Of Blood and Honey (Fey and the Fallen) by Stina Leicht Read Free Book Online

abandoned shop across the street. A shadow flitted behind the boarded up windows and broken glass. She waited for a cluster of British soldiers to pass the store front before she made her way across the street between idling cars and military vehicles. It had been a sunny morning in spite of the cold, and the pavement was dry, although it wouldn’t be long before a mist would coat all in icy damp. Grey clouds ruled the afternoon sky. It’d be dark soon.
    She reached the store front and peered between the boards nailed across it. “Where are you?” she asked in a whisper.
    “I’m right here, love.”
    She couldn’t prevent herself from starting at the sound of his voice. Turning, she saw him leaning against the edge of the doorway. “I really wish you wouldn’t do that,” she said.
    “Can’t help it. To see the look on your face.”
    “I don’t know why I bother talking to you at all.”
    “Because you love me. You know you do.”
    “Ah, go on.”
    “Have you been well?”
    “I have.”
    Although his outward display of good humor hadn’t changed, the tension in his jaw relaxed somewhat. “It is good, then,” he said.
    She joined him in the shadows and breathed in the scent of him—earth and leather. There was something about that smell that never failed to make her tremble with need. Why couldn’t she feel the same about Patrick? He was her husband, was he not? “Why have you come? Have you found our Liam? He’s in the Kesh, you know.”
    Bran nodded, his face growing serious. “I saw him. He’s yours and mine, true enough. A fine lad, he is, and brave. You can be proud of him, Kathleen. But it’s a terrible place. The stench of it stretches for a mile into the Other Side. I couldn’t reach him. Too much iron. But I did what I could, not that it matters. He’ll be out soon, I’m thinking.”
    “And what did you do?”
    “I merely reminded a few mortals that there are consequences for crossing certain people.” He gave her one of his cagey smiles—the one that all but said, Do you really want to know more? Because it’s sure I am that you don’t. “Anyway, it isn’t as much what I’ve done.”
    She swallowed her anxiety, sure he was right that she didn’t want to know more. “All right then. Tell me of Liam. Is he well? He doesn’t write.” She didn’t want to mention Liam couldn’t write very well and therefore, wouldn’t. It was too comforting to see the swell of pride as Bran spoke of their son, and she didn’t want to risk bruising that connection, tenuous as it was.
    “He’ll be fine enough, whatever happens. He can protect himself. He’s not mortal. He has the Glamour. I saw him use it.”
    She frowned. “What is it you’re going on about?”
    “No real harm will come to him from mortal folk. Any who does him a bad turn will not have a good end. And those that do him good, will profit by it. It’s in his blood. I’ve seen it.”
    The sins of the father, she thought and shuddered. “I don’t want to hear any more.”
    Bran raised an eyebrow. “Did I say something wrong?”
    Once again old questions surfaced in Kathleen’s mind. Is Bran the reason Patrick’s business ventures have never flourished? Has Bran broken his promise? Does Patrick suffer because I chose him? She sighed, knowing she couldn’t go on thinking like that, or she’d go mad. Her lips pressed together. “I have to get the dinner on the table.”
    “There’s something I must ask of you.”
    “What is it?”
    Reaching inside the pocket of his pegged jeans, he produced a small silver coin. “Have you a way to discover what this is?”
    Two heads graced the front—a bearded king and a queen. A crown was depicted above and between them both. She couldn’t make out the words stamped into the edge in the dim light. She set down her shopping and leaned closer. “I think it’s English, but it could be Spanish or French or Italian for all I know.”
    “Anything more?”
    “It’s very old,”