“I would wager on Meren,” Fen said. Vek nodded, but beside him, Dria’s brow was furrowed in thought. “It seems like too much of a coincidence that this stranger approached my mate not long after someone tried to drown me. After my mother’s warning, it makes the most sense.”
Dria stood, and the command that settled across her features warned Fen that he wouldn’t like what she had to say. “Anna’s idea of being bait has merit. If we observe the meeting, we’ll be able to confirm if it’s Meren.”
Nope. He didn’t like it at all. Especially because she was right.
She hadn’t anticipated such quick agreement—if any.
Anna swallowed hard as a heavy silence descended in the wake of the mage’s words. Fen’s expression was both frustrated and thoughtful, much like his uncle’s, but Maddy… Maddy leapt from Fen’s lap so abruptly that he barely had time to move his arm, her furious gaze on Dria.
“If you think—”
Anna reached out and grabbed her mate’s wrist, cutting off whatever she’d been about to say. “Stop, Maddy. Please don’t argue.”
Maddy stared at her. “You don’t even know how to use your magic. You’d be helpless.”
“Will any of us be safer just sitting around waiting for Meren’s next move?”
A haunted look crossed Maddy’s face, twisting Anna’s heart. “I don’t want to lose you. I might be a healer, but—”
“If we plan things well, I won’t need healing. That’s why this makes sense. We’ll be able to control more of the variables.” Anna nibbled at her lower lip. “Though I admit I didn’t expect you to be the only one to argue.”
As Maddy turned her frown on Fen, who hadn’t jumped in with the protest Anna had assumed he would give, Anna glanced at Dria and then Vek. They were the most experienced out of their group, and Vek seemed familiar with the dynamics of the Seelie and Unseelie courts. Were they both in agreement about this plan?
“There is much risk in this,” Vek said. “Neither Meren nor any other ancient Sidhe lord would fail to search the area before approaching Anna. I am fairly confident I can hide myself from detection, but can the rest of you say the same?”
Under other circumstances, Anna would have laughed at the look Dria gave him. “Really, Vek?”
“Not you, ahmeeren,” Vek hastened to say. “I was attempting to be polite.”
Dria’s lips twitched. “Sure. Everyone knows that’s a strength of yours.”
“I hate to pass up an obvious joke.” Fen straightened in his seat. “But it’s a good point. Meren doesn’t seem to have trouble finding me despite my shielding, and none of us know if he would recognize Maddy. If nothing else, it would be prudent to get Vek to take a look at our shields before we leave.”
“I could screen us all,” Dria said.
Part of Anna wanted to accept that offer, but it didn’t feel right. The outpost had already been attacked by Meren once. What did they know about his plans? His target might not even be her or Fen. They couldn’t afford to dismiss any possibility.
“Shouldn’t you concentrate on keeping the outpost safe?” Anna asked. “None of us know for sure if Meren and Rianehd are the same person or if this is a trap of some kind. These guys could be working together to draw everyone away from the outpost.”
“Slelen,” Vek snarled. Anna didn’t know the word, but his tone made it clear it wasn’t a nice one. “That is true. Meren knows I would be able to detect him if his shielding drops, so it would be all too convenient if I were drawn away.”
“There’s also the Seelie emissary. You can’t just disappear while he’s here,” Fen added, drawing a confused look from Maddy. “And if this is Meren, I highly doubt Vek will be able to resist killing him. We can bring him back alive.”
Maddy shook her head. “One of my people is here?”
Dria’s scowl might have been amusing if Anna hadn’t been low-key terrified. “Queen Regent Lera discovered the outpost somehow and asked to send an emissary to help search for Meren. I don’t know why, but she badly wants him returned to her court alive. You’re right that Vek wouldn’t be a good help with that goal.”
“Letting my nephew and his young mates confront a Seelie Sidhe lord who claims he’s a king is intolerable,” Vek said, his expression as stony as the cave wall. “Despite the risk to the outpost, I’m not certain I can do it.”
Fen rose, taking his place beside Maddy. “You won’t be letting us do anything. I might not have learned all the Unseelie ways, but I have mastered my earth power. I haven’t been a helpless child in a long time. Didn’t you just promise to stop treating me like one? You know as well as I do that our reasoning is sound. Assure our shields are strong and help us come up with a plan while you guard the outpost.”
Anna stood beside Maddy. “What do you think, love?”
Maddy looked startled at the unexpected mental communication, but it didn’t take her long to answer. “I hate this plan. Which means it’s probably what we should do.”
Though Vek’s continued anger had Anna smoothing imaginary wrinkles from her pants and trying not to shift nervously on her feet, she was determined to stand with her mates. Even Maddy was grudgingly on board. She would probably argue about every detail, but she would be with them all the way. Always.
Dria smiled at the show of unity, but it took Vek a few more moments to soften. Finally, though, he flicked his hands outward in a sharp gesture. “If you’re determined to do this, then we might as well make sure you have the most solid plan possible. And not because I don’t trust you. Strategy often benefits from multiple minds, so long as all are trustworthy and acting in accord.”
Laughing, Fen returned to his seat. “You think we can pull off that last one?”
Vek smirked. “I suppose we’ll have to do our best.”
Not exactly reassuring. Anna had a feeling it was going to be a long night.
Chapter 27
Perfect warmth enveloped Fen, and he nuzzled his cheek into the soft fall of Maddy’s hair with a contented sigh. It had to be midmorning at least, but he didn’t give a damn. Neither of his mates had to work today, so until they had to prepare for the coming confrontation, he was going to soak up every moment of joy he could. Especially since it had been the middle of the night before they returned from the outpost.
And spent who-knew-how-long making love after that.
Anna wiggled against his back, and Maddy shifted until she was lying more flat than on her side. Smiling, Fen stroked his hand down her torso, hoping to wake her in one of his favorite ways. But when his palm slid over her lower stomach, he froze. Vek’s warning. After the blood gate spell and all the planning, he’d forgotten.
Fen shot upright in the bed, not considering the confused tangle of women he would leave behind. He barely heard Anna’s surprised yelp beneath the sound of his heartbeat preparing to rupture his eardrums. Stupid, stupid, stupid to have forgotten, especially since they’d never discussed whether they wanted children.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
Maddy chuckled. “That’s not the tone of voice I’d expect for that kind of request.”
“No, I didn’t mean…”
Fen sighed. He might as well get it over with. If they were pissed, it would be best to find out now. They couldn’t decide to unmate, so uncertainty and stress would make them all miserable.
He didn’t have to look to know that it was Anna who rubbed a soothing hand between his shoulder blades, though her question confirmed it. “Did you have a bad dream?”
“No.” He gathered his nerve and scooted around in the bed until he could look squarely at them both. Or maybe triangle-ly. Hell, he had to be losing his mind. “I remembered something Vek mentioned.”
Shoving her long hair out of her face, Maddy sat up. “Spill it.”
“It’s…umm…” Dammit, he could already feel the flush creeping up his neck. “Birth control. Vek said the Felshreh tend to be fertile if we don’t take precautions. I meant to bring it up, but
by the time we got back…”
Maddy chuckled. “Calm down, Fen. I’ve had an IUD for years. I thought about having it removed when Anna and I became exclusive, but I haven’t gotten around to it.”
“And I’m on hormonal birth control for my cycles,” Anna said, her smile soft. “We should be good.”
Relief knocked the tension from his muscles in a rush. “Thank any gods listening.”
Anna’s eyebrows twisted together. “Are you against having children? I guess that’s something we should have talked about.”
“Not in general.” Fen rubbed at his temples. “But I’d like to get my life in order a little better first. Not to mention all three of us learning to be a solid unit.”
“We’re kind of in the same place,” Maddy said. “We’d thought that in five or ten years, we would find a donor and have Anna carry our first child since her lifespan and mine… Well, now we have no idea how long she might live, so I guess we can all reevaluate that when the time is right.”
The gleam in Anna’s eyes warned him, but his cheeks still burned hotter at her words. “At least we don’t have to hunt for a sperm donor anymore.”
Both women burst out laughing, and he didn’t blame them. No doubt his expression was priceless. Fen could throw out innuendo all day when it wasn’t related to him—or near to his heart. But this kind of openness had his instincts screaming danger, even when it didn’t make sense. The three of them, they belonged to each other now. How long would it take his instincts to adapt?
“Ah, sorry, Fen,” Anna said. “We didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
Maddy tugged at his hand, and he let himself be drawn forward until he was settled between them. “I know.”
Anna and Maddy snuggled up against him, their hands twining across his stomach. Fen took a deep breath and released it, along with the awkward insecurity that had filled him. They were going to be fine. Once they solved their current dilemma with Meren and/or Rianehd, Maddy, Anna, and he would settle into their new life.
Maybe in a few decades, he would believe he deserved it.
They only had one stop to make before heading to the park, and Maddy was dreading it. Although she wanted to delay telling her parents about her new bond, she needed to talk to her father about this Rianehd guy before Anna went to meet him. Not only that, really. She had to ask her mother if she had more information about Anna’s heritage—or any other fae.
As they walked up the sidewalk to her parents’ front door, Maddy frowned up at the sky. Dark clouds were piling up to the northwest, a sure sign that it would rain within a couple of hours. Would all their planning be for nothing? If a thunderstorm chased off Lord Rianehd after all of this, she might sit down and cry.
Okay, probably not. But still.
Maddy didn’t bother to knock, though she had to pause to let Fen and Anna through her father’s shielding. It wouldn’t exactly hurt them since they didn’t have ill-intent, but it was designed to make any uninvited fae feel really damned uncomfortable, like the magical equivalent of an appliance buzzing and whining constantly. Her father didn’t have many true friends among his own kind anymore, and he didn’t want any acquaintances to hang around bothering her mother.
“Back here,” her dad called as soon as they’d stepped into the entryway and closed the door behind them.
Following his voice and energy signature, Maddy led her mates through the rarely used formal dining room and into the den beyond. Instantly, her shoulders relaxed and her nerves eased as the light cinnamon scent of her mom’s favorite candles wrapped around her. In the back corner, her dad sat at the large U-shaped workstation that had been there as long as she could remember. He’d once considered building an outside workshop, but he’d ultimately decided that he didn’t want to be separate from his family when inspiration struck.
Maddy smiled to see him bent over his desk-mounted magnifying glass, engraving a gold ring with magic and one of the peresten tools he’d commissioned from Moranaia countless years before she was born. In fact, all of his tools were made with the same metal since he couldn’t work with steel. No wonder Moranaian was one of the languages he’d thought to spell-gift her as a teenager.
But Maddy’s smile dropped when she scanned the rest of the room. The couch and recliners were empty, and the comfy reading chair in front of the tall back windows was also unoccupied. “Where’s Mom?”
“Finishing up some bookkeeping in the office,” her father answered absently. “Thought you’d be a few more minutes.”
That made enough sense that a little of Maddy’s dread eased. Her mom was an accountant—it was how she’d met Shayan, in fact—and had handled the jewelry shop’s books for basically forever. Most fae assumed that Shayan had left the Seelie court to be with Angela, but the truth was funnier. He’d decided to leave court life behind on his own but had almost gotten in trouble for tax evasion after cluelessly opening a jewelry store without understanding the laws. Her mom had saved his ass with a well-timed lesson on human finances, and then they had fallen in love.
Maddy and Anna sat on the couch, but Fen wandered over to her father’s workbench, stopping a few feet away. She should have considered that Fen would be interested, since he harvested gemstones from the earth when possible. Maybe he would take up jewelry making with her dad, who’d been a little bummed when Maddy showed no interest. But she hadn’t inherited any metal or gemstone shaping abilities from him, and she’d never wanted to try the wide variety of human methods.
Her dad chuckled. “It would bother me less if you directly observed, Fen. No need to hover over there in the corner of my vision.”
Fen didn’t need a second invitation. Happiness filled Maddy at the sight of her mate standing beside her father, both of them intent on the tiny piece of metal Shayan worked on with a low hum of magic. Contentment practically infused the room, so fully that Anna rested her head against Maddy’s shoulder and closed her eyes.
Maddy would die if she lost any of this—any of them. At that thought, she had to force herself not to stiffen and alert Anna. She breathed in deeply and held her emotions close. So close to her core that maybe her mates wouldn’t be able to sense her sudden dread. What if their confrontation went terribly wrong? She’d struggled to use her healing gift even under Lial’s guidance. She could kill one of her own mates out of ignorance if they were injured.
Before her brain could run too far down that awful path, her mother walked through the door beside her father’s worktable. Angela froze at the sight of Fen standing by her husband, but when she saw Anna leaning against Maddy, her mouth dropped open. Maddy’s stomach plummeted. Her father hadn’t warned her mom that they were coming.
“Shayan,” Angela snapped.
He didn’t even look away from his work. “Forgive me, beloved. Did I forget to mention we were having guests? Fascinating what can slip one’s mind.”
Ohhh boy. This must be one of their rare true arguments. Her father was fairly easy-going, so everyday quarrels passed quickly between her parents. But when they had large disagreements, Maddy got a glimpse of what her father must have been like in the Seelie court—reserved, chill, and scrupulously polite. Chances were good he was still upset that her mother hadn’t told him about her knowledge of the Gwragedd Annwn.
Her mom averted her gaze. “You aren’t usually cruel when you’re angry.”
Great. She found a visit from them hurtful. Maddy eased Anna off her shoulder and stood. “We should go.”
“No.” Her father glanced up. “Please don’t. Your mother meant no slight. I did know she was worried about speaking to you, and I failed to give her warning on purpose. But no cruelty was intended.”
“I’ve been nervous about this for months,” Angela bit out. “Maybe years.”
Shayan made one last change to the ring he held and then set it down beside two others on a lined tray. Maddy frowned at him. Why was he working in the middle of an argument? It really wasn’t like him. But he took care
to put his tools in their box, fold the mounted magnifying glass back into its neutral position, and flick off the bright lamp that illuminated his work before he stood and faced her mother. Poor Fen was stuck awkwardly beside him, probably unwilling to cut between him and Angela to escape.
“You might have been less so had you told me of your family’s encounter with the Gwragedd Annwn,” her father said. “They are an honorable people but not perfect, as some of the myths well attest.”
Anna jerked to her feet. “Do you know them?” she blurted. Then she slapped her palm across her mouth at the interruption. “Sorry.”
Maddy couldn’t help but smile at the muffled apology coming from behind her mate’s hand. “Don’t be sorry. This discussion should have happened ages ago.”
Even her mother nodded at that. “It should have. I swore I wouldn’t talk about it, but it’s a silly secret to keep from you. I haven’t spoken to my cousin for twenty years, and he didn’t believe the stories even though the Gwragedd Annwn woman was his own mother. She obviously didn’t care about him since she left.”
“That’s not necessarily true, beloved.” Shayan crossed the space separating him from Angela and took her hands in his. “The Gwragedd Annwn rarely enter relationships with humans, but when they do, they are required by their king to demand certain conditions. If those terms are broken, they must leave, whether they want to or not.”
Her mom’s lips pursed. “Yeah, yeah. I’ve read the myths. The guy strikes her three times, even accidentally, and she returns to her lake home. My uncle swore he never hit his wife.”
“We can’t know the agreements made between them. I doubt he told the rest of the family everything, even if he was wholly innocent.” Shayan smiled over at Maddy and Anna. “And yes, I have met a few of the Gwragedd Annwn, though none are close friends. There used to be a small colony in Nickajack Lake. They moved in after the dam was built, but I’m not sure they stayed.”
Anna rocked up and down on her feet like she was preparing to race off. “Would it be safe for me to check it out?”
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