“Daughter,” he said.

  “Rogue,” I replied.

  “Not today.” Crazy arsed bastard. “You brought a friend.” His eyes scanned Amisi and instantly dismissed her. More fool him. “I am surprised you risk showing your face,” he said, once his attention was back on me.

  “Your party tricks won’t work for long. The Norms are too desensitised to fantasy.”

  “I have more tricks, little one.”

  “Do they involve fairies?”

  His face darkened briefly, but he made a valiant effort to mask his reaction. I inhaled and scented burnt coffee and out-of-date milk. Xavier did not like the Fey he’d chosen to work with.

  Boohoo. Fuck him.

  “Why don’t they show themselves?” I said.

  “They will when they are ready.”

  That sounded wrong to my ears. I couldn’t pinpoint why.

  “So, what do you want?” I asked.

  If I kept him talking, then backup might arrive. I couldn’t believe that Gregor would not be aware of this amount of power in his city. Even if he were busy with the press, he would spare a moment for his Nosferatin. I thought perhaps that Gregor would do anything for Amisi as long as their interests continued to align.

  “It is not what I want,” Xavier said, “but what is required.”

  And OK, he was starting to make no sense at all, not that he’d been intelligible when he’d been a rogue. But he wasn’t in rogue-mode right now, so he should have been making some sort of sense. I studied him. I couldn’t see the red creeping into his eyes or the drool beginning to form; he wasn’t about to freak out on me. He was as stable as Xavier ever got.

  “And what’s required?” I asked, still trying to figure out what the hell was going on here.

  “Payment,” he murmured and struck out with his hand toward my throat.

  I leapt back, just as Amisi leapt forward. Xavier missed my windpipe by millimetres. Amisi missed his heart by about the same amount. Her stake glinted in the artificial light from the street lamps nearby. She hid it again in the next instant, no doubt considering the reaction of the Norms.

  And wouldn’t you know it, a guy started to head in our direction, breaking off from a rowdy crowd over by a pub.

  “You ladies need some help?” he called, drawing more and more attention to us.

  Go away, I willed, but my talents didn’t stretch that far.

  “We’re fine,” Amisi said. “Just an argument between friends.”

  “You sure? He looked like he was trying to hit one of you.”

  “Yeah, but I hit him back,” she said with a sweet smile.

  I wanted to laugh, but the fairies had shifted. The Taniwha were still where they had been from the start. Grouped together, not moving; as if they were only present for the threat of what they could do not to actually do something. It didn’t make sense. The Taniwha I’d met up in the Rimutaka Ranges had been compulsive and more than willing to go head to head with a vampire. Perhaps Gregor’s threats had contained them.

  But then, why were they here if they were scared of the Master of the City?

  I looked at Xavier. Amisi was getting rid of the Norm. Something wasn’t right here.

  Xavier looked back and smiled. It was full of secrets.

  Damn it; I’d had enough of those.

  “Help me out,” I said, not looking at Amisi when I said it.

  I let a little of my Light out, waiting for her to catch on. She did and quickly. Our Light entwined and grew bigger, brighter, more spectacular. This was all way too public for my liking, and I was sure several of those drunken and disorderly over by the pub had their cellphone cameras out. Which made me pull mine and pretend it was the device making all the sparkles appear in the air and not my supernatural freakish Nothus powers.

  Our Light merged and became one, and then swept out across the wharf towards the fairies. I directed it, but Amisi let me. Together our Light was stronger.

  And it was like meth to a junkie. Or Light to a Ljósálfar.

  A fairy stepped out from the shadows. And then another and another.

  At first, I was just stunned that it was working.

  And then I was just confused at what I was seeing.

  These were no pansy-arsed fairies. These were warriors. And all women.

  They were dressed in leather armour, with bows on their backs and long swords on their curved hips. Their silver hair was braided in a single, long strand over their shoulders, and crowns of thorns adorned their heads. Their eyes were a vivid green, an unnaturally bright colour. They chimed, which started to grate on me, making my hold on Amisi’s and my Light falter.

  Amisi urged me on, no doubt thinking like I was that to give in now could mean our deaths. The Norms had all stopped what they were doing and were swaying to the fairies’ song. I gritted my teeth and shook my head and forced my muscles not to move a single inch, all of which worked some of the time but not all of it.

  I swayed and lurched and then ramped up my Light some more, while the warrior women all stepped forward en masse and soaked up the Light we fed them.

  “Was this a really bad idea?” I managed to growl out of the side of my mouth at Amisi.

  “Probably,” she gasped back. Sweat beaded her brow, her hair lay damp against her dark skin. This was taking a toll on the Nosferatin. More so than it was on me. She couldn’t keep this up for much longer; we needed a plan. A way to break this standoff and get the hell out of here.

  I was pretty damn sure that the two of us alone against a dozen Light Fey Warrior Princesses was just not going to cut it.

  We needed something, but all I could do was hold onto my Light and resist their chiming charm.

  I flicked my eyes to Xavier. He was still. Vampire still. Preternaturally still. He wasn’t even breathing. Was he used to their magic? Did he just give up when they did this in large numbers? Who was in control here?

  Not him.

  I looked back at the fairies. One of them met my gaze. She alone seemed bigger than the rest. Not in stature, they were all pretty much the same shape. Tall, thin but curvy, beautiful. Stunning really. Their bodies lured you in as much as their beautiful faces, and musical chimes did.

  “Who are you?” I growled, the Dark Shadow lending me some of her Sanguis Vitam. It helped, but it also made Amisi’s and my Light dim.

  The fairies all stepped forward as one.

  Spooky.

  “Creature,” the lead warrior wench said. “You have a debt to pay.”

  I did? I looked at Xavier. He was otherwise not present. I quickly returned my attention to the fairy before me.

  “Says who?” I snapped.

  “You have been judged an enemy of the crown,” she intoned, the chimes as she spoke rung out around the courtyard we were in. It took everything in me to resist them.

  “Says a fairy,” I muttered.

  “Says the true Queen.”

  Isoleth. Sofiq would have used Aliath to send home a message. This was all about the Light Queen. The ruler of the Ljósálfar. And could only be in relation to one thing.

  “The spies,” I whispered.

  “Our emissaries.”

  Bullshit. They were spying their little fairy butts off in Dökkálfa. There was no attempt at opening a dialogue between the two sides that made up Faerie. The Light wanted the Dark back under their control; imprisoned like they’d been imprisoned for centuries. Aliath and his fucked-in-the-head monarch thought differently about that plan.

  “Sorry, not sorry, about that,” I said, smirking.

  It was the last thing I did before she notched an arrow in her bow and let it fly toward me.

  I let go of all that Light and spun. Amisi collapsed to the ground where she’d been standing. And the arrow missed where she’d fallen by mere centimetres.

  Too close, I thought as I continued the spin and pulled my stake out.

  Silver didn’t hurt a fairy, but the stake was sharp, and it could do some damage.

  The fairy notched another arrow and tracked me through the air as if I wasn’t flying through space at faster than the speed of sound. The arrow released and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. I couldn’t stop mid-spin. I couldn’t change trajectory because my feet weren’t touching the ground. I’d put this moment in motion when I’d decided I could bum-rush a fairy, believing them slower than I was.

  She wasn’t. Her aim was true. The arrow hit me square in the chest.

  The concrete was cold. My blood felt too hot as it pooled beneath me. A ringing started up in my ears, but that could have been the fairies chiming. I panted for breath I didn’t need, but my body wanted anyway and blinked up into the too green eyes of the bitch who had shot me through the heart with a silver-tipped arrow.

  “She is not dead,” the fairy said, cocking her head to the side like Aliath did. Like a bird.

  “She should be dead,” another fairy bitch commented mildly.

  “The silver was forged by the Smith himself.”

  “Perhaps it was a dud.”

  “The Smith never fails us.”

  “It has been years.”

  “Too many.”

  “Too many.”

  “Too many.”

  “What now?”

  “The Queen wants her head. Perhaps parting it from her body will do the deed.”

  “She is vampyre. To remove her head would be to destroy it.”

  “She has Light. She is not vampyre.”

  “She is a creature.”

  “A creature.”

  “A creature.”

  “A creature.”

  “We take her with us,” the first fairy said.

  “I do not wish to touch her,” another murmured.

  “We are Valkyrjur. We do not shy from anything.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Agreed.”

  “The hunt is complete. Release the hounds. They have served their purpose.”

  “And the vampyre?”

  “Our Queen favours him. Perhaps he will be a sufficient gift for our failure.”

  “Failure.”

  “Failure.”

  “Failure.”

  “We are Valkyrjur. We do not fail.”

  “Yes.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Call a portal.”

  “It is done.”

  “Take the creature.”

  My body was lifted on hands tipped in sharp claws. I scented the blood as my skin parted beneath their fingers.

  “Someone comes.”

  “Who?”

  “Vampyre. Hurry.”

  “Take the gift. Leave the hounds. No. Make them attack the vampyre who approaches.”

  “It is done.”

  “To Valhöll! The Valkyrjur ride again.”

  “Ride again.”

  “Ride again.”

  “Ride again.”

  I tried to inhale anything other than peaches and ozone, but the scent of the fairies who carried me overpowered all else. My Dark Shadow growled loud inside my head, urging me to fight, to use her Sanguis Vitam, but I’d lost too much blood. She threatened to take over. I wanted her to, but even though she tried, something stopped her from completing the transition. I remained present, in pain, scared. The scent of my fear was mixed in with the peaches and ozone, but it smelled all the same to me.

  Faery. Álfheimr.

  I knew the instant we’d left Earth. The moment Ljósálfar surrounded. Whoever the vampire was who’d come to our aid had arrived too late. I didn’t know if it was Samson or Gregor or Jett. Whoever it was, though, would have had a dozen Taniwha to battle. The chances of them surviving were slim.

  I pushed the gnawing worry of that aside and concentrated on my surroundings.

  Somewhere along the way I lost some time. The world had shifted. The sweet scent of fresh air had been replaced with a dampness that smelled rotten. And bloody. Wherever the warrior bitches had taken me, it was enclosed and smelled like a freshly dug grave.

  Dungeons, the Dark Shadow said.

  What else? I asked. I couldn’t see properly for some reason. I wasn’t sure the Dark Shadow could, but she seemed more in charge of her faculties than I was.

  We are not alone. Our Sire is also here.

  In the dungeon?

  In a cell beside us. Not our cell or I would have brought him the final death.

  Big talk from the big bad vampire-within. I tested our connection. There was still no way for her to take over and she had been trying.

  Weak, she spat.

  Fuck you, I spat back.

  She said nothing, fuming in her own silence. I rolled over and sucked in the damp earth beneath my cheek. And then felt around for a weapon. My silver dagger had been removed. The stake was long gone. I had nothing. Other than my fangs, which were down and out what with how close to the surface the Dark Shadow was.

  But things were looking up because they hadn’t bound me.

  I flopped onto my back and stared up at the cavernous ceiling. The dungeons were underground in what had to be a cave beneath Isoleth’s castle. If she had a castle, and I couldn’t see the pretentious Fey having anything but a castle for their ‘true Queen.’

  I reached for my Light and felt a searing pain pierce my skull.

  Stupid, the Dark Shadow said.

  What? I mumbled, holding my head to stop it from splitting.

  The cell is coated with magic. Your Light is useless here.

  Sanguis Vitam?

  She said nothing. Maybe she’d been stupid and reached for it while I’d been unconscious as they brought me here.

  We are trapped, she eventually said.

  Not for long, I muttered and pulled myself upright.

  I stared into the dim shadows of the cell beside us. I could sense him there. I couldn’t scent him, I was too depleted, and my head hurt like fuck. But I knew Xavier was watching me as I was watching him.

  “Not so all powerful now are you, Rogue,” I said.

  “Daughter,” he rasped. He sounded awful.

  How long was I out?

  Hours.

  Fuck-a-spit-roasted-duck. We were so screwed.

  What’s wrong with him?

  He returned to his cell like this.

  From where?

  The Queen.

  Shit. I did not feel compassion for the prick. I refused to.

  “Got a plan to get us out of here?” I said aloud. To him. To her. Whatever.

  “There is no escape,” Xavier said. The dullness in his tone spoke volumes.

  “You signed a contract with the devil, didn’t you?”

  “They are Fey. They trick.”

  “I thought you were smarter than that.”

  “I am not what I once was.”

  I snorted. Preaching to the choir, vampire.

  I looked around the dank and dark cavern, at the thick iron bars that marked out my six-foot by six-foot cell. At the shadows that hung as though filled with something watchful. At the dried blood that coated the floors and walls. This was a torture chamber. A fucking skeleton made up the decoration in the cell opposite.

  I started to laugh. It was entirely unhinged, but right then, I welcomed the sound. It was also a big Fuck You to the fairies who were undoubtedly watching. Watching and waiting for me to crack under the pressure.

  Well, my Sire was a Rogue, and I was a mixed up halfbreed. Crazy ran through my veins. They’d better get used to it.

  What are you doing? my Dark Shadow asked.

  Laughing in the face of death.

  She said nothing, and then she started to laugh with me.

  After a while, Xavier joined in.

  I could have sworn the shadows shuddered. It did sound hella creepy.

  But not as creepy as the dungeons we were trapped in.

  24

  Puzzled

  A chain rattled, waking me. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been asleep, but my throat was parched, and little bits of dirt and pebbles had embedded in my cheek where I’d been lying on the floor of my cell. I offered a quick glance at Xavier’s cell. At some time during the past few hours, he’d been taken away again. And had returned a little worse for wear.

  I had the disconcerting feeling that they were slowly chipping away at him as if he were an ice sculpture they wanted to shape into something new. Each time he came back something more was wrong with him and yet he hadn’t turned rogue.

  Turning rogue would have offered a respite. They didn’t even let him have that.

  Bitches.

  One of the warrior princesses stepped into view. She was still dressed in her leather armour and wore the sword on her hip, but the bow and arrows had been removed. She walked past my cell without sparing me a glance. She stepped with grace and beauty making a mockery of the dark, dank dungeon we were in.

  I watched her walk out of sight and then heard another chain rattle.

  How many people in here do you think? I asked the Dark Shadow.

  I cannot tell.

  None of our talents were working.

  I pushed up off the ground and walked to the bars, wrapping my hands around them. They were definitely iron but coated in silver. Both materials had no effect on me, but the cell was steeped in Fey magic, and that worked.

  The warrior woman walked back down the central hallway, from where the chain had rattled. A small smear of blood marred her creamy cheek. I smiled. It showed fang. She ignored me.

  “Bet it’s a bitch to get blood out of leather,” I said as she came abreast of my cell.

  Too green eyes swung to stare at me. There was something inherently unnatural in them.

  “Creature,” she said. “You handle silver.”

  Her eyes darted down to where I held onto the bars of the cell.

  “And iron,” I said, tapping my fingers one by one on the bars. “But you’ve covered all your bases, haven’t you? Iron. Silver. And magic.”

  “There is no escape,” she said. “None has achieved it in thousands of years. Valhöll is secure.”

  “Is that what you call the true Queen’s castle?

  She smiled. For a second, I couldn’t breathe. My Dark Shadow flexed her claws and dug them in deep. I sucked in a breath of air, blinking.