Chapter Text
It was a couple weeks later, and I was still no closer to making a decision on who to marry, when Mab paid a visit to Castle Dresden. And sure, that was mildly horrifying, but I was kind of used to it at this point. What I was more scared of was that she was coming regarding a certain engagement announcement that I was nowhere near ready to make. For once, I got lucky.
“A job?” I clarified. Okay, a job. I could do a job. As long as it didn’t involve killing anyone, which was never a guarantee with Mab.
“A member of the Winter Court who has defied me,” Mab explained, her rage apparent not just in her voice, but in the darkness that had already spread over her suit and was highlighting her normally radiant-blond hair. “And I have more important matters to attend to. The Arithi will be in Chicago tonight, and I expect you to apprehend her and deliver her to me.”
I blinked in surprise. One, who the hell was dumb enough to defy Mab? Oh, apart from me. I supposed this Arithi must think she was too busy avoiding war with all of humanity, while waging it against the Fomor. But if Mab let such insults slide just because of a little thing like war, that wouldn’t look too good for the strength of Winter. And two… “She’ll be here?” I asked incredulously.
Mab inclined her chin in a very slight nod. “There is an event at the Art Institute this evening, which will be attended by several people in positions of power. It is my understanding that the Arithi will take the opportunity to… further destabilize things in the city.”
My fists clenched at my sides. Chicago had gone through enough. This was my city. How dare…. I took a calming breath as I reflected on the facts Mab had just laid out for me. An event that was to be attended by people in power didn’t sound like something that would be open to the unwashed masses. “Do I have a way in, or do I have to find my own way?” I started humming the Mission Impossible theme.
“The event is invite-only,” the Winter Queen confirmed. “But I was able to secure you as a plus-one.”
“Lara?” I guessed, my lips twisting into a grimace. Mab did say she wanted Lara and me to make public appearances, after all, and we… hadn’t really done much of it. Hey, I was too busy trying to find a way out, and I don’t know what her excuse was. Aside from me not answering her calls, at least.
“Unfortunately, she was not invited. But there was another option.”
I rocked back on my heels slightly. Another option. Of course there was.
“Baron Marcone should be arriving shortly to go over the details,” she continued, fixing me with a level stare. “I trust you to behave.”
“I will if he does,” I muttered pettily, crossing my arms over my chest. Marcone brought out the worst in me, okay? Another reason I couldn’t marry the guy. “What does he get out of this?” I asked with a bitter taste in my mouth. There was no such thing as unequivocal exchange among the supernatural, and especially not in Faerie.
“One favor,” Mab said, her voice clear and her eyes boring into my soul. “Which will be your responsibility.”
“Fuck that!” I spat. No way in hell was I doing Marcone a favor.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “This is not up for negotiation, my Knight. You will repay the Baron his due.”
I ground my teeth together angrily, glaring at the castle door. I knew how Winter favors worked. Marcone could ask me for anything, and I would have to oblige. It wasn’t a fun feeling, and I just knew the fact that it was Marcone was going to make it worse.
“And once you have completed this task,” Mab’s icy voice continued. “We will be announcing your engagement to Lara Raith.”
My stomach churned. Right. I guess my outburst painted a pretty clear picture that I wasn’t willing to do anything for Marcone, let alone marry the guy. I couldn’t exactly blame Mab for coming to that conclusion. But… dammit, I still didn’t know who the better option was. And just because I didn’t want the better option to be Marcone, that didn’t mean it wasn’t the case.
But before I could explain that I hadn’t actually made my decision yet, Mab was gone.
*
I had just enough time to get some more information on this Arithi from Bob before there was a knock at my door. It was a decent-sized castle, and I was down in the sub-basement that was left over from my old apartment, so the only reason I heard was because of the enchantment that carried the knock throughout all the walls of the castle. Still, Marcone didn’t know about that - it was one of those features he’d apparently never learned how to activate - so I took my time finishing my conversation with Bob before I made my way back upstairs. Marcone had already knocked two more times at this point, and it was doing my heart some good to know I was chipping away at the bastard’s patience.
“Mr. Dresden,” Marcone greeted me politely, his expression cool and composed. Maybe there was a flicker of impatience behind that mask, but he clearly didn’t want to give me the satisfaction of expressing it.
I didn’t say anything. I just took a half-step to the side, just enough to give him room to enter. I glared, making it very clear that I had absolutely no intention of inviting him in. For a vanilla mortal, that wouldn’t be a problem, but Marcone was a Knight of the Blackened Denarius. Sure, I had wards - a shit-tone of wards that had come pre-installed, plus some of my own additions - but I’d lowered them when I opened the door. The real kicker for a being like that was the threshold.
There are a lot of factors that affect the strength of a threshold. The threshold of my old apartment, for example, had been fairly mediocre. Sure, the place had been homey, had been my home, but at the end of the day, it had still been an apartment, and one that was essentially a bachelor pad. This castle, though. Not only did I own it, not only was the whole place mine, from top to bottom, but most importantly, I was raising my daughters here.This was a family home. And nothing strengthened a threshold quite like that.
Marcone just looked at me for a moment, the corner of his mouth ticked up in amusement. And then he walked inside. No problem whatsoever.
I blinked, and Marcone’s amusement only grew at my moderately flabbergasted expression. “I don’t have it on me, Dresden.”
I scowled at him as I closed the door behind him. “What? You just told Namshiel to be a good boy and wait at home?” I asked skeptically.
“Yes.” He turned to face me fully, pausing to enjoy my surprise before continuing. “I can summon the coin to me whenever I need, I hardly need to keep it on my person.”
Damn. I’d figured that Marcone was in control of the Fallen, but damn. To be able to pick up the coin and put it down at will. I had a pretty strong will - I had imprisoned a Titan with it - but I didn’t think I could do that. I remembered Nicodemus telling me that he was in the driver’s seat of his partnership with Anduriel, and had the sudden thought that Marcone could give him a run for his money. I almost smiled at that. Almost.
Instead I shrugged casually as though I wasn’t impressed by his self-control. “Guess that makes sense,” I said casually.
Judging from the pleased gleam in his eyes, I don’t think I fooled him. But he let the matter drop, instead turning to observe the castle with his hands in his pockets. “Your interior decorating leaves something to be desired.”
I glared at the back of his head. “Yeah, well, the previous owner was an asshole who stripped the place down to its bones before leaving. I’ve had to spend most of my money just making this place livable.”
“Hmm,” he hummed thoughtfully, and I could hear the smug smile in his voice. “Perhaps you shouldn’t have bit off more than you can chew.” He glanced back at me over his shoulder.
I stuck my tongue out at him. What? It’s a perfectly justifiable response for your local crime boss being annoyingly petty. I was just matching his maturity level.
Marcone rolled his eyes. “Shall we get down to business, Dresden?”
So, the next couple of hours were spent at my kitchen table, briefing Marcone on the situation and coming up with a plan of attack. With the way my life goes, it didn’t really surprise me that after having spent the past weeks thinking about John Marcone far more than I prefer to, I was now forced to spend hours of one-on-one time with the guy, adding to my torture. And I somehow got the feeling that Mab knew exactly what she was doing. This was definitely punishment for all the times I undermined her authority over me.
“If this trap doesn’t succeed,” Marcone began, and I rolled my eyes at his optimism. “What do we know of her fighting style?”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” I muttered. Given what I’d found out from Bob, I didn’t like our chances. At Marcone’s raised eyebrow, I explained. “What she’s best at is making allies turn on each other. It’s her signature move in a fight to get the heat off of her.” Given mine and Marcone’s well-known animosity towards each other, we would be too easy a target in that regard.
Marcone nodded, clearly seeing the same problem. “How does she do it? Mental attack?”
I shook my head. “Not exactly. She’s still Fae, she can’t lie, so she forms a link between allies that shows what they really want out of the other. It’s probably how she intends to stir up trouble tonight - reveal who all is using each other.”
“How can we shield against it?” he demanded sharply. There wasn’t much that could make Marcone look disturbed, and the fact that he did now unsettled me. What was he so worried about me seeing? Probably whatever plan he had in place to kill me whenever I eventually proved to be more trouble than I was worth. And there was another point against marrying him - I wondered how many I was at now.
“From what I can tell, we can’t. At least not on this short notice.” Maybe if I’d had time, I’d be able to work with Bob to come up with a potion or something, but with the event being tonight, that wasn’t an option. “She has to be touching both of us for it to work, so we’ll just have to make sure at least one of us is always out of her reach.”
He frowned. “That could be difficult, considering you’re my date. If she pegs us before we have the opportunity to lure her away-”
“Wh- I- I am not your date!” I spluttered, aghast.
Marcone arched an eyebrow, a slight smirk tugging at his lips. “Your options are date or bodyguard, and I assumed you would take issue with publicly working for me.”
Well, he wasn’t wrong there. But date? I scowled. “Oh yeah, but publicly dating you is so much better.”
He raised his hand, palm up as though presenting me with my options. Always with the options. “One date doesn’t necessarily mean anything in the eyes of the public. Being perceived as my bodyguard could make a more lasting impression, considering…” He trailed off and his jaw tightened, anger flashing oh-so-briefly in his eyes.
I tilted my chin in understanding. Marcone had yet to fill the position of bodyguard, since Hendricks gave his life in his defense during the Battle of Chicago, and the absence of the hulking redhead glowering behind him was rather conspicuous. I hadn’t thought much of it, beyond assuming that he didn’t have much need of a personal bodyguard now with one of the Fallen in his head. But seeing the anger in his eyes now, I wondered if his reasoning wasn’t something less practical and more human.
Marcone had lost his best friend that night, and I could all-too-clearly imagine the emptiness he’d left in Marcone’s life. I could imagine it because I’d experienced it, too. Was experiencing it. With Murphy…. Damn, it still hurt to even think her name. When you lose someone that close to you, you can’t just replace the role they had in your life. Marcone didn’t have a new bodyguard because he didn’t want anyone but Hendricks by his side. And if I posed as his bodyguard tonight, if people thought he had gone and replaced him, it would be an insult to his memory.
I nodded. “Fine, date then,” I muttered without as much venom as I could have had.
“Excellent.” He was instantly composed again as he lifted his wrist to check his watch. “It’s almost three-”
“What?! Dammit!” I leapt to my feet, jogging over to where I keep my car keys. “You need to go.”
Marcone raised his eyebrows in blatant surprise. “My people dropped me off. I’m to be at your disposal for the evening, per my agreement with your boss.” He frowned. “Dresden, what’s wrong?”
I paused halfway between Marcone and the entry to the kitchen, grinding my teeth together. “I have to pick my daughter up from school,” I finally sighed, meeting his eyes. Not many people knew about Maggie, and even though of all my enemies, Marcone was definitely who I would trust the most with that knowledge, I still hadn’t planned on telling him. Unless certain circumstances demanded, of course.
His eyes widened just slightly, betraying his surprise. “I see…. I can wait here.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Nuh-uh. This is my castle, you’re not staying here.”
He gave an exasperated sigh. “Then what would you suggest, Mr. Dresden?”
I deliberated for a moment. I had to leave soon, or I was going to be late. And the mental image of little Maggie waiting by the sidewalk, unsure if something horrible had happened to me, spurred me into making a decision. “Come one,” I muttered, turning on my heel to stalk out of the room. “You’re coming with me.”
And then I left to pick up my daughter from school with John Marcone.