Crown of Frost Page 12

  It took a long, awful time for her to realize that Lord Blackfrost’s screaming had stopped. That was not to say that all screaming had ceased. Elaine’s throat was hoarse. There was a ringing in her ears that she now recognized to be her own voice.

  She felt Liam’s cold, bloody hands on her shoulders. He pulled her close to him, whispering to her, using her name, begging her to come back. “He’s gone, El,” he rasped. “He’s gone, it’s okay…” But the realm had her in its grip, and it refused to let her go. It was going to end her, she knew.

  Elaine buried her face in his chest, gasping for breath. She didn’t have the words to tell him: it’s okay, you’re alive, I don’t care. When Blackfrost consumed the last bit of her, he would regain his power. He could leave. At least one of them would be free.

  Liam picked her up, cradling her against him. She closed her eyes and let herself enjoy the feeling of his arms around her. Blackfrost had her heat, but her fear had numbed away into a blissful, tired acceptance.

  But Liam was moving, his stride determined. At first, she wasn’t sure of his purpose… but even with her eyes closed, Elaine could feel the presence of Blackfrost’s mantle, burning in all its dark glory. Liam set her down gently next to it, and reached out grimly for that crown of shadows.

  No. She tried to croak the word at him, to stop him from picking up the crown. Cold, bitter tears stung at the corners of her eyes. If Liam picked up Blackfrost’s mantle, he would be bound forever to the realm he so hated. It would own a corner of his soul. Please, no, it’s not worth it, Liam… I’m not worth this.

  She heard his voice speak, calm and cold. “I am Liam O’Cuilinn, lord of this land by right of blood and conquest. I give you my pact. It is my will that you obey, Blackfrost, and no other.”

  Power flared, so overwhelming that Elaine lost her sanity again for a brief moment. But Blackfrost pulled its jaws away from her mind, sullenly retreating as its new ruler forced it back. Where the touch of the realm had once been, there was now only warmth and her name whispered softly to her, urging her back to herself.

  Liam held her tightly, his fingers tangled in her hair. As Elaine regained her senses, she noticed dimly that the terrible injuries once inflicted upon him had disappeared. He should have been chilled to the bone — mortal, fragile, and dying. Instead, he had regained his unnatural warmth… and more. With her Witchsight, she felt the crown of shadows upon his brow.

  The new power was a struggle, she could tell. The mantle didn’t fit him well; it fought his gentle nature, struggling against his grip like a serpent that he’d grabbed by the tail. It resented his command — especially his insistence on withholding it from its most recent, delicious snack. But Liam’s strength was, for the moment, utterly unyielding.

  Elaine finally opened her eyes to look up at him. The sight was awe-inspiring and heartbreaking, all at once. The blue of his eyes, more cold and clear than ever before. The white of his skin, now pale as snow, splashed in places with his own bright red blood. All of the edges of his features had subtly sharpened; his mien had become just a bit less real and a bit more otherworldly. A heavy blanket of power leaned upon the world around him.

  He was even more beautiful, even more overwhelming than his father had been. The slight edge of humanity made him almost touchable. Elaine realized belatedly that she had done just that. She pressed shaking fingers against the warmth of his cheek, and Liam’s cool eyes softened at her. He tightened his arms around her, leaning down to press his forehead to hers.

  “You’re all right,” he whispered. He seemed to be talking more to himself than to her now. “God, El…”

  Elaine choked on more tears. “What have you done, Liam? Why?”

  “I did what I had to do to save you,” Liam murmured. “I made my own bed, El.” He closed his eyes. “You have to go, though. I don’t know how long I can hold it back from you. I’m mostly playing this by ear.”

  “I can’t just… just leave you here,” she managed hoarsely.

  Liam smiled wryly. “You saved my life, El,” he said. “I owe you a debt. So… someday, you’ll have to collect on it.”

  The memory stuttered. Elaine tried to cling to it, frustrated. I tried to remember this, I wanted to remember this…

  She woke up in too-yellow sunlight, with the distinct feeling that something had gone terribly wrong.

  The Hedge around her had closed in tightly, in a boxlike prison. It grew more wild and more hungry than she had ever seen it before, peppered with vivid flowers in shades of color that the mortal world had never seen. Above her stretched a great green sky, with an immovable, toy-like yellow sun.

  A short, lithe figure blossomed into view just before Elaine, as though grown from the Hedge itself. Her hair, woven from willow reeds and dotted with fanciful flowers, tangled with the foliage around her. Her skin was a soft lavender color that reminded one of lilac petals; her eyes were an impossible green, shifting with alien emerald depths.

  “Finally,” said the Lady of Briars, in an inhuman, mellifluous voice. “You have come home at last.”

  Chapter 11

  “Oh, god,” Elaine said. “You’ve taken me to the Briars.”

  The Lady tilted her head at that. A strange, beneficent smile hovered on her lips. “You are home,” she repeated. “You shall be safe here from now on.”

  Elaine shook her head violently. “Let me out!” she demanded. “I have things I need to do!”

  The Lady remained placid in the face of her anger. “Everything you need, you can find here in the Briars. There are so many gardens waiting for you. We shall walk them together.” Her alien green eyes danced. “You will love the Briars,” she said. “And they shall love you.”

  “I will not!” Elaine yelled at her. She reached out for the briars around her, binding them to her will. They were wilder and hungrier than she’d expected, but they responded to her touch anyway… for a moment.

  The Lady’s power slammed down upon her with unyielding sternness. Like a parent prying a toy from a toddler’s hands, the Lady wrenched the briars from Elaine, twisting them back into their original shape.

  “You are just as rebellious as she was,” the Lady said fondly. “I know this will take time. But we have all the time that we require now.”

  Elaine narrowed her eyes. Cold, violent power rose up within her.

  I won’t let this happen, she thought. I won’t be trapped all over again.

  This time, she lashed out with the hungry, withering magic of Blackfrost, raking at the Lady’s delicate lavender features.

  The unexpected power caught the faerie lord off-guard. A long, ugly black spot blossomed upon the Lady’s skin, seething up toward her right eye. She staggered back with a shocked cry, pressing her hands to her face.

  Elaine struck her again, this time across her chest. There was a beating heart of power within the Lady, she knew, if she could only find it. But if she opened her Witchsight, she’d be utterly staggered, she knew. The element of surprise wouldn’t last long, and she needed to kill the faerie lord before she recovered—

  A thorned vine snaked its way around Elaine’s ankle and pulled hard. Her feet went out from underneath her — her chin hit the ground, jarring her teeth and her skull. She tried wrenching control of the briar, but the hand that directed it was more powerful than hers, here in the heart of the Briars. The vines climbed up her body, pinning her down entirely.

  “Tabarnak!” Simon’s voice swore from behind her. “What did she do? Are you all right, Lady?”

  That cold fury dug deeper into Elaine’s soul. “You lying sack of—”

  A flower blossomed in her mouth, before she could spit out the rest of what she’d intended to say.

  Elaine thrashed against the warlock’s magic with everything she had. She froze the vines that held her limbs — but they grew back with unnatural speed, fuelled by the endless life of the Briars.

  Lord Blackfrost himself would have had trouble here, surrounded by the Lady’s
power, she thought bleakly. My only chance was surprise, and I’ve lost that now.

  The wind picked up into a howl. The green sky rumbled with fury. The yellow toy sun shivered.

  “You insolent child!” the Lady of Briars hissed at Elaine. Her voice had utterly lost its mellifluence. It sounded now like wind creaking violently in the boughs. “After everything I have done for you!”

  Elaine closed her eyes in terror. She had the impulse to curl up into a ball, to cover her head with her arms, to hide from the sheer elemental fury of a petty god at the center of her own realm — but she could do none of that. Instead, she trembled and clutched at the power of Blackfrost inside her, trying desperately to freeze away her fear.

  I never thought I would find Blackfrost comforting, she thought bleakly.

  “It’s not her fault,” Simon assured the Lady. Elaine could barely hear his voice over the wind. “Lord Blackfrost has probably bewitched her. You were worried he’d done something of the sort, weren’t you?”

  The wind eased very slightly. Elaine felt the patter of rain upon her neck.

  “…yes,” the Lady said finally. “Yes, he has infected her. I shall simply need to purge his influence.” Elaine felt the faerie lord’s full attention bearing down upon her like a lead weight. In the fullness of her power, all the Lady had to do was look at Elaine to keep her on the ground. “I will put her to sleep. A hundred years should do much to leach his power—”

  “No!” Simon said quickly. “No, I don’t think that’s necessary. I’ll talk with her first. I’m sure I can get her to see reason.” He paused. “The Drowned Lord is looking for his warlock,” he said. “He might well know that she’s here. I came to let you know; I would feel better if you addressed the matter yourself.”

  The storm died down. The rain continued, but it remained a light, pleasant drizzle, instead of a downpour.

  “…she might attack you,” the Lady sniffed.

  “C’est ça. She might,” Simon agreed. “But I know her tricks at this point, and we’re at the center of the Briars. Please trust me to handle this.”

  The Lady of Briars sighed. “I understand,” she said. “You must want to spend time with her as well. As you wish — I will return shortly, once I have dealt with the Drowned Lord.”

  As she spoke the last word, the Lady melted into the briars behind her, and was gone.

  Simon looked down at Elaine for a long moment. He had shed his heavy coat and scarf here; instead, he wore a button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and an old dark green vest. At the center of the Briars, he was no longer shivering and pathetic — his posture was invigorated, and his white-blond hair and keen green eyes made him look nearly like a faerie himself.

  “Please don’t attack me,” he told her. “We have only so much time. The Lady will eventually realize that I’ve lied to her.”

  He gestured once — and the briars that had held her captive ebbed away.

  Elaine staggered up to her feet, rubbing at her aching jaw. She fixed him with a deathly glare. “I had her,” she said. “If you hadn’t interfered, we both would have been free!”

  Simon shook his head slowly. “I’m already free,” he told her. “I tried to tell you, but you were obviously too upset to listen. The Lady and I have a different contract than usual. She cannot command me to do anything I don’t wish to do.”

  Elaine knitted her brow. “What?” she said. “Why would she make a contract like that?”

  Simon offered out his hand. “Let us speak while we walk,” he said. “I need to get you out of the Briars before she returns.”

  Elaine hesitated… but after a moment, she took his hand. It’s not like I’ve got very many options at the moment.

  Simon kept hold of her hand as he walked for the tangled wall of briars that had caged her until now. Like the Lady, he seemed to slip right through the brambles without resistance. Elaine felt his magic extend to her through his grip; the briars slid past her strangely, reshuffling themselves to avoid her.

  They came out the other side into a confusing assault of imagery and color.

  Impossibly tall trees surrounded them, reaching up into the strange green sky. Wind whispered through them, teasing through the leaves in a way that sounded almost like words. Flowers of every color, vines of every kind, climbed rampantly over the trees.

  It was beautiful. It was a wild, utterly unspoiled patch of nature unlike anything Elaine had ever seen before.

  Rain spattered on her face, cool and pleasant. The smell of damp leaves and flowers choked the air. For just a moment, she relaxed her grip on the shard of Blackfrost within her, which she had been clutching so tightly to herself.

  “You will love the Briars,” the Lady had said. “And they shall love you.”

  Elaine hadn’t believed her. But now, surrounded by so much life, she found her heart aching and her soul soaring. When she’d first walked into the Allan Gardens after leaving Blackfrost, it had felt like a religious transformation. Now, having left the real world and walked into the Briars, she was sure that she would never be able to look at those gardens the same way ever again.

  “You’ll forget me.”

  Cold blue eyes. The distant scent of sandalwood and evergreen.

  There was something that the Briars didn’t have. Would never have.

  “The Briars are quite lovely,” Simon said quietly. He had caught her expression, she knew. “If you wanted to stay, I wouldn’t judge you. But the way the Lady has approached this is not at all healthy.”

  Elaine forced her attention back to him. “What does she want?” she asked, frustrated. “Why does she act like she knows me?”

  Simon hesitated, and looked away. He pulled her forward by the hand, leading her through the great forest. “…you look an awful lot like her daughter, Rose,” he said. “I’m afraid that she… she isn’t quite sane enough to appreciate the difference. I mean to say: she understands, and she doesn’t, all at the same time.” There was an odd pain in his voice as he said the words. His hand drifted to his chest, and Elaine noticed for the first time that he was wearing something on a chain around his neck.

  “How did you know Rose?” Elaine asked.

  Simon jerked his hand away from his chest, as though burned. “I was married to her,” he said simply. There was a hollow note in his voice, and for the first time, Elaine allowed herself a moment of sympathy for the man.

  “In my experience,” Elaine said slowly. “Faerie lords don’t have any great attachment to their children.”

  Simon shook his head. “I think the Lady really did love her daughter,” he said. “In her own way, at least. I’m afraid that she’s fixated on the idea that she can replace her.”

  Elaine pressed her lips together. “I don’t feel very flattered,” she said. She shot him a considering look. “…exactly how much like Rose do I look?” she asked.

  Simon wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Quite a lot,” he replied, obviously uncomfortable with the idea. He hesitated. “You don’t need to worry. Unlike the Lady, I understand that humans are not interchangeable. I barely know you, after all.”

  An urgent thought occurred to Elaine. “You say she loved her daughter. But that’s not normal, Simon. Do you know how it happened?”

  A great discomfort flickered across Simon’s face. “I’m afraid I wouldn’t know,” he said. But it was clearly a lie.

  Elaine grabbed him by the shoulder, hauling him back. “I need to know,” she said. “There’s someone I have to help.”

  Simon paused. His bright green eyes were wary. “This is a dangerous subject,” he said. “You have no idea what you’re asking of me.”

  “I don’t care what I’m asking of you,” Elaine told him. “You clearly care about the Lady, but she’s ultimately responsible for almost every bad thing that’s happened to me. I ended up in Blackfrost because I was running from her.”

  Simon flinched, and she knew he hadn’t been aware.

  “If I h
adn’t gone to Blackfrost, I wouldn’t have killed Lord Blackfrost, and Liam wouldn’t have had to—” She cut herself off, miserable. “I made mistakes too. But someone else got caught up in them, and it’s not his fault. If you know something, Simon, please tell me.”

  The warlock sighed. “…on one condition,” he said. “You must swear on your true name that you’ll never repeat what I tell you to anyone else.”

  Elaine’s mouth dropped open. “That’s the same as asking me to give you my name,” she protested.

  Simon nodded seriously. “That is true,” he said. “But that is my condition.”

  Elaine set her jaw. There was no guarantee that what he said would be of any use to her. Even if it was — handing her true name off to one of the Lady’s warlocks was a terrible risk.

  You thought it was impossible for faeries to love, only a moment ago. Now someone’s offering you the impossible.

  She gritted her teeth. “Fine. I swear upon the name Elaine Halstead. I will not repeat any details on the matter we are about to discuss.”

  The words crawled over her skin like tiny, biting ants, digging into her soul. She felt the anchor set itself inside her, unforgiving.

  Simon let out his breath. He nodded to himself. “When I first proposed to Rose, her mother forbade her to marry me. She said Rose belonged to her — that she would be losing her most valuable gardener.”

  Simon paused to rub at his glasses with his sleeve. “I didn’t know anything of it at the time. Even if I had, I admit, I’m not sure what I could have done against a faerie lord… but Rose told her mother she would buy her freedom with a priceless gift. She asked the Lady to pact with her for a year and a day — to grant her the power to change the Briars themselves, in order to carry out her work. Rose must have been quite persuasive to gain that power from her mother… but she was a difficult woman to refuse.” He smiled ruefully. “Rose told me she had to settle some family affairs before we married. I wasn’t, ah, expecting it to take a year. I eventually tracked her down and found her in the Briars… but that’s a different story entirely.”