"You'll wear the cuff the day you can take it from me," Jada says coolly.

"You'll use the spear the day you can take it from me," I return just as coolly.

"It's a solid plan," Drustan says to Jada. "More so than yours."

"Agreed," Ryodan says.

Jada says, "You fail to consider anatomical limitations. Ryodan said Christian is chained, both hands, arms spread wide. With which free hand do you expect him to stab the Hag?"

I open my mouth then shut it. Well, d.a.m.n. "How are the chains fastened?" I ask Ryodan.

"From what I could see, driven in with metal rivets."

I shrug. "I pry one free."

"You aren't strong enough," Jada says.

I bristle. "First of all, I am, but second, I have a few bottles of Unseelie flesh on hand for just such emergencies." Loath though I am to eat it again, I never leave home without it. All weapons, necessary.

"Walking on the wild side, Ms. Lane?" Barrons murmurs.

"And you think the Hag won't notice someone freeing one of his hands," Jada mocks. "Or that he's suddenly hanging from only one."

"We go at nightfall. He may be strong enough to hold himself by clutching rock, or I drive a spike in for him. It's doable. How quickly is Christian healing?" I ask Ryodan. If he's in bad shape, hanging on could be difficult. "When do you think the Hag will next attack him?"

"Hard to say. I didn't linger."

"I'm the one he sacrificed himself for," Jada says. "I'm the one who will rescue him."

"Illogical and emotional," I say acerbically. "Debt owed does not determine best woman for the job. Besides, I'm immune to the thrall of a Fae prince."

"As am I," she says. She raises her arm and flashes that darned cuff at me that I really wish I had.

"You know I'm right," I say. "The plan with the greatest odds of success is the one I just detailed. And I don't need your b.l.o.o.d.y cuff. I can do it without it."

I glance at Barrons, who's looking in my general direction. His eyes say, You're comfortable with this?

"Yes," I say. I love that about him: he's alpha to the bone but when the stakes get high, he doesn't go all ape-s.h.i.t crazy trying to keep me out of the game. When I choose my place to stand, he supports me standing there.

"It's no' about who saves Christian and kills the Hag. It's about saving him. Period," Drustan says quietly.

I say, "And like it or not, Jada, my invisibility is the edge we need. If I go down, there's only a cable hanging over the cliff at night. If you go down, there's a cable and a whole five feet ten inches of human body visible."

Everyone but Jada murmurs agreement.

"And if the Sinsar Dubh decides to seize a perilous moment to wrest control of you?" Jada says.

"Aye, how is it you have the Book?" Drustan says. "Is it similar to Dageus and the Draghar?"

"It is," I tell him. "And it can only take control of me if I kill. That's why I'm handing Christian the spear."

"Even if it's an Unseelie you kill?" Dageus says.

"You've killed and lost control before," Jada says. "I saw her. The Gray Woman. And the Garda you killed. I saw your shrine."

"Which is why I'm handing Christian the spear," I repeat irritably.

"I won't be spotted scaling the cliff," she says. "I'm wearing black and will darken my face."

"Dude"-I use the word deliberately-"I am wearing an invisibility cloak."

"Ryodan and I will make the climb with Ms. Lane at dusk," Barrons says. "Jada, you will remain here with the Keltar."

"The b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l we will," Dageus explodes.

"Bulls.h.i.t," Drustan agrees.

"No," Jada says flatly.

"You only increase the odds of us being heard or seen as we make the climb."

"He's blood. Like it or not, we attend," Drustan says softly.

"Not even you can foresee the myriad possibilities," Jada says to Barrons. "I didn't come this far to remain behind. The Hag might kill you both, leaving Mac dangling on the cliff. Any number of things could go wrong. There are reasons the military takes backup when they go on a dangerous mission. There are reasons you brought us. Don't second-guess the decision you made now."

I can't say in front of the Keltar, yes, but Barrons and Ryodan will come back. Dageus and Drustan won't.

"We could all be killed, la.s.s," Dageus says to Jada. "Any time. Any place. Think you that means a man should never go to war? War is a natural way of life."

"I said the three of you will remain in the car," Barrons says, and his voice resonates in the confines of the vehicle like a thousand layered voices.

Dageus laughs. "Aye, right, try that one on two druids trained in Voice since birth."

Drustan snorts.

Even Jada appears unaffected. d.a.m.n, the woman is impervious as Ryodan.

"Looks like we're all going," I say dryly.

We spend another miserable eight hours packed in the car waiting for nightfall. I consider trying to slip off for a private moment with Barrons but instead we end up playing musical seats. Twenty minutes after we agreed on our plan, Jada tried to freeze-frame out with gear. She's been firmly sandwiched between Barrons and Ryodan in the backseat ever since, with Dageus and Drustan in the front and me sprawled out on top of the gear, brooding out the rear window. At least I got a little sleep.

Night descends.

And a full moon rises. No clouds. Not one fluffy little bit of mist in sight. The moon is rimmed with crimson, casting the entire mountainous landscape an eerie blood-black hue.

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h," Dageus curses.

"We could wait a week, or for a cloudy night," I say.

"Nay," Dageus says. " 'Tis now or never. We do this tonight."

Drustan eyes him curiously. "Ken you something of these events from your travels in time?"

Dageus mutters darkly, "Only that things get worse the longer it takes us to save him. Much, much worse."

Dageus starts the Hummer and follows Ryodan's directions, lumbering slowly toward our destination so as not to rev the engine and make more noise, then parks beneath another rocky outcropping.

"You will cooperate with our plan," Ryodan tells Jada. "And you will not deviate."

"I accept that," she says with slow precision, "for one reason only. As all of you have agreed upon it, should I deviate, it would jeopardize the mission and all partic.i.p.ants. I am not the rash child you once knew. You have my compliance. For this event." She pauses a moment then adds softly and with the first trace of humanity I've seen in her cool countenance, "Never has anyone willingly taken such agony upon themselves to spare me a difficult choice. Christian was my hero when I needed one. I'll see him freed and the Hag killed."

I glance at Ryodan. A muscle is working in his jaw. Oh, yeah, he didn't like that hero comment.

Then we're all getting out and loading up cables and hooks and spikes and lacing our hiking boots tightly.

34.

"Walking the cliff's edge, going over, going over"

MAC.

If I allow myself a moment of completely serious sincerity, though I often b.i.t.c.h about my current companions, I wouldn't trade them for the world.

None of them.

Over time I've developed a grudging admiration and respect for Ryodan. Recent events have further honed it into something close to affection. He's become the older, irritating brother that drives me crazy, but I'd defend him the instant someone else tried to criticize. I'll never let him know that. I'm glad he keeps the men together. Someone needs to. I've also finally acknowledged to myself that I think he's one h.e.l.l of a s.e.xy man. I thought so even before I met him, merely from his voice on the phone, the mysterious IYCGM. I'd resisted liking him with the same fervent intensity I'd devoted to disliking Barrons. I'd known from the first I could like them both more than I wanted to.

Dageus and Drustan are very similar to Barrons and Ryodan; strong men, tough, s.e.xy, and fascinating in a human way that if I'd not met Barrons first, and they'd not been married, I'd have fallen hard for one of them. Of the two, Drustan is the stable, solid, reliable one. He exudes a palpable sense of calm competence, even in the midst of confusion. Dageus is the wild card, with a dark edge to him that's an enormous turn-on. And their rich, husky Scots brogue is to die for.

Barrons, well, it goes without saying but I'll say it: he's the best of the best. The strong, silent, dangerously attractive type that harbors a private, vast, brilliant inner landscape of knowledge, wisdom, and experience, and watches, always watches, learns, adapts, evolves. A woman takes one look at the dark, carnal complexity that is Barrons and thinks: d.a.m.n, if that man chose me, took me into his inner circle, I'd never stray, never betray him. Beastly and brutal? Sure. Merciful when the situation demands it? Absolutely. Demanding? None more so. Exciting? Holy s.h.i.t, yes. Respectful of my needs to make my own decisions? Most of the time.

The memory theft incident is a notable exception-and believe me, I'm not done b.i.t.c.hing about it. It's a good thing he leveled that playing field. I need to know he can't do it to me again, although I suspect he wouldn't even if he could. He did have a few valid points. I shut him out every time he got close to me. Rejected him at every turn. I marvel at how well he restrained himself over the subsequent months after that night together. If I'd known what incredible s.e.x we'd had and he kept rejecting me, I'd have gotten more than a little p.i.s.sy. I'd have half hated that I'd taken his memory away, but it would have been too late to undo it ... so ... maybe I would have taught him to resist that trick so it could never happen again. I get the impression he's sometimes stymied, trying to figure out how to cope with me. From what I know of him, he was alone for a long time before me, Fiona the exception, and she was little more than an acquaintance with benefits.

Jada. I like the wench. Brilliant, strong, focused, gifted. I can't think of many other people I'd want fighting at my back-if only I could believe she wouldn't stab me in it at the first opportunity. Hate her for taking Dani, but if the kid had to come back as someone else, well, she couldn't have come back more kick-a.s.s.

I sneak a look at her then remember I don't have to sneak anything. She really is beautiful. I smile faintly. Good for Dani. I always told her she would be. And there's no doubt Ryodan thinks so, too. G.o.d, he's got his hands full with that situation. He was practically raising the kid, now she's a grown, fire-and-ice woman. Trouble behind, trouble ahead.

I'm looking forward to watching it play out.

The climb up the side of the mountain goes smoothly. Though patches of brilliant snow shimmer in the moonlight, we stick to the dark, rocky areas that thawed in the heat of the day's sun, the better to blend.

Everyone blackened their faces before climbing, not that any of them have fair skin but Jada. We're all in good physical condition, which renders the cable pulls that were pounded in for tourists unnecessary. At least the Hag picked a popular mountain to stake Christian on the opposite side of. We'd have been in a world of s.h.i.t if she'd chosen Everest. Fortunately, Everest is too far from Dublin for her purposes. From her attempts to abduct the other Unseelie Princes-who she presumably doesn't know are dead-she'd planned to eventually stake all of them to the side of Christian's cliff.

I shudder. Gruesome.

As we begin the final stretch, I ponder the Book's unnatural silence. I keep waiting for it to begin talking again, throw a few vile images at me, turn me visible at a critical moment, anything. I don't understand why it's gone so silent. It's almost as if it's actually gone.

It makes me nervous.

In time, I might begin to forget it's there and wonder if that's the Sinsar Dubh's plan. To lull me into lowering my guards, like Barrons and Ryodan did with the princes.

As we navigate a narrow crevice between boulders, Ryodan says in a rough whisper, "When you get close to Christian, talk to him before you touch him. He's a hair-trigger. You can't afford to have him jerk and drop the spear. I don't want any of us to have to climb this b.l.o.o.d.y cliff twice. Prepare him. He must be able to hold onto it and hold himself on the cliff until she comes again."

In a low voice, I say, "What if it takes days?"

"Though it would mean he's died fewer times, let's hope it doesn't," Dageus whispers grimly.

Barrons says softly, "You must judge his condition when you get there. If he's too weak, come back up."

"I disagree. If you time it wrong," Jada whispers, "we could be here for weeks. He's strong. He'll hold."

"Aye. He is Keltar," Drustan says quietly. "He will hold."

"Kairos," Dageus says, "this eve reeks of it. The time is now."

We continue the ascent in silence. We all know our tasks and have agreed upon a number of contingency plans. I'm already wearing my rappelling harness. Barrons and Ryodan will hook me up and lower me over the side when we reach the top. When I see Christian, I'll make the call. Jada, Dageus, and Drustan are our lookouts. They'll have binoculars trained on the Hag's nest the entire time.

As we ascend the snowy peak, the others drop to low crouches near the ground.

Barrons leads the rest of them, sticking to the barren patches. The moon silvers the mountain with a faint merlot tinge. Invisible, I stride to the cliff's edge, battling a stiff breeze. I inhale deeply of the crisp cold mountain air. Far to the north I see the needlelike spire where the Hag roosts. Ryodan's right. n.o.body could climb it. Not with her sitting on top of it as she is now, back to us, knitting feverishly away, b.l.o.o.d.y, snaky hair spilling down her back and b.l.o.o.d.y, snaky guts from her gown dripping over the side. Even with her gone, it would be a dangerous feat. Although as a potential plan B, we might wait for her to leave and try it, if plan A fails. If I could get into her nest and lie in wait, invisible ... wait, I don't dare stab her. But then again, if everyone else rescued Christian and abandoned me here until I got control of myself again ...

Hopefully it won't come to that.

"Are you ready?" Barrons says in a rough whisper.

I nod, then append it with a "Yes." I keep forgetting they can't see me, since I can see them.

"Where are you? Touch me."

I slip my hand into his, and for a moment he just stands there, looking down at where I am, then he closes his eyes and laces strong fingers with mine. I hear exactly what he's not saying in them: You better bring your a.s.s back to me, woman.

I reply with mine, Always.

He laughs softly then somehow finds my face and kisses me, light and fast, and I taste him on my lips, need him again, hard and fast and soon.

Then he and Ryodan are groping around on me, hooking pulleys to my rings, preparing me for my first-ever rappelling trip down the side of a twelve-hundred-foot cliff.

Going over the side is the hardest part. The wind is cutting up here, pelleting in stiff gusts. I close my gloved hands on the cable as I ease over the edge, feeling about for footing. I eye the thin cable dubiously. It's all that's keeping me connected to life. I'm not sure even I could survive a twelve-hundred-foot fall. I know I wouldn't like the recovery from it. "Are you going to hook it around something?" I whisper.

"Ryodan already secured it to a rock. You're safe. We've got you," Barrons replies. "If something goes wrong, you have only to pull yourself up."