Page 65 of Explosive Chemistry

Blankets, Hot Cocoa, And Murder

Liliana sat on one end of an examination table in a small room and sipped hot cocoa, her injuries clean and bandaged. The shrapnel had been removed from her thigh. The bullet had passed through the skin and muscle just above her hip relatively cleanly. The wound would heal in a few days. She was nearly buried under blankets that had been warmed in a special oven. Her wet clothes had been replaced with borrowed military fatigues that were several sizes too large.

Pete and Doctor Nudd fussed over her at least as much as they fussed over Siobhan, who sat next to her on the examination table, similarly dressed in dry but ill-fitting clothes and covered in warm blankets. The little Fae had a few minor cuts, including a deep claw scratch on her forehead. A white band held the gauze pad over the taped wound, pushing her red hair straight up on the top like a woodpecker’s crest.

Doctor Nudd had been in and out, caring for them and for Lieutenant Runningwolf. Nudd’s healing gift seemed to be helping the badger recover from the toxic nanites still circulating in his system. He’d only gotten half of the nanites in his system before Doctor Nudd had removed the needle from his arm. Nudd had little hope for the others who had been infected. While he had no idea how to get them out, his talent directly mitigated the nanites’ toxic effects, in Runningwolf at least.

Liliana found she rather enjoyed being fussed over. Siobhan grumbled a lot, but Liliana’s third eyes showed her that the little Fae enjoyed it just as much as the spider-kin.

Siobhan caught her looking and winked.

Liliana smiled into her cup.

When their injuries were completely cared for and they were as comfortable as possible, Doctor Nudd opened the door to allow the others access. “One at a time, please.”

Pete left to give them space.

Colonel Bennet was the first to visit.

Liliana quickly closed her third eyes.

After a brief, cold nod to Siobhan, he focused on Liliana. “The next time you need access to the base, it’s granted. I’ll get you a pass for the gate,” he told her. “That’s the second time you saved my life today, and the third time since we met. I should have trusted you.”

“You didn’t know me, so you had no reason to trust me.” Liliana shrugged. “Just like I don’t really know you.”

The dark prince finished her thought, “So you have no reason to trust me.”

“I need to know you better.” Liliana considered how she might accomplish that. “May I visit your home? Doctor Nudd tells me that it is a social rule to inform someone before visiting.”

“I look forward to it.” He bowed to her slightly.

He turned to leave. The prince had barely acknowledged Siobhan’s existence, even though Liliana recognized the sprite’s work in the unique weapon he carried in the holster on his hip.

Siobhan and Colonel Bennet were of opposite courts. Enmity between seelie and unseelie Fae had existed for millennia, and the spider seer suspected from what she had seen inside him that Colonel Bennet had a personal grudge against the seelie as well.

But the flower sprite had fought so bravely, and Liliana did not like seeing her friend snubbed. “It was Siobhan who saved Doctor Nudd’s life,” Liliana said. “He would not have survived until you or I got here if she had not chosen to fight the pride-king alone.”

Colonel Bennet turned back. He looked to Doctor Nudd for verification.

“That is true, actually.” Doctor Nudd tucked his clipboard inside the sling that held one arm, and drew himself to his full height, even taller than the prince. “I would have died long before help arrived if not for Siobhan.”

The prince glanced at Siobhan. “I understand you owed Nudd a favor.” He had seemed formal when he spoke to Liliana, but with the little Fae, his tone turned icy. He spat the word favor as if it were an insult.

Siobhan nodded, face closed and wary. “He saved my life. I saved his. We’re even now.”

Doctor Nudd tapped his pen but didn’t add to that.

Liliana sighed. So much bloodshed in the past could have been avoided if the Fae did not insist on dividing everyone into opposing camps. Bridges had begun to be built across previously uncrossable lines. The first Sidhe court in North America would not begin by burning those bridges, not if Liliana had any say in the matter.

The prince told her himself that he didn’t intend to let those old lines define or restrict him. She would see to it that he kept that oath.

“Regardless of the reason, she saved a Fae under your protection that you would have failed to protect without her aid.”

The prince turned his dark glare on the spider-kin, but Liliana kept her eyes down on the cup in her hand. This prince seemed to follow the old rules of fealty that had been ignored by so many Sidhe. Rules mattered to him. Order mattered. Honor mattered. But Sidhe tended to interpret the rules to their own best advantage, and many of them would ignore honor when it suited them.

She wondered if this prince would honor his obligations in an age when so many did not.

“I told Siobhan that she would probably die if she came here. Doctor Nudd did not ask her to come, and her obligation to him would have died with him if she had done nothing. Siobhan chose to protect one who serves you, knowing the price could be her life.”

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