Page 36 (1/1)

Still, I didn’t have to tell hi I pushed him away and slid out from between hi san to recount select portions of what I’d seen, lying in the sour-s fro them commit crimes

But I didn’t tell him the three faces the Book had presented, or the severity of the cri the carrier before ititself off from one live human to the next That way if he decided to try to track it, too, I’d have an edge I needed all the edges I could get I knew V’lane didn’t really consider humans viable life forms, and I had no ht be Seelie, and Barronsmy life, but I had far too many unanswered questions about theht up to the end Had shethem for Barrons? So what if he never answers any of my questions? He’s told me more about what I am than anyone else So what if he kills ruthlessly? He only does it to keep ether half a dozen at a moment’s notice V’lane, too: So he’s a death-by-sex Fae; he’s never really har me strip in public places? He saved me from the Shades

I’m a bartender I like recipes They’re concretes Was the drink recipe for seduction one shot charm and two shots self-deception, shaken, not stirred?

"You remained conscious the entire time?"

I nodded

"Still you cannot approach it?"

I shook ain?"

"I have no idea," I lied "Dublin has over aAssu it stays around the city, which I’m not even sure we can assume" (this was a lie; I don’t knohy I was so sure of it, but I believed the Book had no intention of leaving Dublin’s chaotic streets at thefor a needle in a haystack"

He studied me a moment, then said, "Very well You have upheld your end of the bargain I will keep ton Abbey was constructed on consecrated ground in the seventh century, when a church originally built by Saint Patrick in AD 441 had burned down The church, interestingly, had been built to replace a cruo, been sacred to an ancient pagan sisterhood The stone circle had allegedly been predated by a shian, or fairy mound, that had concealed within it an entrance to the Otherworld

The abbey was plundered in 913, rebuilt in 1022, burned in 1123, rebuilt in 1218, burned in 1393, and rebuilt in 1414 It was expanded and fortified each tiain extensively in the seventeenth, sponsored by an anonyle of stone buildings, enclosing the inner courtyard, and added housing--much to the astonishment of the locals--for up to a thousand residents

This saht the land around the abbey, and turned the enclave into the self-sustaining operation it is today The abbey boasts its own dairy, orchards, cattle, sheep, and extensive gardens, the highlight of which is an elaborate glass-domed hothouse rumored to house some of the world’s rarest flowers and most unusual herbs

And that was all I’d been able to find out about the place in the twentyfor the destination Barrons had given ton Abbey ned by a subcorporation of a s of an even larger corporation Nobody knew anything about its modern-day operations Oddly, no one seemed to find that odd I found it spectacularly odd that a country that took such loving care of its abbeys, castles, standing stones, and countless other monuments asked no questions about the most extraordinarily well preserved abbey within its boundaries But they didn’t, and there it sat, in the middle of nearly a thousand acres, silent and mysterious and private, and nobody bothered it

I wondered what tremendous iedly protected it, even under guise of Christianity, and rebuilt it each tier until now it loo fortress over a still, dark lake

In the passenger seat, V’lane flinched and seemed to flicker