The Neon Court (Matthew Swift)
Kate Griffin
Language: English
Pages: 544
ISBN: 0316093653
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A daimyo of the Neon Court is dead and all fingers point towards their ancient enemy - The Tribe. And when magicians go to war, everyone loses.
But Matthew Swift has his own concerns. He has been summoned abruptly, body and soul, to a burning tower and to the dead body of Oda, warrior of The Order and known associate of Swift. There's a hole in her heart and the symbol of the Midnight Mayor drawn in her own blood. Except, she is still walking and talking and has a nasty habit of saying 'we' when she means 'I.'
Now, Swift faces the longest night of his life. Lady Neon herself is coming to London and the Tribe is ready to fight. Strange things stalk this night: a rumored 'chosen one,' a monster that burns out the eyes of its enemies, and a walking dead woman. Swift must stop a war, protect his city, and save his friend - if she'll stop trying to kill him long enough for him to try.
happily preoccupied. “These two plonkers,” I said, “are fighting over you.” JG stared as Lady Neon nearly—and not nearly enough—took Toxik’s head off with a swipe of glass sword. “Seriously?” “Yeah. Seriously.” “Why? What’s so special about me?” “Absolutely nothing,” I replied, coughing up dry air and the last lingering sickly taste of other people’s spells that had lodged in my belly. “No magic scars, no epic destinies, no mysterious meteor-showered birth; I gotta tell you, you are pig shit
cobblestones, dogs barking in the night, the ringing of church bells announcing the hour, a watchman’s rattle, a donkey’s bray of distress, the roar from an inn on the south bank. “Meera!” I begged. “You’ve got to stop!” She didn’t hear me. Her face was lit up with delight, her eyes bright, flecked with yellow, her fingers so tight in mine they hurt. A glow to the north caught my eye and as I watched, flames sprang up in the darkness behind a skyline of crooked crampt houses leaning against each
electric fire. We do not think Neon Court, nor Tribe, nor the fists of hell have the strength to extinguish that. Do we understand each other?” Silence. That special silence that can only happen when there are armed men thinking long and hard about the use of weaponry. Then a whisper between Lady Neon and the man in red. He bowed. At us. “Her ladyship appreciates the difficult position you are in. We appreciate that you desire to avoid undue bloodshed; we acknowledge your compassion. Her
always provides free food.” Penny’s aunt’s car, upon further examination, smelt. It smelt of the same dry, fuzzy smell of all cars everywhere, except those with padded leather seats, but also had about it a lived-in stench of old coffee, cheese sandwich, long since dried-up air freshener of the kind sold as a little cardboard tree, and very, very faintly, the acid bite of vomit. I said carefully, “Penny… your aunt… she got kids?” “Yeah, four. I said ‘you heard of condoms?’ and she was like,
few years, Bakker tried to summon the electric angels again, tried to suck us out of the wire. But he got it wrong. He tried to summon us and instead he got me. I am us and we are me, for ever one. One blood, one mind, one soul.” “But 2 voices.” I shrugged. “It’s not a conscious thing.” “R u possessed?” “Nah.” “R u human?” “Sure.” “But ur blood burns blue.” “Only when we’re really, really frustrated.” There was a moment’s uneasiness in his face. Then he grinned, shook it away with a tug