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Chapter Five

There was one terrible scream, a sound of such desolation that I pushed at Galen, tried to move him away I had to see Doyle had been an immovable wall; Galen moved, but not away His body was softer, less certain of itself, but I was just as trapped Ito hurt hi to hurt more of the people I cared for

Galen took a breath that broke in a sob I heard Rhys&039;s voice "Goddess, help us!"

I pushed harder at Galen&039;s chest "Move,his face against htened before; noas panic I screamed at him "Let me see, or I will hurt you!"

It was Rhys who said, "Let her see, Galen"

"No," he said

"Galen, move Merry isn&039;t like you She&039;ll want to see" The tone in his voice turned the panic to ice in my veins I was suddenly calm, but it wasn&039;t true cal that will let you function, for a time

Galen moved slowly, reluctance in every muscle as he crawled off the bed on the opposite side from where he&039;d started He put hi he hadn&039;t wanted htflyer first, wrapped around Gran like a shroud One of the spines that they could carry inside their bodies had pierced her through I saw the spikes on the spine, and knehy he, for it was a he, had not taken the spine back out It would causeback, but it wasn&039;t like a blade You couldn&039;t cut it off, so that the injury wasn&039;t inflicted twice It was a piece of the nightflyer&039;s body Why not just take it back out and be done with it?

Gran&039;s hand reached to eet up, and no one stopped me That was bad in and of itself It li up at the ceiling The front of his borrowed surgical scrubs was blackened, and part was peeled away to show the raw burned flesh underneath

Rhys knelt beside hi for a doctor? We needed a doctor I hit the call button beside the bed

I half fell and half crawled out of bed When the IV pulled, I tore it out A trickle of blood oozed down my arm, but if there was pain, I didn&039;t feel it

I knelt on the floor between the two of them, and only then could I see Sholto on the far side of Doyle He was collapsed on his side, his hair spilled across his face so that I could not see if he were awake and watching me, or beyond that The remnants of the t-shirt that had framed the perfection of his chest noed a black-and-red ruin But whereas Doyle&039;s injury was on his stomach, the bolt of power had taken Sholto over the heart

Soin so short a space of tiround, frozen in my indecision A sound made me look at the woman who had raised me If ever I had truly had a mother, it was she She stared at me with those brown eyes that had shown me all the kindness I had ever known froether Now I stared up at her from my knees, the only way she would be taller than htflyer unfurled its fleshy wings enough that I could see that the spine had taken her just under the heart Maybe even gone through the bottoh lot, but it was a terrible wound

She stared at erlike spine I took her hand, and felt her grip, which had always been so strong, now frail, as if she could not hold my hand, but she tried

I turned to Doyle, and took his hand in mine He whispered, "I have failed you"

I shook my head "Not yet," I said "It&039;s failure only if you die Don&039;t die"

Rhys went to Sholto and searched for a pulse, while I held the hands of randmother and the man I loved and waited for thes come into your azes down at the Archdeacon who raised hi and dead "Oh! All that I have ever loved"

I threw my head back and screa orth the price in both my hands

Doctors came, and nurses They fell upon the wounded, and they tried to pry my hands out of Gran and Doyle&039;s hands, but I couldn&039;t seeo, as if the worst would happen if I did I kneas stupid, but the feel of Doyle&039;s fingers wrapped around rip was still waro

Then her hand spasainst mine I looked into her face, and the eyes were too wide, the breath not right They eased her off the spine, and forced the nightflyer back, and as the spine came out, her life spilled with it

She collapsed toward ht her, tried to save her, pulled her hand away froht be moments of breath, and pulse, but it was not life It hat the body does at the end soone, but the body doesn&039;t understand yet that death has come, and there is no ave a shuddering breath The doctors were pulling hiurney I stood, trying to hold on to his hand, his fingers, but , so to not upset s? Don&039;t get upset; stay off your leg for six weeks; lower your stress; cut back on your work hours Don&039;t get upset

They pulled Doyle&039;s fingers out of mine, and the fact that they could pull him away from me said just how hurt he was If he hadn&039;t been hurt, nothing short of death would haveshort of death

I looked at Sholto on the floor They had a crash cart They were trying to restart his heart Goddess, help me Goddess, help us all

The doctors were clustered around Gran They were trying, but they had triaged the wounded Doyle first, then Sholto, then Gran It should have been coht they could save him

Sholto&039;s body jerked with the jolt of power they put through his body I heard their words in snatches, but I saw a head shake Not yet They hit hiain, with more, because his body jerked harder His body convulsed on the floor

Galen tried to holddown his face, as they put a sheet over Gran&039;s body The police in the roohtflyer How do you handcuff that many tentacles? What do you do when the room is charred, and the dead woman is the one whoic is real, and cold iron burns the flesh?

I saw the doctors shake their heads over Sholto He was so terribly still Consort help me, help me help them Help me! Galen tried to pressI pushed him away, harder than I meant to, so that he stumbled

I went to Sholto The doctors tried to keep me away, or talk toI couldn&039;t seem to hear I knelt by Sholto&039;s body Body No No

The nightflyers that the police weren&039;t trying to arrest ca They huddled around him, like black cloaks, if cloaks could have muscle and flesh, and pale unfinished faces

A tentacle reached out to touch his body I reached to the nightflyers on either side of me, as you&039;d reach for a hand of your fellow bereaved The tentacles wrapped aroundwhat reassurance they could I screamed, but not wordlessly this time

"Goddess, help e, horrible, burning rage, as if my heart would burst with it, er I would kill Cair I would kill her for this But tonight, now, this lanced into the face of the nightflyer beside me, the black eyes, the pale lipless lide down that pale, flattened cheek Their anger; their rage; their king, but he was , too, and I was his queen, their queen

I suidance, and it wasn&039;t a voice in e I simply knehat to do, and how to do it I saw the spell all the way through, and knew that if it were to work, there was no ti horrible Nothing that faerie could show ht would be as horrible as what I&039;d already seen Nightht, for I was past fear There was only purpose

I reached out to Sholto; the nightflyers moved their tentacles back so they only held &039;s body I had raised ic that ran through my veins I was Unseelie sidhe, and there is power in death, as there is in life There is power in that which hurts, as well as in that which saves

I had a ic was only for the sluagh It would not work forthe way; bring life back to faerie with life or death, with sex or blood I had chosen life and sex over death and blood In that ain

I looked for Rhys, because I knew Galen would not do what I needed, not in tiue with the doctors, and Galen helped hiht her body to me He laid her body on top of Sholto&039;s, as if he knehat I meant to do

They say the dead do not bleed, but that&039;s not true The recently dead bleed just fine The brain dies, the heart stops beating, but the blood still flows out, for a time Yes, for a ti on top of Sholto Her blood flowed out and down his pale skin, over the blackened burns the hand of power had uely, uni ic

I put my hands with the bracelets of tentacles on top of Gran&039;s thin chest Tears bit at my eyes, and I had to blink them away to keep low I called my power I called all of it If ever I were truly queen of faerie, princess of the blood, let it be this night, this moment Give lowed so brightly I could see the burning garnet of it froown, like red fire My eyes cast green and gold shadows The nightflyers that touched low slid around the circle of thelowed like sidhe flesh, white and low, as white and pure as our own His hair ran with yellow and white light, like the first glow of dawn in a winter&039;s sky I heard his first breath, a rattling sound, the sound of death living in a gasp

His eyes opened, wide and already full of yellow and gold fire He stared up at aze went to the nightflyers glowing around us They burned as brightly as any sidhe had ever burned Sholto said, "My queen"

"On the life of ht I call kin slayer against Cair"

He put his hand over htflyers flowed over his hand and htflyers said, almost with one voice