“Liz will be kept under guard at the infirmary until after she delivers, and then she will be tried for her crimes.”
“Assuming Liz delivers a healthy baby boy, what will happen to her son?”
“The pack will raise him.” She admired the pink-and-purple sunrise. “We’ll have to keep him close.”
A child born with an adult mind could get himself—and the pack—into all kinds of trouble.
Especially Archimedes, with his knowledge, and doubly so if he didn’t learn from his past mistakes.
“How weird will that be?” I couldn’t picture it. “Raising your own ancestor?”
“We will give him the love and care shown to our all our pups, and we will keep him safe.”
One day Natisha would wake, and she would begin to hammer at the walls of her prison. I doubted she would emerge as a butterfly from a chrysalis. More likely, she would remain a pissed-off caterpillar ready to devour the world. Starting with Archimedes and working her way through the Atlanta pack.
But Tisdale had wanted more children, and it was easy to see her growing excitement over the idea of raising another son. Even if he was her great-great-great-great-grandfather.
And here I thought my family tree was twisted.
Somehow Hank had beat us home, and it made me smile to see his dirty, grumpy self at his post.
The building had sustained damage. Its front entrance was no more, the glass shattered and trampled. A few floors lacked windows. Burn marks scarred all flammable surfaces, and deep gouges from lethal claws marred the stone walls.
Acrid smoke tinged the air from an earlier fire, but it was faint. Puddles on the ground told me Station Thirteen had come and gone, and I was thankful to them for saving the first real home I had ever known.
“Morning,” he said to our group, as if nothing had happened, then singled out Midas. “The enforcers are waiting on their post assignments.”
“And the world keeps on spinning.” I pushed into the lobby. “Life goes right back to normal.”
“I won’t be long,” Midas promised me. “You can go on up, if you want.”
“I’ll wait.” I smothered a yawn. “Those couches look mighty comfy.”
They were mostly untouched, aside from a few char marks that didn’t offend me in the least.
After kissing Tisdale and me on our cheeks, Midas strode down the hall to give his people their marching orders.
“Hadley,” a girlish voice called. “Hey, Hadley. Ms. Potentate, ma’am.”
“Lillian?” I glanced around the otherwise empty lobby and spotted her running this way. “What’s up?”
“I helped.” She skidded to a stop inches from me. “While you were away, I helped.”
The bright hope in her eyes was too easy to recognize. As tired as I was, as much as I wanted to sit, I couldn’t turn my back on someone so desperate to make a difference. The fact she looked up to me was, well, ill-advised, but she thrummed with an eagerness to report to me I couldn’t ignore.
“That’s great.” I stifled a yawn. “I appreciate—”
“I babysat,” she burst out, unable to hold it in any longer. “I took care of the little ones to free up their parents to join the enforcers. I turned into a plant and danced, and they laughed and laughed. It was great.” She reached in her pocket, producing scraps of paper she fanned in front of my face. “Four parents gave me their numbers and asked if I would sit with their children while they’re at work.” She yanked them back, clutching them to her chest. “Four.”
A tiny balloon of dread rose from the region of my stomach and threatened to float off with my head.
“Remy told the parents you would vouch for me.”
Yup.
Buh-bye, head.
Enjoy your balloon ride.
“Thank you so much.” Lillian threw herself against me in a hug. “I really appreciate it.”
Grinding my palms into my eyes, I worried I might pop them like grapes before I found relief. “I didn’t—”
“I love kids. All kids. I used to be a kid. It was a long time ago, but I sort of remember? I can teach the pups how to garden and grow stuff. Just because they live in the city doesn’t mean they can’t—”
“How about this?” Tisdale intervened, earning my eternal love. “We’ll let Hadley rest, and when she feels better, the three of us can discuss implementing a childcare system for enforcers who live and work at the Faraday.”
“That would be great,” Lillian gushed. “I have so many ideas.”
“Write them all down in a notebook,” Tisdale advised. “We’ll discuss them later.”
Footsteps pattered away, a decided skip to them, and only then did I peek through my fingers.
“It’s clear.” A laugh hid within the words. “You can stop hiding now.”
“I wasn’t hiding.” I lowered my hands. “I was giving myself an extensive palm reading.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“If you’re serious about hiring Lillian, I’ll have Reece forward his background report on her.”
“Oh good. I was hoping you’d say that.” She smoothed my hair before I could get offended. “You love so deeply, I knew you would look out for your friend. Remy wants to be a force for good in the world, but fae aren’t always the best arbitrators of what is right and wrong.”
With Tisdale in charge, if Lillian proved unreliable or unfit, she would step in, and I would be off the hook for firing Remy’s new friend.
Hmm.
Convenient.
I suspected I had become the victim of Tisdale’s mothering yet again, but I was too grateful to care.
“At this rate,” I realized, staring after Lillian, “we’ll have to free up a spot at the table for the fae.”
The Society would love that. But the fae were here, and the Earthen Conclave had gaps in coverage too.
“From what I can tell, Remy has already pulled up a chair.” Tisdale chuckled. “At the head of the table.”
A low groan vibrated my chest, and I wanted to hide behind Tisdale’s legs, let her be the shield that protected me from the outside world. Not forever. Just for a little while. The childish impulse rose from out of nowhere, and it felt…nice…to trust a parent figure to do all the good things that old movies promised.
“Hadley,” she began in a maternal tone. “We need to discuss your current living situation.”
Expecting her to pitch life at the den, I demurred to avoid conflict. “Can it wait until tomorrow?”
As much as I loved visiting the den, and as fond as I was of a particular cabin there, I worked best here in the heart of the city. I hoped she would understand and accept that without any hurt feelings. I didn’t dare risk engaging her with my head so mushy. I was too afraid I might say the wrong thing and ruin our relationship.
I wasn’t sure I would ever call her Mom, as she had offered, but she was the closest thing I ever had to a real maternal figure. I didn’t want to lose her. Certainly not over a triviality like where I lived. I was sure we could find some middle ground, as soon as my eyes quit sticking closed between blinks.
“Of course.” She smoothed a stubborn curl off my forehead. “How about you sit right here?”
The couch appeared like magic in front of me. Or, no, had I walked over to it? It was all a blur.
“There you go.” She guided me down onto an undamaged cushion. “I’ll order in breakfast.”
“Mmmkay.” I tipped my head back against the pillows. “I’ll wait here.”
Bending down, she kissed my forehead. “You do that, sweetheart.”
Twenty-Two
The rich scent of café mocha tempted my eyes open, and I flung out my arm. I made a grabby motion with my fingers, hoping whoever had brought me the drink would be kind enough to press it into my hand.
No such luck.
They were going to make me work for it.
Forcing my eyes open to thin slits, I took in my surroundings with confusion. “Where…?”
“The infirmary.” Midas sat next to me. “After my meeting, I found you passed out on the couch with your head in Mom’s lap.” He flashed me his phone screen, but I was too blurry eyed to focus on the shot. “It was adorable. I took a picture for my wallpaper.”
Grunting at him, I flexed my hand until he put the warm cup within reach. “Need coffee.”
“You need to sit up first, or you’re going to pour it all over yourself.”
Grunting at him again, I wiggled my fingers more, hoping he would show mercy.
“Let me help you.” He took my hand, slid an arm behind my back, and finally handed me the cup. “There we go.”
With him keeping me from slumping back, I drained the whole thing in one long gulp.
Casual as you please, Midas leaned down to whisper in my ear. “How do you feel about a jailbreak?”
“Abbott—”
“Abbott is asleep in an exam room down the hall. He’s been staying here so he can keep an eye on you.”
“I must be dreaming.” I gazed into my empty cup. “Dream coffee ought to refill itself.”
“You’re wide awake,” he promised. “We can always wait on Abbott to clear you, if you prefer.”
“Why are you willing to help me this time?” I narrowed my eyes. “This is all very suspicious.”
Usually, he was the first in line to drag me to Abbott for treatment, whether I wanted to go or not.
And believe me, I never wanted to go.
“Hadley.” He took my cup and set it aside. “You’ve been asleep for eight days.”
Laughter burst out of me. “Good one.”
Midas sat, his expression set, and waited for it to sink in.
“W-w-what happened?” Panic spiked, and I clutched his forearms in a death grip. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He removed my claws from his skin. “You’re fine too.”
Across the room, Ambrose materialized in his mostly Hadley shape and nodded once to me.
I nodded back.
He vanished, taking my shadow with him, which wasn’t weird. At all.
“You wore yourself out,” Midas explained, “absorbing so much power then flushing out your system.”
Compared to the severity of my usual injuries, I was almost embarrassed to have been laid up for so long with a case of the overdone-its. “That’s it?”
“You were exhausted,” he confirmed. “That’s all.”
For once, Abbott must have been thrilled with my diagnosis. “What about you?”
“I brought you here and passed out in a chair.” He chuckled. “I woke up two days later.”
Midas had been given the least of the magic. I was used to the cycle, and I had built up a high tolerance. I had held and expended most of the run-off energy from Ambrose without Midas’s help. Only the overflow from severing the tethers had washed into Midas, and we had figured out how to expend that quickly.
But now that those channels had been cauterized by the magic exchanges, I doubted we could stop a trickle from pouring into Midas every now and then. I regretted it, but it might be for the best. For him to fall into sync with Ambrose and me a bit at a time would be safer for him long-term than the trial by fire he had endured in the archive.
“I have more café mochas and a bag of chocolate croissants.” He scooped me up in his arms. “Make it to the shower, and they’re all yours.”
The lack of tubes and wires tethering me to the bed made me question the spontaneity of this escape plot.
Ambrose had been mighty accommodating too, popping in then poofing just as fast.
“Are you, by any chance, implying I stink?” I jabbed him in the abs. “That I need to take a shower?”
Expression serene as he carried me into the elevator, he told me, “I love you no matter how you smell.”
A sponge bath could only do so much, but I had been cleaned. “But you are saying I smell?”
No one else called the elevator, and we shot to the top of the building in a blink.
“I do have a hypersensitive nose.”
He let us into our apartment and set me down in front of the bathroom door.
Hint. Hint.
“Mmm-hmm.” I toyed with the ties on my hospital gown. “I was going to invite you to join me but—”
Midas had his shirt yanked over his head before I finished the taunt. “I accept.”
“I don’t know.” I lifted my arm and sniffed my pit. “I should probably wash alone so as not to offend your delicate sensibilities.”
“If you never bathed again, I would still love you.”
“But would you still sleep with me?”
“Define sleep.”
“You planned this,” I realized. “You orchestrated my prisonbreak with Abbott, didn’t you?”
“Define orchestrate.”
“Does he think I stink too? Was I smelling up the infirmary? Were other patients complaining?”
“I bribed him with a new MRI machine, the item topping his wish list, for his cooperation.”
“You conned him into unhooking me and then stood over me until I woke?”
“It sounds creepy when you phrase it like that.” A frown creased his brow. “I was going for romantic.”
Pursing my lips, I gave him some credit. “You did help me enact one of my wildest fantasies.”
There were a million times I’d daydreamed about him sweeping me off those beds and carrying me away.
Granted, he hadn’t implied I smelled in any of those half-formed wishes.
“The first thing you say after spending more than five minutes in the infirmary is you want a shower.” He smoothed a hand across his scalp. “I had this planned out in my head. I brought your favorite breakfast, I granted your biggest sickbed wish, I carried you upstairs for a shower in your own apartment, where you could change into your own clothes. The details kept me sane while you were just…lying there.” His arm fell to his side, and he huffed out a soft laugh. “And I got it wrong.”
Until this exact moment, I would have sworn that each corner of my heart already belonged to Midas. Yet I couldn’t deny the warm glow as every square inch lit with a bright and blinding love for him.
“You didn’t get it wrong,” I rasped, throat tight. “You got it just right.”
He cast me a doubtful glance that roved across my face to decide if I was humoring him.
“You are the single best thing to ever happen to me.” I crossed to him and rested my cheek on his chest, right above his heart, and tilted my head back to see him. “I love you more than chocolate, more than tacos, more than food trucks.”
The aquamarine of his eyes, bright and shining, shaded to a darker hue as he stared at me from under his thick lashes. “Really?”
“I would give up coffee,” I said solemnly, “pizza, and fried chicken for you.”
“I would go vegan for you,” he countered, unable to stop the twitch in his left eye as he made his vow.
“Big talk.” I leaned back, a smile tickling my cheek. “Are you sure about that?”
“I said I would do it.” His lips tightened on the verge of a curl. “I didn’t say I would enjoy it.”
“Hmm.” I traced our initials over his left pectoral. “I bet I know something you would enjoy.”
As my hand drifted over his stomach, the hard ridges of muscles clenched beneath my fingers.
“Are you sure you feel up to this?” He searched my face. “I could run you a bath instead, let you soak.”
“Let me guess.” I let him see how much I wanted this, wanted him. “You’ll volunteer to scrub my back.”
“It’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it.”
“I showed extreme maturity in ignoring the opening about how up to this we both obviously are, though some of us are more up than others.” I cast a lingering glance down at where his hard length pressed against the front of his jeans, and a swarm of naughty butterflies launched an assault on my stomach. Which, when I thought about it, had th
e makings of a great B-movie title. “But a hard job? Come on. You’re giving me way too much material here.”
“You’re a pervert, but you’re a cute pervert.” His lips twitched. “Even if you’re not a funny pervert.”
The growl that rose in my throat caught his attention, and he wet his lips, his eyes sparking crimson.
Then his hands got to work unbuttoning his jeans and sliding them—and the galaxy underwear I bought him as a joke—down to his ankles. He stepped out of his clothes and kicked them aside before cocking his eyebrow in a dare that I join him.
“I’m shy,” I lied through my teeth. “You’ll have to turn around while I strip.”
“Not a chance.” His interest stirred. “You’ll run the second I give you my back.”
“Why must you insist on insulting my honor?”
“Hadley.”
I kept my arms where they were. “What?”
“Keep it up, and I’m going to take you to our cabin and clear the woods.” He stepped closer. “I’m going to steal all your clothes, and then I’m going to chase you through the forest until I catch you.”
Heat flushed my chest and worked up into my neck. “What happens then?”
“Use your imagination.” He raked his teeth across his bottom lip. “And maybe pack some bug spray.”
“Attack of the Gwyllgi Prince Part Three, huh?” I frowned at his discarded pants. “That’s weird.”
“Hmm?”
“I didn’t hear a thunk when your roll of quarters hit the floor.”
A growl revved up his throat, and I couldn’t stop from pivoting on my heel and bolting across the living room. It was too much fun teasing Midas. And maybe I did enjoy a good chase to get the blood pumping.
The new furniture gave me a slight advantage. It cost him precious seconds to maneuver as I zigzagged around the couch, the coffee table, and the bar in the kitchen. I was about to finish a lap when he spun on his heel, reversed direction, and anticipated my next move. He leapt at me, grabbed me around the middle, and flung me onto the couch. I didn’t get a chance to bounce before he jumped onto the cushions and settled his weight over me.
“I let you catch me,” I said primly. “You were so worried about me, I tossed you a pity win.”
Moment of Truth Page 25