through.
When he'd finished telling us everything he knew about the Starving Ones, I asked, "Have you been hiding the Nameless from the Unseelie Court?"
"Girl, have ya not been payin' attention? Taranis is hidin' it."
"You raised that for him, too?" I couldn't keep the surprise out of my voice.
"I raised the Starvin' Ones with a little help from Taranis, but Taranis raised the Nameless with only a little help from me."
"He was one of the main powers behind its casting," Doyle said.
"Why would Taranis do that?" I asked.
"I thought he meant to take some of his power back from the thing," Bucca said, "and mayhap he did, but it didn't work out like he'd planned."
"So Taranis is controlling the Nameless," Galen said.
"Nay, lad, do not ya un'erstand yet? Taranis freed it, gave it orders to kill this Maeve, but he no more controls it than I do the Starvin' Ones. He hid what he had done, but it is the thing itself that is hiding it now. Taranis was not half-panicked when he realized that, I tell you. He was scared, and he should be."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"When I tried to send the Starvin' Ones through Maeve's wards, they couldna reach her. They turned on me, and found other prey. I saw the thing that you call the Nameless. It will breach her wards, and once it has killed her, then what will it do?"
"I don't know," I said softly.
"Anything it damn well pleases," Bucca said.
"What he means," Rhys said, "is that once the Nameless kills Maeve Reed it won't have a purpose anymore. It will just be this huge powerful thing, and it will destroy everything around it."
"Now there is a smart boy," Bucca said.
I looked at Rhys. "How do you know that for certain?"
"I gave most of my magic to that thing. I know what it will do, Merry. We have to keep it from killing Maeve. As long as she's alive, it will keep trying to kill her, and it will keep trying to hide its presence until it's done that. Once she's dead it'll just explode all over the city. The most alien energy the fey had to offer will be let loose in Southern California. The thing will stomp through L.A. like Godzilla through Tokyo."
"How am I supposed to convince Peterson that some ancient fey magic is about to stomp the city?" Lucy asked.
"You aren't," I said. "He won't believe it anyway."
"Then what are we going to do?" she asked.
"We're going to go keep Maeve Reed alive. Maybe convince her that Europe would be good this time of year. Maybe just keep her moving ahead of it until we can figure out something else."
"Not a bad idea," Rhys said.
"I take it back," said Bucca. "You're a smart one, too."
"Glad to hear that," I said. "Does someone have a cell phone?"
Lucy had one. I took it from her, and she gave me Maeve Reed's number out of her little notebook. I dialed, and Marie, the personal assistant, answered. She was hysterical. She began to scream, "It's the princess, it's the princess!" Julian took the phone from her. "Meredith, is that you?"
"Yeah, Julian, what's wrong?"
"Something's here, something so psychically big I can't even begin to sense all of it. It's trying to get through the wards, and I think it's going to do it."
I started for the door. "We're on our way, Julian. We'll send the police on ahead of us."
"You don't sound surprised, Meredith. Do you know what this thing is?"
"Yes," and I told him as we ran through the hospital toward the cars. I told him what it was, but I didn't know if anything I told him was going to help at all.
Chapter 41-42
Chapter 41
By the time we arrived, Maeve Reed's place was surrounded by police everything. Marked cars, plain cars, special forces armed vehicles, ambulances waited at a sort of hopeful safe distance. Guns were everywhere. They were even trained on the wall in front of Maeve's house. The trouble was, there was nothing to shoot at.
A woman in full police battle armor with SWAT written across it was standing behind a barrier of cars in a pentagram and circle that she'd drawn in chalk on the road. L.A. had been one of the first police departments to attach witches or magicians to all special units.
The moment the car engine died I felt her spell. It made the air hard to breathe. Doyle, Frost, and I had ridden with Lucy. Doyle in