Instant info

“Time waits for no one, Lady Molly,” Mab said. She had crossed the room to stand across from me over poor Carlos. “Not even the Queens of Faerie. Collect the tribute.”
I gave him a last kiss on the forehead and rose to leave. But I paused at the door to consider, to consult Winter Law.
I had never really considered what the tribute was. But it was there in the law.
I turned slowly and stared at Mab in horror.
“Their children,” I whispered. “You want me to take their children.”
“Yes.”
“Their children,” I said. “You can’t.”
“I won’t. You will.”
I shook my head. “But …”
“Lady Molly,” Mab said gently. “Consider the Outer Gates.”
I did.
Winter Law showed me a vivid image. An endless war fought at the far borders of reality. A war against the pitiless alien menace known simply as the Outsiders. A war fought by millions of Fae, to prevent the Outsiders from invading and destroying reality itself. A war so long and bitter that bones of the fallen were the topography of the landscape. It was why the Winter Court existed in the first place, why we were so aggressive, so savage, so filled with lust and the need to create more of our kind.


Brief Cases, Cold Case, Page 322-323