Page 29 of Kiss of Smoke

Mer grabbed them and pulled them down. Fae clambered onto the last ship floating down the Eridanus, snatching humans and pulling them over the side.

I wanted to cover my ears and eyes, and not hear any more of the screams.

Nymphs had cornered a human man. He had the sea, frothing with Mer, at his back, and approaching nephelai crackled with angry lightning, floating inches above the ground.

They shrieked as the man chose a watery death, stepping off the dock and allowing the Mer to drag him down.

“We’re going back to Robin’s,” Gwyn said decisively, wheeling the bike around towards Thornwood.

I buried my face against his back, taking deep breaths.

I hoped Carabosse had escaped on one of the first ships. She was spicy, for an old mortal, but she wouldn’t have stood a chance against this ferocity.

"I can’t believe how quickly it all fell apart.” When I’d first moved to Avilion, it had seemed so perfect, so idyllic, humans and Fae coexisting in a city that benefited both.

How quickly I’d discovered the darkness beneath the beautiful exterior.

But if I’d never met Robin, would I have been one of those Fae below, their faces twisted beyond recognition in their desire to inflict as much harm as possible?

I had no idea. I didn’t want to believe I would have the capacity for that blind hatred.

And as we flew back to Thornwood, the Veil in the sky dropped lower and lower.

11

The house wassilent for hours.

My father was absent, Oriande and Oak were still out recording the riots, although for the life of me I couldn’t fathom what sort of saga the Fae would write about this, and Titania had come back shortly after us.

She locked herself in a room with Tanaquill’s body, and we hadn’t heard from her since.

Exhaustion dragged at me, but I wanted to stay awake. I was terrified to get lost in dreams when I might wake up to something even worse than today.

I sat at the kitchen table, sipping from a cup of tea that Thistletop kept refilling, absently scratching Beans’s ears.

The cat sìth had decided that Robin’s house was acceptable, although he kept one cracked eye focused on Ceri despite his purring. The cwn annwn was flopped across the living room rug, staring back at Beans, the two of them locked in an unending stand-off.

Robin took my camera and had turned it over to a Garda Fae he’d summoned, with strict orders to have it developed immediately. He sat next to me now, his thigh brushing mine under the table, and Beans reached out and rested a paw on his leg, purring even harder.

Oh, to be a cat with no worries. What a life.

“It’s all insanity,” I whispered, resting my elbows on the table and rubbing my eyes. They felt gritty with tiredness. I wished I could wash away some of the images they’d seen today. “What can we do?”

“Nothing. We can do nothing.” Robin had forgone tea for strong black coffee. “Titania is her own power, and all we can do is ride out her storm. She’s already had another Herald summoned.”

“Blessed Branches, for what?” I asked, peering at him over my hands. “What else can she possibly decree?”

Robin looked more serious than I’d ever seen him before. “Kill on sight orders.”

My stomach churned. “That’s….how….”

He shook his head slowly. “We will never again see the Veil lifted in our lifetimes. Not after this.”

No, definitely not. The Fae would never accept humans in their midst again, and the humans would never again see the Fae as anything other than murderous beings.

Whatever the Fae had hoped to accomplish with the Unveiled Accords, that had all gone up in flames.

Thistletop slid plates of simple food in front of us, but no one was hungry. I tried eating a grape, but it tasted like dust.

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