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  I joined Ruby and together we flew beside Davril in Lady Kay.

  “This is crazy,” Ruby said.

  “You think this is crazy,” I said. “Watch what happens next.”

  Walsh reappeared behind us, smoke trailing from his maw. “Surrender the wardrobe!” he thundered. “Surrender it or die!”

  He pumped his wings and darted forward, faster than we were. Fire shot from his mouth, right toward us.

  “Split up!” Davril said. “I’ll draw him away!”

  He twisted the wheel and shot down a side-corridor. Ruby and I veered the other way, going opposite him. The column of fire billowed harmlessly past. I turned my head to see Walsh banking with shocking nimbleness to pursue Davril. Of course. Nevos’s spell had been cast on Lady Kay herself.

  “Be swift,” I told Davril.

  I pulled Chromecat around and raced at Walsh’s back. Ruby came right behind, a frightened look on her face.

  Davril turned down one canyon, then another. Damn! The water was right ahead. He was going to fly out over the harbor, where there was no cover from buildings. I had to hurry. I gunned Chromecat and approached Walsh from behind. His tail whipped from side to side, almost striking me. I gasped. The tail whizzed past.

  Hauling Chromecat higher, I pulled just above Walsh. His broad, scaly back was right below me. Was I really going to go through with this? Ruby was right. It was crazy.

  “Screw it,” I said.

  I jumped from Chromecat’s saddle and landed on Walsh’s back near his spine. Without Chromecat’s or Lady Kay’s spells to protect me, the high winds whipped at me, almost hurling me over the side. I hunkered low and threw myself on my hands and knees. The heat of Walsh’s scales burned my hands.

  “Damn damn dam,” I said, shuffling forward.

  Ahead Davril had passed the last buildings of Manhattan and had shot out over open water. I could feel by the heat in Walsh’s scales that the dragon was gearing up for another blast of fire. What would probably be the end of Davril.

  I wasn’t going to let that happen. Whatever he’d done or not done, I knew that I cared for him. He wasn’t going to die on my watch.

  I scrabbled out onto Walsh’s neck, going faster now.

  “Now you die!” Walsh roared at Davril, and prepared to roast Lady Kay.

  “I don’t think so,” I said. Reaching his head, I yanked out the syringe, ripped off the cap and plunged the needle into Walsh’s right eye. He screamed. I pushed the plunger. The fire died in his maw.

  “What have you done?” he said.

  “You took my wings, now I’m taking yours.”

  Ruby’s concoction worked immediately. Walsh’s neck shrank and his scales disappeared, replaced by human skin. In seconds he was simply a human man falling toward the ocean. And me beside him. I whistled and Chromecat appeared below me. I fell into the saddle hard, then veered her to the side.

  Walsh didn’t scream as he fell. He plummeted, scowling and wrathful, and I had no doubt I would see him again.

  He struck the sea and vanished from sight. Breathless, I watched the white mark on the ocean where’d he gone, but I saw no further sign of him.

  Ruby came to hover beside me, then Davril.

  “He’ll be back,” Davril said, his voice grim.

  “He’d better be,” I said. “He still has my fire.”

  “Think Nevos is still catchable?” Ruby said.

  We fanned out, searching for him, but Nevos, and the wardrobe, were gone. If nothing else, at least the fighting around the Guild House had died down. When we returned there, the Lord Commander of the Order of the Shield was assisting Gavin in cleaning up. Angela and her army were gone. Once they’d realized the wardrobe was no longer present, they’d slipped away back to Shadowpark.

  “I wonder if Nevos will make good on his threat,” I said.

  “What do you mean?” Ruby asked.

  We were watching Davril confer with Lord Gleamstone. Jessela was nearby and we waved at each other.

  “He said that once he had the wardrobe, there were many in Angela’s camp that would follow him. That he would become their leader. I guess maybe he thinks of himself as some sort of high priest to the Shadow.”

  Ruby made a face. “That sounds ominous.”

  “Well, he is the only one on this plane, at least that I know of, that can commune openly with Lord Vorkoth now.”

  “Again, you’re not encouraging me.”

  I smiled and hugged her. “But at least I have you. We couldn’t have survived the day without my little sister.”

  She hugged back, then pulled away, studying me. “What’s wrong? I know Nevos got what he wanted, but at least we’re still here, right?”

  But what I heard was We’re still hair.

  I ran my fingers through my black-and-purple waves, then analyzed them, still searching for Nevos’s lost specimen.

  Nothing.

  But it was there, somewhere. And Davril knew it.

  Jade, what have you done?

  Epilogue

  “Well, it’s not there,” Davril said. Master of the obvious.

  “Yeah. Thanks for the heads up.”

  Together we sat in Lady Kay, staring out at the empty sky. It was where Vincent Walsh’s zeppelin, his aerial mansion, had been just a couple of days ago, but it was no longer in the same place. Of course. The bastard had probably pulled up stakes as soon as he’d dragged himself out of the water.

  “We should have come here first thing,” I said.

  “Well, we did have some cleanup to do downtown.”

  That was true enough. The battle had been yesterday, and the city authorities had not been pleased with the Fae Lords over what had gone down. It was the second major battle involving them in a matter of months, and though the last one had happened in a deserted stadium, this one had been all too public. Fortunately no civilians had gotten hurt.

  “There goes my chance at getting my fire back,” I said. I wanted to throw my feet up on the dash in protest at what the fates had bestowed upon me, but I knew Davril hated that, and Lady Kay probably wasn’t a big fan, either.

  “I’m sorry, Jade. There will be other chances. At least we know what his zeppelin looks like now. We’ll be watching for it.”

  “Yeah, and I’m sure he won’t try to disguise it at all.”

  Then again, fair was fair. Ruby and I had to switch apartments now that Walsh knew where we lived. It served him right to have to relocate, too, and I was petty enough to enjoy the thought of his aggravation. Then again, simply parking his zeppelin in a different spot and casting a spell on it to change its appearance wasn’t much of a bother for the likes of him.

  But I would give him some bother, all right. Real soon. You’d best be looking over your shoulder, Vinnie.

  “Well, shall we go back to the Palace?” Davril said.

  “I guess.”

  The Queen had given us a day off after all the action, and Davril had been kind enough to take me here even though we both knew what the likely outcome was going to be. We’d been prepared to call in the army, though. Not just for my fire, but to capture an enemy of the Fae.

  As Davril turned the wheel and brought Lady Kay around, I said, “Interesting that he seems to hate the Shadow. All he did, it was to stop someone from being able to commune with Lord Vorkoth.”

  Davril nodded. “There’s more to Walsh than we understand, that’s for certain. We don’t know what his real agenda is.”

  We drove along. Clouds scudded around us. Lady Kay’s white wings pumped slowly to either side, lovingly stroking the air. I loved how the sunlight bounced off them. Slowly, very slowly, I turned to Davril.

  “So,” I said.

  He didn’t reply, just stared forward.

  “So. Are you finally going to tell me? What really did happen between you and Nevos?”

  For a long moment, he said nothing. Then he let out a long breath and nodded again, this time to himself, as if trying to convince him of somethi
ng.

  “I suppose you’ve earned the truth,” he said. “You trusted me in the moment of crisis without demanding an explanation.”

  “Well, gah, thanks, Mr. Roboto. So spill!”

  “Jade, patience.”

  I forced myself to settle back down. In a calmer tone of voice, I said, “Please. Tell me. If you would.”

  The city was far below us, and the sky was very blue around us as he began:

  “It started long, long ago to your way of looking at things. Over two hundred years ago, when I was young, and so was Liana. Nevos wasn’t much older. Well, Liana was the daughter of a lord sworn to my father’s service, and we played together a great deal, and were inseparable. In appreciation of that, my father and her father agreed that we would be promised to each other, that we would wed when we were old enough, if we both agreed.” Surprisingly, he smiled, and there was something boyish and wistful about it that recalled the young man he must once have been. He was still young in body, but he was hardened and cynical now. But back then he must have been truly boyish and optimistic.

  “Liana and I had entered our teens, and we were very much in love,” he continued. “We couldn’t wait for our wedding day. I would be the prince and she my princess. Nevos would be king when Father passed, which we all hoped would be long years away. But even Fae age, and Father had had us when he was very old. He was already beginning to fade, and he began taking a great interest in making sure Nevos, the firstborn, would be ready to lead.

  “I knew that Nevos was a cad and a scoundrel. He would rather go out drinking and carousing than attend to his studies or his martial training. I did all those things because I wanted to learn and better myself without any expectation of sitting the throne. Well, it so happened that Nevos was in love with Liana. I had suspected, but it quickly became evident when he would fly into rages after he saw us together. Once he even accosted me, and I was forced to defend myself, leaving him with a black eye. This further sent Nevos into his downward spiral, and he drank more and fought more, bullying servants under him and assaulting the townspeople when in his cups.

  “Eventually Father said enough was enough. Nevos was not fit to rule after he was gone. Though it pained Father greatly, he removed his blessing from Nevos and placed it on me. He made me his heir.”

  I shook my head. “That must have gone over well.”

  One corner of Davril’s mouth twisted up in wry amusement. But then sadness touched his eyes. “In your terms, Nevos went ballistic. He overturned tables and chairs, defaced paintings. He took his friends out hunting in the woods for days on end, and they would return drunken and dirty. Some said they raided the towns of other provinces. Some say they had found a band of goblin raiders and begun consorting with them, perhaps even selling them captured humans for use as slaves.”

  “Damn!”

  Davril’s hands tightened on the wheel. “Father went to him. He asked Nevos what he could do to make it up to him, to put Nevos at peace again. Or at least to stop causing chaos. Nevos, of course, said he wanted the throne. Father refused. Then Nevos said the thing that would change my life, and all of our lives.”

  I could guess that part. “He said he wanted Liana.”

  Breath hissed out between Davril’s teeth, but there was relief on his face, too. He was glad that I was getting it.

  “To Father’s shame, he said yes. He told Nevos that he would allow Liana to wed him instead of me, if she was agreeable, and if that would settle Nevos down and cause him to be an upright prince again. Liana wept and agonized over the decision, but in the end she believed it was best for the kingdom. Even though it meant the end of our happiness, she agreed to the betrothal.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  He blinked, and I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or not but I would have sworn that there was moisture in his eyes. “It was …. a difficult time,” he admitted.

  Wind whispered over the hood of Lady Kay. Only some of it seeped through the magical barriers, just enough to ruffle my hair, but I barely felt it. I was far away, in that other land, side by side with a young, tormented Davril Stormguard. I pictured him gazing out of a castle tower, staring across the gulf at another tower, where Nevos made love to his new bride and Davril balled his fists in rage.

  “What happened?” I said after some time.

  “Nevos did indeed settle down, at least somewhat. Father died, and I became king. Nevos, though more princely, still went out drinking and sleeping with any woman he wanted to. Rumors spread of his deeds, and Liana was embarrassed before the entire kingdom. She was shamed. Weeping, she came to me. If nothing else, we had been friends since childhood, and she could confide in me. But something happened. She was vulnerable, and I suppose I was, too. We loved each other, yet had never …”

  I gasped. “You were saving yourselves for marriage.”

  He sighed. “So it was.”

  I chewed on my lower lip. “So you slept together.”

  “To our shame, yes. Passion overcame us. This happened again and again over several months, before at last Nevos caught us. Enraged, he rushed at me. Tried to kill me. I just barely fended him off. I wounded him with a slash across his side. He retreated to his tower and gathered his supporters. He had been grooming his own men, most of them criminals and miscreants. Men who were attracted to dark deeds and willing to follow someone who promised them the ability to fulfill their most depraved fantasies. Knowing that he wanted a coup, I summoned my own troops.

  “Civil war loomed, and it looked like the kingdom would be ripped apart. Liana couldn’t bear knowing that she had caused this. She went to Nevos, or tried to, in an effort to talk him down from violence. One of his men was jumpy, though, and thought she was an enemy. He killed her.”

  “My God!”

  “After that, we saw weird lights in Nevos’s tower and heard rumor of strange sorceries. I know now that he must have reached out to the dark powers, perhaps through the goblins he had met earlier. He found a way to commune with Lord Vorkoth, to make common cause with him. He opened the gates of the castle and the city to the hordes of the Shadow, starting the Great War, and you know the rest.”

  “I’m so sorry, Davril. That’s terrible.”

  He brought Lady Kay lower and threaded her between the spires of Manhattan. Fantastic castles and palaces sprouted from the tallest towers, sunlight winking on the facets of their windows. Ahead reared the glory of the Great Palace itself. Home of the Fae Queen. My home, too, at least part of the time.

  Davril brought Lady Kay into the hangar and let the stablemaster take over. Silent and pensive, we walked through the halls back to the tower where the Order of the Shield operated out of. A heaviness settled on me, and a huge sadness. I grieved for Liana and the Davril that was, for the happiness that could have been.

  Davril escorted me to my room. Still silent, thinking, I let him open the door for me.

  “So,” he said at last. “Do you still doubt me?”

  Tears burned my eyes. “God, no.” I reached out and touched his arm, then hastily withdrew my hand.

  He met my gaze, then dropped his own. In a low voice, he said, “I do. I’m the cause of all this, Jade. My actions led us to this point. And now Nevos has found a new way to commune with his Master. Dire things happened last time that happened.”

  “We won’t allow that to happen again.”

  I wanted to kiss him, but I could tell from the reserve in his face that that would be a bad idea. Maybe a very bad idea.

  He raised his eyes, and a new note had entered his face. I thought I knew that expression, but I wasn’t sure. Not until he lifted a hand and ran it through my hair, then glanced at his fingers afterward.

  Shame and guilt tore at me, and I wanted to crawl in a hole and vanish from the world.

  “I …”

  “Yes?” he said.

  I swallowed. “I’m … sorry. I mean, I only did it to get the knob. I mean … you know what I mean.”

  “And yo
u couldn’t have simply struck him over the head or found some other way to render him unconscious once you got him alone? You had to sleep with him?”

  I opened my mouth to reply, then closed it. There was nothing to say.

  Davril nodded sadly and moved off down the hall. I started to call out for him, but the words died in my throat. He was still my partner, I knew. That hadn’t changed. And tomorrow we would go out and find new bad guys to take down. But how could we ever get back to the place we were before Nevos had entered our lives? Or reentered, in his case? I was the second woman Nevos had bedded ahead of his brother. That must be part of it, too. But there was more than that. There were real feelings between Davril and I.

  And I’d just really screwed that up.

  I closed the door, threw myself on the bed and cried. Damn it all, what was I going to do now?

  THE END

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