blood magic I’ve been waiting for. Oh, it could have been August—could even have been your mother—but neither of them stepped up. So it’s on you. I have what I need to finish this. I told Liz to spread the word, and then I tried to wait until you’d gotten comfortable with what you had the potential to become. I really did.”
“I know,” I said. “You can’t lie.”
“I can’t,” she agreed. “But three years ago I told Liz the Selkies had a year, and I’m pushing the limits of that statement. You’re ready. You’re strong enough. I need to act, or I’m going to make a liar of myself. The consequences of that would be . . . bad.”
“How bad?” asked Quentin.
“Bad enough,” said the Luidaeg, eyes still on me. “You know what happens now.”
I sighed deeply. “Yeah. I do.”
The Luidaeg lifted an eyebrow. “You’re not going to argue? Try to run? Any of that bullshit?”
“No. Even if I thought I could get away with it—and I know enough to know that I can’t—I wouldn’t do that to you.” I looked at her as levelly as I could. “This is your family. You deserve to stop mourning for them. Go ahead and say it.”
“Very well, then.” The Luidaeg took a deep breath. The air around us slowed until it became perfectly still, like the air right before some terrible storm rolls in. It grew colder and full of static at the same time, crackling around us, heavy with the memory of lightning. The Luidaeg never took her eyes off me.
“Sir October Christine Daye, Knight of Lost Words, daughter of Amandine the Liar, sworn in service to Duke Sylvester Torquill of Shadowed Hills, hero of the realm in the Mists, there are debts between us,” she said, and her voice was cold and hollow, and filled with ancient echoes. “Do you deny this?”
“I don’t,” I said.
Tybalt said nothing.
“I would have them settled,” she said. “I would see you free of me.”
“For five minutes, tops,” muttered Quentin.
The Luidaeg shot him a look that was somewhere between amused and annoyed before she focused on me again. “Do you accept my right to demand repayment of your debts?”
“I do,” I said.
“Then in two months’ time, when Moving Day arrives, you will come with me to the Duchy of Ships, and we will finally put paid to the debts that lie between us. By the tide and the tempest, it is said; by the water and the wave, it shall be done.”
A pulse seemed to flow through the room, striking us all, making the hair on my arms stand on end. Then it was gone, taking the chill and the electric charge in the air with it. I shivered, allowing myself to lean against Tybalt, keeping my eyes on the Luidaeg.
“That sounded fancy, but what did it mean?” I asked.
The Luidaeg looked suddenly weary. “It means on May first, you and I and whoever your Queen Windermere decides ought to be present will get on a boat and sail to the Duchy of Ships, where all the Selkies in the world will be gathering to have their skins permanently bound to their bodies. We’re bringing back the Roane, Toby. After all this time and all these deaths, we’re bringing back the Roane.”
“Right,” I said slowly. “That.”
“You knew this was coming,” said the Luidaeg. “You were there when I told Liz the bill was coming due.”
“Yes, but . . . I sort of forgot a little?” I ran a hand through my hair. “It was always something that was going to happen, something in the future. Not something happening now.”
“It’s still something happening in the future. It’s just that the future has a date on it.” The Luidaeg turned to Dean. “Tell your mother the sea witch is calling in the Selkies’ debt. She may or may not know what that means, but she’ll want to be there, since it’s going to be happening in her waters.”
“I’ve never even heard of the Duchy of Ships,” protested Dean, awe apparently forgotten in the face of his confusion. That, or my general air of disrespect was rubbing off on him. Sweet Titania, I hoped not. “How can it be in my mother’s waters if I’ve never heard of it?”
“Ask your mother,” said the Luidaeg, not unkindly. “I’ll send word to the Queen in the Mists. It’s an old protocol, but I suppose this as good a time to observe it as ever.”
“Which protocol?” I asked.
Surprisingly, it was Tybalt