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I caught my breath. Even gravely ill and covered with the unsightly wounds, she appeared radiantly lovely in his eyes. Almost not quite the same young woman I knew. But to him, she seemed almost like a goddess. Not the nasty kind, either. Somewhat abashed to witness the depth of his feelings, I pulled some clinical distance between me and that part of him.
The poison did slip away from his healing grasp, tunneling deeper into Starling and also sending out waving tendrils, reminiscent of parasitic worms, seeking to spread their spores.
Reaching for me and the child I carried.
Chapter 21
In Which I Let Go
‡
It’s tempting to classify the various fae as more or less advanced based on intelligence. However, I fear I’m applying anthropomorphicstandards.
~Big Book of Fairyland, “Flora andFauna”
This was gettingold.
Though I had to give Titania credit for single-minded persistence. Knowing full well I must have some of the poison in me, from my few bites, and that nothing less than a full quarantine could protect us from the rest, I set the knowledge aside. Rogue might be willing to burn everyone bitten on a pyre of incinerating magic, but I wasn’t.
In the back of my head, he let me know we weren’t done deciding that.
But neither did he interfere. Part of my mind registered his activities too. He’d been the one who knew where Marquise and Scourge were located. Now he’d retired from the hall to argue with Falcon and the other nobles about our predicament. They were worried that he’d made them all traitors in Titania’s eyes and weren’t listening to the possibility of shedding themselves of her yoke—most of them aghast that Rogue even spoke the words aloud.
As if she hadn’t figured that part out already.
I paid little attention. In our moment-by-moment division of labor, Rogue could handle the political shit. Never had been my forte and he excelled at it. At the thought, I felt the light touch of his hand on my cheek, an amused blush of pleasure, as if I’d inadvertently given him a great compliment.
There would be no living with him.
Focusing on the task at hand, I guided Walter’s mental touch as Rogue had done so often for me, showing him how, instead of wrestling with the oily stuff, to dissolve and weaken it. We got better at it, working more quickly, finally flushing the last of it from Starling’s body.
By the time I withdrew, she looked much better to my not-crazy-in-love eyes. Her breathing came more easily, her skin warmer and she’d slipped into a real sleep. Walter worked painstakingly to heal each of her wounds, though I could see her own half-breed magic had taken over.
Finally I stopped him. “She’ll be okay now. There are other people who could use your help.” I glanced at Athena, who’d stood by all this time, something that might surprise Starling. “Could you see that she’s taken to her rooms? Walt, you can go with her, but maybe after she’s settled, you could—”
“No, Gwynnie.” He gave me his impudent grin, a shadow of his former cocky self. “I have a lot of karma to make up. I’ll stay here.”
I sent him to help Lady Healer, and to show her what we’d learned about dealing with the poison—hopefully she’d pay attention—then surveyed the hall. It looked less ghastly than when we first arrived, with the lightly wounded weeded out and taken off to recover in other parts of the castle and the most severely wounded, or killed, similarly carried off. Still, the gorgeous wedding decorations provided a strange backdrop to the aftermath of our impromptu battle. The Stargazer lilies, with the satin glow of living flesh, in all shades of blue, gleaming in the candlelight, their sweet scent overpowering the smell of pain and death.
Happy wedding, indeed.
“Lady Gwynn.”
I turned to find Officer Liam saluting me. The human officer usually in charge of General Falcon’s cannon fodder looked a bit haggard, blood-streaked and with varied bites. I hadn’t glimpsed him since that day they all arrived, at the other end of the drawbridge. For once, though, his thoughts toward me weren’t full of salacious attitude. I’d found that attractive once—enough to flirt with and kiss. Or, I’d been running so hard from Rogue that the man in my path had seemed to be pulling me toward him.
“How fares the human population, Officer Liam?”
He smiled, just a little. “Better than the fae, it seems. The bites are nasty, but the poison seems to hit the magic-bearers worse. You appear to be fine.”
I gave him an arch look. “The blessing of being human in truth.”
His gazed strayed to the left side of my face, where the silver lines no doubt gleamed in the soft light, though the cat had been mostly quiet through it all. He nearly made a remark—which, I heard in his head, of course—but decided against it. Rogue growled in the background. Then let me know he needed me. Better move this along.
“What can I do for you, Officer?”
“Begging your pardon, Lady Gwynn, but with the feast being held off and the seneschal wounded, people haven’t eaten for the full day and it’s well into night now. Some of the wee ones are growing quite hungry.”
Oh, dummy me.
