"In order to resurrect someone," Aodhan says, "The body must be in decent condition and not dead longer than a day."

"The only major wound appears to be on his head, but he must have water in his lungs," Ewan informs, arms crossed.

Isla grimaces. "But he's been dead about a day."

Clementine paces the room with all the air of a stalking cat, heels clacking on the floor with steel fury. "You can't bring him back, can you?" she snaps at Aodhan. "The girl can. She's across Adaetram and even I can't get there within the time limit." She mutters something under her breath in a language Patrick can't understand. Her shoulders start to soften and she stares at Alexei's body on the table with the beginnings of resignation. "Such a pity."

Rozenn, who had been quietly seated at the head of the table, offers, "I will look into this... matter, Lady Clementine. It is unfortunate that something as such has transpired under my roof."

"If it suits you. I doubt it will do any good."

At this, Rozenn seems a bit baffled, but the expression is gone as soon as it comes. "You have no desire to find the offender?"

"I have my suspicions."

A few seconds pass where Rozenn must be waiting for Clementine to elaborate, but neither of them say anything more on the matter of Alexei's murderer. Erikur shifts uncomfortably beside Ewan and nods at Rozenn.

"Have you got an update on the dragon, Lady Rozenn?" he asks.

"It hasn't moved away," she informs stiffly. "We sent cattle out over the hills, but it hasn't seemed interested thus far. We're keeping an eye on it."

"I'm sure the townsfolk are happy about that," Brynjar mutters under his breath.

The whole time, Patrick is tense in his seat. He has no idea why he was summoned to come- it's not like he has much input to provide- but he couldn't hardly refuse her when in a good mood and not liable to kill anyone who looks at her wrong. He wishes he were elsewhere, maybe out with William and pretending none of this is happening. It could be a reality if William weren't with Lena right now, as the both of them were not invited to this pressing meeting- which was perhaps for the best.

Rozenn whispers something to the people next to her, her people (Patrick has no clue what in the world their names are and he's not entirely sure he's seen them before), and they leave the room. Rozenn stands.

"If we're done here," she says. "I'll have a pyre made."

"Fine," Clementine answers.

Rozenn purses her lips and the meeting is adjourned.

Patrick books it out of the room and out the castle in record time. He has no particular destination in mind, but once he gets out onto the cliffs and catches sight of Lena and William, boiling rage fills his body and he stomps over to them.

"Hey, Patrick," William greets timidly.

"Could you leave us alone for a tick?" Patrick asks, trying to keep the ice out of his voice so William won't think he's mad at him.

William glances nervously between Patrick and Lena, then quickly nods his head. "Uh, sure thing."

Lena starts to follow him, but Patrick grabs her arm and pulls her back. The moment William is deemed to be out of earshot, his resolve starts to shatter.

"I don't want to talk, Paddy," Lena says.

"I do," he snaps.

Lena crosses her arms as if that makes her look any more grown and takes a step back from him. "I. Don't."

He loses it.

"Do you have the faintest idea what you've done? You could have waited. You could have waited. I asked you to wait."

"What, like that would have changed anything. Don't be daft."

"Daft? I'm not the daft one. You're the one that made a deal you shouldn't have and fucked yourself over. You never should have-"

"Never should have actually tried to do something instead of sitting around? No one is going to help me."

"If you just waited-"

"I don't want to wait. No one gives a damn, Patrick. They all have other problems and they don't have time to deal with me, even if I'm like this because they're the ones that lost the stupid necklace in the first place."

Patrick scoffs. "No one cares? I care."

"And what can you do?" she hisses. "You're a farm boy. You wouldn't even help me when I asked."

"I left everything for you!" His hands are shaking and he clenches them into fists to quell the tremble. He can't feel anything but the blindness, desperation for something only he doesn't know what. "I gave my entire life away to try to help you. I could have stayed and never would have gotten myself into this mess. You're the one that picked up the pendant."

Lena flinches. Her lips press together and even with the waves, all Patrick can hear is his heart pounding in his chest.

"Then maybe you should have stayed," she tells him. "You should have stayed and then it wouldn't be so hard on you. You don't have a right to be angry."

"What do you mean I don't have a right to be angry? You're my best friend and all I've ever tried to do was protect you. How am I supposed to help you when you keep doing stupid shit like this?"

"I don't need protecting," Lena snarls, leaning forward. "I'm going to die anyway."

"By the Bells, what is wrong with you? Do you ever listen to yourself?"

"You never listen to me. All you've ever done is complain. 'Lena, don't do this, it's dangerous' or 'Lena, don't say that, it's rude' or 'Lena, stop being so reckless' and I'm fucking tired of it. You need to- need to get your shit together and stop being so afraid to do things. You're weak and you've never been able to do the things that have to be done. You never would have left Vertbank if it weren't for me. You'd be stuck there for the rest of your miserable life."

"Maybe I would have been and maybe it would have been fine!" Now, he's well aware they're practically screaming at each other and so he swallows hard and closes his eyes as he breathes, attempting to calm himself down. "You never think things through. You never think about what could happen. You just do things so, so, impulsively, like it doesn't even matter."

"Shut up!" Lena snarls. "Just, shut up already!"

"You never listen."

"I don't care! I don't care! I don't want to deal with you anymore."

Patrick laughs and he's never felt like this in his entire life, not even when his dad would yell at him or when he and Lena would argue every so often. She'd always climb through his window and wake him up to apologize during the middle of the night. It was usually her fault.

"Then deal with it yourself," Patrick says. "You can go be alone with Mab, or whatever, and I won't get in your way. No one else ever wanted to be your friend."

"Like anyone would have ever been yours," she retorts. "You can go snitch to your Lady Clementine and when she kills me, you remember it was your fault. It doesn't even matter, since I'll die anyway and maybe I'll always look like this."

"Go then."

"I will."

Lena pushes past him and scrambles up the path, boots scraping against the stones. It's not until she's gone that Patrick comes down and the tension leaves his body. Every muscle is sore and he tries to remember what was said, but he can't grasp the words, only that he said things he already regrets.

He's ashamed to feel tears prick at his eyes as he walks back to the castle. He only makes it to the gate before he decides to go around the back. Even in his frazzled state, he doesn't want to run into anyone.

He slides down the castle wall, tears starting to glide down his face and drip down his scruffy chin. He pulls his knees up to his chest and bawls as if he's a child again, like that time he fell out of a tree and roughed himself up.

He doesn't quite notice anyone has joined him until he feels an arm slip around his shoulders and pull him closer until his forehead is resting on someone's shoulder. Through the tears, he can't recognize who it is, but the voice is familiar and that helps.

"Shh," Aodhan croons. "Hush now, sweet. Everything is going to be all right. It will."

He murmurs in dulcet tones into Patrick's ear until the sobs start to lessen and Patrick can only shake his head. He laughs weakly and pulls away so he can wipe his face with his sleeve. Aodhan's hand stays on his upper arm, thumb moving in rhythmic patterns.

"I should never have come here," Patrick mutters, maybe to himself, maybe to Aodhan. "I don't know what else I was supposed to do."

Aodhan squeezes his arm gently and Patrick's glad he doesn't pull away yet. He soaks up the touch, clings to the comfort of it because he has nothing else.

"Did Lena kill him?" Aodhan asks, voice barely audible.

"I don't know how she did it."

"But she did?"

"She did. It's part of the deal with- with Mab."

Aodhan's fingers still rub circles into Patrick's arm, feeling almost like some consolation. "What did she promise?"

I promised.

"She... um-"

Does that matter anymore?

Aodhan's eyes bore into him and they're warm, but firm and demand an answer that Patrick isn't sure he wants to give. Their eyes meet directly on accident and Patrick hastens to look away, anywhere where he can't see the look on Aodhan's face, the look that Patrick doesn't think is open.

"Three lives," he says, after some exhausted contemplation.

Aodhan sighs, softly. Patrick presses his palms to his eyes to quell the ache, to attempt to soothe the puffiness.

"I don't want to lose her," Patrick whispers.

I said some things I shouldn't have.

"I know."

"Should I tell Lady Clementine?"

"It would be... perhaps prudent- to tell her. I think she already knows, but it would be honorable of you to tell her. She is your lady."

"And I've already broken my promise to her, but I've also broken my promise to Lena."

"I don't think Clementine would begrudge you for trying to honor a promise made before you swore to her. She's a faery and she'd know better than to fuss about that," Aodhan says. He pauses, then says slowly, "Lena made a poor choice."

"I know that," Patrick answers, perhaps a bit too sharply. He recoils, chagrined. "I'm sorry. I just want to protect her, and I thought I was doing okay, but now..."

"What exactly did the deal entail?"

"Kill the person whose name is given by the next full moon. Three lives altogether. If she succeeds, Mab said she would reverse the curse."

Aodhan looks displeased. "There isn't much of a loophole there. It might be possible to resurrect those she kills, but resurrection is tricky business, to put it lightly. It's possible Mab shielded Alexei's body so he couldn't be found until it was too late to do anything."

"Erikur did say they already looked where they found him," Patrick notes, "but if Mab wants certain people dead, why doesn't she do it herself?"

"Fae law," Aodhan answers simply. "It's convoluted and I don't know the ins and outs of it, but generally fae courts have problems with higher ranking fae messing with humans in the Middle."

"She messed with Lena. Lena said Mab would help her."

"Lena messed with Mab. Lena called Mab and made a deal. That's technically all right, as far as fae laws go. I suppose the only way Lena could have killed Alexei is with Mab's help, but I haven't an idea how that relates to fae law. Unfortunately, most, if not all, of this is on Lena's part."

"This is really shitty."

Aodhan laughs, caught off guard. "Don't we all know it." He squeezes Patrick's arm once more and lets go. "I want to help, I really do, but I'm not in much of a position to try pressuring Rozenn into anything right now. She already sent Signe off to spite me."

"She did that to spite you?"

"Well, Signe could get to the Towers the fastest, but it was certainly convenient for her to send her off right then."

"You're in trouble with her."

Aodhna's smile is bitter, but slightly sweet at the same time. "She isn't happy with me, but she can't replace me with anyone else."

"I'm sorry."

"It's nothing for you to worry about. I made a choice and it could have been a better one. Regardless of that, I do think Rozenn will get Lena a hearing with the Seelie, though I'm not sure how much can be done at this point."

Patrick sighs and Aodhan squeezes his shoulder.

"I don't feel very hopeful anymore," he admits.

Aodhan frowns. "Don't lose hope just yet. It's still there, I can promise you that."

"I wish it was last spring again and Lena never picked up that stupid pendant."

"No use wishing for impossible things," Aodhan says gently.

"I should go talk to Lady Clementine, I suppose. Lena will be angry, but she's already angry with me anyway."

"She's hurting."

Yes, and I'm sure screaming at each other helped.

"I don't know how to help her."

"Be there for her."

"What if she won't let me?"

"Then it's out of your control. Do your best. Sometimes that's the most you can do, my dear."

Patrick's heart hurts. He feels sufficiently miserable, if that's how Lena wanted him to feel, and he knows he should get up, but is hesitant to. Aodhan said Clementine wouldn't resent him, but he doesn't quite believe that, and voices as much to Aodhan.

"She'll surely be vexed, but she's fond of you, and as long as she's fond of you, you should be just all right."

Before Patrick thinks better of it, he says, "She's not fond of you."

"She can't touch me," Aodhan answers. "At least not without some rather unpleasant consequences. Titania will be furious if anyone hurts me unfairly."

"Why did you swear to them?" Patrick asks impulsively.

"Same as you- to protect myself." Aodhan's voice goes a little steely and he shakes his head. "I used to work for the Unseelie."

Patrick looks at Aodhan, nerves rising up. He's curious, undoubtedly, but also wary. "When?"

"A long time ago," Aodhan sighs out. "It feels like forever. I was more powerful then, when I was younger. More stupid. I did a lot of things that I wouldn't necessarily do now. Clementine's never mentioned that at all?"

"Just that she doesn't like you."

"I figured she would have jumped at the chance to tell you."

Patrick shrugs. He doubts Clementine often jumps at the chance to tell anyone anything. She plots and tells nothing to anyone- except maybe Isla, who Patrick has always thought knows more than she lets on.

Aodhan looks at the sea, down the hills. He's pulled completely away from Patrick now, sat in a similar position.

"You have a right to know," he says slowly.

"You don't have to tell me," Patrick says.

I'm not sure I want to know.

"I should tell you, so you know. So you can make your own decision and no one can try to tell you to attempt ruining things."

The way it's said makes Patrick think Aodhan's thought about this before, like he's getting something off his chest. Part of Patrick doesn't think he's ready to hear what Aodhan has to say, not after the fight with Lena and not when things are so hopeless, but he doesn't want to brush him away.

"All right," Patrick murmurs.

"I taught myself most of what I know and I'm gifted in shamanic magic. Magic has always been easy for me, so I didn't realize exactly how skilled I was until the Unseelie came to me and asked me to work for them. I did a lot of favors for people in the town where I lived and I had gained a bit of a reputation throughout Vaenyth that I was the person to go to."

"For healing?"

"That, sometimes. Mostly it was spells. I would contact the dead or help them travel through the Below. I could complete rituals they weren't strong enough to do themselves. I wasn't all that interested in the healing part of shamanic magic and I suppose that's why the Unseelie found me first. When someone gets that powerful, the fae tend to get involved and lots of people get cocky. I did. I was the most powerful shaman seen in hundreds of years, they said. It doesn't do much good to hear that at twenty."

Aodhan pauses, as if deciding how much to reveal.

"I made potions and did medium readings. I got into divination. I could never read myself, but I don't know if I would have done anything differently if I were able to. I made poisons and such like that and I never questioned what people did with them. I didn't care, as long as they held up their end of the bargain."

That doesn't sound like him.

"I was known for making good on my promises and that's why the fae liked me. Clementine came to see me one day and she had a baby that was sickly and was going to die. I doubt it was hers, but she asked me to heal it and I agreed. She was... not someone to talk to then. She was freshly exiled and most everyone ignored her, because it was easier. I didn't care about that and I made her a potion. Someone came to me that night and dragged me away in my dreams- astral projection. They took me to the Above and told me to give Clementine this certain vial and I said I would because I was more scared of whoever was there than I was of her. I gave her the potion in the morning and the baby died. She still loathes me for it."

For good reason, Patrick thinks and bites his tongue to keep the words from flowing out. He stays silent, afraid of what he might say if he doesn't.

"We've had other problems- ones before then, but that was the incident that broke any pretense of ease between us. She was going to kill me," Aodhan says. "That's all I was worried about then. I swore fealty to the Seelie, since she couldn't touch me there without starting a war. Titania had me take the healer's oath of nonviolence and gave me Nona to train. I was... not a pleasant person to be around then, but I loved Nona. She died, and it felt like I got what was owed to me. Titania sent me to Rozenn to help her with her niece, who was having problems with her magic. I trained her, even though I could get killed for using that part of my magic. So could Rozenn, for telling me to do so against the wishes of Titania."

"Signe is Rozenn's niece?" Patrick blurts, stunned.

"She's Alistair's daughter, but she swore to Rozenn. Alistair has always been obsessed with having a powerful successor, especially since Signe left. He and Rozenn