I deliberately avoid thinking about the sting her words cause. I’ve always felt a sense of loss for a place that might as well be made up like the humans think it is since it’s completely out of my reach. My brothers have never understood my obsession with Faerie; they think we already live in the greatest place ever, in this realm or any other. And Taryn obviously has complex feelings about her homeland based on her reaction last night. So I’m not going to turn this into a debate over things that don’t matter.
Her lavender eyes are narrowed, practically sparking with ire, and her jaw is set with chin lifted to glare up at me properly as she waits for my rebuttal. And gods help me, the fire within her only serves to make me admire her more than I already do.
Enclosing my right hand around the finger still jabbed into my sternum, I slowly lift it to my mouth and kiss the tip. “You’re right,” I say simply, lowering our hands and reluctantly releasing her.
Her eyebrows shoot toward her hairline. “I am?”
I nod. “You are, and I apologize. Just because my grandmother was the seer who had the foresight about Faerie and thinks I have a part to play in all this doesn’t mean that no one else does.”
Stepping back, she clears her throat to hide her surprise. “Right. Good, then. So, should we put our super sleuth hats on and try to solve this mystery?”
“Let’s do it.” We return to the couch and take another look at the smaller note.
Taryn points to the last lines on the paper. “What do you think she means by us already losing a battle?”
My brows pull together as I run through recent events. “Dozens of innocent Darks were killed when Edevane sicced the New Purity Order on us. And even though we came out on top in the end, tragic and senseless deaths of our people could definitely be considered a lost battle.”
“Gods, Finn, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…”
The anguish in her voice pulls my attention from my spinning thoughts. Her eyes shimmer with unshed tears for a fraction of a second before she blinks them back and regains her warrior composure. “He had you for six months already by that point, Taryn. There was nothing you could have done then, but you’re helping me now. We’re going to figure this out and stop him before he has a chance to hurt anyone else.”
She nods, resolute once more. “I don’t think that’s the battle Moira would be referring to, though. Her entire letter to you is about the war to save Faerie. Yes, the loss of Dark life is tragic, but in the grand scheme of things, that wouldn’t have any impact on anything in Faerie.”
“Shit, you’re right.” She begins to fidget with her Armas pendant, and that’s when it hits me. “She’s talking about the Tri-Stone.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s the artifact I told you Edevane stole from our temple. It was a smooth, obsidian triangle enclosed in a glass case above the altar and supposedly a representation of the Night Court’s connection with Rhiannon and the moon. Except that’s not what it was at all. It was the spearhead from the Spear of Assal that was disguised with a glamour.”
Surprise registers on her face. “The sun god’s magical bloodthirsty spear? His son gave it to the Lights after Lugh died and it no longer worked. How did the Night Court end up with it?”
From what little Dmitri told me, Taryn left Faerie shortly after our exile, so she might know some of what happened between the Celestial Courts, but she definitely won’t know about all the shit Edevane has pulled over the last year while he held her captive. Trying to condense everything into only what’s relevant to our current situation isn’t going to be easy.
I expel a heavy sigh. “That’s where things get complicated. How much do you know about why your mother banished us?”
“Only basic rumor mill stuff. Something about an affair between King Cormac and Queen—” Her hand covers her mouth as she puts two and two together. “Ohhhhh.”
“Yeah. Not exactly a good look for Grandma Moira, the most benevolent queen in Night Court history. But everyone makes mistakes, I guess, and she remained a beloved member of the crown until her death.
“Anyway, Edevane claims that according to a journal he found belonging to his grandfather, Cormac, that Moira stole the spear from the Day Court palace during their affair. He thinks she discovered how to make the spear work and planned on assassinating Queen Aine and usurping her title as One True Queen. But to ensure no one else could use it before her, Moira broke it into two pieces, intending to hide them separately within Faerie.
“Edevane claims she told Cormac that she’d already hidden the shaft but was holding the spearhead when Aine banished us all to Joshua Tree, which is how it ended up here. And instead of relinquishing even that much to Cormac, she disguised it and told everyone Rhiannon gave it to her as a gift for our people. Maybe the battle lost is Edevane getting his hands on the spearhead.”
“That could be,” she says, then picks up the letter to look it over again. “So Moira and Cormac were lovers. Moira stole the spear from her lover, which Edevane believes was because Moira wanted to use it to kill Aine to become the OTQ. But Moira claims that she had a vision of Cormac destroying Faerie so she ‘took matters into her own hands,’ which must be when she stole the spear. There are definite discrepancies in the stories. We have to be missing some details.”
“Maybe there’s more information wherever this clue leads us. It’s the only thing we have to go on, so I guess we do as she says and start at ‘the beginning’.”
Taryn gets to her feet. “Let me change quick, then we can head over to the Bellagio.”
I stand too. “Why the Bellagio?”
“Seek the home of water sprites who play inside the dancing lights,” she repeats from the clue. “I’m sure lots of places in Vegas have water features that are lit up, but the Bellagio is the one most famous for lights that dance.”
Realization dawns on me. “It also has Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. ‘Skies of glass where flowers bloom.’ Taryn, you’re a genius.”
“I know,” she says smugly, heading toward her room. “But don’t get too excited.”
“Why’s that?”
“I have no fucking clue what the rest of it means.”
THIRTEENFINNIAN
“Let’s go see a Conservatory about a clue.”
I close the door of the cab we took and find Taryn’s hand with mine as we step into the pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk. We’re using shield glamours, so we’ll be able to do what we need without causing suspicion. People will subconsciously register that we’re here and move around us, but they won’t be able to discern any of our features, our conversation will sound muffled, and within seconds they’ll forget they ever saw us.
“Wait!” She tugs on my hand with both of hers and looks over at the crowds gathering along the barrier and viewing areas in front of the eight-acre lake for the famous dancing water show. “I’ve always wanted to see these. When does the next song start?”
The fountains do a show every half hour. Checking the time on my watch, I grin. “Three more minutes.”
“Perfect! I want a spot right up front, and I’m not above using this spell to my advantage.” Still holding my hand, she starts pulling me along so fast it’s like she’s in a race with a mall-walker. “Get the lead out, Verran, stop being a damn slow poke!”
“See, now you’ve done it.” I yank her back to me and throw her over my shoulder like a sack of grain.
“Finnian Verran, put me down this instant!”
I laugh as she squirms on my shoulder, keeping an arm banded firmly around her upper thighs. She’s not going anywhere unless I want her to. And that’s starting to feel like a problem. Because the more time I spend with her, the more I don’t want her to go. But that’s a problem for later because for at least a few days, I have her all to myself.
“I swear to Brigid, I’ll turn you into a toad.”
Her threat is severely undermined by the fact that she’s laughing, too. And Mystic or not, I don’t think she can turn anyone into a toad. If any of us had that power I would guess it’s the Fauna Fae, since animals are their domain.
I don’t answer or comply to her demand. I simply continue walking at a nice, leisurely pace. She smacks my ass with both of her hands. “Hey, did you hear what I said? A toad.”
“I heard you,” I say, grinning like a damned fool. “But you can’t insult the Dark Prince in his territory and not expect repercussions. We Verrans are a vicious lot, you know.”
She laughs so hard she snorts, and it’s more adorable sounding than it has any right to be. I’m starting to wonder if there’s anything about this female I’m not enamored with.
“Vicious? You? Caiden, definitely. Tiernan, no idea. But you, darling Finn, are a total cinnamon roll.”
I stop dead in my tracks and lift her off my shoulder to set her down. She huffs out a “finally” and flips her wild mass of curls back from her face. When she tilts her head back to look at me, I arch a brow. “You think I’m a cinnamon roll?”
“Oh, I know you are,” she says smugly.
She’s not entirely wrong. About 99.9% of the time I’m a bleeding fucking heart. But the vicious side of me does exist. It’s just lying dormant, like a sleeping dragon, until someone threatens the ones I love or an innocent. Then he rises with a thunderous ferocity and a single-minded focus, eviscerating the threat and anyone who gets in his path.
Not that anyone knows this about me. I didn’t even know it existed until I was eighty-two. I happened upon a group of six men attacking a woman in a dark alley behind a dance club one night. They pushed her from one to the next while tearing at her clothes and beating her, jeering and spewing the vile things they planned on doing to her.
