Page 47 of When Sorrows Come

“What do you think now?” asked Raj.

“I had more of the raising of that boy than his own mother whenhe was very small, and I would know him,” said Nessa. “He is not here.”

Quentin flinched. Chelsea squeezed his shoulder. Neither of them said anything, and we let the moment pass without comment. His disguise, which had seemed so ridiculously extreme when he bartered it from the Luidaeg, was seeming more and more like it was going to be his salvation. It’s funny how things work out sometimes. The things you think will save you don’t, or can’t, or won’t. The things you thought were little, or unnecessary, change everything.

“So the assassin replaced Nessa because it recognized Nessa as a way to get to Toby,” said Cassandra slowly. “That doesn’t explain why it didn’t know which one of us she was. Wouldn’t it have made more sense for whoever hired them to give them a picture to refer to?”

We all looked to Walther as the one who’d survived a coup against the crown in recent memory. Maybe notthiscrown, but the principle was the same. He frowned, taking a bite of his latest cookie, and swallowed without chewing. “During the siege of Silences, the older purebloods seemed to go into this—this fugue, almost. Like they thought it was somehow still the fifteenth century. I’m not sure anyone who was plotting sedition against the crown would beableto send a picture. It wouldn’t even occur to them.”

“Also, I’m pretty sure anyone who’s plotting sedition against the high throne isn’t going to be able to get April to jailbreak their phone,” said Chelsea.

“I did not understand a word you just said apart from ‘sedition’ and ‘April,’ ” I said. “But I’m going to assume you’re probably right: the people who would be plotting governmental insurrection on the East Coast are unlikely to have modern access to the Internet. Which may be useful.”

“How so?” asked Jazz warily.

I grinned. “They don’t know exactly what to expect when they look at October Daye. They probably know she has mostly brown hair, pale eyes, and a bone structure that could pass for Daoine Sidhe, even if it’s not quite right. Oh, and a little bit of mortal blood. That’s going to be key.”

“Meaning...?” said May.

“Meaning if we can get Stacy to come out of the room, we havefour potential brides,” I said. “You, Stacy, and Cassandra are still mostly brunettes who can almost but not quite pass as Daoine Sidhe. And you’re a pureblood, but because of when you were made, you still ping changeling to people who want to go looking for the indicators.”

May nodded, not moving as she looked to Tybalt. “Well, you heard her, big guy. Sounds like we’re getting hitched.”

“Indeed,” he said dryly. “I have long been awaiting this happy day.”

“Too bad I don’t like dudes,” said May.

“Too bad I don’t share,” said Jazz.

May laughed. I turned to Nessa. “Since you got stuffed in a storeroom while your quarters were turned into a murder maze, I’m pretty sure we can trust you not to be working with the people behind all this. Can we trust you not to say anything about setting decoys to keep the focus off of me?”

Nessa nodded slowly. “I heard rumors you were very hard to harm,” she said, voice careful.

“You mean ‘virtually indestructible, heals like it’s my job’?” I asked. “Yeah, that’s true. May doesn’t heal as fast as I do, but she’s even harder to cause serious harm to.”

“I, on the other hand, bleed like a normal person, and if you hit me, I will be hurt, and not recover from being hurt until I’m given the normal quantity of time to heal,” said Cassandra. “I’ve seen the kind of damage you can take, Aunt Birdie. I don’t wantanyoneto mistake me for you, or vice versa.”

“But if I stayed with you, I’m better with a sword than anyone expects a chemistry professor from Berkeley to be,” said Walther. “I was trained by the same master as trained my cousin, and he was Crown Prince. Our parents needed to be able to trust that either one of us could defend ourselves if we were caught without a guard. So just stick with me and you’ll be safe.”

“I feel certain the next words out of my lady’s mouth will be words I have no interest in hearing,” said Tybalt, tone dry.

I twisted to look at him, a strained smile on my face. “And on that count, I’m going to need you to stay with Stacy.”

“No,” said Tybalt. “Absolutely not. I have already been elf-shot and dropped you into eternal darkness since arriving in this frigid kingdom. I will not free you from my company, loose to find whatever troubles you desire.”

“This isn’t about finding trouble,” I objected. “This is about saving the High Kingdom.”

“Really? Because it sounds to me as if it’s about finding yet another excuse not to marry me!”

“I feel like I maybe shouldn’t be here,” said Nessa nervously.

Oberon, who had been silent through the whole conversation, nodded in commiseration. Great. We were even making the King of Faerie unhappy by fighting in front of him.

“I wish people would stop acting like me not swooning over the idea of a big diplomatic wedding means I don’t want to be married to you,” I said. “I agreed to your proposal because I wanted to be your wife. Istillwant to be your wife. I never thought I’d have the chance to marry the man I loved or live in a world where you were willing to love me. So excuse me if I’m currently focused on trying to keep the High Kingdom from falling before you can stick a ring on my finger, or whatever weird-ass tradition the Divided Courts use instead!”

“Yes,” said a voice from the doorway. We all turned, me first, to behold the High King standing there, unruffled and perfect as ever, flanked by a whole new contingent of guards. The ones who had survived the earlier encounter at Nessa’s quarters were there, but standing back, letting the fresh guards take the lead. “I, too, would prefer that we guarantee the safety of my crown and Kingdom before such time as we move on to your wedding.” He smiled, but his eyes were sharp.

“So can we focus?”

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