Reaching Answers

by Erin R Flynn

  “I survived just fine before all of you,” I reminded him.

  “You shouldn’t have had to,” he seethed.

  Well, he wasn’t even a light fairy so… Men.

  “Let no enemy leave here with the knowledge of us,” Iolas shouted when a group of Underground tried to flee. He glanced at me when a dozen fairies broke off to handle that. “You do have a plan to handle your allies finding out, right?”

  “Was I supposed to?” I teased him, both captains giving me looks like they might strangle me. “We have those memory wiping runes or whatever. We’ll figure it out.” I gestured to a few of the fae dogs racing by with kids riding on their backs, clearly having rescued them from danger. “Should we have waited to discuss a plan?”

  “No, you jumped in as we always do,” Iolas agreed.

  I appreciated the we there. It was nice when I got them given I was so different in more ways than I was like anyone.

  We were maybe ten minutes into the fight and greatly turning the tide when I caught something important. “Wait!” I shouted over to a darky fairy who was about to kill a jaguar shifter, which I didn’t know was even a thing.

  And his thoughts told a very interesting story that people needed to know.

  “Keep him alive for questioning,” I instructed the fairy. “Knock him out and stick him in a corner or something, but we need the information he has.” I glanced over at Taeral. “There’s more to this than just the Underground attacking a powerful and respected wolf pack.”

  He nodded, ordering the capture of a few more of the jaguar shifters for interrogation, and I smiled as there was a pile of them minutes later. It was so, so nice to have super-sized kick ass help like that.

  When I saw we were clearly winning and more fairies came through the portal who didn’t look like fighters, I decided to change assignments. “Can all fairies heal? Can you help heal those who are injured?”

  “Yes, all fairies can, and we would be honored to help, Princess,” the light fairy at the front answered, dipping his head to me.

  Awesome.

  Three temp portals opened and people started pouring out. We were instantly ready to handle the next threat.

  “Stand down,” I bellowed when I recognized one of the guards from Councilman Brooks’s estate. “They’re allies.” I pointed to the guy. “Well, he is. I think the cavalry has arrived.” I winced. There was going to be a lot of explaining to do and memories to wipe. “Shit.”

  Councilman Chin came through with several other members of the wolf shifter council I had only met in passing, plus tons of their guards. He blinked at me and the chaos all around him. “You’re a fairy.”

  “Um, well, there’s a funny story with that,” I hedged.

  “She saved my pack and her people, my life,” Geoff said from my left.

  I gasped when I saw the state he was in, practically being carried by two fairies. “Why didn’t you heal him?”

  “He demanded we not until his people saw how close to death he is, Pri—” he answered, snapping his mouth shut when he almost let it slip who I was.

  Geoff’s gaze never left mine. “You’re going to take the memory that you are fairies and bringing fairies back. Do it. You saved my pack at the risk of your people. You have my permission as Alpha to do it and our eternal thanks for the thousands you saved today.”

  “That many?” Councilman Duncan whispered, his eyes going bug wide as he looked past us. “My gods.”

  I glanced over my shoulder and saw the fae dogs coming towards us. “Stand down. They’re not here to fight us.”

  “You’re more than just any fairy to be commanding packs of fae dogs and in charge of all these warriors,” one of the other councilmen accused, setting off all the alarms on my side.

  “Don’t do anything stupid when we came to save the lives of wolves today,” I warned him and his people as the fairies around me started to move in closer towards me. “Being the one to send off flares we’re back or you know who I am is not worth the shit we will bring down on you.”

  He held up his hands in surrender. “You saved one of our largest and most honorable packs with kind people. I was merely making an observation, not a threat.”

  “His thoughts say the same,” I promised the others, everyone backing down a bit. I went right to Geoff and shook my head. “You got enough witnesses now, stupid? Like they wouldn’t have believed your word when you can all tell who is lying?”

  “Seeing makes all the difference,” he defended as he glanced around. He found someone he wanted. “Call everyone from the Alpha compound and—” A coughing jag interrupted him, his whole body slashed and bloody from whatever had happened to him.

  The moment I saw blood fly from his mouth, I ignored his wishes and moved my hand to his arm, pushing a slow stream of strong healing magic into him. I felt the moment he was out of danger and started to pull my magic back, knowing I had a lot left to still do and how resilient shifters were to heal themselves.

  Geoff pulled me into a hug and kissed my hair. “Thanks, Tamsin. I was toast without your help, and I just found out I’m to be a father.”

  I blinked up at him. “Now I’m really glad I demanded your mate go handle the people we sent to the Alpha compound. I would never have forgiven myself if she had lost your child in this attack.”

  He gave me a watery smile. “Yes, because it would have been your fault if it had happened.”

  I wasn’t sure what I would have said, but we were interrupted by a fairy pulling me away from Geoff.

  “Please remove your hands from our princess,” he said firmly.

  Everyone stared at the fairy with wide eyes and for a range of reasons.

  Mine was for outing me.

  That was the reason of a lot of the wolves and others there, but there was also more too it.

  The fairies all stared at him like he’d grown another head because he was a Dark Guardian.

  “You are not a dark fairy,” Councilman Brooks hedged, glancing between us. “Though I have a feeling I’d already learned of your birth and you took the memory of it because I’m not as shocked as I should be.”

  “That’s a funny story,” I mumbled, wondering if that was going to be my tagline of the night.

  The fairy ignored the councilman and focused on all the surrounding fairies staring at him, squaring his shoulders and staring right back. “She made it clear we are all fairies and her people. I agree, and that is a future I will fight for. She is my princess and I care not that she is light or dark. She is the heir of all Faerie and not because she’s the last. She saves all of us and is our leader.”

  I patted his chest, interjecting before any issue broke out. “Thanks, mate, really. I appreciate the backup tonight and I’m cool with you too. Let’s handle the piles of issues in front of us and the rest we can figure out tomorrow.” I smirked at him. “And maybe you guys can all get over this crap about how men can’t so much as look at me, like I’m a damn nun. He’s mated, and his mate and I are cool.”

  “Yes, Your Highness,” he sighed, scrubbing his hand over his head as if that was a big pill to swallow.

  “Seriously, is that so weird?” I grumbled, glaring between Iolas and Taeral. I wasn’t comforted when they shared a look.

  But it was Councilman Chin who actually answered.

  “The queens of Faerie—and by extension, the heirs—are almost revered as saints to put it in a reference you would understand being raised as human,” he explained. “Not everyone is allowed to simply touch or shake hands with the pope, but kiss the ring. Touching a saint was completely unforgiveable unless they allowed it or to heal. That is the best comparison I can think of for you.”

  “He’s not wrong, but it is a bit more complicated,” Iolas muttered. “You are blessed by our gods to rule, Your Highness. You are divinely blessed, treasured, and not to be treated as people normally would.”

  I opened my mouth to snark something, but even I knew when to shut my mouth and not shit
on people’s beliefs. Well, I tried to. Sometimes it was hard and I didn’t mean to be a jerk. Sometimes I was so deep in the middle of it all, I couldn’t see how it all came off or I was being a brat.

  I wasn’t perfect. Who fucking was?

  “We can discuss this later, but I appreciate everyone understanding I wasn’t raised that way,” I replied, glad when everyone seemed to accept that. Good. That seemed like a fair answer. I glanced between Geoff and Brooks. “Do we know what happened here?”

  “It was a trap,” Geoff answered as Brooks shook his head. “One of our security teams was hired to transport and protect a load of items for two days while work was being done at an estate to update their security. The right everything was being installed so all the items could be stored there and protected.”

  “How does that lead you to knowing it was a trap?” Iolas asked, the same question on everyone’s lips.

  “Because two hours on the dot after we brought it in, our magical barriers all went down,” Geoff said with a growl in his tone. “At the same time, we found out the payment was faked and a worm was put into our systems so the paper trail and all proof we had taken the job or worked with them would disappear. We were about to sound the alarm something was going on when everything went to fuck.”

  I trusted him and his judgment, so that left only one question. “Who?”

  “Councilman Shurr.”

  “Why would a vampire councilman work with Underground and set you up to be taken out?” I muttered before gesturing to the unconscious jaguar shifters. “And what do they have to do with this, and how did I not even know there were jaguar shifters. I’ve been in this world a year and a fucking half now, and I’m still finding out there are more shifters I didn’t know about?”

  “Princess, there are going to be more you learn about,” Taeral warned me gently. “From what I understand, the caste system has not gotten better, but worse with supes. That means you were probably only introduced to those who were elites, not the ‘working class’ shifters like jaguars or others.”

  “You have been fairly secluded from what I know,” Brooks agreed, holding up his hands in surrender when I shot him an unfriendly look. “You’ve been rather busy. No one can deny that. I’m simply agreeing our world is rather vast. You have only experienced a small tip of the iceberg, Ms. Vale.”

  I gave a sharp nod. I knew I’d not had a chance to have the full supe experience. “What I heard from the jaguar’s thoughts was he isn’t Unground. He’s the Alpha of his shadow, like Geoff is his pack except, they aren’t part of the supe system, which I thought wasn’t an option. I’ve heard repeatedly that it’s conforming with the corruption of the dictator councils or the Underground.”

  “You’re smart enough to know when you’re being fed bullshit,” Geoff drawled. “You met Melody Rothchild when she lived away from our society and she wasn’t Underground.”

  I nodded again. That was fair. “But she was on the outskirts like others. This guy is Alpha of a whole group. There are others. They helped the Underground this one time because they were promised an area and to be left alone to do their own thing when the Underground takes over. His thoughts were very specific that he made the wrong choice, and this wasn’t the way to protect his people as he’d thought.

  “However, there are a lot more Underground than you all believe and talk about. It is not as fringe as you think and I got the feeling—and it’s only a feeling from this guy’s thoughts—that there are an astounding number of outsider supes like him. Like astounding. His thoughts were racing, but he was thinking he should have gone the way of some other alliance. I think you all have lost a lot more of your society than you think.”

  Brooks shared a look with several of his colleagues and nodded. “Yes, we believe so. While other councils keep their heads in the sand, we do not. Dragons do not ‘lose’ many as they don’t have options to shift safely, and their royals do a much better job by their people than our councils do. But technology has helped us understand we’ve lost more than we ever thought.

  “And for generations. There are remote packs that started as a few who left our fold generations ago and are now hundreds and have no idea our society and councils even exist. Some do and hide—and with good reason, as you’ve seen the corruption. You came in as an unknown, but protected by Geiger and your wealth. Could you imagine a remote family of vampires being brought into the fold?”

  They’d be chum in the water and everyone’s ignorant dog to kick. It would be horrendous and anything would look better than that. I would think any of those people would immediately turn to the Underground as a viable alternative, no matter what they did.

  This “society” I stumbled upon a year and a half ago kept getting worse and worse, more like levels of hell and a deep cesspool. I couldn’t even hide my upset that the shit we had to handle was worse than I’d thought.

  “I still don’t understand why a vampire councilman would take out a wolf pack and toss them to the Underground?” a fairy asked.

  I closed my eyes as tears burned, suppressing the urge to scream when I put it together. I wiped my hands over my face and met the Alpha’s gaze, seeing he had figured it out too. “I’m so sorry, Geoff.”

  “It’s our fight too, Tamsin. My pack knew the risks and stood with you.”

  “I don’t understand,” Iolas admitted.

  “They were going to blame me,” I rasped. “We hired Geoff’s wolves to help protect the havens and facilitate interviewing hobgoblins. The whole thing would have been spun to look as if he had focused on his wolves instead of my stuff and crusades to upset their society I’m not really a part of, the Underground wouldn’t have had a chance to wipe out a strong pack.

  “And it was a warning.” I glanced at Brooks. “How would it have hurt your standing and strength as a council if you’d lost one of your biggest packs that brings in the most income? Would you have lost face along with the hurting vampire and warlock elders? You work with me, we get along, and your standing gets hurt. No logic needed, that’s karma for you.”

  He opened his mouth but then closed it, shaking his head. “Normally, I would say that is insane, but no one seems to be acting rationally in our world anymore. Yes, losing this pack would have hurt us as a community but… I honestly can’t see how the ripples would have played out. I’m still reeling at the idea a councilman set this all up and orchestrated the slaughter of thousands to smear you.”

  “This is bigger than her, Councilman,” Geoff argued. “She’s simply the poster child for the movement, and they need to cut the head off of her to even have a chance to stop it. Women are standing up for themselves. People are calling councils out on their corruption. They’re demanding justice and fairness. Thousands have been killed to stop less.”

  “And she saved us with her quick actions and help,” Geoff’s mate said as she hurried towards him.

  “How many were lost though?” I seethed.

  “We know of a dozen at least,” she admitted as they hugged.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “How is it your fault?” she asked. She shook her head when I went to answer. “I heard your theory and you might be right, but you killed no one, Tamsin. The people who came here today did. The councilman who set this up did. None of this is on you. Please do not take the honor away from the wolves who fought to keep our pack safe tonight. They died protecting us. That’s theirs. Not yours to bear.”

  “I think it’s both,” I rasped, wiping my eyes and crossing my arms over my chest. “But thank you, and I’ll try.”

  “Good. And I thank you for grieving our people. You are a true friend to our pack. Your people always treat ours wonderfully. You never demand anything extra on the jobs and always appreciate us. Our pack joined this fight you started the moment you didn’t hesitate to save our injured wolves once before. We saw the woman you were then and that you just want to help everyone.”

  Geoff cleared his throat. “And she’s the next queen of Fae
rie.”

  “Oh, well, fuck,” she whispered.

  “I say the same fucking thing every time they remind me of it,” I grumbled. I shot Iolas and Taeral a nasty glance. “Come off the swearing thing. Just enough. It’s not going to happen. I’ll burp the alphabet again if you push me.”

  “Yes, and it’s lovely you know how to do that,” Iolas drawled.

  “Backwards even,” Taeral sighed, glancing at the sky as if praying for patience.

  I felt the same about them sometimes. Then I really cursed up a storm. “Neldor is going to chew me out. I forgot him. He’s going to think I intentionally—”

  “We informed Prince Neldor of the situation and he agreed with your assessment this could be a trap to get at the havens and hobgoblins,” Iolas informed me. “He led two detachments to support the people you sent in case there was any trouble. He understood there wasn’t time to go through every proper channel or phone chain.”

  Well, that was something for once.

  “Thanks. Okay, well, we have a lot to handle here and need to think up a cover story.” I glanced around at the fae dogs. “I vote we turn a lot of people to ash and say the attack wasn’t as big as it was, the idiots overestimating themselves. The rest we take into custody for questioning. Yeah, burn the ones with sword wounds and hide we were here.”

  “Smart,” Taeral agreed. “And adjusting the memories that you came with help, but the details vague. You worked with the wolf guards and elders who showed up sooner. Something along those lines. That leaves what to do about the vampire council and the Underground. Neither will sit idly by or take this lying down.”

  “I’m getting really fucking tired of the councils and this bullshit,” I seethed. But he was right. We needed a plan and to start hitting back for real now that we could.

  And we would. It was time to start attacking, instead of playing defense, and getting justice for all the wrongs they’d done. It was time to give them a taste of their own medicine and show them they weren’t top of the food chain anymore.