A Lick of Frost(8)

 

Stevens shook the bigger man. "The Darkness has fangs. The Killing Frost has skulls hanging from his neck. And she, she is withered, dying. Her mortal blood contaminates her."

 

"Ambassador..." Biggs began.

 

"No, you must see it, as I do!"

 

"They didn't change at all when we turned our jackets inside out," Nelson said. She sounded a little disappointed.

 

"I told you, we are not doing active glamour on any of you," I said.

 

"Lies! I see the horror of you." Stevens hid his face against Biggs's broad shoulders, as if he could not bear the sight of us, and perhaps he could not.

 

"It is easier not to look at them, though," Shelby said.

 

Cortez nodded. "I can focus better now, but they look the same."

 

"Beautiful," Cortez's assistant said.

 

Cortez gave him a sharp look, and the assistant apologized, as if that one word was totally out of line.

 

Stevens had begun to sob into Biggs's designer suit. "You must get him away from us," Doyle said.

 

"Why?" one of the others asked.

 

"The spell on the watch makes him see monsters when he looks at us. I fear his mind will break under the strain of it without King Taranis nearby to ease the effects."

 

"Can't you just undo the spell?" Veducci asked.

 

"It is not our spell," Doyle said simply.