“Just like that?” I asked, not daring to believe escape was so simple.
“I can arrange for your escape, and I can redistribute your supplies, but I can’t help you find your way home.” He rubbed a thumb across his bottom lip. “That is for you three to figure out on your own.”
“Are you serious?” I strode over to him. “We can’t use the tether?”
“Who would be there to operate it for you? I am here.” His voice turned sly. “There is another means of exiting Faerie.”
“Yes, through a giant hole torn in the fabric between worlds. This might not be a big deal for you, considering you have wings and all, but wolves can’t fly. Contrary to popular belief, neither can witches. Gemini, well, okay, you’ve got me there. They can do anything their donor blood allows. But Enzo and I would pancake if we leapt through the rift.”
“I’m a Faerie king, not a fairy godmother.”
Equal parts grateful for his help and irritated we needed it, I conceded the point. “Fair enough.”
“We better hurry and return you before Rilla notices you’re gone. I can handle her, but things would go much easier if she never learned I had been handling you.”
“Rilla mentioned gifting me to the Huntsman,” I murmured. “Would he help?”
“I’m sure he would. He’s fond of Thierry and enjoys thwarting those who oppose his son and granddaughter, but he’s not here.”
“What do you mean?” A cold stone dropped into the pit of my stomach. “I know time passes differently in Faerie, but it can’t be All Hallows’ Eve. That would mean we’ve been here for months.”
“No. Time is fluid, but it’s not that liquid.” A smug grin creased his cheeks. “Did you really think one pack of wolves could hold back the tides of Faerie? It’s not that you aren’t skilled. You’ve proven yourselves quite capable. But there are many fae more powerful than your wolves, and I don’t have the resources to patrol the rift. Not with a war brewing and not when the chances of any humans using it to come here are nil.”
“He can’t be poaching from us.” It was a matter of fact. “We would have scented him or his hounds on our lands.”
“As the Grandfather of Hounds, I’m certain he’s well aware of that. I didn’t ask for the particulars, but I’m guessing he and his pack are securing the towns around yours to capture stragglers. I impressed upon him the need for discretion. My cover would be blown if Rilla or the others discovered I had dispatched aid, particularly in the form of the Huntsman. His absence, and that of his hounds, means no new king can be named.”
“Meaning if she attempts to kill you, you’ve got yet another contingency plan.” I puzzled out his logic. “No one can claim the throne without a Coronation Hunt, and no hunt can take place without the Huntsman or his hounds. By sending him to Earth, you not only helped us, but you helped yourself.”
The king’s smile was blinding, and I suspected I might be seeing what had caught Thierry’s eye about him.
“Rilla would have orchestrated a public assassination for me, burned me to ash and then salted the ground to prevent my rising, and then organized a hunt. Tiberius has years of training for his ascension. The Unseelie prince is younger and inexperienced. He’s a nasty piece of work. I admire his style, but he’s not ready. If Rilla gets her hunt now, she’ll get her Seelie king.”
“And I thought warg hierarchy was complicated.” I massaged a tense knot forming at the base of my neck. “This is why I’m happy being a beta.”
“What must that contentment be like,” he wondered aloud. “No. Don’t explain.” He smiled briefly. “I would rather cultivate my ignorance than mourn the loss of that which I am destined never to experience.”
Abiding by his wishes, I shifted our conversation to another matter. “What about your mother?” I tapped my wrist. “The bracelet Isaac placed on her is negating her magic.”
“I am aware.” His grin flashed, beautiful in its ferocity. “I plan to have it replaced with a bespelled model prior to her release. I might accept that I require her assistance, but I will not unleash her without a collar, I assure you.”
Once again, we linked arms, and he escorted me to the fortress. On the way, I rumpled my hair and skewed my clothing, pinched my lips to plump them and my cheeks to redden them. The effort proved worthwhile if Tanet’s disgust was any indication. Clearly, he didn’t believe in fornicating with the earthen set. As a woman, and the person most likely to be on the receiving end of his attention, I was relieved he valued himself so highly. Wanting no part of the king’s philandering, Tanet allowed Rook to deposit me into the dungeon.
Ignoring the snub, the king guided me down the final stretch of hall where Enzo and Isaac waited for me. Rook hadn’t shut the door to my cell, so I walked right in. He twisted his key in the lock then cast me a meaningful glance. “Be prepared.”
Nerves jangling, I sat on the cot. “We will be.”
Neither man spoke until the outer door clanged shut, but the instant the latch caught, they wheeled on me.
Isaac drank in the sight of me like he might not trust himself to speak.
Enzo was less circumspect. “Are you all right?”
“Ask me that tomorrow,” I told him. “If we live that long.”
With a nod, he retreated to give Isaac and me the illusion of privacy.
Shifting as close to the bars as possible, I promised Isaac softly, “I’m okay. He didn’t touch me.”
The impact of those words left him weak, and he sat on his cot, elbows on his knees. He dropped his face in his hands, and I saw them tremble. His fingers blocked his mouth, but I heard him. “It wouldn’t have mattered to me if you had to…”
A tight ball of regret mixed with hope and spiced with desperation clogged my throat. “I know.” The words rang true when I spoke them. “I appreciate you letting me go without a fuss.”
He scoffed and pulled himself together, lowering his arms and staring at me. “You’re a strong woman, Dell. I might ask you not to do the dangerous thing. I can’t help myself. I want to keep you safe. But I’m starting to understand that if I want to hold on to you, then I have to start letting go.”
Tears I blamed on proximity to the silver stung my eyes.
“You came into your own while I was away.” His voice dipped. “You’re not the same woman.”
My heart, so recently inflated, punctured. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I’m not saying this right.” He smoothed a hand over his mouth. “I couldn’t be what you needed.”
I had trouble swallowing. “You left because you thought I was weak?”
“No.” His sharp denial nursed away the sting. “Let me try this again.” He pushed out a long breath. “Mom and I lived unorthodox lives for Gemini. We did it for Cam’s sake, and it was hard. Then she mated Cord and left to establish Lorimar. And Aunt Diane and Uncle Derik joined the caravan to be close to Mom. Theo has always gone his own way, so he didn’t need me.” He made a helpless gesture. “For the first time in my life, I had a choice where I went and what I did. I was free.”
“I get it.” I was a one-night stand in a string of them for him. My wants or needs hadn’t factored into his plans.
“No, you don’t.” He stood and paced toward me. “I would have always wondered what life on the road was like if I hadn’t tried it for myself, and you deserve better than that. I never wanted you to feel like you were second best, or that I’d rather be somewhere else, and I couldn’t guarantee your happiness until I discovered the boundaries of mine.”
I couldn’t help it. I sniffled. Stupid silver allergies.
“We hadn’t known each other long,” he continued. “I was used to being tied down to a single location for a year or two at a time, but you didn’t feel like a year-or-two kind of girl. I wanted to make the conscious choice—my own choice—to put down roots.” His gaze dipped as though he were ashamed. “I thought I would change my mind when I couldn’t see you, touch you. I spent all my life dr
eaming of the day when Cam and Mom didn’t need me. When I could be true to myself for the first time. But all I wanted from the moment I left was to come back home, wherever that was, wherever you were.”
Quick beats jump-started my pulse. How often had I thought the same about him? Isaac equaled home. That was simple math in my book. Even when I’d wanted to tear out those pages and light them on fire.
“You just had this epiphany?” Enzo, who had no choice but to eavesdrop due to the confined space, sounded doubtful. “You’re not bright for a techno whiz kid. You know that, right?”
“I realized my mistake the day I got back,” he answered in a clipped tone. “It’s not like I didn’t try to call.”
“I lost that phone.” I had yet to keep one for more than a week without putting it down for a shift and returning to find bupkis. I was starting to believe the wolf hid them on purpose. “You could have called the office, left a message.”
“Leave a message pouring out my heart where Zed or—worse—Cam could hear? She’d call Mom and play it over the phone for her. Then keep a recording that would haunt me into the afterlife.” He laughed out loud. “No. Just no.”
As hilarious as that would have been for the pack, I can’t say I blamed him for wanting privacy.
“Someone as plugged in as yourself probably never stopped to consider snail mail as an option.” Enzo arched an eyebrow. “The ladies love romantic letters.”
Isaac blinked, proving Enzo right, that the stamp-and-envelope method of communication was so foreign a concept he hadn’t considered it a possibility, but he didn’t let that stop him from snapping, “I hurt her, and I couldn’t smooth it over with a few words on fancy stationery. I came back to prove my commitment. I wanted to give her time to see I wasn’t going anywhere.” A grimace twisted Isaac’s face at his proximity to iron, but he kept coming. “I let you walk out that door without knowing if you would walk back in again. The plan was always to show you I was in this, to prove myself to you, but I can’t risk—” His jaw clenched. “I want you to know I love you, Dell.”
The wolf threw back her head and howled, the musical notes a band that constricted my galloping heart.
“You were right to leave.” I wiped my cheeks dry with the backs of my hands. “I was in a bad place when we met.” Exiled from the pack, forbidden to visit Meemaw, I had been brought to an all-time low. “I would have clung to you, let you save me, and that would have ruined me, ruined us. Our time apart, my time with Lorimar, has taught me to stand on my own two feet, and I needed that.” I offered a watery smile. “We both had growing to do. I’m glad you were strong enough to make the hard choice.”
“You’re the strong one,” he said, pride thick in his voice. “Always have been.”
One jailhouse confessional might not heal all wounds, but it slapped a bandage over the worst of them. He was right. Any number of things might happen to us here, and there were no promises we would see home again. We had been played from the moment we arrived. Honestly, the game had been in progress prior to that. And as much as Isaac had hurt me, as terrified as I was he might leave, I would rather part with him knowing my feelings hadn’t changed.
“I’m guessing I don’t have to tell you how I feel.” I dug the toe of my shoe into the packed-dirt floor of the cell. “The wolf isn’t good at hiding her affection.”
“I’d like to hear it.” He ducked his head. “You aren’t your wolf.”
Before I could work up the courage to reciprocate, a clod of dirt leapt off the floor and hit me on the foot. I stumbled back, almost hitting the silver bars, as a sleek, black head emerged.
“Sharpy,” Leon said hesitantly. “I believe you’re in a bit of a bind. Might I be of assistance?”
The cavalry had arrived.
Chapter 10
I circled the púca, who wisely hadn’t left the safety of the tunnel mouth. “Why should we trust you?”
“He said you’d say that. And that I ought to give you this when you did.” Leon vanished then reappeared and spat out a moss-covered rock with googly eyes. “That mean something to you?”
Unwilling to enlighten him if Rook hadn’t, I rumbled a non-answer.
“Oh, the others will be positively livid,” the stone burbled. “No one has left the stream in ages. The mode of transportation leaves much to be desired. Those teeth! I believe scars make a person more interesting as much as the next person but—”
Mercifully, Leon muffled the chatterbox with his paw. “I can lead you out, but you’ll have to dig.” His liquid gaze flicked up to mine. “And I’ll need your word you won’t eat me, though I am sure to be quite delicious.”
“Then we’ll need your word you won’t screw us over. Again.” Isaac snapped his fingers. “Oh, that’s right. We can’t trust you. You’re a liar and a con.”
Leon flinched away from the harsh reprimand, his fluffy ears drooping.
“This is my promise to you.” I glared down at the wilted bunny. “Get us out, and I won’t eat you. Lead us into another trap, and you’re wolf chow.”
“Now, Dell,” Isaac drawled. “You don’t know what eating that rangy thing might do to you.”
“He is quite right.” Leon twitched his whiskers. “Eating me would be a poor choice, despite—”
“Yeah, yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “You’re yummy. Got it.” I snapped my teeth, and he jumped. “Don’t tempt me.”
Nodding vigorously, the púca worried the stone between his paws.
“We’ll have to make the hole substantially larger for us to crawl through.” Isaac and Enzo shared a lean build, but that didn’t make their shoulders any narrower. “Isaac, you want to help?”
He shoved his arm through the iron bars of his cell, gritting his teeth while his skin blistered. I did the same, growling at the burn while clasping his wrist.
The fingernail covering his right hand’s middle finger wiggled and fell onto the ground. A large, black spur emerged from his nailbed, and he pierced my palm with the tip. Blood welled, and he sampled me, gaining a warg aspect to summon. We broke apart the second he had enough, and I examined the damage to my forearm. A deep burn puckered my skin, and it hurt like the dickens. Silver burns healed at a pathetically human pace, and they scarred. This was going to suck. Isaac was conducting a similar inventory of his own burns, but shrugged it off to focus on his shift.
Although Cam possessed a wolf aspect thanks to her bond with Cord, she didn’t turn into an actual wolf. Hers was a partial shift, giving her a wolf’s head and heightened senses along with a light pelt over her mostly human body.
Geminis drew strength from their twin bond, and hers had drowned when they were children. Or so she had been told. Lori, who had remained comatose all those years after her accident, died shortly after their reunion. That left Cam capable of shifting small parts of her body to mimic a donor. But Isaac had his brother, Theo, as an anchor, and the two of them were masters.
I had watched many people change their shape, usually from person to wolf and back, but never one person change into many shapes. Isaac’s transformations amazed me, and this one was no different. Until that moment, I’d had no idea he could complete a full shift to warg similar to the monolith aspect he donned. He must have been practicing, which begged the question of who in the pack had been acting as donor. My money was on Abram. Our pack healer believed in soul mates and in meddling and in eBay. Isaac could have won him over with a gift card and his romantic intentions.
While I debated putting Abram on Wi-Fi probation for his meddling, Isaac flowed from two legs to four with a fluid grace I envied. No natural warg could shift with such quiet efficiency.
Pain was the cost of halving my soul with the wolf, and I paid dearly for the privilege. She was worth the agony, though. You couldn’t put a price on the freedom that came on four paws.
Two or three minutes after he started, Isaac the wolf shook out a thick, tawny pelt streaked with strawberry-blond tips reminiscent of my hair color.
/> I won’t lie. Possessive heat welled in me at the sight of him boasting the markings borrowed from me.
“Can you tunnel over to Enzo?” I sat on the floor of my cell. “We need to spring him first.”
Isaac barked and started digging. It would take him a while, so I turned my focus inward and called my wolf to me. Faerie’s magic was already giving me fits, and being trapped in a silver-lined room wasn’t doing me any favors either. I wasted a good half hour reaching deep and hauling her from my core and into my arms. The prickle of fur under my skin stabbed, needlelike, and I moaned as the change locked in and my bones started breaking. Panting as muscles tore, I heaved for air, and then there was none.
A soft whine pricked my ears, and I blinked open to find a reddish muzzle pressed against mine. I whimpered, sounding hoarse, and swallowed to wet my parched throat. I had been a warg long enough to understand what that meant. I had screamed. A lot. I hoped all the ruckus hadn’t summoned Tanet.
With great effort, I got all four of my legs propped under me. Enzo rushed in to steady me, but Isaac growled at the witch until he backed a safe distance away. I nipped Isaac on the ear, a gentle reprimand. I had never thought to ask if he took on the personality traits of his aspects as well as their abilities or if he retained his own. The steady rumble in his chest, despite a more dominant wolf in his face warning him off, convinced me he had a bit more wolf in his blood than I had expected.
Too bad we couldn’t tap into the pack bond to make communication easier. It was hard to tell a wolf to stop his macho posturing without lips.
“It will be light soon,” Leon interrupted. “It’s best we get started.”
I gave a yip of agreement and eased back from the wolf’s consciousness. She was more than happy to do as instinct demanded and dig with all her might to flush out the tasty prey that made panicked shrieking noises when she got too close. Isaac tucked in behind us, clearing out dirt as best he could. The two wolves alternated playing chase the púca until, some hours later, they breached the earth a hair outside the fortress. Or should that be a hare?
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