Blood Kin (16 page)

“Simon isn’t here,” Lily said, scooping the kitten off her lap as she rose to greet me with a smile.

I didn’t think the smile would last very long once she heard what I had come to say. “I came to see you.”

The smile vanished. “Yes?”

She had good instincts; she knew trouble when she saw it. Growing up in the Blood Court will do that to a person.

“Can we sit?”

She considered me for a moment, then turned on her heel and led the way to the kitchen. She pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and nodded at me. “Sit. Talk.”

“We had trouble again last night,” I said, trying to think how best to appeal to this woman who was still largely a mystery to me. The one thing I knew for certain about her was that she would defend what she considered hers. Simon fell into that category. I thought I did too but wasn’t entirely sure. “Men died,” I continued.

“I’m sorry,” she said gravely. “In your squad?”

“Yes, two.”

Sympathy flashed in the clear gray eyes. “The City is troubled.”

“The City,” I said, figuring that, when it came right to it, the truth was easiest, “seems to be under attack. Or the treaty is.”

Lily shifted in her chair, one hand straying to her hip as it did when she felt uneasy. She still wore her weapons, even here in the house where she felt safest. “How do you know?”

“There’s simply too much trouble. If it were just the Blood, there’d be a new lord by now and things would be calming down.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“No. But I don’t know that I’m wrong either. These attacks . . . there’s a reason for them. Just like there has to be a reason for the Beast that tried here.”

Her eyes darkened at the memory. “They haven’t tried again.”

“Yet,” I said bluntly.

Lily nodded. Good. I wasn’t going to have to argue. Lily was a fighter, like me. She saw things clearly.

“If these ambushes keep happening, then the Templars are going to be weakened before we even get close to the treaty negotiations. If that happens the whole damned city is going to go down in flames. I need to find out who’s behind them and stop them.”

Lily went very still. “You want me to spy for you?” Her tone was flat, every emotion stripped from it, buried under control that went down to her bones. This was how she’d been when Simon and I had first taken her from Lucius. Before Simon had somehow connected with the woman beneath the killer. A creature of ice and shadow. No way to know what she was thinking. Or what she might do.

“No. I want to keep you safe. You and Simon. I want to make sure that you’re not dragged into this. You know what the risk is if one of the Blood did catch you. A Blood Lord with wraith powers is the last thing we need. But I won’t lie to you, Lily. There are those in the order who think we should be using you.”

“I don’t belong to the Templars.” Her voice if anything was colder. Lily had been a slave for the first thirty-odd years of her life. I knew she had no intention of letting anybody control her ever again. She’d die first.

“I know you don’t. And I won’t let them try to claim otherwise.”

“Why do I feel as though there’s a ‘but’ at the end of that sentence?”

“Because there is. To keep you out of this, I have to use somebody else.”

“Who?”

“There was a girl brought into St. Giles a few days ago.”

“The one who fell down some stairs?”

My eyebrows rose a little. “How did you know about her?”

“Simon told me. And I think I met her in the garden a few days ago. She’s half Fae, yes?”

“Yes. She’s also a spy.”

“A Night Worlder?”

“More a neutral party. From what I hear, she works for whoever has the price. Blood or Beast or Fae or maybe even humans.”

“None of whom will appreciate her working for the Templars,” Lily said. “So why is she helping you?” There was a dangerous gleam in her eye now.

“I’m not forcing her,” I said before her temper could rise too high. “We’ve come to an agreement. I’m helping her with something she wants and she’ll help me in turn.”

“Then what’s the catch?”

“As you said, it’s dangerous for her to do this. And I’m not going to leave her unprotected.”

Lily’s mouth formed a perfect O for a moment, then she pressed her lips together disapprovingly. “A Templar can’t go into the Night World, Guy. You won’t get anywhere. If they let you live.”

“I know,” I said grimly. “That’s where you come in.”

* * *

I left Lily with Bryony and returned to the Brother House just as afternoon services were beginning. I slipped into the chapel, taking a seat near the rear of the high narrow room, and closed my eyes.

God, let me be doing the right thing.

Not much as prayers went, but I’d never been one for fancy prayers outside of the order’s rituals. So far, God didn’t seem to mind.

I didn’t really pay attention to the service. The familiar cadences washed over me, leaving me alone in my head with my simple prayer as my body and mouth moved at the correct times and formed the correct responses. As always, a sense of calm settled over me as I sat surrounded by the sounds of worship. A sense that I was doing the right thing. A feeling unique to this place.

I swallowed, the next response dying on my lips. How long until I would stand here again, in this place that had always been a refuge and a homecoming? The place where I stood with my fellow knights and my God and felt welcome.

Would it ever be that way again?

God, let me do the right thing and please, God, forgive me.

The last chants ended and I stood, adrenaline combining with the lack of sleep to leave me feeling detached and vaguely sick. As Father Cho moved past me, he nodded slightly. I squared my shoulders. All right, then. Time to begin.

I waited until everyone else had left the chapel, wanting a few more moments of peace. When I finally emerged, one of the novices was waiting for me.

“Father Cho needs you to attend the afternoon report, Sir Guy,” he said respectfully. I looked at him, struggling for a moment to remember his name. He was young and gangly and eager, like most of the novices. As I had been at his age. Several lifetimes ago.

“Thank you, Robert,” I said.

“In his office, sir.”

I nodded. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not yet. No one would suspect what we were about to do. “On your way,” I said to Robert, and started for Father Cho’s office, feeling not a little like a novice on his way to a punishment myself.

Father Cho stood, as usual, behind his desk, studying the map spread across it. Ranged around him were the five early patrol squad leaders, red-eyed, dust-stained, and rumpled. Patrick was there too. He obviously hadn’t gotten any sleep yet either. And he didn’t look as though his mood had improved any.

I’d half expected him to be here—Father Cho always did know how to pick his audience—but I wished I’d been wrong.

However, the more people who witnessed this, the better. I joined the others at the desk, taking position opposite Patrick.

Father Cho lifted his head, his expression inscrutable. I wondered if he was giving me a chance to change my mind. I merely stood silent. He looked around the group, then at me. “We lost another man today,” he said.

Hell’s balls
. Three in one day? At this rate there might not be an order to return to. “Who?” I asked.

“Kendrick.” It was Patrick who spoke, and anger turned his voice gravelly. “Another ambush. Fucking Beasts.”

Kendrick was another of the novices. I tightened my jaw, determined not to show any reaction. I was here to be contrary. “Too bad,” I said casually. “He would’ve been a good man, eventually.”

Stuart, Kendrick’s squad leader, shot me an incredulous look. “He was a good man,” he snarled. He turned to Father Cho. “We can’t keep going on this way. It’s suicide.”

“You think we should just give up? Hide away?” Patrick shot back.

“I think we need a better plan,” Stuart said.

“What we need,” Patrick said with a dark look in my direction, “is better information.”

“What we need,” I said, mimicking his tone and his look, “is for you not to think, Patrick. Never was your strong point.”

Patrick’s hand slipped down to his sword hilt. “You—”

“Enough,” Father Cho’s voice snapped out, and we fell silent, too well trained to ignore that particular tone of command.

“We need intelligence,” he said into the silence. He looked squarely at me. “I’m sorry, Guy, but we’re going to have to use Lily.”

“No,” I said flatly. “You’re not.”

“You have a better idea?” Patrick said, his hand still wrapped around his sword.

“No,” I said, feeling sick at what I was doing. Patrick was playing into my hands exactly as we needed him to. But it didn’t feel good. No, seeing the anger and pain in him felt more like being covered in battle gore, the kind that clings to your skin and fills your nose with the stink of pain and death. The kind you can’t wait to scrub away but are never sure you truly can. “No, I don’t. But you’re not having Lily.”

“Yet you’d put us at risk to protect your brother’s Night Worlder whore?” Patrick snarled.

My sword was out and pointed at Patrick’s throat before he could blink. “I believe the term you’re looking for,” I drawled, “is
fiancée
. Apologize.”

“For speaking the truth?” Patrick said. “I don’t think so.”

There was a hiss of metal as he started to pull his own sword free. I pressed my point closer, just at the point of drawing blood.

“Guy! Stand down,” Father Cho snapped.

I shook my head. “No, sir, I don’t believe I will. Patrick here insulted a member of my family.”

“You do not draw a weapon on a brother knight in this house. Stand down!” Father Cho thundered.

My fingers gripped the sword tighter as I fought the instinctive urge to obey. “No,” I repeated. “He’s not my brother when he would happily send someone under my protection into danger.”

“Guy, don’t do this,” Father Cho said. “I won’t have discord in the order. We can’t afford it.”

“Then I suggest you tell Patrick that Lily is not a weapon to be deployed at his whim,” I said, still watching Patrick. I didn’t think he’d actually attack me in front of Father Cho or else we’d have one more disgraced knight than I’d been planning on to deal with.

Father Cho looked furious. Enough that part of me instinctively wanted to follow his order. Years of training bit deep, but I ignored them, held my sword steady.

“I’m the one who decides what weapons we will or will not use, and right now we need all of them. I’m sure Lily will understand why we need her,” Father Cho said flatly.

She probably would at that. In fact, she’d argued with me for a long time before agreeing to do things my way because she did feel she owed the humans something. But her sense of obligation wasn’t enough for me to agree to let her throw away what she and Simon had built together. Or let whoever was pulling the strings behind this whole mess get their hands on her so easily. If indeed it was her they wanted.

“No, sir,” I said, wondering if my voice sounded as strange to them as it did to me. I felt as though I were listening to myself from a distance or watching a play. One where I knew what happened, knew I couldn’t change it, but still wanted to scream at the players to make the ending come out differently. “I don’t think you can. I think you’ll find that Lily has been granted haven at St. Giles. As has my brother. And not even you can make them set one foot over the threshold against their will, sir.”

“You warned them?” Father Cho sounded both furious and incredulous now. I’d not realized he was such a good actor. Then again, leading men is partly a performance. “You knew that I wanted to ask for her help and you warned her? Against the interests of the order and the whole bloody city?”

You could have heard a pin drop. Stuart and the other four squad leaders were frozen in place, not knowing where to turn. Patrick stared at me as if I’d just smeared dog shit across the chapel altar.

“So it would seem. You forced me to choose. Well, I choose my family.” I left off the “sir” with an effort of will.

“Once upon a time you would have said the order was your family, Guy. You swore oaths. Oaths of obedience. I’ll give you one last chance. Go and talk to Lily. That’s an order.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Guy, we’re fighting a war. Right here, right now, we’re under attack. The people we have sworn to protect are dying. I just gave you an order.”

“And I’m declining it. I won’t do it.” I steeled myself for what came next.

Father Cho drew in a breath. “So be it.”

I turned my head at that, meeting his gaze, dark with pain and anger. “The six of you stand witness here. Guy DuCaine, for forswearing your oaths to this order, I hereby banish you from its ranks. You are stripped of rank and commission. I want you out of here in one hour.”

I stepped back, sheathed my sword. “Suits me just fine,” I said. “I don’t belong here anymore.”

Father Cho’s mouth was flat and grim. “So let it be done,” he said, completing the order. “May God have mercy on your soul. Because if we find you working against the order again, Guy, we will not.”

Chapter Nine

HOLLY

I
heard the cathedral bell toll five o’clock and wondered how much time I had left before Guy returned. Not much. I had to plant the charm. Which meant seeing Simon. He usually checked in on me sometime during the afternoon. So, did I chance waiting or did I go looking?

My palms were damp as I slipped the charm into my pocket. Making it was the first step. Getting it into place would be another thing entirely. I didn’t know if a glamour would even work on a sunmage.

If it didn’t . . . if I tried and failed, then Lady knew what might happen.

Don’t think about that. Just get to work
. I took a shaky breath, then made up my mind. I would go find Simon before I ran out of time. I was just about to leave when Simon opened my door and smiled at me.

Guilt squeezed my heart. This man had been nothing but kind to me, yet here I was, trying to betray him. But kind or not, he wasn’t family. My mother and Reggie were. They were depending on me. I had no choice. And perhaps my father was wrong. Perhaps Simon had no secrets to be discovered.

“How are you feeling today?” Simon asked, studying me with those guileless blue eyes.

Do it now
. I had to try. No more time for doubt or indecision. If I hesitated, I would lose my chance and my mother and Reggie might be lost.

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that,” I said. I held my arm. “I need you to take the cast off.”

“What?” He came toward me as I had hoped he would. “You’re not ready for that. Your bones will still be fragile.” He laid his hand on the cast and frowned. “Is it hurting you?”

“Simon,” I said softly, and he looked at me. I laid my hand over his, skin to skin.

Do it now. No more thinking
.

I gathered my magic and threw the glamour at him. Simon’s eyes went soft and dazed.

“Simon,” I said, testing exactly what control I might have over him. “Let go of my arm.”

He obeyed.

“Good. Now, I’m going to do something and you’re not to remember it.” I stood slowly, but he stayed where he was, not moving, not reacting.

Cautiously, using every pickpocket skill I ever had, I came around to his side and slid my hand under his tunic, to where I sensed the invisibility charm, like a tiny cool beacon. This was the tricky part. This charm wasn’t mine, but I had to piggyback mine onto it. And hope that no one would notice the difference.

Simon’s charm was tied to a loop inside the waistband of his trousers. Feeling ill, I gently pulled it free from where the fabric pressed it against his skin. Like mine, it was fashioned from leather and metal, which made my task a little easier. I studied the charm for a moment, feeling its buzz against my skin.

It didn’t feel completely alien. So maybe this had a chance of working. Of course, I had no idea what the charm felt like to Simon, or indeed if he could feel it at all. He wasn’t Fae, after all. While human mages could work glamours and wards, they didn’t do charms as far as I knew. They were a peculiarly Fae thing.

When I was sure the charm wasn’t going to do something odd in protest of being removed from its owner, I reached into the pocket of my jacket and pulled out the hybrid charm I’d fashioned earlier. I plaited the two charms together, trying to hide the metal disc of mine behind the more oval shape of Simon’s. Then, with another whispered plea to whichever deity might be listening, I triggered my charm, after pouring still more power into it in the hope it would last as long as it needed to.

Inside me, I felt the geas buzz with something that felt like approval. I choked back the revulsion that greased my throat in response.

The charm shivered in my hands and suddenly I could only see Simon’s. I could feel the slightly thickened thong under my fingers, but I couldn’t see my charm. So the invisibility part, at least, was working. Now I just had hope that the hear-me would do its part too. And that the look-away would be enough to keep the whole thing safe. Plus the completely unknown factor of whether there would actually be anything for the hear-me to hear.

Too late now. I was out of time. I fastened the charm in place and slid into position on the bed.

“Simon,” I said gently, easing his hand back onto my cast. “Forget.”

His eyes drifted slowly shut for a moment and I dissolved the glamour with a slow breath, releasing him gently.

“Simon?” I said in a more normal voice.

He shook his head for a moment, and then yawned. “Sorry,” he said, sounding somewhat embarrassed. “It’s been a busy day. Now, what were you saying about your arm?”

Relief made my pulse pound in my ears for a moment. It seemed I’d gotten away with it. At least for now.

“I said, I need you to take the cast off,” I said, acting as though there’d been no break in our conversation.

“But why?” he asked.

Before I could answer, the door was flung open and Guy stalked in.

“Because,” Guy said, shooting a “don’t argue” look at Simon, “she’s coming with me.”

“What are you talking about?” Simon said. “She’s in no shape to go anywhere.”

“Nevertheless, we’re leaving. Take off her cast.” Guy folded his arms. He looked tired and tense. I wasn’t sure exactly what he’d just done, but whatever it was, he wasn’t happy about it.

“Where are you going?” Simon asked.

Guy frowned at him. “No time to explain, little brother. Go find Lily. She’ll explain.”

Simon’s face was starting to move from confused to angry. “She’s not working today. Why is she here?”

“She’s seen the light. She’s going to be staying here for a while. Bryony has granted her haven.”

“What? Gods and suns, Guy, what is going on?”

“Talk to Lily,” Guy said shortly. “We have to go.”

“Holly?” Simon said.

“Take it off, please,” I said.

The brothers stared at each other for a long moment, hands bunching, scowling identically. I wondered if I was about to have to break up a fight.

Simon finally shook his head, looking disgusted, and focused his attention on me. “You know you’re doing this against my advice?” he asked. He stood at the end of the bed, holding the slim leather book, which he scribbled his notes into with both hands as if he might prefer to knock some sense into me with it.

I nodded and held out my arm. Despite the roil of guilt and fear in my stomach and my inability to convince myself that this wouldn’t all end in disaster, I would be all too happy to have the cast off. It was heavy. And beneath it, my skin itched. “I know. Take it off.”

Simon looked from me to Guy and shook his head. “This isn’t a good idea.”

“She wants the cast off,” Guy said flatly. “Take it off.”

“And if I refuse?” Simon said.

Guy shrugged. “Then I’ll take her somewhere else. It’s her choice.”

Simon’s face turned stubborn. “This really isn’t a good idea.”

“It’s my decision,” I said, giving my arm a little jerk. I was careful to keep the other arm—the one with the gash from the mirror that I’d bandaged as best I could with a strip of petticoat—back a little. I didn’t know if Simon could sense a minor wound if he wasn’t actually trying to, but I didn’t want to risk it. There was no good explanation for how I’d managed to cut my arm. Simon frowned but bent to the cast. “What’s so important?”

“That’s my business,” Guy said, arms folded against his chest. He looked forbiddingly grim. Simon was braver than me to argue with him.

“Your business or Templar business?” Simon’s gaze shot to me. “Holly? You’re doing this of your own free will, aren’t you?”

I nodded. “Yes. Don’t worry, he isn’t coercing me.”

“Just as well,” Simon muttered.

He and Guy exchanged another of those inscrutable looks, but Simon didn’t make any more protests. He did something to the cast that made it neatly divide into two parts and lifted it gently from my arm. Then he washed the remaining bits of plaster off my skin and slathered on a strong-smelling salve. I wrinkled my nose. “Thank you.” My arm smelled of garlic or . . . no, not garlic exactly but something stingingly pungent. “What is that stuff?”

“Healer business,” Simon said shortly. “It will help your skin and wake up the muscles. You’ve only had the cast on a few days, but there’s always some wastage.” He fixed me with a stern glance. “So don’t go doing anything stupid. You’ll need to strengthen the arm. Slowly. Your bones are still fragile.”

“I will,” I said, not sure whether I meant yes, I’d let it rest or yes, I’d do something stupid.

Given where Guy and I were headed, the latter seemed almost inevitable. Just wanting to go spy in the Night World was a fair indication of stupidity.

Generally I skirted around its edges as far as possible. The border boroughs provided plenty of jobs for me without getting too deep into the night. But stupid or not, I had need, in this case. If there was any information about where my father was and what he might be plotting to be had, it would be the Night Worlders who knew.

Simon put the jar of salve on the bed, on top of the bag of my things, and then turned to Guy. “Look after her. And be careful. I don’t want to have to come after you.”

“I’m always careful, little brother,” Guy said easily. But there was tension in his neck and shoulders as he shifted against the wall he was leaning on. “You know that.”

“I mean normal-person careful, not Templar careful,” Simon said. “I don’t want to be stitching both of you back together next time I see you.”

“You worry too much,” Guy said. Then he looked at me. “Ready to go?”

HOLLY

Guy didn’t speak as we marched out of St. Giles. I held my breath as we crossed the threshold, half expecting the geas to freeze me in my tracks, but nothing happened.

I didn’t know whether that was because a geas couldn’t do that or because what I was doing now was in some way playing into what Cormen wanted—a thought that didn’t make me any happier about the situation—but at the moment I couldn’t afford to worry too much about it. Right now I had to focus on what I’d agreed with Guy. Somehow find out if it was the Favreaus who were behind the ambushes on the Templars and, if so, who was pulling their strings. And then save my mother and Reggie.

Guy bundled me into the first hackney that came along and directed it to Brightown. The hackney clattered along the cobbles, turning right and driving past the Brother House. Guy stared out the small window at the gray stone buildings, sitting so still I wasn’t entirely sure he hadn’t turned to stone himself.

But once the Brother House was out of sight, he seemed to remember he wasn’t alone. “Brightown is right, isn’t it? That’s where you live, at the Swallow?”

I nodded slowly, not entirely sure what to say. Guy was outwardly calm, but he was almost vibrating with whatever it was he was suppressing. I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk an explosion.

Still, best to know what I was dealing with. “It worked, then, whatever it was that you cooked up with Father Cho?” He’d been sketchy on the details of how he was going to get the Abbott General to agree to our plan.

He looked toward the window for a moment, hands flexing where they lay on his thighs. “Yes. As far as the Templars are concerned, I’m no longer a knight.”

“Oh, Guy,
no
.” I couldn’t help the reaction. What had he done? He’d spent his life serving the order and now he was willing to let them believe he’d abandon them?

“Yes,” he said, still not looking at me. “It was the only way.”

My fingers clasped the chain around my neck. Damn Cormen. Damn him to something worse than hell. Then another thought occurred to me. Exactly how bad were things in the City for Guy to be willing to go so far? My fingers tightened as I shivered slightly. “Will they take you back?”

Guy’s head swiveled back to me. “First things first, Miss Everton. We have a long way to go before we can even think about that.” His voice was cool.

I stared at him. Then nodded. He was right. We had a job to do. Two jobs. I had to think about that, not the man in front of me. I had to stay in control. I had to not let Guy DuCaine get to me. I had to keep the upper hand. “Don’t you think you should call me Holly, given you’re about to start living with me?”