I lowered myself to the ground, and he surveyed my blood-covered face. Then he pulled out his shirttail and started to rip the cloth and Ricky said, "No, here," and tugged at his shirt, but Gabriel said, "I've got this," and gave him another of those hard looks. Ricky ducked it, not unlike the hound, murmuring, "I'm sorry."
"No," I said. "Whatever happened out here, it was both of us."
Gabriel said, "I know," and the look he turned on me was softer, but I still saw the reproach there, that edge that said we'd done something reckless and foolhardy. Worse, we'd done it without him there to help.
Gabriel tore a strip from his shirt and used it to clean my face. I glanced over at Ciro, lying on the ground, his throat torn out, and I felt...I didn't know what I felt. Well, yes, I did. I just didn't like it.
"He killed them," I said as Gabriel cleaned my face. "The lamiae. He was told they murdered Lucy and that killing them would bring her back." Another glance Ciro's way. "Whatever the excuse, he still murdered them."
"I know," he murmured. "He had a choice."
I nodded. When he worked at a spot on my temple, I leaned against his hand, just briefly, and he rubbed his thumb across my cheek instead, the touch equally brief, but equally meaningful.
"Like Pamela," Ricky said, his voice low, as if not wanting to interrupt.
I glanced to see him crouched beside the hound, one hand on it, his gaze on me, and I nodded, because that's exactly what had been swirling through my brain since Ciro first told us of the deal he'd made with the Huntsman. Ricky understood that. I've had people in my life whom I felt a deep bond with, but it was never like this. I look at these men, and I feel that connection, the sense that they get me in a way I'd always presumed no one could.
"Like Pamela," I murmured, as Gabriel's critical eye declared my face clean of blood spray and I started to rise. "Which raises a hundred questions, all of which Ciro's not going to be able to answer."
"I don't think he ever could," Ricky said. "He was just another human pawn in a fae game."
"We need to figure out this rogue Huntsman's particular game. I'm guessing he killed Lucy and set it all in motion. The question is why. But first: we have a dead body."
"I believe they can take care of that," Gabriel said, and before I could ask, I caught the thunder of horses. The hound heard it too and leapt up, quivering in anticipation. Then it went still and gave a convulsing shudder and turned sharply, ready to flee.
Ricky caught it, his hands wrapping in its fur as he said, "Uh-uh." Then he turned to me. "Can you guys...?"
"Head them off before they scare the hound away?"
"Yeah, thanks."
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Gabriel and I caught up with Ioan and his Cwn Annwn. They weren't in actual Hunt mode--just regular guys in jeans, boots, and jackets, astride horses. Not unlike the Saints, really. All they needed were patches on their jackets.
They'd managed to breach the forest, which was the best proof that the rogue Huntsman was gone, his power fading as he fled and his hound shifted allegiance to a new master.
Ioan acknowledged Gabriel's presence with a nod, curt but not rude, and I said that everything was under control. Then I asked if he'd walk with me, leaving the horses and the others behind.
"We have the hound," I said. "But if you go tearing over there, we won't have it for long. It's already spooked."
Ioan was off his horse without a word. I explained what had happened as we walked. When I finished, Ioan said, "You're right. We cannot bring back the dead, nor could we facilitate such a deal with any power that could. To resurrect the immediately dead, within moments of their passing? Perhaps, if death came from something reversible, such as heart failure. But to return someone who has been in her grave for months? It speaks to his grief that he even believed such a thing was possible."
"People will believe anything when they're in pain."
He dipped his chin. "And this impostor took advantage of that. I will not even call him Cwn Annwn."
"That's what Ricky said, too."
Ioan smiled. "Of course he did. Our ways have always been there, in his head and in his heart, and he can pull on that as easily as he can recall the alphabet. Proof he is not another imitation of Arawn."
He looked at Gabriel as if to make a point. Ricky was the real deal.
"You never told us how exactly you got here," I said to Gabriel. "My text only mentioned we were heading into a forest south of the city."
"I looked around and saw the bike and the riders."
"In the entire south-of-Chicago region, you just happened to glance across a dark field and see guys on black horses?"