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and wanted so badly to hold him, to try to chase this pain away. I rested my
head against his bare arm. My throat closed up, and I was suddenly choking on
tears. I began to weep, clutching at his arm. I couldn t stop.
He pulled me away from him enough to see my face. You waste tears on me why?
I had to struggle to speak. You are beautiful, Sholto, you are don t let them
make you think otherwise.
Beautiful now that he s butchered, Segna said, looming over us, pushing her
way past the uncles.
I shook my head. You broke in on us inLos Angeles . You saw what I was doing
with him. Why would
I have been doing those things if he was less than beautiful to me?
All I remember from that night, white flesh, is that you killed my sister.
I had, but by accident. That night, in fear for my life, I had lashed out with
magic I hadn t known I had. It had been the first night that my hand of flesh
had manifested. It was a terrible power the ability to turn living beings
inside out, but they did not die. They lived on, impossibly on, with their
mouths lost inside a ball of flesh, and still they screamed. I d had to cut
her to bits with a magical weapon to finally end her agony.
I don t know what shadows showed on my face, but Sholto reached for me.
Reached for me, to hold me, to givecomfort, and it was too much for Segna. She
shoved the other two guards away as if they were straw before a storm wind.
She struck at me, shrieking her rage.
Suddenly there was movement behind me, and in front of me. All the guards
moved at once, but Sholto was closest. He used his own body to shield me, so
Segna s razor claws sliced his own white skin. He took the brunt of the blow
meant for me, and even what was left of that strike staggered me backward,
numbing my arm from shoulder to elbow. It didn t hurt, because I couldn t feel
it.
Sholto pushed me into Doyle s arms, and pivoted in the same movement. The
movement was so fast that it surprised Segna, made her stumble nearer the edge
of the lake. Sholto s good arm was a pale blur as he smashed into her. The
blow sent her over the edge. She seemed to hang there in midair, her nearly
naked body revealed by the wings of her cape. Then she fell.
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CHAPTER 12
SHE LAY JUST ABOVE THE LOW WATER, IMPALED ON A SERIES OFspiked bones jutting
out of her from throat to stomach.She hung there, caught, bleeding, like a
fish caught on some terrible hook.
I think Sholto s guards expected her to simply draw herself off the spined
ridge of the boned creature.
Agnes, especially, seemed to be waiting, patient, unworried. Come on, Segna,
get up. Her voice was impatient.
Segna lay there and bled, her legs flailing, exposing her most intimate parts
as she struggled. The hags wore a leather belt from which hung a sword and a
pouch, but that, and their cloaks, were all. Her body was both larger than a
human s and more wizened, as if she were a shrunken giant.
I saw the wide eyes, the fright on her face. She wasn t going to just get up.
Sometimes, being mortal, I
recognized real damage faster, because on a visceral level, I knew it was a
possibility. Creatures who are immortal, or nearly so, don t understand the
disasters that could befall them.
Ivar, Fyfe, go to her.
With due respect, King Sholto, Fyfe said, I would stay here, and send Agnes
down.
Sholto started to argue, but Ivar joined the argument. We do not dare leave
Agnes up here with you alone. The princess will have guards, but you will be
unprotected.
Agnes would not hurt me, Sholto said, but he was staring at Segna as if he
were finally realizing just how bad it might be.
We are your guards, and your uncles. We would be poor at both duties if we
left you alone with Agnes now, Ivar said in his bird-like voice. People
always expected the nightflyers to have hissing, ugly voices, but Ivar sounded
like a songbird or how a songbird might sound if it could speak as humans do.
Most of the nightflyers sounded like that.
Segna is a night-hag, Agnes said. A mere bone will not bring her down.
I tripped on such a bone coming into your garden, Abe said, and raised his
cloth-wrapped arm at her.
Blood had soaked through much of the cloth.
The bones hold old magic, Doyle said. Some of them are things that hunted
the sidhe and the other sluagh before they were tamed by your early kings.
Do not lecture me about my own people, Agnes said.
I remember a time when Black Agnes was not a part of the sluagh, Rhys said,
softly.
She glared at him. And I remember a time when you had other names, white
knight. She spat in his direction. We have both fallen far from what we once
were.
Go with Ivar, Agnes. Go see to your sister, Sholto said.
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She glared at him. Do you not trust me?
I once trusted the three of you more than any other, but you bloodied me
before the Seelie got hold of me. You cut me up first.
Because you sought to betray us with some white-fleshed slut.
I am king here, or I am not, Agnes. You either obey me, or you do not. You
will go down with Ivar to help Segna, or I will see it as a direct challenge
to my authority.
You are gravely wounded, Sholto, said the hag. You cannot win against me in
this weakened state.
It is not about winning, Agnes. It is about being king. Either I am your
king, or I am not. If I am your king, then you will do as I say.
Do not do this, Sholto, she whispered.
You raised me to be king, Agnes. You told me that if the sluagh do not
respect my threat, then I will not be king for long.
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I did not mean
Go with Ivar, now, or it ends between us.
She reached out to him, as if to touch his hair.
He jerked back and yelled, Now, Agnes, go now, or it will end badly between
us.
Fyfe threw back his cloak, revealing his weapons, and each of his hands
touched a sword hilt, ready for a cross-draw.
Agnes gave Sholto one last look that was more despair than anger. Then she
followed Ivar down the steep slope of the lake, using her claws to dig into
the soil, so she wouldn t slide into the bones that spiked the earth.
Ivar was already wading through the still water. It came above his waist,
which meant the water was deeper than it had looked. He had to strain to lay a
hand over Segna s heart between the hangingweight of her breasts. He turned
that lipless, unfinished face to look at Sholto, and the look did not
communicate good news.
Agnes was taller than Ivar, and had an easier time in the water it came only
to her thighs. She waded to the other hag, and when she reached her let out a
wail of despair.
Sholto collapsed to his knees on the side of the lake. Segna, he said, and
there was real grief in his voice.
I knelt beside him, touched his arm. He jerked away. Every time I am with
you, someone I care about dies, Meredith.
Ivar called up, I am not certain she is dying.Gravely injured. She may yet
live.
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Agnes was petting her sister s face. But I could see the gaping mouth, the
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