Unlike Viviane, who’d obviously been popping in and out of me as if I’d installed a revolving door.
I bared my teeth in a smile at her. ‘Your tarot cards neglect to tell you I was a soul-eater?’
She snapped her mouth shut and a sullen look darkened her red eyes to almost black.
‘Thought not,’ I said, letting her go as she tugged on her arm. ‘So when exactly did you jump ship from the tarot cards to me?’
She made a show of shaking the sulphur dust off the hem of her dress. ‘I’m not sure what you mean.’
Yeah, you keep prevaricating like that, Viv.‘C’mon, you’re supposed to be bound to the tarot cards. I’m pretty sure Tavish has still got the cards with him, in the humans’ world, yet you’re swanning around in Between. The only way you could’ve got here was by hitchhiking a ride. With me.’ I tipped her chin up. ‘Truth time. I wasn’t the one who made the ùmaidh, you were. And the Emperor’s werewolves didn’t leave me when they took Finn, you prevented them from taking me.’ Both acts seemed to suggest she was protecting me, though, which begged the question why she hadn’t stopped the big-cat-shifters abducting me in the first place. I asked her.
‘We have an agreement, bean sidhe. No harm to you or yours. Until the cat-shifters threatened you with irreparable harm there was no need for me to intervene. And you should recall,’ she finished, like she expected a medal, ‘I did warn you about them.’
Right. ‘Your warning wasn’t exactly clear.’
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. ‘That is how the cards work sometimes.’
How shemade them work. Still, it made sense of her ‘intervention’; her warning had been iffy, so if some ‘irreparable harm’ had happened to me as a result, she’d have been responsible. The magic wouldn’t look lightly on it. In fact, she could still be in for a world of trouble. ‘Our agreement was no harm to me or mine.’ I stressed the mine. ‘So you should’ve stopped the werewolves from taking Finn, too. Not to mention stopping Gold Cat from getting its claws in him. He’s mine.’
She tilted her head with a sly look. ‘Is he? Or did you relinquish your claim to the satyr?’
‘What the hell does that mean?’
‘If you had truly considered the satyr yours, bean sidhe, I would have been able to protect him, and it is possible the animus spirit embodied in the gold cat would not have been able to take him as a mate. The magic listens, you know that.’
I stared at her, aghast. Finn’s fate was my fault? Because I’d rejected him when I’d chosen Malik? Fuck. Whether it was or not, Finn wasn’t going to suffer for something I’d done. And neither was anyone else.
Viviane was a loose cannon. One I needed to get under control. Not to mention she was in league with Bastien . . . Of course, there was always Ascalon. But the sword was an empty threat, and she knew it. If I killed her, I’d never get the last tarot card. Without that card, I’d lose any chance of finding how to release the fae’s fertility from the pendant. But she did want something. And wanted it badly enough to show herself to me.
‘Right, Viv, this is the way we’re going to play it. I’m claiming Finn as mine from here on in—’ We both jumped as a small chime split the air. I shot her a satisfied smile. ‘See, even the magic agrees. And next time someone’s in trouble because of me and your cards, you assume that person is “mine” and allow no harm to come to them either.’ I paused, but this time the magic was quiet; probably the ‘ask’ was too vague. Well, I still had something Viv wanted. I fixed her with a stern look. ‘Plus, if you want me to get your tarot cards then you’re going to have to help me properly; no more iffy warnings, no more cryptic stuff’– I jabbed her in the chest – ‘and no more plotting with Bastien.’
She sighed and gave me a resigned look. ‘As I told you, bean sidhe, I will assist as I can, where my assistance does not negate another bargain I have already made.’
It wasn’t quite a confession, but it would do. ‘Fine. But only if you’re going to play it straight with me?’ She nodded.
‘Good,’ I said. ‘So, is there anything, that you can tell, that’s going to cause us problems in the next short while?’
She frowned at the distant swampies for a long moment, then pursed her lips. ‘Not as far as I can see.’
‘Okay.’ I held out my hand. ‘Now jump on board or whatever it is you do and get us out of here.’
‘At your service, bean sidhe,’ she said, placing her lavender-gloved hand in mine then vanishing, leaving a faint trail of jasmine-scented magic behind which the sulphurous reek of swampies quickly obliterated. This time instead of hiding I felt her lodge under my diaphragm as if I’d eaten a heavy meal. Looked like she planned on giving me indigestion. Perfect.
I closed my eyes for a moment and concentrated. After a bit of huffing and puffing on her part, and a minor struggle of wills, we came to a compromise and I got her settled. An image formed in my mind of Viviane sitting on a grassy bank next to a canal. The hot yellow sun in the bright blue sky overhead reflected a golden ball on the canal’s glassy surface, and a few feet from Viviane a willow tree trailed its long curtain of sword-like green leaves into the water.
It is rather naïve, bean sidhe, Viviane grumbled, her voice sounding tinny in my head. And I do not mean that in a good way. You could always soften the edges a touch, adopt a more impressionistic approach and add so much more depth and interest into the colours. It is a tad bright as it is.She sighed. Monet did it so much better. I knew him, you know.
‘Yeah, I do. You’ve just told me for the umpteenth time, and this is the first time I’ve done this,’ I muttered. ‘But if you don’t like it you can always lurk in the dark like you did before.’
She sniffed, opened her parasol and positioned it to block out the sun’s glare.
‘Right,’ I said, pointing at the entrance tangled with weeds and brambles. ‘C’mon, Viv, do your stuff. And remember to get the date and time right; we’re aiming for the afternoon of the Summer Solstice.’
I will try to get us as close as possible, she sniped, then dipped her hand into the canal and pulled out a sparkling glyph; it glistened against her fingers for a second, then my own fingers tingled as the glyph appeared and launched itself at the exit. The brambles parted like the legendary Red Sea, and I walked out of Betweenand into the humans’ world.
To find Gold Cat waiting for us.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Gold Cat looked like it had been pulled through a hedge backwards too. Or a war. Its funky metallic coat was dull and stuck up in dried-tinsel clumps. One ear was ripped, one eye swollen closed. Its ribs showed. And a long bloody gash scored its left flank.
‘What the hell do you want?’ I muttered.
Need help.The words were a low growl in my head.
I gave it a narrowed look. ‘It speaks?’
She,corrected Viviane.
‘She?’
Your ùmaidh, your gender,Viv said cheerfully. How else would she mate with the satyr?
Fury boiled through me and Ascalon appeared in my hand with a burst of green dragonfire. ‘Once she’s dead, that’ll put an end to her mating with Finn.’
Gold Cat opened her mouth and dropped a gold coin. It was one of the Emperor’s. Need me. Save mate.
She means you can’t kill her because she’s got the gold coin the Emperor’s werewolves gave her for the satyr,Viviane said. It’s her invitation into the Forum Mirabilis to barter for him.
I scooped the coin up. ‘I don’t need the cat. Only the coin.’
Viviane twirled her parasol. The coin only works as an invitation into the Forum for the one it was given to, or their nominated proxy. I doubt she will give you her proxy, if you intend to kill her.