Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices 2)

His lip curled. "They are all liars, Nephilim. Do not treat us as fools, Shadowhunter, or we will string your innards from the nearest tree."

"Try it," said Emma. "I'll ram the tree down your throat until branches start poking out of your--"

"Ears?" It was Julian. He must have applied a Soundless rune, because even Emma hadn't heard him approach. He was perched on a wet boulder by the side of the path toward the cottage as if he'd simply appeared there, summoned out of the rain and clouds. He was in gear, his hair wet, an unlit seraph blade in his hand. "I'm sure you were going to say ears."

"Definitely." Emma grinned at him; she couldn't help it. Despite the fight they'd had, he was here, having her back, being her parabatai. And now they had the Riders hemmed in, pinned between the two of them.

Things were looking up.

"Julian Blackthorn," drawled Fal, barely glancing at him. "The famous parabatai. I hear the two of you gave a most impressive performance at the Unseelie Court."

"I'm sure the King couldn't stop singing our praises," Julian said. "Look, what makes you think we know where Annabel or the Black Volume are?"

"Spies are in every Court," said Ethna. "We know the Queen sent you to find the book. The King must have it before the Queen possesses it."

"But we have promised the Queen," said Julian, "and a promise like that cannot be broken."

Delan growled, his hand suddenly at the hilt of his sword. He had moved so fast it was a blur. "You are humans and liars," he said. "You can break any promise you make, and will, when your necks are on the line. As they are now." He jerked his chin toward the cottage. "We have come for the warlock's books and papers. If you will not tell us anything, then give them to us and we will be gone."

"Give them to you?" Julian looked puzzled. "Why didn't you just . . ." His eyes met Emma's. She knew what he was thinking: Why didn't you break in and take them? "You can't get in, can you?"

"The wards," Emma confirmed.

The faeries said nothing, but she could tell by the angry set of their jaws that she was right.

"What will the Unseelie King give us in return for the book?" said Julian.

"Jules," Emma hissed. How could he be scheming at a time like this?

Fal laughed. Emma noted for the first time that the clothes and armor of the faeries were dry, as if the rain didn't fall on them. His glance toward Julian was full of contempt. "You have no advantage here, son of thorns. Give us what we have come for, or when we find the rest of your family, we shall put red-hot pokers through their eyes down to even the smallest child."

Tavvy. The words went through Emma like an arrow. She felt the impact, felt her body jerk, and the cold came down over her, the cold ice of battle. She lunged for Fal, bringing Cortana down in a vicious overhand swipe.

Ethna screamed, and Fal moved faster than a current on the ocean, ducking Emma's blow. Cortana whistled through the air. There was a clamor as the other faeries reached for their swords.

And a glow as Julian's seraph blade burst into light, illuminating the rain. It wove around Emma like bright strings as she twirled, fending off a blow from Ethna, Cortana slamming into the faerie sword with enough force to send Ethna stumbling back.

Fal's face twisted with surprise. Emma gasped, wet, inhaling rain but not feeling the cold. The world was a spinning gray top; she ran toward one of the stone spires and clambered up it.

"Coward!" Airmed cried. "How dare you run away?"

Emma heard Julian laugh as she reached the top of the spire and leaped from it. The descent gave her speed, and she slammed into Airmed with enough force to knock him to the ground. He tried to roll away, but froze when she smashed the hilt of Cortana into his temple. He choked with pain.

"Shut up," Emma hissed. "Don't you dare touch the Blackthorns, don't you even talk about them--"

"Let him be!" Ethna called, and Delan leaped toward them, only to be stopped by Julian and the sweep of his seraph blade. The cliff exploded with light, the rain seeming to hang still in the air, as the blade swung down and slammed against the faerie warrior's breastplate.

And shattered. It broke as if it had been made out of ice, and Julian was thrown back by the recoiling force of it, lifted off his feet and slammed down among the rocks and wet earth.

Delan laughed, striding toward Julian. Emma abandoned Airmed where he lay and leaped after the faerie warrior as he raised his sword over Jules, and brought it down--

Julian rolled fast to the right, swung around, and drove a dagger into the unguarded skin of Delan's calf. Delan yelled with pain and anger, spinning to drive the tip of the sword down toward Julian's body. But Jules had flung himself upward; he was on his feet, dagger in hand.

Light shafted down suddenly through the clouds, and Emma saw the shadows on the ground before her shift; there was someone behind her. She spun away just as a blade came down, barely missing her shoulder. She spun around to find Ethna behind her: Fal was leaning over Airmed on the ground, helping haul him to his feet. For a moment it was just Emma and the faerie woman, and Emma grabbed the hilt of Cortana with both hands and swung.

Ethna darted back, but she was laughing. "You Nephilim," she sneered. "You call yourselves warriors, ringed round with your protective runes, your angel blades! Without them you would be nothing--and you will be without them soon enough! You will be nothing, and we will take everything from you! Everything you have! Everything!"

"Did you want to say that again?" Emma asked, evading a slice of Ethna's sword with a twist of her body. She leaped up onto a boulder, looking down. "The everything part? I don't think I got it the first time."

Ethna snarled and leaped for her. And for a long series of moments it was only the battle, the glowing vapor of the rain, the sea crashing and thundering in the pools below the cliff, and everything slowing down as Emma knocked Ethna to the side and leaped for Airmed and Fal, her sword clanging against theirs.

They were good: better than good, fast and blindingly strong. But Cortana was like a live thing in Emma's hands. Rage powered her, an electric current that shot through her veins, driving the sword in her hand, hammering the blade against those raised against hers, the clang of metal drowning out the sea. She tasted salt in her mouth, blood or ocean spray, she didn't know. Her wet hair whipped around her as she spun, Cortana meeting the other swords of the faeries, blow after blow.

An ugly laugh cut through the violent dream that gripped her. She looked up to see that Fal had Julian backed up to the edge of the cliff. It fell away sheer behind him; he stood framed against the gray sky, his hair plastered darkly to his head.

Panic blasted through her. She pushed off from the side of a granite facing with a kick that connected solidly against Airmed's body. The faerie fell back with a grunt, and Emma was racing, seeing Julian in her mind's eye run through with a sword or toppled from the cliff's edge to shatter on the rocks or drown in the maelstrom below.

Fal was still laughing. He had his sword out. Julian took another

step backward--and ducked down, swift and nimble, to catch up a crossbow from where it had been hidden behind a tumble of rocks. He lifted it to his shoulder just as Emma collided with Fal, her sword out; she didn't slow, didn't pause, just slammed Cortana point-first between Fal's shoulder blades.

It pierced his armor and slid home. She felt the point burst out of the other side of his body, slicing through the metal breastplate.

There was a shriek from behind Emma. It was Ethna. She had her head thrown back, her hands clawing at her hair. She was wailing in a language Emma didn't know, but she could hear that Ethna was shrieking her brother's name. Fal, Fal.

Ethna began to sink to her knees. Delan reach to catch her, his own face bone-white and shocked. With a roar, Airmed lifted his sword and lunged toward Emma, who was struggling to free Cortana from Fal's limp body. She tensed and pulled; the sword came free in a gout of blood, but she had no time to turn--

Julian released the bolt from his crossbow. It whistled through the air, a softer sound than the rain, and struck the sword in Airmed's hand, knocking it out of his grip. Airmed howled. His hand was scarlet.

Emma turned, planted her feet, raised her sword. Blood and rain ran down Cortana's blade. "Who wants to try me?" she shouted, her words half-torn out of her mouth by wind and water. "Who wants to be next?"

"Let me kill her!" Ethna struggled in Delan's grip. "She slew Fal! Let me cut her throat!"

But Delan was shaking his head, he was saying something, something about Cortana. Emma took a step forward--if they wouldn't come to her to be killed, she would be happy enough to go to them.

Airmed raised his hand; she saw light flicker from his fingers, pale green in the gray air. His face was twisted into a sneer of concentration.

"Emma!" Jules caught her from behind before she could take another step, hauling her back and against him just as the rain exploded into the shapes of three horses, swirling creatures of wind and spray, snorting and pawing at the air between Emma and the rest of the Riders. Fal lay with his blood soaking into the Cornwall dirt as his brothers and sister vaulted onto the bare backs of their steeds.

Emma began to shiver violently. Only one of the Riders paused long enough to look back at her before their horses shot forward into the sky, losing themselves among the clouds and rain. It was Ethna. Her eyes were murderous, disbelieving.