Drink Deep - Chloe Neill [71]
But then she was blocked from view. Jonah stepped between us, his katana outstretched.
“You touch her, and I will strike you down, the repercussions be damned.”
If I hadn’t already been on the ground, you could have knocked me over with a feather.
“You defy me, bloodletter?”
“I defy anyone who would seek to harm her. We have advised you of things no one else would, and you have had your fun with us. We leave here with the scales balanced. And besides, she is a bloodletter, and that makes her kith and kin to me. You would do the same—have done the same—to protect your own.”
My head was reeling with the truth of that one.
“She attacked my guard,” Claudia persisted.
“Because you baited her with blood and violence, and you attacked her in kind. We are even. As master of the sky, you will see it is just.”
Silence, and then a nod. “I will spare your life on this day because you speak the truth. Let it be recorded that I have no quarrel with you or yours.”
The deal struck, Jonah reached out a hand to me, and when I took it, he pulled me to my feet. Every bone and muscle ached, and the room was still spinning, although I wasn’t sure if that was an aftershock of the bloodlust, the throw, or the magic that still peppered the room.
He scanned my face for injuries. “You’re okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Heed this, bloodletters,” Claudia said. “There was no enchantment. The sky was not turned because someone wished it. Because someone spelled it for revenge or love or power. If you look to the sky, you see the symptom, not the effect.”
“Then what caused this symptom?” Jonah asked.
“That would be a question for those who did it, aye?”
As I’d seen with the guards, Jonah was kind, but not especially patient, so I stepped in. “Do you have any idea who that might have been? The humans are growing restless, and the mayor seeks to punish us for transgressions that aren’t our own.”
“The punishment of bloodletters is no interest of mine.”
“More than vampires are affected,” Jonah persisted. “The lake pulled magic from others in the city. From the nymphs. From the sorcerers. It was dangerous and created trouble for everyone.”
“I am Queen of the Fae, bloodletter, not a waif who seeks the blood of others to survive. I have knowledge of sky and mastery over it. I have legions of fae at my command and Valkyrie to ride with them. Do not dare to tell me what is and is not dangerous.”
She sighed and strolled back to the table, where she took a seat. “The sky has not been burned by me or mine. There is magic on the wind. Old magic. Ancient magic. And we will not stand aside while that magic destroys the world.”
My heart began to beat again; that was a clue I could work with.
“Meaning?” Jonah asked.
Claudia smiled grimly. “Meaning we would destroy meadow and field ourselves before allowing for its piecemeal destruction.”
“You can’t destroy the city because you don’t like the direction it’s taking.”
“If we destroy the city, it is only because that destruction is inevitable and we seek a merciful inferno over a moldering decay. Leave now,” she said, rising from the table and walking back to her bed and sitting upon it. “I have tired of you.”
The guards moved toward us, malice in their eyes. I had offended their queen, and it was time to pay up. But Claudia spoke again before we could move.
“Vampires.”
We looked back.
“The city is unbalanced,” she said. “Water and sky reveal that imbalance. If you are to save it, you must do this. Find the illness, and return the balance.” Her eyes turned cold and dark again. “For if you do not, then we must. And I submit you will not like our cure.”
I had no doubt she was right.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DEAR JOHN
We made it out the door and down the steps, my head pounding, but the body ache nearly gone. Some nights it did pay to be a quickly healing vampire, fairy angst notwithstanding.
The bloodred sky was now dotted with angry storm clouds, and lightning still flashed in great, glowing arcs.