Anger built inside her. "And why would you be telling me this?"
"Your lives are of no use to you." He pointed at the house behind her. "You squat in filth and poverty upon this pitiful chunk of land, like rats on some enormous garbage heap between two thriving civilizations. Why fight, when the conclusion is foregone? No help will come for you. Sooner or later, all of you will be mine."
"I don't think so."
Casshorn looked past her. "Tell her, Declan. Tell her I'm right."
"I see you've added insanity to the list of your shortcomings," Declan's icy voice said.
"Why must you be so unreasonable? I'll have you." Casshorn sighed. "I ate a man last night. Unfortunately, my hounds usually devour their targets, but this man was sent to me as a special gift. I ate him quickly, with much greed, and the rapture of feeling his magic flow into me is the only thing I now have. It is my sustenance, my goal, and my addiction, and I'll do anything to taste it again. There will be no escape. Why prolong the agony? I offer you a chance to become something useful. Nourish me. Become part of me and mine."
"I see." Rose put her hands on her hips. "Here is how it's going to go: I'll kill your hounds, then I'll find you and kill you, and then my brothers will use your head for a soccer ball. That way you'll be converted into something useful. Good-bye now."
She stepped over the ward line to get a clear shot. His greedy magic streamed to her. Her anger exploded in a wave of brilliant white, burning the puddle and the hound's body to nothing. Casshorn vanished.
Rose turned slowly and saw Declan standing on the porch.
"YOU lied to me!" Rose struggled to keep her fury under control. "You pretended to want to marry me, bullied me into these idiotic challenges, and all the while you were trying to kill Casshorn."
"I didn't lie. I just let you draw the wrong conclusions," he said grimly.
Her anger made everything crystal clear. "What's the name of your friend, Declan? The one who turns into a wolf, the one Casshorn adopted?"
"William," Declan said.
Oh, my dear God.
"The man you've met may not be the same William," Declan said.
"Of course it's the same William! I just came back from cutting my ex-boss from a tree, where a changeling wolf had put him! He wrapped him in plastic, hung him upside down, and left me a trail of car chunks so I could find him. William knows who Emerson is. He specifically asked me about him the last time we spoke. What is the matter with the two of you? Do you think this is some sort of a game? That thing was right, wasn't he? We're nothing more than bait to you."
Declan's eyes frosted over with white. "Rose, his mind was oozing out of his ears before he even started this mess. He's unraveling; surely you can see that! He was never a real soldier, or a real scientist, or a real noble, and now he isn't even a real human being. He's blundered into power, and it consumed him, and now he must be put down like a rabid dog. At his end, nobody will mourn, and he recognizes that. You can't believe anything he says."
She brushed his arguments aside. He had lied to her. She actually thought there might be something between them. Yes, she knew better, and yes, the whole challenges deal was a huge strike against him, but everything else about him felt so right. She was so mad, she couldn't even see straight. Mad at him for lying, mad at herself for buying the lie, and mad at the world because once again she was just the means to someone else's end. The anger sat in her chest and hurt.
"Where did you take Jack this morning?"
"I took him to the Wood."
"To what purpose? Don't lie to me, Declan, because I'll go and get my brother and he will tell me the truth."
"I instructed him to follow the hounds' trail."
"Are you out of your mind? He's a child!"
Declan's jaw took on a stubborn set. "He's also a changeling. He's smart, cunning, and fast. He was never in any significant danger. I was always within half a mile from him."
"So because he's a changeling, that makes him expendable?" she snapped. "Or is it because he's a mongrel?"
"You're not listening. Jack was in no danger."
"I'm sorry. I seem to have been mistaken. The hounds are just some fluffy, harmless bunnies. That's why an hour ago you bled all over my kitchen."
"That's a completely different situation. I was alone in cramped quarters without my ability to flash. Jack was in the tree canopy under strict orders to run to me the moment he sensed the hounds."
"And much good it would do him. They would be on him in the trees before you could get your sword out."
Declan growled. "You baby the children, Rose. Especially Jack."
She glared at him.
"He's a predator. He's eight years old, and George is ten. Neither is educated in basic self-defense or blade work. George doesn't know how to properly hold a knife. Jack told me he has never ridden a horse. How do you expect them to survive? They can't cling to your skirt forever."
Her voice caught in her throat, and for a second she couldn't speak. "You barge into our life, you practically force yourself on me, and now you question how I raise my brothers. Who the hell do you think you are? You try it, Declan. You try raising two boys when you're goddamn eighteen years old, your mother's dead, your father has taken off, you're working a below-minimum-wage job that makes you fall over from exhaustion every night, while half of your town is out hunting you so they can sell you to the highest bidder!"
"I didn't say you were doing a poor job, but you can't teach them everything."
"Before I throw you out, answer one question," she squeezed out through clenched teeth. "Why us? Why me? Why the whole marrying ruse?"
"The hounds are attracted to magic. I followed their trail to a house," he said. "And then a beautiful girl came out, leveled a crossbow at me, and declared she wouldn't sleep with me. I played along."
"You played along." Bitterness dripped from her words. "Do you have any idea how scared I was? How much I worried that you might drag me off, leaving the kids behind, or that you might kill them? Do you know how much anxiety your playing along has cost me? Get out."
He sat on the porch and smiled, showing her his teeth like a flash of a sword blade in the scabbard. "I don't think so."
"What?"
"We had an agreement. I haven't breached it, so the fault lies with you. Therefore, you must issue a refund, and you can't. You spent the money."