Page 69 (1/1)

For the first time since I’d coame piece had been placed on the board today, and the match was finally, fully under way

On one side of the board was the Lord Master He was bad He was bringing Unseelie through He planned to destroy our world

On the other side of the board washere, a dot the size of a pencil tip on an aerial shot of the planet I wanted vengeance for et the feck, as Dani would say, out of our world I was good

There were three other major players on the board: V’lane, Barrons, and Rowena

They all had one thing in common: They wanted me

One was a Fae One was an unknown One was--I was pretty sure, though she’d not said and I’d not asked--the Grand Mistress of sidhe-seers

They all had their private agendas and secrets

And I had no doubt all three of them would lie to h each other’s backs

I pulled out

I started with V’lane According to Rowena, he’d been telling me the truth He was a Seelie prince, aon her behalf to stop the Unseelie fro it over That seeood side, which was a little hard to s because I knew that he was ruthless and would manipulate me to the brink of death to achieve his ends, in addition to trying to have potentially lethal sex withthe way

He was at least one hundred and forty-two thousand years old, probably substantially older I wasn’t sure it was possible for hi, therefore the da to abstain fro , could he be the most treacherous of the three? When Rowena had mentioned the abbey, a few hours fro for me at the bookstore for the past month, I’d known instantly that Barrons irl and tracked her, or Rowena herself, back to the abbey at soall to try to make me do a drive-by, no doubt to see if the Sinsar Dubh was perhaps secreted away beneath the abbey grounds--after all, who better to stand guard over a book of dark Fae ic than a horde of sidhe-seers who could see any and all of the , Oh, by the way, I found the headquarters of sidhe-seers while you were gone and I bet theyabout yourself No, there would be no voluntary sharing of useful infor Shades and came to no harm Barrons could see the Fae; he knew about Druids; he had abnorh it had taken me some time to admit it to myself, what stared out at me from behind those jet eyes didn’t seem thirty years old Was he a human who’d somehow learned to cheat time? Was he Fae and I couldn’t sense it? If so, hoerful a Fae was he, that he could out-glamour a sidhe-seer? Was it possible one of those diaphanous Fae had slipped inside him and taken over what used to be Barrons? I discarded that thought the instant I had it I didn’t believe anything, not even a Fae, could take over Jericho Barrons

Fiona had disappeared after atte to har into his business was killed People that interfered with Jericho Barrons had a convenient way of vanishing or dying Still…I had no proof he’d done anything nefarious in either of those cases

He didn’t seem to want more Unseelie in our world Nor, however, did he see to save our world Was he really so enuinely want the book just to sell it to the highest bidder?

Then there was the question of how he planned to touch it, assu we found it The Sinsar Dubh was so evil it corrupted anyone who came in contact with it Did he believe he could tattoo protection spells into his skin that would per him? Could he?

I rubbed my forehead and tossed back my shot It burned all the way down my throat I thumped my chest withthat was certain about Jericho Barrons was that nothing was certain With far more questions than answers, I couldn’t place him on either side of the board

With V’lane tentatively on the good side, and Barrons on the sidelines, next was Rowena What a piece of work Rowena should have been soa the Unseelie and the Fae in general, I could The problem was I didn’t feel I could in terms of my welfare