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“I have a bad feeling about all this, El,” he said. “Real bloody bad.”
“Preserve us,” Elke breathed from behind him, the closest thing he’d heard a vampire utter to a prayer.
This wasn’t a vampire. This was a demon dredged up from the pits of hell. “Bloody fuck,” Remy said.
He’d been expecting some twisted kind of new rogue vampire. Not something that could barely pass for human, hunting so close to the villages.
And if that wasn’t already enough to ruin his day, the congealed, soup-like mess on the ground began to move.
If it was capable of re-forming itself even after being obliterated at its most basic organic level, then nothing he could do would stop it.
Remy, being a Pendergast, did not get out of the way, nor did he close his eyes.
but Xiaodan’s light was unrelenting. In that moment, she was stunning.
“The bloody fuck are you doing here?” he asked. “Same thing as you,” she mumbled, exhausted.
“They call her the Sunbringer.
And from his father, because that bastard always kept far more secrets than he ever shared.
“Never,” Remy said, stung that his father would even question it.
It wasn’t supposed to look good on her. It wasn’t supposed to be worn by anyone but him, and now he couldn’t stop staring.
“The eradication of that stain on both humankind and kindred is all that mattered.
always humans who mutate before their frenzy is done.
Remy cast his glance at the ceiling, asking the Three of the Light for strength.
“That was the intention, yes. Though very little gets past the Reapers. They’ve left me alone, and that’s good enough for me.”
And they practice traditions many Alurians consider beneath them, as heretical to the Light.”
followed by brief periods of lucidity, were one of the main symptoms of those affected. It is their second death that triggers their transformations.” Ice ran through Remy’s veins. “Are you telling me that my killing her could have caused her mutation?”
Lady Song smiled at him then—bright and friendly and wide. “Because I killed him myself,”
“About the murder.” Riones looked at him, contrite. “I’m sorry, Remington. It seems someone has gone and murdered the Duke of Astonbury, and you’re Feiron’s main suspect.”
Somebody had murdered the lord high steward. Had actually gone and killed that old rat bastard.
though I suppose I’m her bitch at this point, ready to come at her beck and call.”
“You sound just as dignified as the day you crawled out of your dead mother,”
Remy managed a hard, direct kick to the man’s groin despite the small target he was presented with,
Hunter, Gatherer, Mother. Three of the Light.
Fuck. They’d actually gone and gaoled him.
They’d started a betting pool on which bounty was going to kill him. That stung worse than the beating Feiron’s flunkies had given. He’d wasted years trying to garner the respect that no one had ever planned on giving him.
The Fourth Court heiress took one look at Remy, sitting snug and comfortable in his cozy prison, and exploded. “I told you to release him hours ago!”
Armiger Remington, why must you subject yourselves to these unjust sanctions when you could have just as easily walked out of here on your own?” “Unfair or not, it’s the law.”
“They’re keeping you here out of spite, and because they have no other real suspects.”
“I’ve already been accused of being your familiar, milady,” Remy said. “Your zeal to see me freed isn’t helping my case much.” “A familiar?” Xiaodan brightened.
Still doing his best impression of a sickly carp, Feiron
But I do find it very interesting, milord, that you have not opted to use his talents these last few years, yet suddenly find a pressing need for him elsewhere, so soon after I’ve indicated my interest.”
Whatever the circumstances that had brought about their engagement, it had been for something stronger than a mere political arrangement.
As of this moment, you are now the Fourth Court’s official liaison to Aluria, and I could not be more pleased to have you with us.”
Malekh, too, remained as elegant and commanding as he’d always been, and Remy took that personally.
“They say I’m not completely human. A mooncalf. A cambion. Perhaps that’s it.”
But the reality of the basement was that everything in it stank to the highest of heavens and was murder on Remy’s sensitive nose.
All things considered, it was a reasonable assumption.
“His zweihänder,” Lord Feiron said, with a visible start. “Good God, someone killed him with his own zweihänder!
“Well,” Remy said. “Sounds like we’re fucked, then.”
“I am not just milady, I am Song Xiaodan, heiress presumptive of the Fourth Court. I outranked the Duke of Astonbury, and now I outrank you.” The
“You may as well let her,” Malekh said, sounding amused, like his fiancée hadn’t just decided to put them all in mortal peril. “It’s easier to nod and say yes.”
Xiaodan shot him a startled look, but he was already approaching the vault itself.
Its fangs were long, whittled and sharp as a vampire’s, and brown from decay, but they snapped down with shocking strength as it tried to bite at Remy.
But Xiaodan sounded just a little too… eager.
relaxed, like his intended wasn’t about to confront some eldritch terror.
going blurgghssggshekchkkk.
Something in his calm gaze made Remy flush and hastily look away.
