is tired. Take her to her lair and keep her there.”
“Yes, my liege,” rumbled Gabriel. He reached down and wrapped one hand around Julie’s upper arm. She hissed weakly. It must be nice to be seven feet tall and made of solid muscle, because he didn’t bother to hit her; he just hauled her to her feet, keeping his fingers in a vise-grip around her arm. She hung there like a rag doll. “Come on, Julie.”
Damn it. She isn’t a friend these days, but she used to be. Ignoring the pain in my knee, I straightened. “Tybalt?”
“Yes?” He turned toward me, distractedly licking a smear of blood away from the corner of his mouth. I was pretty sure it wasn’t his.
“Don’t hurt her.”
He blinked, staring at me. I’d managed to break his composure twice in one night; that might be a new record. “But she attacked you.”
“I noticed.” I rubbed my blood-sticky throat with one hand, wincing. “Just please, for me? Don’t hurt her.”
“The discipline of my subjects is my business.” There was a note of warning in his tone.
“I know. I don’t get to dictate. That’s why I’m asking.”
Raj picked himself up and moved to stand next to me, saying, “Uncle?”
“Yes, Raj?” Tybalt looked at him and smiled. “It’s good to see you.”
“Toby came in and got us,” he said, shivering. There was a scrape down the left side of his face, and blood was matted in his hair.
“I know. I asked her if she would.”
“But she did.” He looked from me to Tybalt, and said in a rush, “Please don’t hurt Julie? Toby doesn’t want you to, and I trust her.”
“I . . . see.” Tybalt looked at me, expression amused. “Are we inspiring mutiny already?”
“Not on purpose,” I said.
He studied me for a moment longer, and then said, “Trevor, Gabriel? Keep Juliet from hurting herself further. Bring her water to clean with.” He smiled faintly. “Far be it from me to challenge both my Prince and my . . . champion.”
The brute squad nodded in unison and carried her into the shadows, vanishing. There’s another Court of Cats, one that exists entirely on the other side of that movable darkness. I’ve never seen it. I don’t think anyone who’s not Cait Sidhe ever has.
Raj gave me an anxious look, fighting to keep his balance. His pupils had thinned to hairline slits, almost invisible against his irises. “Are you hurt?”
“Not as badly as you are,” I said, frowning.
“It’s nothing,” he said, waving a hand. And then he fell. Even the resiliency of youth will only go so far. His father was there to catch him before he hit the ground.
“Is he—” I began.
“He’ll be fine. He’s simply tired,” the man said. “My liege?”
“Yes, Samson, take your son and go.” Tybalt shook his head, adding, “Toby and I will settle our affairs.”
The other parents looked up, their returned charges cradled in their arms as they turned their attention on me. I shivered, trying to hide it. The Court of Cats isn’t the most comfortable place to be, even when I’m my normal self. As a wounded child, it was downright scary.
“You may all go,” Tybalt said, raising his voice to be heard. “Court is dismissed.”
The shadows around us spread wide, and the Cait Sidhe moved through them, vanishing. We were alone in an instant, save for a few bedraggled tabbies who hadn’t relinquished their places on the walls. Tybalt looked up, growling a single low note, and they leaped down, racing out of sight.
Tybalt sat down on the edge of an empty milk crate when the last of them was gone, then slumped over with his elbows resting on his knees. He looked at me for a long moment, and I realized with a jolt that he looked genuinely unhappy. Softly, he said, “You brought them home.”
“I promised I’d try.”
“That’s all it’s ever taken with you, isn’t it?” He laughed, almost bitterly. “Changelings aren’t supposed to have honor, you know. Didn’t your mother teach you anything?”
“Apparently not,” I said, as cheerfully as I could. “A lot of people seem to be pretty annoyed with her about that. Or maybe they’re just annoyed with her in general. It’s getting to where it’s sort of hard to tell.”
“Toby . . .”
“Sorry, Tybalt. It’s just been a really long day.” I sighed, brushing my hair out of my eyes. “And it’s not over yet, which isn’t making me particularly happy.”