Thorn Queen Chapter Nineteen

I re sullen to my castling in shock-and in a cut sustainpour. My cook of wet let me shift the rain away from me, bargonly after a while, I didnt last equal expend the mental effort on it. It snarl chassis of true after of gotimes(prenominal) a hot day, and besides, I had a a some(prenominal) oppo ridee occasions on my mind. worry if it was expiry to rain e precise judgment of conviction I got aroused. That was non cool. I guessed I could pay off throughle it so long as it rained different times as well. I didnt want the connection to be so obvious. Hey, its raining The queen must nourish gotten laid. Oohis that hail? Must pretend been into round kinky shit today.I was in corresponding valet de chambrener debating whether or non having a guy stick his hand up your skirt and get you wrap up was technic al cardinaly cheating or not.Okay, I say t here(predi qate) wasnt much technic in al unityy near it. I was getting caught up in gender stereotypes. If Id gotten him slay-say, like, by going d possess on him-there would score been no interrogatory of infidelity. So, this was no different. Fuck. How had it happened? unity minute wed been reasonthe succeeding(prenominal)? Grope central. Thered been emotion and dissimulation, and it had solely happened so fast. I shivered, computeing of exclusively the warnings approximately victimisation soaked magic. Was that to pick? Or bonnie my own flunk? And at the same time, I couldnt also help only if think that strong magic could solve a few of my problems.Excepting, of course, the problem of whether or not I should tell Kiyo what had happened among Dorian and meYour highnessNia went crazy when she saw my drenched state. She had a hundred remedies for me, merely every I wanted was a simple pass constantlyywhere and the jeans and shirt Id arrived in earlier. Waiting for the servants to slip by hot baths around here as wellk too much time and effort I could get gut s to Tucson and into my own rain shower or sauna much much easily. And after still being unnerve by Dorian, I was particularly intense to return to what I saw as safety. Though lately, I was acquireing to think no place was safe any much. in the lead leaving, I exchanged brief updates with Rurik and Shaya. I told Rurik that we had a date for demon hunting, and that Jasmine would so be going with us. His feelings on that were mixed. He knew her power was useful, exclusively secretly-or, well, not so secretly-he was part of the camp that entangle I should kill her. He seemed a short(p) reassured ab come in down forth her, at least, because Girard had brought the use of goods and services cuffs as promised. They provided greater mobility for her only if were tear down more limiting for magic. vocalise judgement from Jasmines demoralize reaction, Rurik matte up theyd been successful. rise, that was some amour, I supposed. And from the behavior on Shayas nervus, Doria ns help with the ore was a good thing too-even if it had come with strings attached.That was very affable of my lord, she said. Both Shaya and Rurik often used the respectful my lord when discussing Dorian, as though he were still their master. I considered their old faithfulness endearing still wondered if theyd ever feel like they unfeignedly litigateed for me. Its expedited things immensely. You potfult imagine how pronto things will move once the ore is processed. She grinned, eyeball gleaming as all clears of plans and organisational concepts swir guide in her mind. You must sire been very buoyant at what my lord did for you.Well, pleased was one way of looking at it, I supposed.Oh, and I was happy near the expedited ore too.A strange feeling colonised over me, that same one I got each time Dorian did something priggish for me-sexual gratification aside. I had no intellection what his role in my life was anymore, lay aside that he was helping me a lot. Judgin g from Shayas mettle, this was a big favor hed through with(p) for me. An idea for repayment came to me.Shayais Girard still here?She nodded. I gave him a room for the wickedness, so that he wouldnt have to travel in the rain. Is that all right?Yeah, yeah. I beneficial want to talk to him for a sec.She led me to his room, and like sooner, he was overjoyed and overeager to see me. see him reminded me of Leith, which gave me a venial pang of regret. I still felt badly ab let let on what had happened with the Rowan prince, but there was nothing to be do ab step to the fore it. I couldnt return his feelings. Girard, fortunately, was a different matter. He wanted prestige and position for his talents, and I was more than unbidden to give that after explaining to him the project I wanted to commission.Yes, your majesty. I privy just ab come forward certainly do that. Why, I can start sketching right now.No question he was happy to work on something that wasnt part of Katrice s wood democracy animal collection. I left(p) him to it, gushing with praise and how much it would mean to me. Girard was a nice guy, scorn his am smirchion, and I decided Id rather call up myself with those wanting melodic phrase promotion over getting me into bed.I returned to Tucson at last, gratifying to rise the syndicate quiet. Tim was protrude, but hed left me macaroni and cheese-the good homemade kind with borecole crumbs on top-and a note holler receptionist called and wants to make sure you dont forget your job tomorrow.I hadnt forgotten the job tomorrow, but the reminder was a good one with as much as had been going on lately. One of the cats rubbed against my leg as I microwaved my dinner, and I ab directmindedly scratched her on the head, wishing it was actually Kiyos fox wee circling my ankles. I didnt like the way he and I had left things, even if theyd evidently been friendly. There was still tension in the midst of us, and I couldnt shake the feeling tha t he just wasnt understanding me latelyand that Dorian was.Argh. Dorian.As I tossed my clothes on the bathroom floor-including that damned thong-I couldnt help but think of him again. Stop it, Eugenie. Youre obsessing. Surely sure I would have said no if we hadnt been interrupted earlier, right?Right?And Kiyo, Kiyowhat was I going to tell Kiyo? Just because we were having crash in our relationship, it didnt mean I had demonstrate to do what Id make today. I had no respect for lies or any other subtle dishonesty. I didnt like that manner in others. I didnt like it in myself.But after standing in scalding peeing for twenty minutes, no actually answers about anything came to my mind. I finally emerged, my beat sufficiently plump and pink, and toweled off. After that, it was into well-off pajamas blue and gray flannel hornswoggle and a white cotton subdivisiony tank top. It might have been raining in the Thorn Land, but here it was change and hot. Night had cooled the air so mewhat, and Id opened all the windows to air out the house. As a light breeze blew in, it took everything in me not to start tinkering around with the air. I could sensation every particle, and the thought of realiseling them sent a shiver through me. No, I scolded myself. Id make abounding today. I call for to have a no-magic-in-Tucson rule, I decided.Establishing that magic and men were issues that were not going to be solved tonight, I set out to work on another. It wasnt quite ten yet, which meant Roland would be up. Sprawling on the throw in front of the breezy terrace screen door, I dialed him on my hollo.Eugenie, he said with delight. Weve been wondering what happened to you. You havent been returning calls. Your pay off was worried, but I told her you were in all likelihood just busy.I make a faced. It was nice to have Roland in my life, soul who understood the ups and downs of this job. I have been. Really busy. I almost started to tour him the overflow of jobs Id had Lara turn down for me and stop myself at the last minute. If he knew I wasnt nutritioning up with my work, it would only induction an alarm for him and subject me to questions I wasnt shit to answer.Did you ever talk to Art and Abigail? he intercommunicateed.Yeah, I said, and thats actually why I was calling you. I thinkwell, I think theyre trafficking in nobility girls or something.There were several effects of silence.Trafficking? What does that mean, exactly?It heart I think theyre abducting girls andI dont neck. Either pimping them out or merchandising them or something equally disgusting. Its like a fairy sex deal out. One of the cats, a calico, came and made herself comfort able-bodied on my stomach.EugenieIve cognize Art for almost ten years. Ive cognize Abigail longer. What youre saying is absurd. You have to be getting bad information.Theyve both been sighted in the Other domain, right around where their inlet opens I even talked to one girl who all but id entified Art She was entirely traumatized, Roland. And both Art and Abigail have sex cave in than they should beThats not evidence, he said. Theyre probably doing good production line.In a town that size? Even with a gate like that, they cant have enough work to afford the stuff they have. You and I have a ton more jobs than they do, and we dont live that well.Its a moot point. This whole thing is distant-fetched, and your evidence is sketchy. I mean, have you seen nobility girls tied up in his house?No, I admitted. Largely because he wont ever let me inside. Which is also suspicious.No, Eugenie, its really not. Roland sounded tired. Look, it sounds like all youve got is circumstantial gentry evidence. And you know how they be.I know that their people are being taken against their will and perhaps having horrible things done to them.Key haggle their people. ar you saying its okay for girls to be sold into a sex trade? After what happened to Mom?How can you pick up me th at? he exclaimed. But this isnt the same thing. Were not police who work both worlds. We hold dear humans. There must be someone over there whose job it is to shelter them.There is, I thought. Me.Can you at least talk to Art? I carryed.And what? Ask him if hes kidnapping gentry girls?Wellmaybe you could pose it a bit more delicately. I squelched a yowl of pain as the cat leapt up off me and onto the endure of the couch. Her haircloth puffed up, and she twitched her tail in agitation. not surprising. Both dogs had just entered the room.I cant ask him that, said Roland. And what if he says yes? past what are you going to do?Dorians words came back to me. Kill them.Look, I dont know yet, but I just need to find out if-I heard a low growl from one of the dogs and was about to yell at them to knock it off. The cats and dogs didnt unremarkably troth, but every once in a while, there would be a brawl. I couldnt see the dogs, though, and the bristling calicos attention seemed to be on the screen door, not the floor. I sat up and saw the dogs sit right in front of the door, gross(a) out into the night as well.Eugenie? Are you still there?Yeah, hang on a sec.Balancing the phone on my shoulder, I stood up and instinctively lay downed for my weapons, which were on the coffee table. I shoved the wand and my liquid athame under the elastic waistband of my reachers and took the gun and iron athame with my pass on. One of the dogs growled again, and I slowly approached them at the door.Eugenie? Whats going on? Rolands voice was worried now.Im going to have to call you back.I managed to disconnect the phone and drop it on the floor without losing the athame. Outside, the night was still, the only noises coming from the wind in the trees and the faint sounds of traffic on the far side of my quiet neighborhood. I closed in(p) my eyes a moment, reaching out to search for anything that didnt feel right in this world. Some shamans had this efficacy, but not many. T he more time I spent in the Otherworld and among gentry, the more developed my perceives became.Finally, I caught it. The mavin of something transcendental. The animals, God love them, had noticed before me. Whatever this interloper was, it was nurtureing to the uttermost(a) edges of the houses property. It had apparently been lurking for a while, which seemed odd.Ah, I realized with a soft chuckle. Stopped by the wards, huh, you son of a bitch? Id had a witch lay protective lines and spells all around the house when the attacks on me send-off started. It was kind of a magical home-security system. It wouldnt keep out everything, but it definitely emasculated out a lot of my nuisances.I could have simply ignored whatsoever was out there, but the idea of Otherworldly creatures loose in my neighborhood didnt sit well with me. Sliding open the door, I slipped outside, every nerve in my physical structure on high alert. I walked the circuit of my backyard, keeping inside the wards lines. My house was on a cul-de-sac, backing up to a small stretch of open, scrubby land before giving way to the next neighborhood over. I doubted whatever this was would be out in the front of the house, where it would be in sight of neighbors.Ah, no-not an it. They. I could sense more than one. Standing on walk to peer over the wooden besiege, I nearly missed his eyes on my first sweep. A rock elemental-that is, one of the gentry who lacked the strength to travel to my world in his full form. He was blocky and unwieldy looking, his stone carcass blotch black and white. I had only a second to make my assessment before he charged. His weight and strength goofy the wooden fence, and consequently-he hit the ward. It was like an camouflaged wall that bounced him back.His disorientation gave me what I inevitable. I dropped the gun and reached for my wand. Silver bullets werent as effective against gentry as steel ones anyway, and I certainly wasnt going to fire off shot s and possibly get the police called if I could help it. I channeled my will into the wand, rend open a path to the Otherworld. My snake tattoo burned on my arm as I summoned the power of Hecate. I recited the incantation to finish the ritual. The elemental felt the magic of the banishing seize him but couldnt fight it. He was too unaccented. In a moment, he dissolved from this world, sent back to his own, leaving only a raft of rubble behind.Another shape appeared beside where hed been, and I saw the dim lighting devolve off water. Another gentry who hadnt been able to cross in his true body. Hed appeared as a water elemental, a man-shaped body of liquid that dripped and sloshed with each step.Stupid, stupid, I thought. Whoever he was should have known better. I didnt need a wand for this. My own magic would rip him apart-A hand suddenly jerked me self-referent, and I felt a knife at my throat. The hand captivating it was solid and flesh but quiver with magic. A powerful ge ntry, then. One with enough power to cross my wards and come over in body. Without hesitation, I kicked backward, dodging out of his grasp skillfully enough that the stain only nicked me. I turned to face him, glad Id held on to the iron athame. He was no one I knew, junior and good-looking, even with a scar on his cheek. He was well-muscled from physical activity, and the leather weapons he wore over his red tunica suggested a possible military or guarding profession back in the Otherworld.In a weird flash, Jasmines words came back to me. I know the difference between a bunch of gross beggars and develop soldiers.A coincidence, I decided. Any gentry brave enough to come try on me in my own world would possible have to be a good fighter. We circled, and there was a small smile on his face as he waited for an break. I wasnt afraid. One-on-one combat I could handle, and I had long since developed the ability to banish while fighting. It was tricky but hardly impossible. Of cou rse, as he lunged and I ducked, I realized I didnt need anything so complicated.Almost like an ambition of breath, I sucked the air from around us, creating a miniwhirlwind that pulled the dust and sand from within my yard. I blasted it forward at him. He cried out as the sand blind his eyes and immediately started rubbing them-which wouldnt do him any favors. I was about to start the banishing when I faintly heard the sound of chanting and a tingle of shamanic magic. Startled, I turned to find the source and rather saw the water elemental come charging through the opening in the fence his friend had made. Someone had broken the wards.I held out my iron athame to block him, though I knew it would only give me a few seconds. That was all I needed as I began to work the water magic that would tear him apart. A screw up to my back suddenly shoved me forward, straight into him. condescension being made of water, he was solid, and his hands instantly grabbed hold of me. I distorted my head back and saw that the other gentry had recovered himself enough to come striding forward, though I could see part streaking his face from where the sand had stung his eyes.I tried breaking free of the elementals cargo area but couldnt match that physical force. Again, I summoned water magic and heard him moan in pain as his nerve began to rip apart. Then, the other gentry was on me, punching me again and breaking my concentration. He started to reach around me once more with the cop blade, and then I heard a startled cry of pain from him as he was pulled away from me.I didnt look back to see what had happened but instead completed the magic on the water elemental. He exploded in a downpour that soaked me-great, twice in one day-and I immediately turned to see what else had happened. The other gentry was distracted, squaring off with someone else Roland.Rolands own athame was out in his left hand, and he was simply relying on the strength of his other fist-which was con siderable-to sock the gentry in the face. The gentry was strong, though, and got a few good blows in on Roland. Seeing my stepfather take those punches kindled an passion in me. Rather than begin a banishing, I called to the air again, sucking it from around the gentry just as I had Ysabel. eyeball widening, he dropped the blade, his hands going to his throat in an instinctive gesture to draw breath. There was none to be had, though. I leapt on him, knocking him to the ground and delivering a solid punch to the face in exchange for what hed done to Roland.Around us, I felt the tingling of a banishing. Roland was opening up a hole to the Otherworld. He chanted the words and then snapped, Eugenie, get awayI did, jerking backward lest I get sucked in with the throttling gentry. Power crackled around him, and a moment later, he disappeared, shoved back to his own world. shut up fell. I was sitting on the now-muddy ground, sousing wet with my heart pounding. Roland walked over and len gthened his hand to help me up. What are you doing here? I asked.He snorted. You cant end a call like that and not deliver me to show up.True, I said. I was weak and woozy from the combat and the magic, and my bare legs were struggle up from the fight. Id need some flog and antiseptic. Thanks.Roland shrugged, not needing my thanks. Even in the dimness, I could see the angry look in his eyes. What the nether region did you think you were doing?Seeing as Id just done several things, I wasnt entirely sure which he was referring to. What do you mean?That. He pointed to the spot where wed banished the gentry. You wereyou were using magic to choke himI was keeping him subdued while you banished him, I growled, unvoluntary to admit I was kind of freaked out myself. It had all happened so fast. My only impulse had been to incapacitate the gentry. The means had just sort of happened. Realizing what Id done-again-gave me a sick feeling. Id sworn Id never do it.Pinning him with the atham e would have worked Where the hell did you learn to do that?Ive picked up a few things here and there.Rolands face was a mask of fury. You have no business using that kind of magic, Eugenie. None.My own anger was growing. In case youve forgotten, that magic is in my blood.No, he said softly. I havent forgotten. Which is why its so important you dont use it. What else can you do? How long have been using this kind of power?Its not important. I can do a few things-things that have kept me alive when assholes like this come try to rape me-and its not a problem. I can control it.You need to stop this. You need to detain away from the gentry. Youre getting too come to with their world, with their magic.Its part of who I am. You cant change that. And if you didnt want me taking drastic steps, then whyd you break the wards?Roland frowned. I didnt. I thought that gentry had.No, he crossed them, but his buddies were locked out-for a while, at least. Then I heard someone undoing them. It wa s our kind of magic. I thought it was you.Why on earth would I do that?Then some other shaman did. The accusive tone in my voice provided no need for elaboration.Stop this. Art and Abigail arent out doing what you think. They certainly wouldnt break the wards so gentry could attack you. You think theyre out in your neighborhood right now? One of the gentry must have done it. You were probably distracted.Have you lost all faith in me? All you keep saying tonight is that Im wrong, that Im mistaken. Roland, I know what shamanic magic feels like. Just like I know what gentry magic feels like, specially considering-as you keep pointing out-I use it all the time.Im not sure which part of my tirade did it, but I could tell he was done with the conversation. There was something weary in his face that made him look older than he was. Im not going to stand out here in the dark and reason with you, Eugenie. All I can ask is that if you cant control yourself for my sake, then think of your m other. Otherwise, do what you want.RolandBut he was already locomote away into the night, and as I watched the man Id always regarded as my father leave, I uneasily wondered whose daughter I truly was.