He only lives so long as he resists.” She closed her eyes for a moment and said, “This is wisdom you should retain, my child.”
“Lea,” I said. “What has happened to you? How long have you been a Sidhe-sicle?”
Some of the strength seemed to ebb from her, and she suddenly seemed exhausted. “I grew too arrogant with the power I held. I thought I could overcome what stalks us all. Foolish. Milady Queen Mab taught me the error of my ways.”
“She’s had you locked up in your own private iceberg for more than a year?” I shook my head. “Godmother, you look like you fell out of a crazy tree and hit every branch on the way down.”
Her eyes opened again, glittering and unsettling as hell. And she laughed. It was a quiet, low sound—and it sounded nothing like the laugh of the deadly Sidhe sorceress I’d known since before I could drive.
“Crazy tree,” she murmured, and her eyes closed again. “Yes.”
I heard heavy, thumping steps on the staircase, and Thomas came sprinting onto the parapet, fae-bloodied sword still in hand. “Harry!”
“Here,” I said, and waved an arm at him. He glanced at Charity and Molly, and hurried over to me.
A little lump of fear knotted itself in my guts. “Where’s Murphy?”
“Relax,” he said. “She’s downstairs guarding the door. Is the girl all right?”
I pitched my voice low. “She’s breathing, but I’m more worried about damage to her mind. She’s crying at least. That’s actually a good sign. What’s up?”
“We need to go,” Thomas said. “Now.”
“Why?”
“Something’s coming.”
“Something usually is,” I said. “What do you mean?”
He gritted his teeth and shook his head. “Since last year… since the Erlking… I’ve had… intuitions, maybe? Maybe just instincts. I can feel things in the air better now than before. I think the Wild Hunt is coming toward us. I think a lot of things are coming toward us.”
No sooner had he said it than I heard, blended with the distant cry of the wind, a long, mournful, somehow hungry horn call.
I stepped up onto the edge of the fountain and peered out into the moonlit night. I couldn’t make out anything very clearly, but for an instant, far in the distance, I saw the gleam of moonlight on one of the odd metals that faeries used to make their weapons and armor.
Another horn rang out, this one more a droning, enormous basso— only the second horn came from the opposite side from the first. Over the next few seconds, more horns joined in, and drums, and then a rising tide of monstrous shrieks and bellows, all around us now. In the mountains east of Arctis Tor, one of the snowcapped peaks was abruptly devoured by a rising black cloud that hid everything beneath it. A quick check around showed me several other peaks being blanketed in shadow. Horn calls and cries grew louder and continuously more numerous.
“Stars and stones,” I breathed. I shot a glance at my godmother and said, “The power I used here. That is what caused this, isn’t it?”
“Of course,” Lea said.
“Holy crap!” Thomas blurted, jumping like a startled cat when what he must have thought was another statue moved and spoke.
“Thomas, this is my godmother, Lea,” I said. “Lea, Th—”
“I know who he is,” my godmother murmured. “I know what he is. I know whose he is.” Her eyes moved back to me. “You summoned forth the power of Summer here in Arctis Tor, in the heart of all Winter. When you did so, those of Winter felt the agony of it. And now they come to slay you or drive you forth.”
I swallowed. “Uh. How many of them?”
The mad gleam returned to her eyes. “Why, all of Winter, child. All of us.”
Crap.
“Charity!” I called. “We’re leaving!”
Charity nodded and rose, supporting Molly, though the girl was at least mobile. If she’d remained unaware and walled away from the world, it would have been a real pain to get her all the way back down the tower. Molly and her mom hit the stairs.
“Thomas,” I said. “See if you can chop off some of this ice without hurting her.”
Thomas licked his lips. “Is that a good idea? Isn’t this the one who tried to turn you into a dog?”
“A hound,” Lea murmured, glittering eyes flicking back and forth at random. “Quite different.”
“She was a friend of Mom’s,” I told Thomas quietly.
“So was my Dad,” Thomas said. “And look how that turned out.”