Meghan didn’t reply, and after a few minutes, her breaths grew slow and even as she drifted into sleep.
In the silence, the Unseelie side rose up again, turning my thoughts ominous and violent. Meghan slept on, but her breath coiled into the air before her, and frost spread slowly over the walls and ceiling, until we were surrounded in glittering ice.
* * *
“Father.”
I turned, my steps muffled by the heavy layer of snow on the ground. Around me, the world was cloaked in white; flakes fell so heavily from the sky it was difficult to see more than a few feet ahead. I couldn’t discern the owner of the voice, but I knew he was here.
“Where are you, Keirran?”
Silence throbbed in my ears. The snowfall eased, and my son materialized from the white, standing across from me. He wore a white cloak, his pale hair and steel sword blending into the surroundings. Icy blue eyes regarded me without expression over the snow.
Then he smiled, and it chilled my insides. I had seen that smile when he had stood with the Lady in the last war; that cold, vicious smile of a killer. I drew in a breath, and smelled coppery blood drenching the frosty air. The snow around us was suddenly streaked with crimson. I glanced down and saw Puck staring up at me, green eyes wide and unseeing, the entire front of his shirt red and glistening.
“It’s too late.” Keirran’s voice held an edge of cruel laughter. I glared up at him, and he raised his arms, both of them soaked with crimson. Blood covered him, spattered across his face and streaked through his hair.
“You can’t save me,” Keirran said. He started forward, making no sound as he stepped over bodies and frozen corpses, his sword glimmering red at his side. “You’ve already failed once. You couldn’t protect me from the Lady, and now I’m going to destroy everything we both love, because you made me what I am. An Unseelie monster, just like you.”
The snow swirled around us, and in the shadows behind Keirran, something moved. A head, rising to an impossible height, the skull crowned with antlers, eyes glowing a blank, soulless white in the gloom. It watched impassively, and I saw thin, nearly invisible tendrils of shadow writhing around it. I glanced at Keirran again, and saw the wisps of darkness attached to him, trailing back to the Monster like a puppet on a string.
Rage flared. I drew my sword, and Keirran lunged at me, sweeping his blade down at my head. I knocked it aside, and the clang of two blades echoed into the night and reverberated over the trees.
“Keirran.” I backed away, and my son followed me, teeth bared in an ugly grin. “Stop this,” I told him, raising my sword to parry another blow. “This isn’t what you want.”
“Wrong.” Keirran slashed viciously at my face; I jerked my head back to avoid the edge that would’ve split open my skull. “I have always been like this,” he snarled at me. “Because you have the same darkness inside. You’ve always struggled with your Unseelie nature. What makes you think I don’t have that same bloodlust within me? I am you!”
I dodged another stab, circling around him. For a moment, his back was unguarded, but I didn’t take advantage of the opening. Keirran spun, eyes glittering, the scowl on his face revealing he knew I wasn’t fighting him fully. “You can’t save me,” he said again. “You can’t save anyone. Evenfall is coming, and no matter how hard you fight, nothing you do will prevent it. In the end, you’re going to lose us all.”
He lunged at me, and the rage soared. Knocking aside the blade, I stepped close and drove my weapon through his center, the point exploding out his back. Keirran jerked, stiffening against me, as his skin turned blue and iced over. I yanked my blade free and the frozen statue of my son shattered, raining to the ground with almost delicate chiming sounds, as the Unseelie within howled with glee.
5
THE MESSENGER
I jerked awake, my heart slamming against my ribs. An unfamiliar room, Leanansidhe’s guest quarters, greeted me as I opened my eyes. I hadn’t meant to sleep, but I guess I must’ve dozed off after all. Annoyance with myself flickered. If Razor Dan and his crew had decided to sneak in here, I did not want to be caught sleeping and unaware by a sadistic redcap motley.
Beside me, Meghan stirred and sleepily opened her eyes. “Ash?” she murmured. “Are you all right?”
I nodded, shoving the nightmare with the soulless Keirran to a distant part of my mind. His words, and the look on his face, made my blood run cold, but I would not lose hope. “I’m fine,” I said quietly.
Her hand slid up my chest, leaving tingles where it passed. “Your heart is pounding.”
“Just a dream,” I murmured. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
“Nightmare?”
“It was nothing,” I soothed, and kissed the top of her head. “There’s still maybe an hour until dawn. Go back to sleep.”
Meghan sniffed. “Don’t be bossy,” she chided, but her eyes closed again, and a few minutes later her breaths grew slow and even once more. I lay there, awake, my mind churning over the dream with Keirran and the Monster, and if it did come down to it, could I really kill him to save everyone else?
A pounding came at the door, several blows in rapid succession. As quickly as I could without jostling Meghan, I slid off the mattress and put a hand on my sword. Meghan jerked up, instantly awake, power and magic immediately crackling around her as we both stared at the door. But it didn’t burst open with redcaps swarming into the room, and after a few moments of silence, the pounding came again. Meghan and I exchanged a look, and I walked across the room to open the rattling door.
A redcap stood there, sullen and scowling, in a blood-drenched hat and a pink bow tie under his chin. He was a bit larger than the one we’d previously met, with glittering yellow eyes and jagged fangs protruding from his lower jaw like he had a mouthful of broken glass. A bone fishhook was shoved through his lumpy nose, which was quivering with distaste.
“Sorry to bother you, Majesties,” Razor Dan said with a growl and a curled lip, as if he begrudged every word. “But Leanansidhe requests your and the Iron Queen’s immediate presence in the meeting hall. Said it’s extremely important, and that you should come as soon as you can. Oh, yeah.” He scratched the side of his lumpy nose. “Also, don’t wait up for Goodfellow and the Forgotten—they’re already with Leanansidhe.”
“Tell Leanansidhe we’ll be there soon,” I replied, and Razor Dan turned away without acknowledging the answer. Anger stirred, and for just a moment, staring at his slouched, unprotected back, I contemplated hurling an ice dagger between his shoulder blades. Just to remind him that one did not just casually turn their back on certain faeries, especially the rulers of the Iron Court. But Meghan slid off the mattress and walked toward me, and the violent thoughts toward disrespectful redcaps faded.