Shadowfever
Page 174
I tried to breathe and couldnt. The Unseelie King was touching me, kissing me. I could feel his lips on my skin, and III
Breathe, BG.
I could breathe again.
Please, stop him. I wasnt above begging. Id get on my knees. If Vlane succeeded in gaining ultimate power, I didnt want to live in this world. Not with him in charge. With a spell of unmaking he could kill Barrons, and hed made it clear, every chance he got, that he wanted to. He had to be stopped. I wasnt losing any of my people. My parents were going to live to a ripe old age. Barrons was going to live forever. Me? Well. I wasnt sure exactly what I was going to do. But I planned on having a long, full lifetime. It would mean a lot to me.
You would owe me. Like you owe my Gray Woman.
Was there anything he didnt know? Deals with devils Barrons would have said, if he hadnt been frozen. Deal.
He winked. Id planned to, anyway.
Ooh! Then why did you
Pretty girl and all. Asking. Gotta love that. Stuff of heroes. Dont get the role often.
He was gone. He reappeared near the slab, staring at Vlane through crystal walls.
I was horrified to realize Vlane was more than halfway through the Sinsar Dubh.
But it was going to be okay. The king was going to stop him, crush him like a bug. Vlane would take one look at whod come after him and sift out with his tail tucked, whimpering with fear. The king would reseal the cavern, and all would be well. No one would have any spells of unmaking. Barrons would continue to be unkillable. That was a constant, eternal rock beneath my feet that I needed.
fore. Where on earth do you think he came from? My mother finished her sentence. She frowned. And where did he go?
Time resumed and everyone in the cavern began moving again.
Vlanes head dropped down and his eyes slid open.
His reaction wasnt at all what I expected.
His mouth ticked up in a cool smile. About fucking time you showed your face, old man.
Ah, said the Unseelie King. Cruce.
52
Cruce? Vlane was Cruce?
I glanced around the cavern. Everyone looked as stupefied as I felt, staring between Vlane and the dreamy-eyed guy.
When Id stood at Darrocs side, watching the Seelie and Unseelie armies face off in a snowy Dublin street, Id been awed by the mythic proportions of the event.
Now, according to the dreamy-eyed guy who was really the Unseelie King, the Seelie whod been masquerading as Vlane for hundreds of thousands of years was really the legendary Cruce, aka Warthe final and most perfect Unseelie ever sung into existence.
And he was facing off with his maker.
Cruce was staring down the Unseelie King.
It was the stuff of million-year-old legends. I looked from one to the other. You could have heard a pin drop in the cavern.
Iglanced at Barrons, who had both brows raised in an expression of complete shock. For a change, there was something he hadnt known, either. Then his eyes narrowed on the dreamy-eyed guy.
Hes the king? That frail old geezer?
Geezer? You mean the pretty French woman, Jo said. Shes a waitress at Chesters.
French woman? Its the Morgan Freeman lookalike from the bar on the seventh level at Chesters, Christian said.
No, Dageus said, tis the ex-groundskeeper from Edinburgh castle who took on a bussing job at Ryodans pub when the walls fell.
And I saw a young, dreamy-eyed college guy. He winked at me again. We all saw something different when we looked at him.
I stared back at Vlane er, Cruce.
How had I not known? How had I been so completely duped? It had never been a Seelie Prince facing an Unseelie Prince that night in the snowy Dublin street but two Unseelie Princes. If Wars brother had recognized him, hed never given it away.
Vlane was Cruce.
Vlane was War.
Id walked hand in hand with him on a beach. Id kissed him. More times than I could count. Id had his name in my tongue. Id trembled with orgasm after orgasm in his arms. Hed given me Ashford back. Had he taken it to begin with?
War. Of course. Hed turned my world on itself. Hed set armies against each other and sat back watching the chaos hed created. Hed even gotten out in it and fought with us. No doubt laughing inside, enjoying the added chaos, being in the thick of the fight, watching his handiwork up close and personal.
Was he behind it all? Had he been nudging Darroc for millennia, priming him to defy the queen? And when Darroc was made mortal, had Cruce whispered in a few Unseelie ears, maybe planted key information, and helped him bring down the walls from far behind the scenes? Had he been watching, waiting for the day he might get close enough to the Sinsar Dubh to steal the kings knowledge and kill the current queen and take her magic?
Did Fae really possess such patience?
Hed killed all the princesses and secreted the queen away to kill at the right time.
Hed turned the Seelie and Unseelie courts against each other, using our world as their battlefield.
We were all pawns on his chessboard.
I had no doubt he was after the ultimate power. The nerve of him, the arrogancehe was the one whod told me it could be done and how! He was the one whod recounted the legend to begin with. Unable to resist bragging? When Id asked him about Cruce, hed gotten irritated, saying: One day you will wish to talk of me. Hed been jealous of himself, angry that he couldnt reveal his true majesty. Hed said, Cruce was the most beautiful of all, although the world will never know ita waste of perfection to never have laid eyes upon one such as he. How it must have chafed him to have to hide his true face for so long.
Breathe, BG.
I could breathe again.
Please, stop him. I wasnt above begging. Id get on my knees. If Vlane succeeded in gaining ultimate power, I didnt want to live in this world. Not with him in charge. With a spell of unmaking he could kill Barrons, and hed made it clear, every chance he got, that he wanted to. He had to be stopped. I wasnt losing any of my people. My parents were going to live to a ripe old age. Barrons was going to live forever. Me? Well. I wasnt sure exactly what I was going to do. But I planned on having a long, full lifetime. It would mean a lot to me.
You would owe me. Like you owe my Gray Woman.
Was there anything he didnt know? Deals with devils Barrons would have said, if he hadnt been frozen. Deal.
He winked. Id planned to, anyway.
Ooh! Then why did you
Pretty girl and all. Asking. Gotta love that. Stuff of heroes. Dont get the role often.
He was gone. He reappeared near the slab, staring at Vlane through crystal walls.
I was horrified to realize Vlane was more than halfway through the Sinsar Dubh.
But it was going to be okay. The king was going to stop him, crush him like a bug. Vlane would take one look at whod come after him and sift out with his tail tucked, whimpering with fear. The king would reseal the cavern, and all would be well. No one would have any spells of unmaking. Barrons would continue to be unkillable. That was a constant, eternal rock beneath my feet that I needed.
fore. Where on earth do you think he came from? My mother finished her sentence. She frowned. And where did he go?
Time resumed and everyone in the cavern began moving again.
Vlanes head dropped down and his eyes slid open.
His reaction wasnt at all what I expected.
His mouth ticked up in a cool smile. About fucking time you showed your face, old man.
Ah, said the Unseelie King. Cruce.
52
Cruce? Vlane was Cruce?
I glanced around the cavern. Everyone looked as stupefied as I felt, staring between Vlane and the dreamy-eyed guy.
When Id stood at Darrocs side, watching the Seelie and Unseelie armies face off in a snowy Dublin street, Id been awed by the mythic proportions of the event.
Now, according to the dreamy-eyed guy who was really the Unseelie King, the Seelie whod been masquerading as Vlane for hundreds of thousands of years was really the legendary Cruce, aka Warthe final and most perfect Unseelie ever sung into existence.
And he was facing off with his maker.
Cruce was staring down the Unseelie King.
It was the stuff of million-year-old legends. I looked from one to the other. You could have heard a pin drop in the cavern.
Iglanced at Barrons, who had both brows raised in an expression of complete shock. For a change, there was something he hadnt known, either. Then his eyes narrowed on the dreamy-eyed guy.
Hes the king? That frail old geezer?
Geezer? You mean the pretty French woman, Jo said. Shes a waitress at Chesters.
French woman? Its the Morgan Freeman lookalike from the bar on the seventh level at Chesters, Christian said.
No, Dageus said, tis the ex-groundskeeper from Edinburgh castle who took on a bussing job at Ryodans pub when the walls fell.
And I saw a young, dreamy-eyed college guy. He winked at me again. We all saw something different when we looked at him.
I stared back at Vlane er, Cruce.
How had I not known? How had I been so completely duped? It had never been a Seelie Prince facing an Unseelie Prince that night in the snowy Dublin street but two Unseelie Princes. If Wars brother had recognized him, hed never given it away.
Vlane was Cruce.
Vlane was War.
Id walked hand in hand with him on a beach. Id kissed him. More times than I could count. Id had his name in my tongue. Id trembled with orgasm after orgasm in his arms. Hed given me Ashford back. Had he taken it to begin with?
War. Of course. Hed turned my world on itself. Hed set armies against each other and sat back watching the chaos hed created. Hed even gotten out in it and fought with us. No doubt laughing inside, enjoying the added chaos, being in the thick of the fight, watching his handiwork up close and personal.
Was he behind it all? Had he been nudging Darroc for millennia, priming him to defy the queen? And when Darroc was made mortal, had Cruce whispered in a few Unseelie ears, maybe planted key information, and helped him bring down the walls from far behind the scenes? Had he been watching, waiting for the day he might get close enough to the Sinsar Dubh to steal the kings knowledge and kill the current queen and take her magic?
Did Fae really possess such patience?
Hed killed all the princesses and secreted the queen away to kill at the right time.
Hed turned the Seelie and Unseelie courts against each other, using our world as their battlefield.
We were all pawns on his chessboard.
I had no doubt he was after the ultimate power. The nerve of him, the arrogancehe was the one whod told me it could be done and how! He was the one whod recounted the legend to begin with. Unable to resist bragging? When Id asked him about Cruce, hed gotten irritated, saying: One day you will wish to talk of me. Hed been jealous of himself, angry that he couldnt reveal his true majesty. Hed said, Cruce was the most beautiful of all, although the world will never know ita waste of perfection to never have laid eyes upon one such as he. How it must have chafed him to have to hide his true face for so long.
