“Kate came to our aid last night,” Tara insisted. “And she will help us bring our people back from the Cold and the Dark.”
“Are you still committed to the foolish notion of rescuing people who have already proven themselves unable to do what is needed of them?”
Tara’s lips, still a little bloody from breakfast, grew thin. “I shall not abandon our own. And surely, grandmama, you will admit that there can be few flaws in such a strategy. Either I will bring our sisters back from the clutches of the enemy, or I will die. Either way, you should be able to count a victory.”
“I do not wish you dead, child.” The dowager’s expression didn’t soften, exactly, but it settled into a more nuanced bitterness. “I wish you to see reason.”
I was beginning to tune out of the conversation. There was only so much of an elderly werewolf telling me I was worthless and a distraction I could take. Besides, while I was absolutely onside with supporting Tara in operation don’t-leave-our-family-members-as-faery-mindslaves, it was still only one thing on my list of priorities for the next week or so. Although unless the dowager was a whole lot more murderous than I was giving her credit for, I’d at least managed to bundle protecting Sofia and probably thwarting the Prince of Wands in with the wolf stuff. There was just that pesky finding-the-holy-grail-to-save-one-of-my-oldest-friends issue I needed to be taking care of.
Then again, we were talking about a millennia-ancient magic cup. It’s not like it was going anywhere.
“I think our best bet,” I told the assembled werewolves, only one of whom was looking at me like she resented my breathing the same air as her, “is if Tara, Sofia, and I go to London.”
This time it was Flick who interrupted. “You can’t make her fight monsters again, not straight away.”
“I’ll be okay.” Sofia took her friend’s hand. “They’ll look after me.”
“There’s two of them, and Kate’s clearly fucked. No offence, Kate.”
“None taken.” I clearly was. “But I wasn’t planning for her to fight anything. Our best hope of catching our enemies unawares is if we find a way into the Cold and Dark that isn’t the one on your doorstep. There’s a couple of entrances in London I know about and we should be able to get in one of them. But if I’m right, and Sofia’s kooky bride-of-Apollo schtick will fix your packmates, I’d rather we do it as close as possible to the place we go in, instead of having to drag four werewolves back to Safernoc while an evil faery lord is still controlling their minds.”
“I should come with you.” That was Henry. “There are at least four of us in there, plus two vampires, plus the King of Shadows, the Queen of Winter. Outnumbered doesn’t begin to describe it.”
“We need you here,” replied Tara. “They might attack while I’m away.”
Or you might not come back. Nobody wanted to say it, and nobody needed to.
The dowager rose to her feet. Slowly, but not stiffly. “Then I’ll come. And”—Tara was about to open her mouth but the old woman raised a hand to silence her which, unusually, she accepted—“before you tell me not to, you know this is how it must be. We are never at our strongest fighting alone, and for all the power that this one”—she eyed me suspiciously—“undoubtedly has in her veins she is not family. I would not have you risk anybody else on this fool’s errand but of us all I am by far the most expendable.”
That was—I wasn’t sure what that was. I still thought the old lady was evil, but I hadn’t been super wild about going back into faerie with little-to-no backup, and wolves did fight far more effectively in groups.
After a moment of consideration, Tara nodded. “You will come with us. And so will you.” This last comment was addressed to Flick. “Sofia might need somebody to watch out for her while we’re elsewhere, and I doubt you’d be happy leaving her in any case.”
Flick nodded vigorously.
“Then it’s decided. We leave at once—there will be no daylight in the Cold and Dark, but at least we can retreat if we become overwhelmed.”
On the one hand, it was good to know that Tara had her head firmly enough in the game that she’d thought about what we’d do if we wound up having to run the hell away. On the other hand, it wasn’t a great sign that