A Caress Of Twilight   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

Doyle had kept his gun in its shoulder holster, but he'd added a sword at his hip and wrist sheaths on both arms. The knives glinted silver against his dark skin, but the sword was as black as he was. The blade was iron, not steel. I'd never known what the black handle was made of; it was metal, but what kind of metal I did not know. The sword was called Black Madness, Bainidhe Dub. If anyone other than Doyle tried to wield it, they would be struck permanently mad. The daggers on his wrists were twins, formed together at one making. These legendary blades were thought to hit any target once thrown. Their nicknames at court had been Snick and Snack. I knew they had true names, but I'd never heard them referred to as anything else.

Galen had a sword belted at his side, and it was a good sword but not magical, not in the way of the great weapons. He had a dagger on the other side of his belt to balance the sword. He'd added a shoulder holster and gun over his button-down shirt, and a second gun tucked in the small of his back.

I had put a belt around the middle of the sundress and threaded a side holster through it to hold my own gun. It ruined the line of the dress, but if things went really wrong, I'd rather survive looking a little silly than die looking perfect. I had two folding knives in thigh sheaths under the dress, and a smaller gun in an ankle holster. I'd been deemed unworthy even of a nonmagical blade by both courts.

Rhys had his sword on his back, the one he'd used of old, Uamhas, Dread Death. He had his axe belted at his side, because with only one eye his depth perception just wasn't up to a sword. He had daggers on him, but I wasn't sure I'd want to be standing to the side of whatever he was throwing at. When you're missing an eye, there's only so much you can compensate for.

Nicca had a sword that was almost identical to Galen's, standard knight ware, beautiful, deadly, but not powerful. Nicca had two guns on either side of his shoulder holster. I had reason to know that he used either hand equally well. He had added a third gun to the small of his back, and a dagger on the opposite side from his sword. Maybe it was standard issue, too, like the sword.

Kitto didn't know enough about guns to be trusted not to shoot his foot off, but he had a short sword belted across the back of his Wile E. Coyote T-shirt.

Sage had a tiny sword that gleamed bright silver in the sunlight. He would not give us the name of it. "To know the name of something is to have power over it," he said.

There was a rumbling sound, and the ground seemed to swell up as a portion of Maeve's wall fell inward. The Nameless had cheated. It hadn't gotten past her wards; it had destroyed what she attached them to.

The shimmering thing moved through the hole while a few shots rang out, and officers in charge yelled, "Don't shoot, don't shoot!"

Doyle was striding forward. "I will use the daggers. They must strike true, as is their nature."

"Can you get close enough and still stay out of reach?" Frost asked.

Doyle gave a small glance back. "I think so." He kept walking.

Frost moved me away from him, his hands gentle on my arms. "I must go with him. If he falls, I must be there."

"Kiss me first," I said.

He shook his head. "If I touch your lips, I will never leave your side." He kissed my forehead quickly, then jogged after Doyle.

Rhys swept me up into his arms while I was still too surprised to react. He kissed me, thoroughly and completely, and ended up wearing most of my red lipstick on his lips. He sat me back on my feet a little breathless.

"You can't steal my courage with a kiss, Merry. You don't love me enough for that." He ran after the other two before I could think of anything to say.

The police rounded up an armored group of S.W.A.T. officers to back up the men; then they moved forward, through the hole in the wall, and vanished from sight.

Strangely, the Nameless had vanished, as well, as if once inside the wall the shimmer was lost, even though it should have towered above it.

"What if we go in the back and get Maeve out?" Galen said into the heavy silence.

We all looked at him.

"We can't fight the Nameless, but we might be able to do that."

Lucy slapped her forehead. "Dumb. Really dumb, we should have evacuated Ms. Reed before this."

"It will follow her," I said. "Unless you can get a helicopter in here, we won't be able to get her away fast enough."

Lucy seemed to think about that for a moment. "I might be able to swing it. The Reeds have a lot of clout in this town."

"Do it, if you can," I said.

"In the meantime give us a few men and let us go in the back," Galen said.

"I'm going with you," I said.

He shook his head, looking so serious. "No, Merry, you're not."

"Yes, Galen, I am. I was raised to know that a leader never asks of her people what she isn't willing to do herself."

"Your father was a good man … but you're mortal, Merry. The rest of us aren't."

"The police are, all of them, and they're still here."

He shook his head. "No."

We argued, but in the end I got my way because all the men that could have argued me down were inside the broken wall facing off against the thing we'd come to destroy.



Chapter 42

Getting over the wall was surprisingly easy. It was tall, but not that tall, and setting off the silent alarm was no longer a problem. The police were already here. I was helped down into a narrow lane that was planted so thickly with dark green camellias that they formed a second wall to nearly hide the house in front of us. It wasn't the right time of year for blooming, so they were just tall bushes with thick, waxy leaves. I knew exactly how the leaves felt because Lucy and Galen both made me stand in the damn shrubs. I could come along, but they were both going to make sure I didn't get to do anything.

A uniformed officer ducked around the corner and came back with whispered news that there was a sliding glass door: easy access. We were about to slip around that corner and enter the door to search for Maeve Reed, when something awful happened.

The Nameless became visible.

Its glamour went down with a magical backwash that staggered every fey in the area. Still pressed into the camellia bushes, I couldn't see anything, but two of the policemen opened their mouths wide and started to scream. The other policemen paled, but tried to calm the other two down, until one of the screamers dropped to his knees and tried to claw out his own eyes. One of the calm ones fought to hold the screamer's hands away from his body. Another older officer slapped the other screamer over and over, cursing under his own breath with each blow.