I stiffened. “I’m Tuatha de Dannan.”
“Yes, and you stink of burnt magic and overexertion. You couldn’t teleport to the corner store right now. You’re trapped with me until I let you go, and I’m not letting you go until you do what you came for. What do you want?”
“I want my brother awake.” The words came easily. Relief followed. Until I’d been speaking, I hadn’t been certain I’d be able to. “I want him to open his eyes and look at me. I want him back in the world, unharmed, unchanged, ready to be my brother again. I want him back.”
“Is that all?” The Luidaeg raised an eyebrow. “No bone for your puppy? No three wishes and a new toaster?”
“Madden finds his own bones, and I have kitchen staff. I don’t need a toaster.”
“I see.” The Luidaeg looked at me, assessing. Finally, she said, “Wait here,” and vanished down the hall, leaving me alone in the mess.
No, not quite alone: a cockroach the length of my index finger strolled along the wall, antennae waving, apparently unbothered by the fact that I was standing less than four feet away. I wrinkled my nose, but didn’t smash the disgusting thing. It could be the Luidaeg’s familiar or something. I didn’t want to come all this way only to incur her wrath over a bug.
The smell of love-lies-bleeding and kelp drifted in from the direction the Luidaeg had gone, notable mostly because it was so much fresher than the scum around me. The Luidaeg herself appeared a few moments later, a small vial in her left hand. Its contents were pearl gray and glowing like a fallen star. She held it up, showing it to me.
“Feed this to him and any sleeping potions will be cleansed from his body,” she said. “He’ll go back to sleep. He’ll sleep for eight hours. He’ll sleep restfully, and when he wakes, he’ll be fine. Eighty years out of time, but fine. That’s what you want.”
“Yes, it is,” I said. I started to reach for the vial, catching myself and pulling back at the last moment. “What does it cost?”
“Clever girl.” She smiled, ever so slightly. “I know why you sent Toby to Silences. I know she touched you without permission. I know she did it because she was chasing you, trying to make sure you didn’t abandon your post. And that’s what I want from you. If you take this from my hand, you take your throne as well. You will not be able to step down or step aside without my permission, ever.”
I bristled. “I’m not going to be your puppet.”
“Did I ask for that? I didn’t ask for that. I don’t care how you rule. I care about this kingdom having some stability. I have shit to do, and some of it includes Toby being clear-headed and focused enough to listen when I call for her. So I need you to stay on your damn throne.” The Luidaeg’s smile grew. The teeth were back. “No stepping down. No stepping aside. You die in the saddle, or you get my permission to leave.”
“What’s to stop me from breaking my word?” That might have been a bad question to ask someone like her, but I needed to know.
“You won’t be able to,” she said. “If you try to say the words, your tongue will stop in your mouth. If you try to give your crown away, your fingers won’t let go. You’ll die before you step down without my consent. But you’ll have your brother back, and I’ll never ask you to do me any favors. Not unless you ask me for something first.”
The vial in her hand continued glowing. If I took it, I could save Nolan, but I’d never be free; I’d be queen until I died, or until the Luidaeg didn’t need October’s full attention anymore. That could be centuries. No more exits, no more escapes. If I didn’t take it . . . Walther was an excellent alchemist. He might be able to find a way to save my brother. The future wasn’t set yet. I could still have my freedom and my family. It would be a risk. It would be a gamble. It wasn’t an impossibility.
It was more than I could afford to risk. Still . . . “Is there any chance you’ll give me permission in the future, when the region is stable, when I have a named heir standing ready?”
Her smile told me she understood what she was asking of me; there was mercy in her eyes, and a kindness that reminded me of Marianne’s hands moving through my hair. “Ask me in a hundred years,” she said.
I nodded once and took the vial. It was surprisingly heavy, like it was filled with liquid mercury. Her smile turned from sympathy to pleasure.
“Do we have a deal, Queen Windermere in the Mists?” she asked.
“We do,” I said.
The air turned electric around us, making the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stand on end. The charge only lasted for a few seconds. When it passed, my headache was gone and the vial in my hand was no longer glowing. I looked at the Luidaeg, eyes wide.
Her smile continued to blossom, becoming a grin. “You did something I wanted you to do, and you didn’t whine nearly as much as I expected,” she said. “I’m allowed to do favors. Now get the fuck out of my house, and if I see you before a hundred years have passed, I reserve the right to stab you in some nonfatal spot.”
“Why nonfatal?”
“Because guaranteeing myself a stable monarchy only works if I don’t go killing the monarchs.” She pointed to the door. “Get out.”
I got out.
Madden was right outside the door. Walther and Cassandra were a short distance away, standing close together. I wasn’t sure Walther realized how close, or that he’d positioned himself to protect her from anything that might come bursting from the apartment. I swallowed a smirk. Cassandra would be pleased when she figured out how well he was picking up her signals.
“Ardy!” Madden rushed to meet me as the door slammed shut. “Are you okay?”
“Better than okay.” I held up the vial. “We have our solution, and the Luidaeg threw in a fix for my magic-burn. We’re going home.”
I started to sweep my hand through the air, and stopped when Madden grabbed my wrist. I turned. He was staring at me, clear concern in his wolfish eyes.
“Ardy, what did you pay?” he asked, voice low.
I didn’t have to think about it before I smiled at him, and said, “Only what I deserved.”
He looked confused. But he let me go and took a step back, allowing me to open the gate that would return us to Muir Woods. The smell of blackberry flowers and redwoods washed over us, and we stepped through, all four of us, leaving the shadows of San Francisco behind.
NINE
It was past sunrise by the time Walther was done verifying that Nolan was stable and feeding him the potion from the Luidaeg, one slow sip at a time. Both Walther and Cassandra availed themselves of the hospitality of my house for a few hours, sleeping until midafternoon, when they woke, showered, and left, both of them riding on a yarrow branch that Walther produced from inside his jacket. I excused myself from Nolan’s bedside long enough to wave farewell.
Cassandra hugged me before leaving, surprising us both, and whispered, “I’ll be back,” in my ear.
I was still smiling about that when I returned to the room where my brother slept and sat down next to the bed. I had a book. The kingdom could get by without its queen for a few more hours. After all, it was never going to lose me again. Not for at least a hundred years.
Time passed, seconds blending into minutes into hours. Nolan stirred. I looked up from the page, trying not to let myself hope, trying not to let myself want.