Steal the Sun (18 page)

The Hunter smiled even as Dev and Danny started to protest. “She is completely insane. I like her. It’s a shame she’s probably about to die.”

“Not helpful,” I shot back at him. Daniel leapt over the sill and Dev was thinking about it. “Not on your life, mister. You heard what the guy with the horns said. No boys allowed. I’m all full on vamp blood so if they try to take my head off, Sarah will just run down and hold it on until it heals. I’ll be fine.”

Daniel and Dev gave each other a long look.

“If they are willing to talk, and I’m not saying they will be, but if they are, they won’t do it around a man,” Dev said. “I don’t think they’ll harm her if she’s careful. And polite. Try to remember the polite part, my goddess.”

“Fine,” Danny said, crossing his arms and planting his feet. “But I’m waiting right here, and if one of them even starts to make anything like a sonic boom, I’m coming. All right?”

I nodded shortly. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

There was a collective shudder as the queen appeared at the window and asked Daniel to help her down. He gracefully lifted Miria over the sill and onto the grass. She smoothed out her dress and joined me.

“Miria.” Padric said her name with all the masculine indignation he could muster. It was sad because even though she was the Queen of Faery, she still had to put up with some man trying to protect her. I knew the feeling well.

Her hand was already in mine as she turned back to her lover. “If my new daughter can be brave enough to face them, then I can find the strength to go with her. Wait here, Padric. She is right. This is not a place for men. I will return.”

We started down the hill and the lights from the palace waned. We were left with the moonlight shining brightly off the stream. The water flowed from the mountains past the palace and into the valley below. We followed the stream downhill, and in the moonlight, it looked like things were moving in the shining waters. I almost stopped when I saw what looked like a horse’s head staring out from the reeds in the water.

“Do not look for long,” Miria instructed. “There are kelpies in these waters, and they will try to lure you down.”

I shuddered as we passed the water horse and its shining eyes. It whispered to me, but Miria’s hand was firm and she led me away.

I was thankful now for my “proper costume” because it included slippers. If I’d worn my normal formal stilettos, I would be going barefoot and I didn’t want to know if the black dogs had been playing in this field.

“Why three?” I asked to break our tense silence.

“They represent the three sides of the goddess.” Her strawberry-blonde hair looked lighter as we moved away from the palace. Her skin glowed as though the moonlight allowed her to shine. “They are the maid, the matron, and the crone. They rarely sing their songs together. When they do, it is usually an important death.”

On the Earth plane, it is said the banshee will only wail for the five most important families in Ireland. On the Faery planes, they wailed for the royals and the highest of nobles. I was hoping for a noble because the royal family was small and even Declan’s death would have horrible consequences for me. Declan’s death would place Dev closer to the throne, but more importantly, it would make the son growing in my belly a direct heir to the crown. I didn’t want that.

We stopped at a polite distance. Strangely their song seemed quieter here, as though proximity diluted the sound in an illogical fashion. I got my first real glimpse at the keeners. They looked to be the same woman but at different times of life. The young one was, perhaps, sixteen. She was lovely, with an unblemished face and a youthful body. The matron appeared to be in her early thirties, and she was ripe with child. The crone was wrinkled, but there was still an odd beauty to her countenance. Their eyes were the sliver of a full moon.

I heard my mother-in-law take a steadying breath beside me. I let go of her hand and stepped forward. Polite. Dev had told me to be polite, and I was determined to follow that particular edict.

“Hello,” I said with my most gracious voice. “First off, I would like to thank you very much for the evening’s entertainment. It wasn’t even pitchy.”

They all three stopped what they were doing and, in perfect synchronicity, turned toward me. Their heads cocked to the side, and I could tell they were surprised by our appearance.

“Good evening, Your Highness,” the matron said. Her voice was even and strong. It sounded nothing like her ethereal singing voice.

Miria gathered her courage and stepped forward with a regal bow of her head. “Good evening.”

The matron smiled, though there was no humor in her face. “I was not talking to you, Miria, Queen of the Seelie Fae, though you are certainly welcome. I was speaking to Zoey, Queen of all Vampire.”

Miria was startled and looked at me, her eyes wide with shock. “Daughter?”

“Well, I don’t exactly have a crown or anything.” I was deeply uncomfortable with the distinction. Daniel was the uncrowned King of Vampire. I was his wife and still unsure what my place was.

“You do not sit upon your throne, yet, Your Highness, and it is not certain that you ever will,” the crone intoned. Like the others, she wore a white dress, but it hung upon her frail frame. “It is up to you. You are a piece of the cloth that remains unknown.”

“You are a nexus point,” the maiden explained, her voice soft and lyrical. There was a garland of white flowers in her hair that marked her virginity.

Miria again seemed startled at the pronouncement, but I was just confused. “What’s a nexus point?”

“It means you are important.” Miria’s voice shook slightly. I could easily tell she was wondering what her son had gotten them all into. I was wondering the same thing.

“You are a person who holds her own fate,” the matron explained. “Because your fate is unwritten, the fate of all around you is dependent upon you.”

“Their fates flow through the decisions you make,” the crone continued. “The pathways you choose change the fate of those you love. I give you an example…”

“You changed the fate of Daniel Donovan by loving him,” the maiden said. “If you had not been in his life, he would have lived to be an old man and when he died, the Council would have aided him in walking into the light. Because he loved you, he found himself on the road at night. He turned early and all of Vampire was changed.”

Daniel died in a car accident while he was getting dinner for me. I’ve heard talk of latent vampires dying earlier because they were involved with women who were companions. I’ve heard it said that having a companion close makes the latent vampire more reckless.

“Devinshea Quinn should have died on the Earth plane when his business was robbed.” The matron moved toward me now, and it took everything I had to not back away. “Now he lives and Faery has a chance to thrive.”

On my first date with Dev, I’d uncovered a plot to rob his business. I’d made him aware that a group was coming to steal from him and he’d been ready. Had I really saved him that night? And I had been the one to cause Daniel’s death?

“All of this is interesting.” The thought gave me chills, filled me with fear. I didn’t want the responsibility, and I certainly didn’t want to think about how I had changed my husbands’ lives—killing one and saving the other. “I’m grateful to you for sharing these stories, but why are you here tonight? Why do you sing this evening?”

“We sing for him,” they said in chorus.

I was proud of myself because I didn’t roll my eyes. I hate the whole prophecy rigmarole. It would be one thing if said prophet ever did a girl a solid and just pointed and said that dude in the red shirt is going to die. They can’t do that. It goes against their union rules. They have to make their prophecies into a code you have to crack. I think it’s because an awful lot of prophecy comes after said prophet gets high. They often sounded like they had taken way too much peyote to me.

“It is a man who will die?” Miria asked, her voice thick with emotion.

“He is, indeed, male,” they said.

“Could you cough up a name, maybe?” I asked.

The three heads tilted, and Miria gave me a look that told me to behave. I had to try.

“He is important,” the maiden said.

“He is the second child of his mother, though she carried only once,” the matron continued.

“He will not be,” the crone finished.

Miria had fallen to her knees, and I heard her sob. “Devinshea.”

I felt my own tears because he was the second son of a mother who had only ever carried the twins. I reached out and felt her grab my hand. I faced the banshee even as the tears started to fall. I couldn’t fall apart. I had to figure out how to save him. “Is it my husband? How does it happen? Is someone going to try to kill him?” I used the word “try” because I couldn’t face anything else.

The matron stepped forward and looked at me not unkindly. “We have said what we can. I only know that Faery will mourn but in the spring life will come again.”

“The baby,” Miria said tearfully.

My baby. She was talking about my baby, who might be down one dad soon. I couldn’t let that happen. If I was this nexus point thing, then I had some say in this. They said my choices changed things. I was definitely choosing to not lose Dev. “What do I have to do to stop it?”

The matron, who was definitely in charge now, reached out to take my hand. Her flesh was cold against mine but her strength was steady. “There is nothing you can do this time. It is written.”

“Then why are you here?” I asked bitterly. Inside I was raging against the thought that it was written somewhere that Dev was going to die. I was going to find that damn book and do a rewrite. “Why bother with this show? Is it just to torture me, to make my last days with him hell? I’ll spend every minute waiting for him to die. How is that helpful?”

The crone and the maiden took steps forward, their faces darkening. The matron held one hand out while keeping mine in the other. “She loves. It is powerful and we should make allowances. After all, she is the only one in many years to brave our presence. She is a warrior. She will fight this battle no matter what we say.”

The crone looked sad as she watched me cry. “And she will lose.”

The tears were burning my eyes. “Why?” I asked more politely now. “If I can’t save him, why tell me he’s going to die?”

“You cannot save the one who will die,” the matron said, looking deeply into my eyes. “But you can stop the war his death will begin.”

“You are the only one who can stop it,” said the crone.

“You are the only one who can save both sides of Faery,” the maiden finished. “The sun and moon will meet in battle, and it will be the last one.”

“If you fail, something precious will fade from this plane forever,” the matron explained. “Find the Blood Stone. It will lead you to the truth. It will lead you back to yourself.”

“The Blood Stone?” Miria asked. “What does that have to do with anything?”

But the matron released me, taking a step back to join the others. “You must go now. We have work to do. You will figure it out, Your Highness, and you will make your own fate.”

“Wait,” I called out because I couldn’t leave it.

Miria was on her feet, using her strength to drag me away. “No, daughter, they are done. You will not help Devinshea by angering them. Think of your child.”

But I wasn’t thinking of my child. I turned from the river where the women took up their washing once more, and their mournful song could be heard through the valley. I turned from my mother-in-law and I ran. I ran up the hill, holding that dress up so I didn’t fall because I had one thing I needed to do. I had to hold him. I had to know that he was alive. The banshees were wrong about me. I wouldn’t give a crap about Faery if Dev died. They could fight all they liked if he died here. They could take their war and shove it because I would be gone.

I tripped halfway up the hill and the sobbing started. I let loose, my grief making the banshee wails seem a weak thing. Daniel got to me first. He pulled me up and looked me in the eyes. His blue ones registered my loss, and he pulled me close.

“Tell me it’s not Dev.” I could feel him shake. “Zoey, tell me it’s not Dev.”

“She can’t, Daniel,” Dev said quietly from behind. “Everyone stay calm. It will be all right.”

Padric ran up and Miria threw herself into his arms, sobbing her grief as well. Declan looked pale and shaken as he fell to his knees. He looked even worse than he had when he thought it was him.

I pushed away from Daniel and he let me go because I needed Dev in that moment. He wrapped his big arms around me and held me so tightly, I could feel his heartbeat against mine. I wept into his chest. I held onto him with such force I was sure I would leave marks.

“You’ll be all right, Zoey,” Dev said, stroking my hair. “I love you so much, my wife. Daniel will take good care of you.”

“Screw that,” Daniel said. “You aren’t dead. Just because some weird women say it doesn’t make it so.”

“History disagrees with you, Dan,” Dev said quietly, the only calm one on the lawn.

“Fuck history,” Daniel shot back. “We fight this. You lay down and accept this, Dev, and I will never forgive you.”

“All right,” Dev agreed. “Tell me what you wish me to do and I will do it.”

Daniel nodded, though he had no idea what he wanted Dev to do. He only knew we had to do something. It was not in Daniel Donovan’s nature to calmly accept fate. “We’ll figure something out.”

Dev nodded but his hand strayed to that tiny heart that was beating deep in my body. He covered it with his hand and laid his head against mine, and I knew deep in his heart that he didn’t believe it.

Chapter Eleven