“A rose is safe in the company of other mortals, and a rose is safe in daylight, but a rose with both is safest, and a rose without bereft,” Patrick said. He drank a bit more.
“I don’t think we’re safe even in crowds and daylight combined,” Rose said. “It’s a bad time.”
“An eventful time,” Patrick said. “A shame. We’ll have to leave.”
“Will you?” Rose asked. “There’s still a topic of us needing to make amends. What if we promised something? Not a deal, but to consider a deal, at some point in the future? It leaves the door open to your staying.”
Patrick seemed to be oblivious to the question, as if he hadn’t heard, but I couldn’t help but notice how still the other two were.
“The problem with that,” Patrick said, “Is my merry little band here is forbidden to make deals.”
“You were dealing with Maggie Holt,” I said. “Weren’t you?”
“That,” he said, raising a finger. He let his arm drop, “Wasn’t one of the things you saw. I’m positive.”
“But?” I asked.
“But yes, Little Maggie and I, we were breaking rules, my lovely rose.”
“You could break rules with us, too,” my counterpart said. “If you took our offer, and if we considered your offer and found it sensible. We’ll even throw in a promise to keep your secret.”
“That is a deal I’ll take, then,” he said. “You aren’t awake, so I’ll take you at your word. Disappoint, and I’m sure we’ll find a suitable punishment.”
“We’ll endeavor not to give you a reason,” Rose said.
“Then I’ll take the debt this Blake owes my Ev, and make it my own.”
“I can think of ways to make you pay that,” Ev said. “Fox hunting?”
Patrick made a face, but he didn’t respond. Ev smiled again, a shy smile that rang false.
“Carry on, then, little roses,” Patrick said, as Ev brushed her hand over his short red hair “We’ll be in touch.”
I turned to go, feet crunching in the snow. Rose was to my left, reflected in the windows where the lights weren’t on.
It took me five or ten minutes to get my heartbeat under control.
“Thank you,” I said.
“I’m glad to do something,” Rose replied.
“Damn it, just how much reading have you done?”
“None, for them. I had a minute to read their entries in the little black book, but I was winging it.”
“Good winging.”
“I hope so,” Rose said.
We rounded the corner, and the house was in sight.
Another person’s footsteps fell alongside my own, as I approached the crosswalk. He stopped when I stopped.
I looked and I saw Laird.
“You bastard,” I said.
“Oh, I’m a little bit of a bastard,” Laird admitted.
I clenched my fist.
“I’m also a cop. I did agree to escort you home, though I didn’t say from where. It’s your choice, whether you want me to escort you back and leave you alone, or escort you back and then haul you to the police station. It’s not, for your information, a safe haven.”
I stuck my hands in my pockets.
“Then why didn’t you arrest me?” I asked, my voice still hard with anger. “If you wanted to leave me hanging out to dry, for Others to pick off?”
“Because I was telling the truth. I was interested in learning more about who you were. Whether you were someone who could become dangerous or if you were someone I could trust to be passive for as long as we needed you to. It may come down to picking you off until we get one of the young ones. Roxanne, I believe? Twelve? Or even your little sister Ivy, if Roxanne is uncooperative.”
“And the talk of a peace treaty?”
“I never promised anything concrete, I only expressed an interest.”
“Saying you’d trust your daughters to someone like you, if positions were reversed?”
“To someone as strong as me. If positions were reversed, I wouldn’t know any better than you did, by definition. I double checked beforehand.”
“And the promise about there being no tricks?”
“I said it wasn’t a trick. Which it wasn’t, at the time. I came up with the one while we were talking.”
Why wasn’t Paige in this position? She’d love this quibbling over semantics, if nothing else.
What if I attacked him right here? What if I denied him the chance to escort me back & fulfill his oath? Would he be forsworn? Would he lose his power?
He opened his watch, then closed it. His breath fogged heavy around him as he sighed.
“You have protectors,” he cut in. “The exiled prince, Padraic.”
“I didn’t ask for protection.”
“It would be fleeting, whatever the case,” Laird said. “They’re distractible.”
I didn’t want to engage him in conversation, but curiosity niggled at me.
“Faerie?” I guessed, eyes straight forward.
“Once upon a time, they would have fallen under that label. I think they’ve dallied in the very courts that have exiled them now, as a matter of fact. They even have some of the same tricks. But classifying Others is a dangerous thing. Better to call them what they are.”
“Which is?”
“Men and women who are desperate to entertain themselves over the course of a very long, long time,” he said. “They get bored as easily as you or me.”
We reached the gates, and started treading up the driveway to the house. We were silent up until I reached the door.
“If it helps,” Laird said, “The reason I decided to have you walk most of the way back alone was because I suspect you could be dangerous.”
“Yet you make yourself my enemy by tricking me.”
“I would say that I am, along with my circle, the least of your worries. I’m sworn to do no direct harm to others, and I won’t. My family is interested in securing our position, and we’re thus interested in having you, or one of you, secure in this house, until the North End Sorcerer is unseated. You can’t afford to have your back turned to the others while you deal with me. I’m also best equipped to deal with the sorts of things you might send after me, if you deign to go that route. I’ve been preparing against Rose for my entire life.”
“And now you walk away, after this? We’re supposed to be civil?”
“In your position, knowing what I know, I would,” he said. “I would also make haste and awaken sooner than later.”
I managed to hide my shock.
He tapped his eye. “We can see things at work, once we awaken. Tell your companion I said hi. There’s no need to hide. Council meeting is in two days. For three hours prior and three hours after, there is a ceasefire. I hope to see you then.”
I stepped into the house, then slammed the door.
Rose was waiting in the living room. “Hey. We came out of it okay.”
“Not okay enough,” I said. “That could have gone far worse.”
I kicked the footstool over. It crashed against the grill that protected the fireplace, making a very dramatic sound.
“You can’t get so angry,” she said. “Be calm, we approach this with strategy and a level head.”