No one owned them.

No one ever could.

In fact, we didn't even begin to understand what they really were. (Not alive the way we thought. Was I flying on a huge breathing meteor through the sky? Carved from that of which the universe had begun?) I reached out for the Hunter's mind. You can sift worlds! You can sift worlds!

It turned its head and fixed me with a fiery orange eye, as if to say, How stupid are you? You knew that How stupid are you? You knew that.

No, I didn't.

It snorted a tendril of smoky fire back at me, scorching my jeans.

"Ow!" I clapped a hand over my knee.

Don't need blinders. Wipe off his marks. Interfere with my vision. That one should be terminated. He plays with the instruments of gods.

"Barrons? What marks?"

On my wings, the back of my head. Wipe them off.

"No."

It was disappointed but fell silent, accepting my decision.

I opened my sidhe sidhe-seer senses. Or was it that part of me that was the Unseelie King? I gasped.

I knew where the Sinsar Dubh Sinsar Dubh was. It was outside Barrons Books and Baubles. Looking for me. was. It was outside Barrons Books and Baubles. Looking for me.

"East," I said into my radio. "It's at the bookstore."

They crept around it, draping a net of stones chiseled from the cliffs of its home, closing in slowly but surely, with my guidance.

It could sense me near. It wasn't sure where. But it didn't seem to be able to sense them.

I listened to chatter on my radio.

Rowena had begun with her demands that the Seelie not be allowed to see the Book once it was sealed away, although Kat tried desperately and diplomatically to curb her imperious attitude.

The Seelie were growing more incensed by the moment. And getting more imperious by the moment.

Drustan was trying to run interference, but the other Keltar began bickering among themselves about the role of the Seelie and the role of the sidhe sidhe-seers, insisting their part to play was more important.

Barrons was getting angrier with each passing minute, and Lor had just threatened to drop the stone and leave if everyone didn't shut the fuck up.

"Two blocks west of you, V'lane," I said. He was walking, not sifting. Said the Book would sense his presence if he did.

"It's moving again, fast," I cried. It had just shot three blocks in a matter of seconds. "It has to be in a car. Whoever it's got is driving it. I'm going to try to get closer for a better look."

"Don't you dare!" Rowena said. "You stay up there, far away from it, girl!"

I scowled. A Hunter-sized bowel movement on her head would go a long way toward making me feel better. For now. I was afraid killing her might be all that would satisfy me long term.

"Get off my back, old woman," I muttered, and turned the voice function of my radio off so I could hear them but they couldn't hear me.

I didn't want anyone to pick up on the whoosh-whoosh whoosh-whoosh of the wings that had abruptly appeared beside me-which were much too massive to belong to the Hunter I was on. of the wings that had abruptly appeared beside me-which were much too massive to belong to the Hunter I was on.

I stared down the leathery wing of my Hunter at the one that was flying tandem with us.

K'Vruck.

Nightwindflyhighfreeeeeee.

I hastily checked my internal radar. It was hardly a typical Sinsar Dubh Sinsar Dubh thought, but I couldn't be too safe. Only when I was certain the Book was still on the ground did I breathe easily again. thought, but I couldn't be too safe. Only when I was certain the Book was still on the ground did I breathe easily again.

What was K'Vruck doing here if the Book hadn't brought him? Its thought had been less words and more an observation of the moment.

Was K'Vruck...happy?

It turned its head sideways and gave me a toothy, leathery-lipped grin. The tips of its wings worried my Hunter's span, making it rear in alarm.

"What are you doing?"

What are you?

"Huh?"

I fly fly.

I looked at it blankly. It had emphasized the word "I."

Used to ride me, it chuffed with reproach. Old friend Old friend.

I stared at it, nonplussed.

My eyes narrowed. It was clearly part of some conspiracy to make me think I was the Unseelie King. That was one load of crap I wasn't buying. "Go away." I swatted at it like a fly. "Shoo. Get out of here." I was shooing finality more final than death.

I was dimly aware of Barrons shouting on my radio.

It turned its leathery smile forward and sailed serenely along, barely moving its enormous wings, surfing a breeze. It was five times the size of my Hunter, several houses of leathery wings and hooves and enormous oven eyes and whatever held all that icy blackness together. As it passed through the dark sky, the breeze that sloughed off its titanic body steamed like dry ice.

"Go!" I snarled.

"Mac, where the hell is the Book?" Ryodan's voice sounded tinny on the radio. We were higher than I'd meant to be. "Where are you? I can't see you up there. I see a couple of Hunters flying together, but I don't see you. Fuck, is that one enormous or what?"

Great, just what I needed. Somebody to look up and catch me flying side by side with the Unseelie King's favorite Lamborghini. I thumbed my volume back on. "I'm here. In a cloud. Hang on. You'll see me in a few minutes," I lied.

"There aren't any clouds up there, Mac," Lor said.

Christian snapped, "Lie, MacKayla. Try again. Who are you flying with?"

"Where's the Book?" V'lane demanded.

"It's-Oh, there it is! Damn! Now it's four blocks to the west, down by the docks. I'm going down for a closer look."

When I nudged my Hunter into a dive, K'Vruck dove with us.

"Ms. Lane," Barrons demanded, "what are you doing flying with the Hunter that killed Darroc?"

39.

They refused to let me land.

I couldn't exactly blame them.

It wasn't so much that I had my own Satanic wing man-there wasn't anybody on the ground that night who hadn't dipped a toe into something dark at one point or another-as that they worried the Book would grab K'Vruck somehow and then we'd all be, well...K'Vrucked.

I couldn't shake him. The Hunter who called himself something more final than death simply would not leave my side. And a secret part of me was a little thrilled by it.

I flew over Dublin with Death.

Heady stuff for a bartender from small-town Georgia.

I had to watch from the air as the debacle unfolded. And it was a debacle.

They cornered it, hemmed it in with stones, whittled in and down until they finally had it penned on the steps of the church where I'd been raped. I had to wonder if it somehow knew that and was trying to mess with my head.

I kept waiting for it to speak in my mind, but it didn't. Not once. Not a word. It was the first time I'd ever been in its vicinity that it hadn't tried to mess with me somehow. I figured the stones and the Druids had a dampening effect.

As I watched, they moved the four stones-east, west, north, and south-in closer and closer until they formed the corners of a box, ten feet by ten feet around it.

A soft blue light began to emanate between the stones, as if forming a cage.

Everyone backed away.

"What now?" I whispered, circling over the steeple.

"Now it's mine," Drustan said calmly. The Keltar Druids begin to chant, and the silver-eyed Highlander moved forward.

I had a sudden vision of him, broken and dead on the church steps. The Book morphing into the Beast, towering over them all, laughing. Taking out one after the next.

"No," I cried.

"No, what?" Barrons said instantly.

"Stop, Drustan!"

The Highlander looked up at me and stopped.

I studied the tableau below. Something wasn't right. The Sinsar Dubh Sinsar Dubh was lying on the steps, an innocuous hardcover. No towering Beast, no chain-saw-toothed O'Bannion, no skinned Fiona. was lying on the steps, an innocuous hardcover. No towering Beast, no chain-saw-toothed O'Bannion, no skinned Fiona.

"When did it get out of the car?" I demanded.

Nobody answered me.

"Who was driving it? Did anyone see the Book get out of the car?"

"Ryodan, Lor, speak up!" Barrons snapped.

"Don't know, Barrons. Didn't see it. Thought you did."

"How did it end up on the steps?"

V'lane hissed. "It is an illusion!"

I groaned. "It's not really there. I must have lost track of it. I wondered why it wasn't messing with me. It was. Just not the way it usually does. I screwed up. Oh, shit-V'lane-look out!"

40.

Do you hear that?" It was driving me nuts.

"What?"

"You don't hear someone playing a xylophone?"

Barrons gave me a look.

"I swear I hear the faint strains of 'Que Sera Sera.'"

"Doris Day?"

"Pink Martini."

"Ah. No. Don't hear it."

We walked in silence. Or, rather, he did. In my world, trumpets were blaring and a harpsichord was tinkling and it was all I could do not to go spinning in wide-armed circles down the street, singing: When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother, "What will I be? Will I be pretty, will I be rich?" Here's what she said to me... When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother, "What will I be? Will I be pretty, will I be rich?" Here's what she said to me...

The night had been an abysmal failure on all fronts.