Dude!

Zzzoooom!

I study myself in the mirror with cold detachment. A smile curves the lips of the woman looking back.

The Sinsar Dubh Sinsar Dubh paid me a visit last night. It reminded me of its crushing power, treated me to a taste of its sadism. But, far from being cowed by it, I'm more resolved than ever. paid me a visit last night. It reminded me of its crushing power, treated me to a taste of its sadism. But, far from being cowed by it, I'm more resolved than ever.

It must be stopped, and the person who knows how to accomplish that most quickly is sitting in the adjoining room, laughing at something one of his guards just said.

So many people are dead because of him. And he's out there laughing. I realize now that Darroc was always more dangerous than Malluce.

Malluce looked horrific and behaved like a monster, but he rarely killed those in his enclave of worshippers.

Darroc is attractive, charming, affectionate, and he can orchestrate the annihilation of three billion humans without batting an eye, without losing an ounce of that charm. On the heels of mass homicide, he can smile at me and tell me how much he cared about my sister, show me pictures of them "having fun" together. Then kill three billion more if he gets his hands on the Book?

Merged with it, what would he be capable of? Would he stop at anything? Is he using me as detachedly as I'm trying to use him and the moment he gets what he wants I'm a dead woman?

We're locked in mortal combat. It's a war I will do anything to win.

I smooth my dress, turn to the side, point a toe, and admire the line of my leg in heels. I have new clothes. After wearing functional clothing, being pretty feels strange, frivolous.

But necessary for the monster of frivolous appetites out there.

Last night after the Book vanished, I'd tried to sleep but had succeeded only in getting tangled up in half-awake nightmares. I was at Darroc's mercy, being raped by the princes again; then the unseen fourth was there, turning me inside out; then I felt the sting of needles at my nape as he tattooed my skull; then the princes were on me again; and then I was at the abbey, shivering with unquenchable lust on the floor of the cell, my bones melting, fusing to each other, my need for sex was pain beyond imagining; then Rowena was looming over me, and I clung to her, but she crushed a funny-smelling cloth to my face. I fought, I kicked, I clawed, but I was no match for the old woman and, in my nightmare, I'd died.

I'd not tried to sleep again.

I'd stripped, stood in the shower, and let the scalding spray punish my skin. Sun worshipper to the core, I've never been cold so often in my life as I have these past few months in Ireland.

After scrubbing myself pink and as clean as I was going to ever be again, I'd toed my pile of black leather with distaste.

I'd been wearing the same underwear for too long. My leather pants had been soaked, dried, shrunk, stained. It was the outfit I'd killed Barrons in. I wanted to burn it.

I'd wrapped myself in a sheet and stepped into the living room of the penthouse, where dozens of Darroc's crimson-clad Unseelie were standing guard. I'd given them detailed instructions on where to go and what to get for me.

When they'd moved toward another bedroom suite to wake Darroc to obtain permission, I'd snapped, He doesn't let you make your own decisions? He freed you only to dictate your every move and breath? One or two of you can't go run a few simple little errands for me? Are you Unseelie or lapdogs? He doesn't let you make your own decisions? He freed you only to dictate your every move and breath? One or two of you can't go run a few simple little errands for me? Are you Unseelie or lapdogs?

The Unseelie are chock-full of emotion. Unlike the Seelie, they've not learned to conceal it. I got what I wanted-bags and boxes of clothing, shoes, jewelry, and makeup.

All weapons, good.

Now, as I admire myself in the mirror, I'm grateful I was born pretty. I need to know what he responds to. What his weaknesses are. How much weakness I can get him to feel for me. He used to be Seelie. It is what he is at the core, and I got an intimate look at what the Seelie are like last night.

Imperious. Beautiful. Arrogant.

I can be that.

I have little patience. I want answers and I want them quickly.

I finish my makeup with care, dusting extra bronzer across my cheeks and the upper curves of my breasts, mimicking the gold-dusted skin of the Fae.

My yellow dress clings to a body toned to perfection by marathon sex with Barrons. My shoes and accessories are gold.

I will look every inch his princess.

When I kill him.

He stops talking when he sees me and looks at me for a long moment. "Your hair was once blond like hers," he says finally.

I nod.

"I liked her hair."

I turn to the nearest guard and tell him what I need to change my hair. He looks at Darroc, who nods.

I toss my head. "I ask for simple things, yet they question me. It's infuriating! Can you not give me two of your guards for my own?" I demand. "Am I to have nothing for myself?"

He's looking at my legs, long and sleekly muscled, and my feet, pretty in high heels. "Of course," he murmurs. "Which two do you wish?"

I wave a hand dismissively. "You choose. They're all the same."

He assigns a pair to carry out my wishes. "You will obey her as you would obey me," he tells them. "Instantly and without question. Unless her orders conflict with mine."

They will become accustomed to obeying me. His other guards will become accustomed to seeing them obey me. Tiny gains, tiny erosions.

I join him for breakfast and smile as I choke down food that tastes of blood and ashes.

The Sinsar Dubh is rarely active during the day.

Like the rest of the Unseelie, it prefers the night. Those who were so long imprisoned in ice and darkness seem to find the sunlight jarring, painful. The longer I walk around with this grief inside me, the more I understand that. It's as if sunshine is a slap in the face that says, Look, the world's all bright and shiny! Too bad Look, the world's all bright and shiny! Too bad you're you're not not.

I wonder if that's why Barrons was rarely around during the day. Because he, too, was damaged like us and found comfort in the secrecy of shadows. Shadows are wonderful things. They hide pain and conceal motives.

Darroc leaves for the day with a small contingent of his army and refuses to take me with him. I want to push, I feel like a caged animal, but he has lines that I know better than to cross if I want him to trust me.

I pass the afternoon in his penthouse, fluttering around like a bright butterfly, picking up things, flipping through books and looking in cabinets and drawers, exclaiming over this or that, searching the place under guise of curiosity, beneath the watchful eyes of his guards.

I find nothing.

They refuse to let me in his bedroom.

Two can play that game. I refuse to let anyone in mine. I beef up my protection runes to keep my backpack and stones safe. I'll get into his bedroom one way or another.

Late in the afternoon, I color my hair, blow it dry, and style it into a tousle of big, loose curls.

I'm blond again. How strange. I remember Barrons calling me a perky rainbow. It makes me long for a white miniskirt and pink camisole.

Instead, I slip into a blood-red dress, high-heeled black boots that hug my legs all the way up to mid-thigh, and a black leather coat with fur at the collar and cuffs, which I belt snugly at my waist to show off my curves. Black gloves, a brilliant scarf, and diamonds at my ears and throat complete my ensemble. With most of Dublin dead, shopping is a dream. Too bad I don't care anymore.

When Darroc returns, I know by the look in his eyes that I've chosen well. He thinks I picked black and red for him him, the colors of his guard, the colors he has told me he selected for his future court.

I chose black and red for the tattoos on Barrons' body. Tonight I wear my promise to him that I will make things right.

"Isn't your army coming with us?" I ask as we step from the penthouse. The night is cool and clear, the sky glittering with stars. The snow melted during the day, and the cobblestone streets are dry for a novel change.

"Hunters abhor the lesser castes."

"Hunters?" I echo.

"How did you expect to search for the Sinsar Dubh Sinsar Dubh?"

I've ridden one before, with Barrons, the night we tried to corner the Book with three of the four stones. I wonder if Darroc knows this. With his clever mirror hidden in the back alley of Barrons Books and Baubles, there's no telling how much he knows about me. "And if we find it tonight?"

He smiles. "If you find it for me tonight, MacKayla, I will make you my queen."

I give him a once-over. He's dressed richly, in Armani tweed, cashmere, and leather. He carries nothing. Is the key to merging with the Book knowledge? A ritual? Runes? An object? "Do you have what you need to merge with it?" I ask point-blank.

He laughs. "Ah, it's to be the full frontal attack tonight. With that dress," he says silkily, "I had hoped for seduction."

I lift a shoulder and let it fall in a carefree shrug that matches my smile. "You know I want to know. I don't see any point in pretending otherwise. We are what we are, you and I."

He likes that I classify us in the same category. I see it in his eyes.

"And what is that, MacKayla? What are we we?" He turns slightly to the side and bites out a sharp command in an alien tongue. One of the Unseelie Princes appears, listens, nods, and vanishes.

"Survivors. Two people who won't be ruled, because we were born to rule."

He searches my face. "Do you really believe that?"

The street cools and my coat is abruptly dusted with tiny shimmering crystals of black ice. I know what that means. A Royal Hunter has materialized above us, black leathery wings churning the night air. My hair stirs in an icy breeze. I glance up at the scaled underbelly of the caste specially designated to hunt and kill sidhe- sidhe-seers.

A great Satanic dragon, it tucks its massive wings close to its body and drops heavily to the street, narrowly missing the buildings on either side.

It's enormous.

Unlike the smaller Hunter that Barrons managed to bend to his will and "dampen" the night we flew across Dublin, this one is one hundred percent undiluted Royal Hunter. I get a sense of immense ancientness. It feels older than anything I've seen or sensed flying the night sky. The hellish cold it exudes, the sense of despair and emptiness it radiates, is intact. But it doesn't depress me or make me feel futile. This one make me feel...free.

It takes a delicate mental jab at me. I sense restraint. It doesn't have power, it is is power. power.

I jab back with my glassy lake's help.

It chuffs chuffs a soft noise of surprise. a soft noise of surprise.

I return my attention to Darroc.

Sidhe-seer? the Hunter says. the Hunter says.

I ignore it.

SIDHE-SEER? The Hunter blasts into my mind so hard it gives me an instant headache.

I whip my head around. "What?" I snarl.

A great black shape, it crouches in the shadows. Head low, the underside of its chin brushes the pavement. It shifts its weight from taloned foot to foot, as its massive tail sweeps the street clean of long-unused trash cans and husks of human remains. Fiery eyes blaze into mine.

I feel it pressing at me mentally, carefully. Fae legend says that the Hunters either aren't Fae or aren't entirely Fae. I have no idea what they are, but I don't like them inside my head.

After a moment it says, Ahhhh Ahhhh, and settles onto its haunches. There you are There you are.

I don't know what that means. I shrug. It's out of my head, and that's all I care about, I turn back to Darroc, who resumes our conversation where it left off. "Do you really believe what you said about being born to rule?"

"Have I ever asked you where my parents are?" I counter with a question that it hurts my heart to ask, hurts my soul to even think, but I'm in an all-or-nothing mood. If I can get what I want tonight, I'm out of here. My pain and suffering will end. I can stop hating myself. By morning, I could be talking to Alina again, touching Barrons.

His gaze sharpens. "When you first saw that I was holding them captive, I thought you weak, ruled by maudlin attachment. Why have you not asked?"

I understand now why Barrons was always insisting I stop asking him questions and judge him by his actions alone. It's so easy to lie. What's even worse is how we cling to those lies. We beg for the illusion so we don't have to face the truth, don't have to feel alone.

I remember being seventeen, thinking I was head over heels in love, asking my date at the senior prom-tight-end hot-Rod McQueen-Katie didn't really really see you kissing Brandi in the hall outside the bathroom, did she, Rod? see you kissing Brandi in the hall outside the bathroom, did she, Rod? And when he said, And when he said, No No, I believed him-despite the smudge of lipstick on his chin that was too red to be mine and the way Brandi kept looking at us over her date's shoulder. Two weeks into summer, no one was surprised when he was her boyfriend, not mine.

I stare into Darroc's face and I see something in his eyes that elates me. He's not kidding about making me his queen. He does does want me. I don't know why, perhaps because he imprinted on Alina and I'm the closest thing that remains. Perhaps because he and my sister discovered who they were together, and what they were capable of, and conjoined self-discovery is a powerful bond. Perhaps because of my strange dark glassy lake or whatever it is that makes the want me. I don't know why, perhaps because he imprinted on Alina and I'm the closest thing that remains. Perhaps because he and my sister discovered who they were together, and what they were capable of, and conjoined self-discovery is a powerful bond. Perhaps because of my strange dark glassy lake or whatever it is that makes the Sinsar Dubh Sinsar Dubh like to play with me. like to play with me.

Perhaps it's because part of him is human, and he hungers for the same illusions the rest of us do.

Barrons was a purist. I get him now. Words are so so dangerous. dangerous.

I say, "Things change. I adapt. I cut away what is unnecessary as my circumstances change." I reach up and caress his face, brush my index finger to his perfect lips, trace his scar. "And often I find my circumstances have not worsened, as I initially thought, but improved. I don't know why I refused you so many times. I understand why my sister wanted you." I say it all so simply that it rings of truth. Even I am startled by how sincere I sound. "I think you should should be king, Darroc, and if you want me, I would be honored to be your queen." be king, Darroc, and if you want me, I would be honored to be your queen."

He sucks in a sharp breath, his copper eyes glittering. He cups my head and buries his hands in my hair, playing the silky curls through his fingers. "Prove that you mean those words, MacKayla, and I will deny you nothing. Ever."

He angles my head and lowers his mouth to mine.

I close my eyes. I open my lips.

That's when it kills him.

13.

I've had a few paradigm shifts since the day my plane landed in Ireland and I began hunting Alina's killer-big ones, or so I thought-but this one takes the cake.

There I stand, eyes closed, lips parted, waiting for the kiss of my sister's lover, when suddenly something wet and warm slaps my face, drips from my chin, drenches my neck, and runs into my bra. More splatters my coat.

When I open my eyes, I scream.