Melissa Marr: Radiant Shadows

Ani cut him off. “Because Devlin isn’t as much of a bastard as you want him to be?”

The wolves’ growling vibrated under her skin. Their eyes gleamed with the red she’d seen when she lay on the earth beside Devlin. His eyes were the same red, and she suspected her own were as well.

Sorcha stared only at Devlin. “Will you kill her? Set this right.”

“No.” Devlin clutched Ani’s hand tighter, whether to assure her or keep her still she didn’t know. “I would give any life before hers.”

“ Any life?” Sorcha echoed. “Would you sacrifice my life for hers?”

“I would rather you were both well,” he said.

Sorcha opened her mouth as if to speak, but Seth touched her arm. The High Queen looked at him and was silent.

“I would stay here in Faerie with Ani, Sister.” Devlin started to kneel, but Ani refused to let go of his hand; he rose back up and looked at Sorcha.

Sorcha shook her head. “And who will feed you? Do you think to cast me off and still come to my table?”

The look Seth gave Ani was intense enough that she felt like he was trying to will words into her head. What did he say earlier? Ani replayed the things Seth had told her.

“I will,” Ani blurted. “I’ll give him whatever he needs… or find it or whatever.”

The High Queen scowled, but Seth smiled approvingly.

“So mote it be,” Sorcha whispered before turning.

And then she walked away with Seth.

Devlin watched his sister, his queen, leave. There were so many questions he needed to ask, so many answers he required, but before that, he had to make sense of what Ani had done. Not only had she shared her blood with him, she’d also offered to nourish him. She had stood at his side against the High Queen. They were bound in ways he had never fathomed possible.

Perhaps we always were.

The Hound, his partner unto eternity now, held his hand in her own. All around them wolves waited.

“We made those trees.” Ani looked up at him. Her words were a question, a demand for verification. “Together.”

“And wolves,” he added. “They are flesh now.”

“Sort of.” She looked at the wolves and said, “Come.”

In a chaotic blur, the wolves began to leap into her body, vanishing inside her skin one after another. Muzzles and tails, blood and bone, fur and muscles, all and each vanished into the skin of the Hound holding his hand.

“It feels different than in dreams,” was all she said when the last one of them had entered her.

“It looks different too.” Devlin could see red-eyed wolves shifting under her skin.

“Oh,” Ani whispered. She looked down at her arms in awe. “They’re here .”

Rabbit pushed away from the tree and came over to stand in front of his sister. “Look at you, all painted up without my help.”

Ani reached out to him. “They left room for your art too, Rab. When you’re ready…”

“Someday.” Rabbit brushed her hair away from her face and gave her a look of pure adoration.

Then he glanced at Devlin. “Sorcha says I’m welcome… but the shop…” His words faded away. “The shop’s gone too. Our home…”

Devlin gestured for Rabbit to walk. “There are other artists here. Many artists. Halflings and mortals.”

“There’s nothing left for me over there.” Rabbit still sounded weary, but not as much as he had when Devlin first saw him at the studio.

“Stay here,” Ani urged, “at least until we figure out what to do. Please, Rab?”

Rabbit nodded.

Without any further discussion, Devlin took Rabbit to the artists’ cottages.

After they had delivered Rabbit to a pristine cottage filled with various art supplies and tattoo equipment, Devlin led Ani to his own home.

When they reached his quarters within the queen’s palace, he found Rae in his previously unused sitting room. A smile played on his lips at the sight of her. No longer hidden away in a cave, she was dressed for court and awaiting him.

“She’s awake,” he told her.

Rae smiled. “And Faerie is intact once more. Such a simple thing, isn’t it? You bring Sorcha’s son home, and the world wakes.”

“Indeed.” Devlin wished he could embrace her. He couldn’t, but he could tell her what he felt. “You saved Faerie. Without you, I wouldn’t have known—”

“Without me, she wouldn’t have been lost in her dreams,” Rae corrected. “Do not forget how she was able to see Seth in the first place.”

“You can do all sorts of things in dreams, can’t you?” Ani’s voice was soft, but there was a fear in it.

“I didn’t create any illusions, Ani.” Rae stayed as still as any prey. She didn’t straighten her arms or legs. “I simply stitched your dreams together.”

“Why?”

Rae shrugged. “You needed each other.”

And in that instant, Devlin understood something he’d not admitted. “You knew.”

The world stilled for Rae. “Knew what?”

Devlin, the center of her world, crossed the room to her. His voice was soft. “All these years, you knew Ani was meant to be in my life. Did you know that when you asked me not to kill her?”

“Oh, Devlin, don’t ask me too many more questions.” She lifted her hand as if she would touch his shoulder. “I knew things I shouldn’t have… or maybe things I was supposed to. Who can predict what threads are the ones that were meant to be?”

“Threads?” He frowned as he tried to piece together some clarity from the clues she’d given him. “What all did you know?”

“I cannot answer that,” Rae whispered. “I wish I could.”

Ani sat on a high-backed chair with one foot tucked under her. The wolves in her skin shifted restlessly, but Rae couldn’t tell if that was in response to Ani’s worry or Devlin’s discomfort. The wolves were a part of the New Hunt, the one that belonged in Faerie, and they’d respond to both Devlin and Ani.

Will this Hunt protect me as well?

Rae waited as Devlin puzzled out the things he was learning. If Rae had her way, she’d tell him that he and Ani were meant to be in Faerie, that the whole order of Faerie was awaiting his understanding of what he could make real. If she had her way, she’d have told him everything years ago, but the Eolas’ injunctions were binding.

“Please, Devlin,” she said. “Think on what you know, but don’t ask me questions I am forbidden to answer.”

A knock at the door of the outer chamber made them pause.

“Stay here.” Devlin walked away to answer it.

Once he was gone, Ani looked at her. “You love him a lot.”

Rae sighed. “Your bluntness is not always charming, Ani.”

The Hound grinned. “I believe you’ve mentioned that before.”

As Devlin returned, the look on his face was dire. “She’s summoned me to the hall.”

Devlin entered Sorcha’s main hall. The insult of being summoned in front of all and any who cared to watch pricked his temper. He tried to suppress it as he had done for eternity, but he was failing. He’d been advisor, assassin, family to her for eternity, yet she beckoned him into her hall in front of the masses.

The High Queen sat on the throne looking emotionless. Behind her, Seth stood with one hand on the back of the queen’s throne. Like Sorcha, his emotions were hidden. Devlin, for a change, did not endeavor to disguise his feelings: he was furious. Sorcha had come near to unmaking Faerie, but she acted as if she were unfazed by her folly.

Devlin crossed the crowded room to the dais. He stopped in front of her, but he did not bow. For the first time, he did not bend his knee to the High Queen.

No one in the room spoke. But they watch—and she knows. He had not spent eternity simply killing for his queen; he knew how to wield unspoken as well as physical threat.