40

Do you hear that?” It was driving me nuts.

“What?”

“You don’t hear someone playing a xylophone?”

Barrons gave me a look.

“I swear I hear the faint strains of ‘Qué Sera Sera.’ ”

“Doris Day?”

“Pink Martini.”

“Ah. No. Don’t hear it.”

We walked in silence. Or, rather, he did. In my world, trumpets were blaring and a harpsichord was tinkling and it was all I could do not to go spinning in wide-armed circles down the street, singing: When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother, “What will I be? Will I be pretty, will I be rich?” Here’s what she said to me …

The night had been an abysmal failure on all fronts.

The Sinsar Dubh had tricked us, but I was the one to blame. I was the one who could track it. I’d had a tiny part to play and hadn’t been able to get it right. If I hadn’t clued in at the last minute, it would have gotten V’lane and probably killed us all—or at least everyone that could be killed. As it was, I’d given V’lane just enough warning that he’d been able to sift out before it could turn the full brunt of its evil thrall on him and get him to take it from the hand of the sidhe-seer who’d been standing there offering it to him.

It had conned Sophie into picking it up right under our noses, while we’d all been focused on where it was making me think it was.

It had been walking along with us for God only knew how long, working its illusions on me, and I had misled them. Very nearly to a mass slaughter.

We’d run like rats from a sinking ship, scrambling over one another to get away.

It had been something to see. The most powerful and dangerous people I’ve ever known—Christian, with his Unseelie tattoos; Ryodan and Barrons and Lor, who were secretly nine-foot-tall monsters that couldn’t die; V’lane and his cohorts, who were virtually unkillable and had mind-boggling powers—all running from one small sidhe-seer holding a book.

A Book. A magical tome that some idiot had made because he’d wanted to dump all his evil from himself so he could start life over again as patriarchal leader of his race. I could have told him that trying to shirk personal responsibility never works out well in the end.

And somewhere out there tonight or tomorrow, though nobody would go looking for her or try to save her, Sophie would die.

Along with who knew how many others? V’lane had sifted to the abbey to warn them she was no longer one of them.

“What was going on with the Hunter up there, Ms. Lane?”

“No clue.”

“Looked like you had a friend. I thought maybe it was the concubine’s Hunter.”

“I hadn’t thought of that!” I forced myself to exclaim, as if stunned.

He gave me a dry look. “I don’t need a Keltar Druid to know when you’re lying.”

I scowled. “Why is that?”

“I’ve been around a long time. You learn to read people.”

“Exactly how long?”

“What did it say to you?”

I blew out a breath, exasperated. “It said I used to ride it. It called me ‘old friend.’ ” One nice thing about talking to Barrons was that I didn’t have to mince words.

He burst out laughing.

I’ve heard him laugh openly so few times that it kind of hurt my feelings that he was laughing now. “What’s funny about that?”

“The look on your face. Life hasn’t turned out like you thought it would, has it, Rainbow Girl?”

The name slid through my heart like a dull blade. You’re leaving me, Rainbow Girl. Then it had been laced with tenderness. Now it was merely a mocking appellation.

“Clearly I was misled,” I said stiffly. That damned harpsichord was back, the trumpets swelled.

When I grew up and fell in love, I asked my sweetheart, “What lies ahead? Will there be rainbows, day after day?” Here’s what my sweetheart said …

“You don’t really believe you’re the Unseelie King, do you?”

The trumpets warbled, the harpsichord fell silent, and the needle screeched as it was abruptly yanked from the record. Why did I even bother talking? “Where did you get that idea?”

“I saw the queen in the White Mansion. I couldn’t think of any reason for her memory residue to be there. Occam’s razor. She’s not the queen. Or she wasn’t then.”

“So who am I?”

“Not the Unseelie King.”

“Give me another explanation.”