Swallowing Darkness

Chapter Thirty-Five

Gregorio turned around in her seat and grabbed my arm. She held on tightly. She thought she knew what I was thinking, but she didn't. I was mortal, and I knew it. But I was also part brownie and part human, which meant I could do magic inside the car. I could do every bit of magic I had, and not suffer. I didn't want to get out of the car. I needed to lure Cel to the car.

If I could get him close enough, I could kill him but be surrounded by metal, so that his magic could not harm me. We could turn the trap against him. If only we could figure out how to lure him to me. If I'd thought of it before Doyle and Rhys got out of the car, they would have done it, but I'd been too emotional. Goddess, help me think of something!

"Gregorio," I said, "I need to lure the prince to me, to this car."

"Are you crazy? He's making people bleed from a distance."

"We both have a version of the hand of blood. It runs in the family. But magic cannot touch us in the metal of this car. But my magic can go out."

"Why can your magic work in the car, and his can't?"

"I'm part human. My magic works here, just like yours and Dawson's."

She looked at her driver. The two women exchanged a long look. "If we get her killed, the least that will happen to us is being given a dishonorable discharge," said Corporal Lance. "We'd be lucky not to be brought up on charges."

Gregorio turned back to me. "Lance is right."

"Listen to the screams. Your men are dying. My men are in danger. We can stop this, because once the prince is dead, his allies will melt away into the night, because if he can't take the throne, there's no point to this fight. They're fighting to kill me and win the throne for their choice. If we take away their choice, we take away their reason to fight."

The women exchanged another look. A particularly piteous scream rose in the silence between gunfire and magic. It was the sound of death. It was the sound of mortal life being ripped away.

"If I were willing to do this, how would I lure him?" Gregorio asked. The moment she said it, I knew she'd do it, if I could just think of a way to bring him to me.

I spoke, thinking aloud, because I had no clear plan. "He wants to find me. He knows by now that my guards are not with me in the car. If I were him and his allies, I'd find me."

A mist formed on the other side of the road in the fringe of trees. It wasn't a wide road, and before I could even voice a warning, figures appeared out of a mist that shouldn't have been there, and hadn't been there just moments before. I should have remembered that I was still on faerie land, and wishes can come true. I'd wanted Cel to find me, not all of his warriors. Be specific when you wish in faerie, and be careful what you wish for.