“Checking our defenses?” I reconsidered the tone of the meeting. “They had no idea how we worked. They weren’t sure wargs could speak English, let alone walk upright and hold intelligent conversation.” I grimaced. “Now they do. We’ve lost the advantage of surprise.”
“They underestimated you once. Don’t worry. They will again.” He almost managed to sound amused. “It’s the fae way to view all other species—and castes—as inferior.”
“Isn’t it strange for you to be fighting against your own kind?” I leaned my head against the seat. “Don’t you care about Faerie at all?”
“Earthborn fae are to Faerie-born fae as Americans are to the British.” He let me absorb that. “We left our homeland to pursue a life with more freedom and possibilities than Faerie had to offer. I care about Faerie in the same way a fourth-generation immigrant kid might want to see where his great-great-great-greats came from, but it’s not home. I wouldn’t bleed for it.”
“Who in your family crossed over?” I wondered out loud.
“My great-many-times-over Aunt Zelda.” A smile teased his lips. “From all accounts, the king of Faerie at the time paid Zelda her weight in gold and gems if she would explore Earth and leave his court in peace.” At my questioning look, he added, “Gemini are restless, and they stir up unrest when they’re bored.” A touch of pride entered his voice. “She was the first Gemini recognized by the Earthen Conclave. Her children were the first earthborn of our kind.”
“That’s an impressive legacy.” I didn’t have much of a family tree to trace, but I might as well draw circles over Villanow, Georgia. That’s as far as my kin spread. “What do you think Gemini will do when they get tired of Earth?” I laughed under my breath. “Go back to Faerie?”
“Anything is possible.” He must have read my panic. “Not for a few more generations, but eventually one of us will go and others will follow. Unless a brighter and shinier alternative presents itself. Your people and mine are proof there are at least two different worlds that overlap. Who’s to say there aren’t more?”
“You don’t have to sound so excited about the possibility,” I grumped.
“I can’t not get excited by the prospect. It’s in my blood.” He cut his eyes toward me. “I told you, it won’t be me. I’m not going anywhere.”
Heart pounding, I dragged my gaze back to the safety of the blurring scenery outside my window and tried hard not to make his words mean something they didn’t.
Chapter 21
Isaac parked on the shoulder of the road and scanned the pasture through my window. Brow puckered, he swept his gaze back and forth until I took mercy on him and pointed out a patch of black that could have been shadow but that I recognized as Aisha’s shoulder.
Mentally I awarded the pack two gold stars for bringing their A game. Had I not felt the bond tickling the back of my mind or smelled the fur heavy in the air, I doubt I would have realized the field suffered a warg infestation.
“They’re good.” He squinted. “Really good.”
“I can’t take the credit.” I picked out two more hints of not-quite-right color among the grasses. “This is all Bessemer’s training. Say what you will about our former alpha—and trust me, I have plenty of expletives saved up—but the guy has a great strategic mind.”
The knuckles of Isaac’s right hand turned white from his grip on the steering wheel. “I have a few choice words for him myself.”
Shame washed through me as I remembered Isaac had been there the day Bessemer kicked me out of the Chandler pack. He had dragged me to safety, given me a place to stay and taken care of me while I got my head on straight. Little wonder I had fallen even harder for him after that. No-strings-attached kindness wasn’t a thing I had been used to, not from a man.
“Bessemer is in the past.” I patted his hand. “Let’s leave him there, okay?”
“As long as Meemaw lives in Villanow, he’ll never be out of your life.” Isaac’s jaw popped from grinding it. “We need to get her out of there and sever all ties with him.”
The venom in his tone forced me to really look at him. “We do, huh?”
Gaze plastered to the windshield, he ignored me ribbing him.
“I’m guessing you have a phone on you?”
“These days most people do.” He pulled his from a back pocket. “You should come to the digital dark side. There are cookies.”
“Don’t tease about cookies we both know you don’t have. That’s a good way to end up strapped into an apron when we get back to the RV park.” I made a gimme motion. “I need to borrow that, please.”
“Sure.” He passed it over. “Are you calling Cam?”
Struggling to figure out how to operate his fancy doodad, I paused to glare at him over the screen. “Are you implying she’s the only person whose number I have to call?”
“No.” He took the phone, punched in a sequence of numbers, then passed it back. “You have mine. You just never used it.”
Now was really not the time to dig into the hypothetical. The bottom line was this. Would calling him have changed anything between us? No. He still would have left, and I still would have gotten hurt. End of discussion. So having his number didn’t mean much except my brain had eerily selective memory. It recalled the things that hurt the most, usually at night right as I started to drift.
“She’s not answering.” I would have preferred having alpha clearance for what I was about to do, but we had no time to waste. “Guess this means we’re on our own.”
Isaac looked about as thrilled with that prognosis as I felt but set his fingers clicking across the keyboard. “I’ll shoot her a text to check in when she can.”
“Let’s go before the pack gets antsy.” I hopped out, shut my door then ducked the fence and waded into the grass. “Are you—” I glanced behind me and almost squeaked, “—coming?”
A gray cast darkened Isaac’s exposed skin as he recalled borrowed magic. Flecks of mica on his cheeks shimmered in the sunlight, and cracks bisected his arms where the bends in his elbows should have been. His eyes were flat gray, his hair the dusty green of dried moss.
One look at his stone armor and I hazarded a guess. “A monolith?” Cam had warned me a clan of stone giants lived nearby, but that didn’t explain Isaac’s transformation. “How did you—?” I gave his crotch a pointed glance. “Did you break anything acquiring that talent?”
“Ever hear of squeezing blood from a turnip?” He didn’t wait for me to reply. “Same principle.” Footsteps heavy, he clomped nearer to me and ducked his head to brush cool, rough lips against my ear. “I didn’t have sex with a boulder, if that’s what’s worrying you.” His breath smelled of fresh earth. “I haven’t had sex with anyone. Not since you.”
Shoving at his chest got me nowhere. The man was as immovable as a mountain thanks to his being, well, a tiny, man-shaped mountain.
“I’ll have to take your word on that.” I whirled on my heel and left him standing there with a scowl wrinkling his granite brow. “Right now we have work to do.”
The grinding of stones rose behind me, and I didn’t have to turn to know his jaw was taut.
“Okay, guys.” I waited until I held every wolf’s attention. “My plan has two parts.” I held up one finger. “First, we get Isaac to the prince.” I lifted number two. “Second, we try not to all die horribly.”
“Good plan.” Zed’s wolf sat on his haunches. “I particularly like the second act.”
“Yes, well, I aim to please.” I plucked at the remaining buttons on my borrowed shirt. “We don’t know if Tiberius can focus his magic on more than one of us at a time. He’s young, even if he is powerful. Keep him distracted. Misdirect him. You see someone hurting, you step in to take your portion of the pain.”
With nothing left to say, I removed Isaac’s shirt and sat on the ground so the wolf could overtake me.
A note of pure, resounding joy filled her heart to bursting when she caught sight of Isaac. His crumbly mak
eover didn’t matter to her. Not much did where he was concerned except he was here. That was the one thought that circled around her head every time their eyes met.
He’s here. He’s here. He’s here.
I couldn’t have stopped her from bounding over to him if I’d offered her a side of beef and promised she didn’t have to share.
His broad fingers sifted dust as the joints bent, and the touch of his rock-solid flesh shocked me with its gentleness as he scratched behind her ears.
“There’s my girl,” he rumbled with affection.
The hollow maw that opened in my middle drew the wolf’s attention. Her warmth suffused me as clear as any hug, and she left Isaac kneeling in the grass to give me the space I needed to gather my focus.
“This is it, kids.” I rose in the wolf’s mind. “Hold on to your butts.”
Not a single wolf cracked a grin. Maybe they were nervous. No Jurassic Park fans? Who doesn’t love a good rampaging dinosaur movie?
On soft paws, we picked our way through the pasture, down the incline and…we pulled up short.
“The house is gone.” My head drooped on my neck. “Glamour. The girl concealed them using glamour.” Gods only knew what else they might be hiding. Weapons. Monsters. Dirty-diaper grenades. “And the one guy who can see through glamour doesn’t speak wolf.”
The ground rumbled under my feet as the stone goliath came to a stop near my shoulder.
“Can you see the house?” His whisper was the grating of sandpaper against metal. He waited for me to shake my head. “There are two young fae standing out front. I see children through the windows.”
I bumped his elbow with my nose and regretted it an instant later when it smarted.
“There are no weapons or wards I can see,” he said, gauging my expression to see if that’s what I meant. “From here, it looks like the two of them mean to take us all on.”
I bobbed my head since I lacked the appendages to manage a thumbs-up.
“Those kids are survivors.” Zed jostled me with his shoulder. “It won’t be that easy.”
“Nothing ever is.”
With our witch burned out, we had no way of cracking the glamour. That meant the kids inside were off-limits, and so were the prince and his girlfriend unless they stepped out of the protection of the spell. I was willing to bet that same protection wouldn’t stop the boy from using his power. Unless maybe…
“We need to draw them out.” The pack listened with rapt attention while my wolf coiled with eagerness. “We can’t touch them inside the wards. We need to egg them on until they come out and fight us.”
Breathing past the fear, I sank deeper into the wolf’s mind and let her take control. Her nostrils widened, and a canine grin spread her lips. We had left a trail yesterday, and it was an easy thing to follow. The heavy thud of Isaac’s next footfall landed on my heels. I whirled around and snapped at him. He rocked back. I started forward, he followed, and I bit the air near his ankles.
“I guess I’ll wait here then,” he rumbled.
The guy deserved a cookie. Too bad I didn’t have any. And honestly, after that earlier crack about the dark side, I would have eaten them already if I had. I’d been burning through calories at an alarming rate this week. My pants were looser, meaning I was expending more energy than I was replacing. I had to fix that, but not today.
First we returned the prince to sender. Then I could eat my weight in hamburgers and chili cheese fries.
Leaving Isaac behind set off a twinge in my chest. He was a big boy, though, and could take care of himself. Right now his stone exterior made his skin impenetrable, which was a far cry from vulnerable warg hide. We might have super healing on our side, but you had to be alive before that was effective.
The perimeter of the glamour sliced my scent off between one breath and the next, and the push of its compulsion was a physical shove against my senses.
Turn back. Go home. Save yourselves before it’s too late.
The pack fanned out around me, sniffing their way along the invisible border. After trotting a few careful circles, we had a trail marked that we could follow without the risk of ramming into the barrier. Now it was time to get busy.
“Draw them out.” I whirled in a tight circle. “Watch your backs.”
The bruised sky overhead boiled, a cauldron ready to bubble over onto us at any moment.
Minutes ticked past as the wolves rounded the house, howling, snarling and snapping. The fae hidden inside remained that way. None of them rose to take the bait. The sun sank lower, and the sick realization dawned that this had to be wrapped up before nightfall. Running errands for the Seelie today wouldn’t earn us sympathy from the Unseelie tonight.
Abandoning the front line, I dashed into the grass and lured our secret weapon onto the playing field.
An audible gasp rose over my head—way, way over my head—when Isaac tromped along beside me, sparkles flecking his skin.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I lifted my head and sniffed the air. “They’re evacuating the kids.”
“How do you figure?” Zed trotted up next to me. “They can’t get past us.”
“What do you think a siren is?” I flicked my ears forward.
The scrawny wolf cocked his head toward me. “A badass mermaid who sings men to their deaths?”
“Yeah. That’s what I thought too.” I gazed skyward. “Except they’re not. They’re half man or half woman and half bird. Same goes for our princely alkonost.”
“Shit on a shingle.” His head tilted back, and his nostrils flared. “The girl is casting glamour over the boy while he flies the kids out of harm’s way so we can’t track them.”
“That’s my guess.” I huffed out a breath. “Isaac doesn’t speak wolf. I’m going to have to shift and talk to him.”
“You’re burning yourself out,” he warned. “You may not be able to shift back.”
“Don’t worry. I have an idea.” More dangerous words I had never spoken.
Curling in on myself, I let the change sweep me away on the tides of pain as magic shoved me back into my human skin. I gritted my teeth and fought off the agony tingling in my limbs to sit up faster than I should have. My head sloshed, and I would have fallen over if not for the mountain at my back.
It said a lot about how all-consuming the change was that I hadn’t heard his approach. Having your skin inverted while every bone in your body breaks will do that.
I was still panting when his rough fingers spread his flannel shirt across my shoulders. “Th—” I clamped my mouth shut before I thanked him yet again. Seriously. Did fae have to adhere to such bass-ackward rules of engagement? “I appreciate it.”
“No problem.” His moss-and-earth fragrance surrounded me. Nice, but not as soothing as the smell of smelting metal. “I’m guessing you figured out what he’s doing.”
“You knew?” I glared up at him. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“He was careful.” Isaac pointed at the tree line beyond the house. “He flew low and straight into the woods. From this angle, I couldn’t see him at first. I had just spotted him when you started screaming.” The grating sound of his hand forming fists drew my attention. “You’re wearing thin, Dell.”
“I’m—”
“Don’t tell me you’re fine,” he snarled as viciously as any warg. “The change hurts. I get that. I wish to God I could fix it for you, but I can’t, and you wouldn’t want me to anyway. But this? You’re burning your candle at both ends, and you’re almost out of wick.”
“Tell me when the boy circles back.” I eased my tender arms through the sleeves of Isaac’s shirt and buttoned it over my chest. Couldn’t have the wild, naked woman scaring the kids, could we? “We can’t keep chasing our tails.”
A few minutes later, Isaac grunted. “He’s landing on the roof.”
“Good.” I stood. “Time to go stir the pot.”
“Dell…”
“We need him to expose himself o
r this is never going to work.” I jogged toward the track the wolves had flattened with their pacing. “Hey, you. Prince Tiberius. I know you’re there, and I know what you’re doing. You might as well come down here so we can talk like civilized people.”
Isaac trudged to my side, softly documenting the prince’s movements under his breath so I could keep track of what I couldn’t see.
“You’re hardly civilized,” a richly accented voice called from a great height. “You’re a beast in woman’s clothing.”
“Now, now.” I clucked my tongue. “Let’s not resort to name-calling, particularly since I am half wolf and don’t really care what half a Thanksgiving turkey thinks of that.”
“Why did you have to do this? Why can’t you leave us alone?” He sounded more tired than angry. “Forget you found us. We’ll go. All of us will be gone before nightfall.”
“I’m afraid I can’t let that happen.” I worried one of the buttons on my shirt. “You barbequed half the town and kidnapped innocents. I can’t let that pass.”
“It was necessary.”
“Necessary, huh?” A great many evils had been committed with nothing but that whisper-thin reasoning shoring up the horrifying acts that followed. “Want to explain how you managed to target those locations with precise lightning strikes?”
“No,” he clipped out without hesitation.
So much for the easy way. The prince had opted for the hard way. “Your aunt, Rilla, visited us earlier today.”
The prince waited so long to speak I had Isaac confirm he hadn’t flown the coop before continuing.
“She wants you to come home. She’s threatening to harm me and mine if I don’t turn you in. Once we’re out of the way, she plans to come for you herself.”
“Rilla is not my aunt.”
The urge to roll my eyes was strong. “Sure, kid.”
Wishing away relatives didn’t work. If it did, I’m pretty sure people would be vanishing left and right like one of those Left Behind movies.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Isaac murmured. “Can you distract him?”
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