded. They awoke. We’re helping them, but they are mostly . . . damaged. We’ve been trying to determine when the best time is to tell their families.”

That was a conversation I was glad that I wouldn’t have to be involved in. I could see Simon’s reasoning for keeping what he was doing down here a secret, but the families who thought they’d lost someone . . . what would I feel if I found out that Edwina had been hidden away from me for years and years whilst someone tried to cure her?

Happy if they’d been successful. But also deeply angry about all the time stolen from me. And all the needless grief.

“There must be magic involved as well,” I said. “When the Blood turn, they change physically. There’s magic involved in that process, yes?”

Simon nodded. “As far as we understand it.”

Thinking about it made me dizzy. I understood a little about blood—metalmages can sense the iron in it, after all, and those of us attuned to iron more keenly than others—but I knew very little about how a human is turned to a vampire. I doubted anyone outside the Blood themselves knew much about that.

“Vampire blood must be different somehow, or else it wouldn’t be addictive in the first place.”

“Exactly. We’re trying to understand how it’s different and how it changes the locked. And if it can be reversed.”

I rubbed my forehead. “And until you do, the only sure way you know is to kill the vampire who locked them.” Blighted earth. It was a mess. Like reaching for something precious only to have it continually dangled out of reach.

“Not just the vampire who locked them,” Lily said. “You have to kill the oldest vampire in that bloodline. At least, we think so. That why killing Lucius worked. He was the oldest left in his bloodline.”

“His death changed the magic? Or ended it?”

Lily looked thoughtful. “Changed, maybe. It can’t have ended it or the vampires he’d sired would have died too, surely?”

I just wanted to go home, go to bed, forget for a few hours. Maybe Master Aquinas and my brothers were right. I should stay safely tucked up behind the Guild walls and let the troubles of the world be someone else’s problem.

Of course, if I could have chosen that path, I wouldn’t be standing here in the first place.

“The Blood will go crazy. If you tell them you can cure blood-locking by killing vampires . . . it will be war.”

Simon looked almost as tired as I felt, his blue eyes shadowed. “Hopefully we won’t have to tell them. Hopefully we can find the true cure. Something that won’t require bloodshed. Anyway, if things go smoothly, if the Blood don’t overreach during the negotiations, then maybe we can keep this to ourselves a while longer.”

I doubted that he believed the negotiations were going to go smoothly any more than I did. I was tired of being lied to. “Who else knows?”

“Just the people in this room.”

“And probably some Blood,” I said. “Fen was right. If Lucius tried to kill you, he couldn’t have kept his reasons entirely secret. Someone amongst the Blood knows.”

“Maybe.”

“Yes.” Guy and Lily spoke at the same time as Simon. Apparently they too thought Simon was being overly optimistic. Which made me feel somewhat relieved. At least I wasn’t the only one struggling with the news.

“But if the Blood know, won’t they try and use this against us in the negotiations? A cure is . . .” I had no idea of the legal implications of seeking to release those who were blood-locked. I knew that the locked were considered different from normal humans under treaty law. Once they were addicted, they forfeited their rights to protection. That meant the Blood had some claim on them, didn’t it?

“We don’t know,” Simon said. “It somewhat depends on who is in charge during the negotiations. They could be one united bloc or they could still have factions. Atherton says there are still those amongst the Blood who don’t agree with what Lucius was doing. Those who want to try and live alongside the humans and not rule over us.”

“It’s likely to be Ignatius Grey, isn’t it? That’s what Fen said. He saw Ignatius.” And Ignatius Grey didn’t want peace with the humans. I had been paying attention to the news and rumors afoot in the City in the lead-up to the negotiations. Ignatius Grey would be a new Lord Lucius if he gained control over the Blood Court. He was power-hungry and ruthless. There were other, more moderate, factions within the Blood, but until one of their leaders played the game as ruthlessly as Ignatius to get what they wanted, it seemed unlikely that they would defeat him. If they didn’t . . .

“It’s starting to seem that way, yes,” Simon said.

“Which is why we wanted to keep you out of this,” Guy said. “This isn’t going to be a picnic. It’s dangerous. We don’t know what’s going to happen during the negotiations.”

“You think Ignatius will try something?”

“I’m not making any guesses as to what anyone will do,” Guy said.

That was a lie. It was his job—his duty—as a Templar to try and outflank the enemy, to be a few steps ahead of them. Which meant that, as usual, they were still trying to keep things from me. My fingers curled and I relaxed them with an effort, feeling heat run through my prentice chain. “Surely no one will try actual . . . violence with the Fae there. The Veiled Queen would crush anyone who did.”

“We have to hope that you’re correct in that assessment,” Lily said, “but we don’t know.”

“Which is why you need to think about whether you still want to be part of this,” Simon said.

“The alternative being to sit in my room while I wait to find out what’s happening or for war to break out?”

“You’d be safe at the Academy,” Simon said. “I want you to consider this carefully, Sass. If not for your own sake, then think of Mother and Hannah.”

A low blow. “I can’t be wrapped in cotton wool because Edwina died. That’s not fair.”

“Life isn’t. So please, think hard. You know too much now,” Simon said. “If something happened . . .”

“I won’t tell.”

“Not willingly,” Guy muttered.

Lily shot him an exasperated look. “Stop trying to scare her.”

I shivered suddenly. Did Guy really think it might come to that? Being coerced to tell what I’d learned here? Did that mean Fen was in danger too?

“I—”

“It’s late,” Guy said. “There’s nothing more we can do here. We should leave Simon and Bryony to do what they can for Reggie. The rest of us need sleep. We can talk more in the morning. Saskia, you should go back to Mother’s. Lily will go with you.”

I felt my jaw clench. Dismissed again, like a schoolgirl. I was starting to understand Fen’s anger all too clearly. But I wasn’t going to convince Guy or Simon that they should let me stay. There wasn’t anything I could do to help. I looked to Lily, who was watching me with an odd expression. “All right,” I said. “Lily, are you ready to go?”

She nodded, and after kissing Simon and stopping to squeeze Holly’s shoulder briefly, she led me out of the ward. I was quiet as we made our way back to the main tunnels. Lily moved soundlessly, as she usually did, looking formidable in her black leather, her hair still braided tightly. I hadn’t seen her wear it like that since the first few weeks after Lucius died. She’d seemed to be growing more relaxed amongst our world, but tonight she was on alert, her body telegraphing the same readiness for action that Guy’s usually did.

As we turned out of the tunnel that held the first door, she glanced back the way we’d come.

“Did you leave something?” I asked.

“No.” She tilted her head at me, as if considering something.

“Did Simon send you with me to see if you could convince me to do what he wants?”

“No. To keep you safe.” Her smile flashed briefly, lightening her expression like a flame leaping to life. “But safety is not the only thing that’s important. I think you should do what you think is right. Your brothers do too, deep down. That’s why they’re so busy trying to convince you to stay out of things. They know you’re too much like them.”

“That’s hypocritical.”

“They’re men. They don’t always make sense. They just want to keep you safe.” She hesitated.

“Is there something else?” Lily didn’t usually prevaricate. She either stayed quiet or said exactly what she was thinking.

“It’s about Fen.”

I hadn’t expected that. “What about him?”

“The vision he had at the warrens. It was . . . painful.”

My skin chilled. “How painful?”

“From where I stood, very. Enough for him to take Bryony’s potion without arguing. And I’m not sure that stopped the pain entirely.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Your touch helps. Perhaps you should go to him.”

I stared. “Simon and Guy would throw a fit if they found out.”

“I thought you didn’t care what your brothers thought.” Lily’s eyes held a challenge. “Fen was brave tonight. It’s not easy to be the outsider stepping into this fight.”

I looked at the clock. “It’s almost four a.m.”

“You’re always telling me you don’t want to be just a well-behaved human girl. So why do you care?”

Definitely a challenge. I wondered why she was encouraging me to do something that Simon would disapprove of. They were most often a united front. But apparently Fen had won her respect. Or else she had a different agenda in making sure that he was all right.

“You think I should go to him?”

“Yes.”

“He seemed very angry.”

“All the better that someone try to talk to him before he has a chance to do something stupid because of that anger.”

“He might not want to listen to me. I am Simon’s sister, after all.”

Lily smiled at that. “Oh, I think of all of us, you probably have the best chance of persuading him. Except maybe for Holly, and she’s too busy with worrying about Regina right now to worry about Fen too much. Not to mention calming Guy down.”

“Guy . . . he doesn’t like what Simon is doing?”

“No, he doesn’t. But that’s something that Guy and Simon have to deal with. They’ve dealt with philosophical differences before.”

“Whose side are you on?”

She cocked her head, studied me in her unnerving way. “I’m not for Ignatius Grey, or for the Blood destroying the treaties. The rest is semantics. Whose side are you on?”

Mine
. But then I saw Fen’s face again. Not just mine perhaps. It seemed my night was not yet over.

* * *

The night felt very dark, pressing in around the ’cab despite the fact that we were still in the relatively well-lit streets of Greenglass, deep in the human boroughs. We hadn’t even reached the border boroughs yet.

What was I doing?

Well past the middle of the night and I was going to seek out a man and offer him . . . what exactly?

I didn’t know him terribly well.

Didn’t know why I wanted to help him.

Didn’t even know if my help would be welcome.

Crazy. I should just tell the driver to turn the ’cab around and go home. Tomorrow would be soon enough to seek out Fen.

Tomorrow would be soon enough to face all this craziness.

But if I went home—back to my mother’s house, or back to my room at the Guild—then I would be doing exactly what everyone wanted me to do. Playing it safe. Staying out of trouble. Following the rules set down by my brothers. One of whom had been breaking the rules all along.

And Fen would be left alone and hurting.

I tightened my grip on my purse and set my teeth. Simon had been lying to me. Would probably keep lying to me if he thought it would keep me out of trouble.