winter law

“By Winter Law?” I asked.
“Yes! Sort of.”
“Well,” I said, starting toward Hook. “I never signed on to that treaty. So screw Winter Law—”
And abruptly, as if someone had just slammed a row of staples into my skin, the mantle of the Winter Knight vanished completely. Pain soared back into my body, inflamed tissue crying out, my bruises throbbing, the edemas beneath my skin pounding with a horrible tightness. Fatigue hit me like a truck. The sensations were so intense, the only way I could tell that I had fallen to the floor was by looking.
And my body abruptly went numb and useless from my stomach down.
That scared the hell out of me and confirmed one of my worst fears. When I’d consented to serve Mab, my back had been broken, my spine damaged. Taking up the mantle had covered what would probably have been a crippling and long-term injury. But without it, my body was only mortal. Better than most at recovering over time, but still human. Without the mantle, I wouldn’t have legs, bladder or bowel control, or, most important, independence.
I was on the ground like that for a subjective week, but it could have been only a few seconds before Thomas reached my side, with Murphy, Butters, and Molly right behind him. I knew they were there because I could see them, but their voices swam down to me from what seemed like a great distance among the cacophony of raking sensations scouring my nervous system. They lifted me to a sitting position—and then abruptly the pain was gone, and my legs started moving again, jerking in a single, gentle spasm.
The mantle had been restored.
“Okay,” I said in a ragged voice. “Uh. Maybe we won’t screw Winter Law.”
“Harry,” Thomas said, as if he’d said my name several times already. “What happened?”
“Uh,” I said. “I think it’s . . . a side effect. Fallout from defying the order of things.”
“What?” he asked.
“Faeries,” I said. “They’re kind of insane, and mischievous, and dangerous as hell, but they all share one trait—they’re good to their word. They obey what they recognize as law. Especially Mab.”
“You aren’t making much sense right now,” Thomas said.
“The mantle of power comes from Mab. And now it’s in me. But it’s still a piece of her. If I go violating her own realm’s laws, it looks like the mantle isn’t going to have my back.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning I’d better figure out what the laws are pretty damned quick,” I replied. “Help me up.”


Cold Days Chapter 29, Page 288-290