Iron Kin: A Novel of the Half-Light City (11 page)

“You put him up to this,” Guy said, returning her gaze with a look that was equally disgusted.

I stepped forward. “No.” There was no reason for Saskia to be in as much disfavor as I was. Though given the anger on the faces of her brothers, maybe that was a mistake. “I’m the one who needs Saskia.”

That didn’t do anything to ease their minds. Beside Guy, Holly looked at me with a pointed “What stupid thing have you done now, Fen?” look that I knew all too well. But luckily she kept a firm grip on Guy’s arm, having grabbed him as soon as I’d spoken.

“Needs her how, exactly?” Simon said in a dangerous tone.

“Not that way,” Saskia said with an eye roll. “Give me some credit, Simon.”

“I give you credit,” Simon said, his tone not changing. “Him, I’m not so sure about.”

“Well, he can’t exactly have done anything to me without me letting him, can he now? Besides, I’m not sure exactly when you think we’ve had the time. I’m sure Fen is very flattered by your assessment of his ability to seduce a woman in three seconds flat, but that isn’t what he meant.”

“What. Did. He. Mean?” Guy asked through gritted teeth.

“It’s his visions,” Saskia said. “They’re painful.”

Simon’s eyes flicked down toward my wrist. “You said you had them under control.”

“I did. But lately, things have become more . . . difficult.”

“What’s that got to do with Saskia?”

“Saskia can stop my visions.”

“What!” Holly exclaimed.

“How?” Lily said at the same time.

“I don’t know how. But she touched me and the visions went away.”

“What were you doing touching her?” Guy said. His voice was still ominous, but he had relaxed a little. Maybe. Or maybe that was wishful thinking on my part.

“He was helping me into my ’cab,” Saskia said. “As either of you would have,” she added. “I’d taken my gloves off because my hand was hurting.” She broke off and held a hand up in Simon’s direction. “Don’t fuss, Simon. It was just a little burn. Anyway, Fen took my hand to help and apparently his visions went away.”

“Coincidence,” Simon said.

“No, it happens every time,” I said, judging it safe to talk again. “Well, every time we’ve tried it.”

Guy’s pale blue eyes were the shade of frost on a window, the chill of his anger clear. “Oh really? How often is that, may I ask?”

This time Holly elbowed Guy in the ribs. “Calm down,” she said. “Fen held her hand, not . . . anything improper.” She hit me with another one of those looks. This one meaning “You’d better not prove me wrong about that.” “If having Saskia around gives Fen some respite from his visions and the aftereffects, then surely that will make him more useful to the delegation?”

I hid my smile of relief. Holly was making the point for me far more effectively than if I’d tried to do it.

“We don’t know that will work,” Guy rumbled.

Simon sighed. “Maybe not. But if Saskia does help him—”

Guy looked outraged. “You’re not going along with this.”

“I can’t in good conscience deny Fen this relief.”

“So you just want to give him Saskia?”

“I’m standing right here, you know,” Saskia said, exasperation equal to her brothers’ rising in her voice. “Nobody is giving me to anyone. I’ve agreed to help Fen. Which means I need to be close to him when he needs me.”

“The negotiations aren’t safe, Sass,” Guy said, obviously trying a different tack.

“Nowhere in the City is terribly safe right now,” Saskia said.

“The Guild of Metalmages is protected,” Guy countered.

“Hardly,” Saskia said. “One of my fellow apprentices could screw things up and blow us all to the depths of hell at any moment. Or worse. You have to let me pick what chances I want to take, Guy. I want to help. And Fen needs me.”

Guy’s pale eyes narrowed again. He swung back to me. “You can’t fix”—he stopped and pointed at my head with an accusing finger—“that any other way?”

“I’ve tried. But the iron isn’t helping as much anymore,” I said. “I don’t know why exactly. There isn’t much else I can do. The only other people likely to be able to help me are the Beasts or perhaps the Fae. I doubt they would help me out of the goodness of their hearts. They’d want something from me in return.”

I paused, let that sink in. Guy knew all too well the dangers of the Veiled Court and the games they could play with their half-breed by-blows. Holly had almost fallen foul of her own father. With my power, I would be a valuable tool for an unscrupulous Fae. They had their own seers, but it was a relatively uncommon power. Plus Guy knew that not all the Fae were on the humans’ side of things when it came to the treaty.

If he made me take that path, then he wouldn’t get what he wanted from me either.

So the question was, just how badly did he want me? He was an interesting man, the Templar. Devoted to his duty and equally devoted to his family, including Holly. Sometimes I wondered how the strain of it hadn’t split him in two before now, how he managed to balance on the knife’s edge and not fail either side.

But now I was asking him to make a choice that squarely hinged on that dilemma. Who to put first? Saskia or the City? I hoped I’d made the right gamble as to which he was likely to choose.

“You’d sell yourself to the highest bidder?” Guy’s voice was dark with distaste.

“I’m not selling myself,” I snapped back. “I’m trying to make the best of a bad situation.”

“Don’t loyalty and honor matter?”

“Whom should I be loyal to? Nobody wants the mongrels like me.” I refrained from looking at Holly and Lily and including them in my statement. Through those two, Simon and Guy knew very well what the demi-Fae went through.

“You’d choose to go to the Beasts for help?”

“I don’t want to choose to go anywhere. I was quite content as I was.”

“The world isn’t going to stay as it was,” Simon said.

“I
know
that.” As much as I wanted to deny it, I couldn’t.

“You’ve seen something, haven’t you?”

I stayed silent. Guy started to swear, a long steady stream of curses half muttered under his breath.

“No point muttering,” Saskia said to him. “You’re not saying anything I haven’t heard before.”

Guy shot her a look but kept stalking around the room, his curses a little louder. Simon stayed where he was, eyes fixed on me as though he could read the truth in me. Maybe he might have been able to if he was touching me, reading a lie in my bodily reactions, but not even a Master Healer can read another’s thoughts.

Saskia crossed to me. “You did see something, didn’t you?” she asked, laying a hand on my arm. My skin warmed beneath her touch as the pain melted from my wrist and my skull. Involuntarily my head turned to her, our eyes meeting for a breath too long. She looked away first. Then looked back.

“Well?” she repeated.

I shook myself and stepped away. Saskia made no move to follow, though her cheeks flushed as she watched me go, something close to hurt flashing in her eyes. Damn. I didn’t like the answering flare of guilt in my gut.

I couldn’t care what she felt.

“If I did see something, I’m hardly likely to tell anyone until it’s decided whose side I might be on,” I said.

Across the room, Guy’s cursing cut off midbreath. Simon’s face grew even grimmer. “Is that a threat?”

I folded my arms across my chest. “Just good business.”

Simon squared his shoulders. “What makes you think we’ll just let you go?”

“What are you going to do, beat me up in front of your sister, then throw me in a Templar cell?” I stood my ground.

“If I—,” Guy growled before Saskia stepped forward, shaking her head at us.

“There’s an easy way to settle this,” she said. “Without any of you having to act like petulant children.”

Guy started to splutter. Simon nudged him. “Such as?”

Saskia nodded toward me. “Do as he asks. Let me be on the delegation. Then I’m sure he’ll tell you whatever he knows.”

I tensed as Guy and Simon turned their blue eyes on me. One pair frosted ice, one pair bright as summer, they held identical expressions of anger. Guy was glaring. Simon looked only resolute.

“Don’t make me get a bucket of cold water,” Saskia said. I wondered whose tone she was mimicking to get that snap of exasperated authority. Her mother perhaps? Or maybe one of the Masters from the Guild?

Saskia moved a few steps toward her brothers, putting herself between them and me. Foolish girl.

“Simon, you want Fen’s help. Surely letting me be on the delegation isn’t such a terrible thing?” she said.

Simon and Guy both stiffened. I knew what they feared, but I also understood Saskia’s need to be allowed to make her own way in the world.

She looked just as determined as her brothers, hands planted on her hips as she scowled at them. “Guy, you always say you believe in the greater good. So do I. So you need to take your emotion out of this. If it were anyone else, you wouldn’t blink.”

“Maybe not. But it isn’t anybody else—it’s you. You’re my sister,” Guy said.

“And that’s the mistake you keep making. I’m not just your little sister anymore. Not in the way you think. I don’t need your protection. I can help. So stop cutting off your nose to spite your face and give in.”

Another look passed between Simon and Guy. Then they turned to me.

“Will you tell us?” Simon asked. “The truth? If we agree to what you want?”

In other words, was I joining their side?
Veil’s eyes
. How had I gotten to this point? I nodded, curtly.

“Say it out loud,” Guy demanded. “I want your word.”

One side of my mouth curled. “I’m not Fae, you know. I could lie.”

“But you won’t.”

“How do you know?”

“I don’t,” Guy said shortly. “But Holly has faith in you. And you helped us when we needed it. I believe you’re a good man. I hope you don’t prove me wrong.”

I paused for a moment, feeling the weight of the chain around my wrist, the aching bite of the skin beneath it. Thinking of Reggie, wherever she was. To be rid of one and to save the other, I would do this utterly stupid thing and help the DuCaines. “Yes. I’ll tell you what I saw. I’ll join your delegation. As long as Saskia is assigned to assist me. She has to be where I am.”

Guy pressed his lips together but Simon nodded. “All right.”

“Say it,” I said. “Out loud. Your word for mine.”

“You have a deal,” Simon said. “If you join the delegation, Saskia will be assigned to you.”

Guy nodded agreement. “Though if something happens to her—”

I nodded back. “You don’t have to worry about that. I will look after her.”

Saskia looked vaguely indignant at this exchange but she wisely didn’t say anything.

Holly came forward to join Guy again. “Good. Now, if you boys are finished, can we get back to Reggie?” she said in a tight voice.

Guy and Simon had the grace to look vaguely sheepish. Guy reached out to put his arm around her.

“Ideas?” Holly asked, leaning into Guy.

“Either the Blood have her or the Beasts do,” I said.

“I can search the warrens,” Lily offered. “Once the sun sets.”

Simon opened his mouth, then snapped it shut again. There was no point protesting. Lily was the only one of us who could get deep inside Blood territory without any risk of being discovered. She was a wraith and as long as there was no sun to snare her she could turn invisible and incorporeal, barred by no wall or door.

“I could go with her—,” Holly said.

“No.” Guy and I cut her off at the same time. Holly’s charms were good but she wasn’t a wraith. If she was discovered, we’d just end up with someone else in need of rescue. Holly looked mulish but she didn’t argue any further.

“What happens if you find her?” I asked Lily.

Lily shrugged. “If she’s somewhere that
I might be able to get her out on my own, I’ll try. If not, then I’ll come back and we’ll figure it out.”

Meaning we’d lose more time, given that it was far more likely to be the latter option. If Reggie had been taken by the Blood, we didn’t have time to spare. Every second she remained there was time she would be helpless. Unable to stop them from doing anything they wanted to her. The thought was terrifying. There was no time to waste.

“All right. And I’ll go and see Martin Krueger,” I said. I hoped like hell it was Martin who had her. He was definitely the lesser of two evils at this point.

“Why would he tell you if he has her?”

“He will if he thinks he’s getting what he wants. That I will see for him.”

“You’d lie to him?” Holly said.

“Why not?” After Martin learned the truth, that I’d picked a side that wasn’t his, he would, most likely, seek revenge. Lying to him couldn’t make things any worse.

“Or maybe you’d be telling the truth,” Guy said.

“I gave you my word,” I shot back. “You either need to accept that or not. This isn’t going to work if you’re going to jump down my throat every other minute.”

“He’s right,” Simon said. “All right, Fen. Tonight, you go talk to Martin.”

“What are we meant to do until then?” Holly said.

“Sleep,” I said. “Go about our business. Whoever did this wants to get to us. We need to act like everything is normal.”

“I agree,” Guy said after a pause.

Thank the Veil for that. Gods, I wanted to sleep. Then I remembered Reggie once more and guilt sliced through me. Guilt didn’t change how tired I was, though. Sleep would help me function. We all just had to pray to whoever might listen that Reggie would survive until we came for her.

I watched Holly lean into Guy, wrapping her arms around him, seeking comfort. My stomach tightened as I read the strain on her face. Once upon a time she would have turned to Reggie and me for comfort, but now Guy was the one she needed for strength. She’d gone through this before with her mother. I’d been worried then but not in the same way. That time I’d been fairly sure that Reggie would be okay, that Holly’s bastard of a father wouldn’t actually hurt them.

This time I didn’t have that vague reassurance in the back of my mind. This time I felt as though there was a clock ticking. The worst of it was that I was too tired to tell if it was premonition or just worry. Veil’s eyes, I needed a drink. There was no one waiting to wrap her arms around me and make me feel any better.