Lies and Prophecy (31 page)

Her hand was still in his, a point of unaccustomed contact. Julian hesitated, then returned the grip, until she faced him once more. The words came out more easily than he expected. “Would you like me to?”

She drew in a sharp breath, and nodded.

“All right,” Julian said, but before he could continue, he felt a presence outside. His head came around to face the door. “But not right now.”

The door opened. From behind Liesel, Robert proclaimed grandly, “I have been thinking.” He entered with a flourish, either oblivious to Kim's lack of composure or ignoring it. More ominously, Liesel said nothing, either. She went straight to a chair and sat in it, hands clasped around her knees. “More to the point,” Robert continued, “I have been considering what Falcon said last night. And now, my thinking done, I have a theory.”

“Congratulations,” Kim said dryly, her attention half on her silent roommate.

Robert remained standing, the better to pontificate. “Ah, but wait until you have heard the substance of the matter, my lady. I was, you see, considering his words regarding travel between their world and ours, and the restriction to Welton, and the manner in which this connection would expand—”

“Get to the point,” Julian said, his patience fraying.

Robert bowed floridly. “As you wish. Falcon said the link between here and there would expand outward from Welton. I do not think this was quite accurate. I think it is expanding from
you.
” And he pointed at Julian.

Given what he and Kim had just been discussing, it made sense. “Go on.”

“Allow me to recreate it from the beginning, if you will.” Robert began to pace in front of them. It had been weeks since he'd had such a chance to grandstand; clearly he wasn't going to waste it. “Samhain is a night long said to have special characteristics, a night when the Otherworld and our world are closer than they are on other days. The veil separating them thins. Contact became possible. And the Unseelie, searching for a suitable location to concentrate on, chose Welton. More specifically, they chose Julian.”

Because his sidhe blood put him closer to the Otherworld than anyone else. If the
geis
really did maneuver wilders into the vicinity of an impending problem, this time it had put him squarely in the line of fire.

“They reached through and attempted to pull him into their world,” Robert went on. “And failed. But the critical point here is that the connection thus formed is to
him
and not to the
place.
Welton's location facilitated the attempt, but nothing in the magic was directed at the land.”

It was a good observation, and one Julian hadn't considered before. Kim said, “Right. They don't seem to have been coming and going from that spot.”

“Indeed, I do not think they have. To continue: the line was established. And so when Julian cast his summoning circle, he was able to contact the Seelie. Time had passed; the veil had continued to thin. And the nature of the circle thinned it even further. Given this, and given that he did not resist the attempt, they successfully brought him into the Otherworld. The connection was solidified.

“Now we come to the second summoning,” Robert went on. “Julian must at this point be a beacon to the sidhe, the contact point between their realm and ours. Then he works another summoning—”

“With our help,” Kim finished. “We cast that circle together, shared magic. And we're all friends anyway—a link between us.”

“Exactly.” Robert's energy faded to grimness. “Julian was the contact point, but we are the next step out. My theory therefore goes thus: the sidhe are not specifically bound to Welton in any way. They are bound to
us.
Or, more accurately, to my esteemed roommate. They can only come and go in his vicinity, and they cannot go far from him without feeling uncomfortable.”

“Define ‘vicinity,'” Kim said. “My bedroom's not that close to the hospital.” Then she cut her own words off with a groan. “I'm an idiot. It's already expanded, hasn't it.”

“I believe so. You were apparently the next in line. At first they may have relied on him alone, but now you are included in the contact.”

Because of Julian's own attachment to her. No, it was more than that; he kicked himself as he remembered asking Kim to assist him after Samhain. Sending her out there like that had reinforced her connection. He
had
made her a target.

If Kim realized that, she didn't say anything. “What about you and Liesel? Are you in the contact as well, now?”

“Impossible to say. We shall have to see if any of them visit us when you and Julian are not there.”

“But this won't spread geographically,” Julian said, his voice low. “It'll spread by the connections we have to other people.”

“Our families,” Liesel whispered. She looked sick. Robert must have told her this before they came to Wolfstone; it explained her uncharacteristic quiet, and her defensive posture. “And the Circle. We shared blood. Not much, but it's still a connection. They're all in danger.”

Kim rose slowly to her feet, expression bleak. “Gods. I've been wondering why nobody's pulled us into protective custody—but that runs the risk of making things worse. The more we move around, the more the sidhe can, too.”

“But they could guard us,” Liesel said, her voice tight and wobbly. “Unless we're just bait to them, dangled out to see what the Unseelie will do—”

Robert snorted, sounding like he was trying too hard to make light of it. “Never attribute to conspiracy that which can be explained by mere bureaucracy. But Julian, can you do anything to move them along?”

He didn't sound worried, but then Robert never did. The real warning sign was Liesel, sitting there with her arms wrapped tight and her face as blank as a mask. Julian was used to closing himself off that way, but on Liesel, it just wasn't right.

“I can try,” he said. Guardians didn't usually have time to call for reinforcements—the problems they faced were over too quickly, one way or another—but maybe this once, a wilder wouldn't have to stand alone.

~

I made it to my pyrokinesis class the next day and discovered my studying binge had done me a world of good. It meant that I returned home in a good mood. I climbed the stairs, humming under my breath, and found Liesel dusting the room. I sneezed as I closed the door.

“What are you doing Friday?” she asked as I took my coat off and hung it up.

The question, so relentlessly ordinary, threw me. “Um, probably studying how to not die. Shit—tomorrow's Thanksgiving, isn't it?”

The dust cloth swept across a shelf, sending a small cloud into the air. “And the night after it is the Department of Telepathic Sciences' Annual Masked Ball.”

Just like every year. Welton's isolated location meant most students didn't bother to go home for such a short break, so my department staged an event for our entertainment. Where the hell had November vanished to? The Otherworld, apparently. “You want me to go to it?”

“Yes.”

“Liesel, I kind of have bigger things on my mind. I don't feel up to a dance.”

“People have been asking if you're okay. Akila came by earlier, wondering why she hasn't seen you at Div Club in weeks. And why you haven't been answering your messages. Do you want them to think something bad is happening?”

“Something bad
is
happening,” I reminded her. “They'll know that soon enough; we've got less than a month until the solstice. Besides, how could I go to the ball, knowing I'm putting everybody in danger?”

The dust cloth stopped. I winced, wishing I could reach out and take those last words back. Liesel turned to face me. “What?” she asked.

I considered trying to cover my tracks. I might have just been referring to my status as a contact point, after all. But this was Liesel. I couldn't tell Julian about the dreams and omens; he'd only feel more guilty, and convince himself this was all his responsibility. I could tell Liesel, though, and giving voice to the fear festering inside me might do some good.

So I sat on the couch and confessed it all. I told her about Shard's prediction and the dreams, from the ones my mother and Michele described, all the way back to mine from the previous quarter. They still didn't form any coherent picture, but taken together, they filled me with a sense of dread. I spilled it all to Liesel, while she stood with her back against the wall, dust rag forgotten in one hand, and when I was done I felt lighter than I had in weeks.

“And that's why I wouldn't feel right, going to the ball,” I finished. “I can't tell what form it'll take, but I
am
in danger. And I don't want to expose everyone else to that any more than I have to.”

Liesel closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. “The Unseelie won't do anything then. It would be stupid. Everyone will be there, all the students and the professors—everybody. They'd be suicidal to attack. Wouldn't they?”

I didn't put it past them, but…. “I guess you're right,” I said reluctantly.

“So go to the ball.”

“I don't have a costume.”

My flimsy excuse did nothing to dampen Liesel's renewed animation. “Leave that to me.”

“No, I'll just go ask Ceridwen. She always wants to use people as dress-up dolls.” In my case, a Christine Rendal look-alike—but it was easier than finding my own alternative. I rose and went to the door.

“I said, I'll do it.” Liesel's voice was sharp. Attempting to look meek, I left the door ajar and, head bowed submissively, returned to my chair. Let her do this her way. Liesel turned to go out, but she was only halfway to the door when it slammed into the wall.

My personal shields flared as I leapt to my feet. Liesel let out a half-shriek. But it wasn't a sidhe in the doorway; it was only Julian.

Julian, radiating anger like a heat wave.

And then Robert behind him, holding his arm protectively against his body as if it was injured, although I saw no visible damage.

“Shit,” I muttered, lowering my guard.

“I think we can assume I'm in the contact as well,” Robert said lightly.

The guys came in and shut the door behind them. Liesel immediately took charge of Robert, leading him protesting to the couch and examining his arm. “What happened?” I asked Julian with a heavy sigh.

“Ask him,” Julian said with a curt nod to his roommate. I took a step back. He wasn't about to lose control, but his anger was far closer to the surface than usual. It was a faint reminder of the insane fury I'd sensed in him at the hospital, and I didn't want to think about that.

Robert gave a careless, one-shouldered shrug. Liesel had her head bowed over his arm, feeling for damage with her mind. “One of them was lurking around.”

“He attacked you?”

“
That
fool started it,” Julian growled, glaring at his roommate.

“What?” I stared at Robert in shock. “You—good gods, you attacked a sidhe? By
yourself
?”

Robert was trying to look innocent, but glee lurked under the mask. “I led him to the edge of the Arboretum so as to get him away from everyone else, then sent a little flick to let him know I do not appreciate being stalked.”

“Hell,” I snarled, and dropped into my chair.

“There was only one of them.”

“So what happened to your arm?”

Another one-shouldered shrug. “I was a trifle careless, and let a levinbolt through.”

Liesel's head came up. I couldn't see the look she gave Robert, but it killed some of the glee. “So I see,” she said. “You're going to have a massive bruise there.”

Robert accepted this ruefully. “I shall do better next time—not that I plan on there being a next time,” he hastened to add. “In truth, I was rather curious to see what they were like. I do not know where that fellow stands among his kin, but I found him not
that
challenging, and had I been better prepared, I think I could have taken him.”

“And what if there had been more than one?” Liesel snapped.

“I would have run like hell, my lady.”

I wasn't sure I believed that. Robert's eye still held a manic gleam. I hoped Grayson was right, that help would be here soon. We just might need them to restrain our friends as well as our enemies.

~

I went back to Talman that night. With Julian, at everyone's insistence. I didn't mind the company, but being treated like something fragile grated on me. The touch of reassurance Julian sent as we came to the steps of the library wasn't necessary. I went inside without hesitation.

The debris was gone from the front room, but there were still holes where the screens had been. Polite signs apologized for their absence without ever quite explaining where they'd gone, though the scars on the walls hinted at the answer.

Once we had a good stack of books, Julian and I took a few each and went down to the reading room to go through them. There was only one other student there, staring hopelessly at some vodou books and a few sketches of vévés. At first the quiet made my nerves hypersensitive, jumping at every sound, but after a while I was able to focus on my reading, and even to relax. Tense or calm, though, I didn't find much of use in the books, beyond what we'd already guessed on our own.

Julian glanced at his watch as we left the library. “We have a little time before dinner. Would you like to walk for a bit?”

I got the feeling Julian's request wasn't an idle one. “Sure.”

“Let's go back to Kinfield; it's too cold to sit in the Arboretum.” That was for damn sure. Robert might be right about the danger attaching to us, rather than to the place, but I could at least be in danger and
warm.

We trudged through the snow for a while in silence before Julian spoke again. “I'd like to finish the conversation we started last night.”