by Terry Spear
Though Simon didn’t want a fae seer killing their kind, he assumed Tomas and the others had intended to kill him and Letta somewhere far away from the restaurant so no one would be the wiser.
“She said that her brothers couldn’t fae transport to save themselves from the fae seers. She wasn’t making any sense,” Myla said.
“Letta, you stay here with Myla. I’ll speak with Gia and take a couple of my brothers to help track them down.”
“They were going to kill us or leave us to the same fate,” Letta reminded him.
“Yes, I agree, but I need to deal with this here.”
“What?” Myla asked, her eyes wide.
“Letta protected us when Gia’s brothers tried to collar us.”
“Then leave them there,” Myla said, furious.
“I would if they were just stuck there, but if they've been taken by fae seers, I don't want the humans to harm them. I only believed they’d be stuck there for a while until Gia could return them home and then I'd decide what to do from there.”
“How did they lose their ability to transport?” Myla asked.
“My magic. And if I were to die, they’d never be able to fae transport,” Letta said. “I’m the only one who can reverse it, and I’m going with you.”
“Have you ever dealt with fae seers?” Simon asked, frowning at Letta. She seemed so sweet and innocent, and yet she had a real devious side to her. But he loved that she had reacted so quickly and saved them from whatever Tomas and his brothers had in store for them.
“I lived among the humans and I've dealt with my fair share of fae seers. My scorpion fae parents survived the great battle that destroyed our kind. When I was twelve, they took me to be raised among the few who were left in the forests where we became woodland fae. We lived with our king and other young fae. So yes, I have dealt with fae seers and humans of all kinds. But I have the advantage of having an arsenal of magic.”
Just when he thought he knew all there was to know about Letta, there was more. She had an arsenal of magic? He just hoped he always stayed on her good side.
“All right, let’s go,” Simon said.
Myla looked hopeful she could go too, but Simon shook his head. “Just Aegis, Steel, and me, well, and Letta.” Then they hurried off to find some of the men gathered in the common area.
Gia was trying to organize a search party when she saw Simon and Letta. Her skin paled and her eyes grew big.
“Surprised to see us, Gia? After your brothers tried to collar us?” Simon had to let everyone gathered know what it was all about.
Gia closed her gaping mouth. He suspected she’d thought her brothers had already eliminated them. Or once Simon and Letta arrived here, she might have believed her brothers hadn't seen Simon and Letta before the fae seers grabbed them and they didn't know her brothers had even been there.
“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Gia looked stricken, probably worried Simon would leave them to their fates.
“Sure, you do. And you went to look for them because they were taking too long to return. Aegis, Steel, we’re returning to the place where her brothers were captured.”
“And Letta?” Ronan asked.
“Yes. We might be able to use her magic skills.”
“And Gia?” Aegis asked, frowning at her.
“Yes. She can help save her brothers, if we can do so before we're too late. Ronan, you’re in charge while I’m gone." Then Simon turned to Gia. "Show us where you last saw your brothers."
12
Then they all transported to the steak restaurant and followed their trail to the parking lot. After that, their fae dust trail was gone.
“They must have carried them off in a vehicle.” Letta pointed to the building. “See the security cameras on the restaurant under the eaves? We can check the security videos and see who took the brothers. With any luck, we can locate the vehicle soon.”
They all vanished and headed inside the restaurant and found the office and went inside. A middle-aged man was working on a computer.
Simon said, “Four men were taken hostage in your parking lot.”
“What? Who are you? You can’t be in here. I’m calling the police.”
Letta waved her hand over the man’s face. “Show us the video for the last two hours. Hurry. Your life depends on it.”
The man quickly did what they asked and Simon was again in awe of what Letta could do. Here she had the ability to force him or anyone else to open the cage and release her and she didn't. Unless she could only do that to humans and not the fae.
Once they saw the blue van grab Tomas and his brothers and drive off, they were able to identify his license. But how were they going to find the vehicle now?
They left the restaurant before anyone else discovered their unauthorized visit to the security office.
“Any ideas?” Simon asked Letta, because she seemed to know how to deal more with situations like this since she'd lived in the human's world for some time while growing up.
“We just have to call into the police station and get them to give us their address.”
“Using your magic. But don’t you have to do it in person?” Simon asked.
“No. I’m just that good.” Letta glanced at Gia as if letting her know that she shouldn't mess with her any longer.
Simon was impressed.
When Letta pulled out a cell phone, he was surprised.
“I swiped it off the guy in the office.” Letta looked for something on the phone, then made a call. “Hi, I need the name of the owner and the address of—” She hung up the phone.
“What are you doing?” Simon asked.
“The van’s here. Right there. Maybe they believe this is a place where our kind congregate.” Letta said to Gia, “Did they see you before?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, so they knew you’d go for reinforcements and we’re it,” Letta said.
Simon cast Gia an annoyed look. "You could have told us that before."
“So we vanish,” Gia said. “Transport before they can take us prisoner.”
Three men got out of the van, eyeing the fae with speculation.
“Nope. We take them prisoner. Or…I should say, I do.” Letta warned them, “They have Taser guns.”
Before the three men could get close enough to shoot the fae, Letta cast a spell, making them freeze. “Okay, come on. Let’s take them in their van and learn where they took the brothers."
“What did you do to them?” Gia sounded irritated. “They can’t speak or do anything.”
“They will, once they get in the van.” Letta grabbed one of the men’s arms and dragged him with her. Even though he couldn’t do anything to them, he could still stumble along.
Once all of them were in the van, Letta said to the man she'd made sit in the driver's seat, “Drive us to where you took the fae.”
“Wait, you don’t think he’s going to really take us there, do you?” Gia asked.
“It wasn’t just an order,” Letta said. “He’s compelled to do it. He has no choice. And if you want to leave, just…leave.”
Gia shut up then.
“Are the fae alive?” Letta asked one of the other men.
“Yeah, but we’ll take ‘em out and do away with them.”
“You know you’re a fae too, don’t you? You just don’t have your powers yet.” Just in case it was true, Letta let that sink in.
Not that they really were, Simon was thinking.
“No,” both the men muttered.
“Think about it. You can see the fae. Why? Humans can’t. You just haven’t come into your abilities yet. We have several former fae seers in our world who are now full fae. They’re lucky they didn’t kill any of our kind or they would never have been able to join us,” Letta said.
Simon wasn't sure that was really true. Especially not in Hannah's case. He knew Brett had only killed an unseelie fae, the really bad news for their own kind, the seelie fae. Even Bryan
and Mark might have killed the fae.
“As if we want to join you,” one of the fae seers said.
Letta turned to look at them from the front passenger's seat. “If you start showing a fae aura, you’ll be left to deal with the fae seers here. And you won't know how to go to our world. Just saying.”
Simon wasn’t about to take these men home with him, just to see if they were fae. Once they’d taken his own wolf pack members—rotten as they'd been—hostage, they were on their own, if they turned into the fae later on.
They drove about half an hour and ended up in the country at a red farmhouse. It looked warm and inviting, not like it could be a fae seer’s fae killing ground. Chickens were running around, a couple of cows grazing in a pasture, two goats penned in another enclosure, very countrified.
“Where are the fae?” Simon asked.
“In the red barn, chained up. They’ll be drowned in the river nearby and then buried,” the driver said, as if he didn't get it that they were no longer in charge of the fae here.
“So what do we do with the fae seers?” Gia said. “If I was in charge, they would die.”
“They could be just like us,” Letta said. “Our king taught us to try and spread the word to their kind, whenever we could, to let them know that they could be in even more trouble if they end up having a fae aura and now they’re the target for the fae seers.”
"A scorpion fae? You've got to be kidding," Gia said.
“Propaganda,” the driver said.
“Fact. We have a fae seer who is now a dragon-shifter fae prince. Another who is a dragon fae princess. And three fae who can shift into wolves.” Simon wasn’t about to tell them that two of them had been human until a wolf shifter bit them.
“Wolf shifters? Like werewolves? Give me a break,” one of the men in the back of the van said.
Aegis turned into a wolf and snarled at them. Mouths agape, the two humans shut up.
“You don’t want to see the dragon shifters in a foul mood,” Simon said.
His brother shifted back.
“Who else is here,” Letta asked.
“Two of my brothers,” the driver said. “They're watching the fae.”
“What are you going to do with them?” Letta asked Simon.
Simon wanted to terminate them. But Letta was right. What if they were fae? Still, he wasn’t about to allow them to remain here, preying on the fae kind. “How many more of you are in the area that can see us?”
“Just us five.”
“We take them with us,” Simon said. Though he didn’t mean to keep them in his territory. He’d dump them somewhere and let them fend for themselves until they either became fae, or could befriend the fae, if that was possible. On the other hand, that could have happened to Princess Alicia, Prince Brett, and Mark and Bryan, all of whom Simon genuinely liked. Hannah was a different story. He couldn't believe he was agreeing with Letta on this, but she smiled at him as if pleased that he'd decided this. He was like Gia and couldn't see that the scorpion fae would feel this way about murdering fae seers. Maybe the scorpion fae had turned over a new leaf. Maybe a whole forest of them.
They left the van then, Letta making the three fae seers lead the way.
“Call your brothers out. Tell them you have another fae.”
“Hey, Douglas, Bill! We got another fae!” the driver said.
The two men came out of the barn, looking eager to take the new fae hostage and Letta froze them.
“Okay, what do we do with Gia’s brothers, since they’re also guilty of a crime against us?” Letta asked.
“By my earlier ruling, if any of them attempted to harm you, they would be banished from the pack. I doubt any pack would want to give them refuge. If they had planned to eliminate us, as we suspect, they would have earned the death penalty. But I have another proposition. You’ve removed their ability to fae transport. After a year, if we’ve had no trouble with them, you can give their ability back. A year to prove they’re loyal to me and you and the rest of the pack. A year to learn from their mistake.”
“You can’t do that!” Gia said.
Simon scowled at her, knowing that she was the one who had instigated it. “Letta can, and she will. And if anything happens to her, in the meantime, they will never have the ability to fae transport again. You know I have every right to terminate them for what they pulled with us."
Gia looked outraged.
"You too," Simon added.
Gia’s expression fell. He wanted her to know that he saw her as guilty as the rest.
“Since you were involved too, I can do the same for you, remove your fae transport abilities, if you’d like,” Letta said.
Gia quickly shook her head.
“Come on. Let’s take the brothers home and we’ll transport these guys afterwards.” Simon headed for the barn.
“You could just give my brothers' transport powers back and then we could all leave at the same time. You wouldn’t have to return for the humans,” Gia reasoned.
“They’re not getting their abilities back,” Simon said. “Not for a year. If they want to transport anywhere, you’ll have to take them, unless someone else agrees to carry them.”
Then they went into the barn, the five fae seers following them, and Simon suspected that Letta’s spell caused them to see her as their leader. Not a bad ability to have, really.
They saw the brothers had been beaten, bruised and bloodied. Simon wanted to do the same with the fae seers, but, again, he reminded himself that the brothers would have either killed him and Letta or left them to their fate with the fae seers themselves.
The wolf brothers all looked sheepish, hanging their heads when Simon, his brother, a council member, and Letta had come to rescue them.
“Free the fae,” Letta told the fae seers.
They hurried to unchain the wolf brothers.
“You’re not going to let them live, are you?” Tomas asked, his right eye swollen shut.
“Let’s go.” Simon wasn’t about to explain his actions to Tomas. In fact, Simon figured if Tomas and his brothers remained in the pack, the rest of the wolves would frown on what they'd done here today. They could be real outcasts among the wolves. Gia also.
Each of them took ahold of one of the brothers, all but Letta. “Did you want me to take a fae seer?”
“No, we’ll come back for them.” Simon didn’t want anyone to know where he took them, so that none of the brothers would attempt to kill them.
Then the wolves returned home with the brothers.
He told them what would happen with their abilities. Then, still leaving Ronan in charge, Simon, Letta, Aegis, Steel, and Myla returned for the five men.
“Where are we taking them?” Aegis asked. “Surely, you can’t mean to take them to our village. The rest of our pack would find a reason to kill the fae seers.”
“No. I was thinking, since Letta says her king is trying to make peace with these people, we could leave them there with him. He can decide what to do with them.” Simon wasn't sure that would meet with the scorpion king's approval, but he thought since the king had suggested it, they'd give it a try.
Letta smiled. “I agree. He can put his speeches into practice.”
When they finally arrived at the camp where King Tameron and his scorpion fae resided, he appeared surprised to see them, and that Letta would be the one who brought all of them there. “Letta.”
Like Letta had told them, Tameron looked to be a boy, not an ancient king—courtesy of fae glamor. They usually didn't use it when they were in the fae world among other fae, so Simon was surprised the king would use it.
“These men may turn into fae." Letta motioned to the fae seers. "We can’t keep them in the village where Simon and his people live because some of them would want them dead.” And then Letta introduced Simon and the others who were with her.
“You have changed.” The king was frowning at her, most likely alluding to her new fae aura, realizing she couldn’
t have a new aura any other way than if she’d been turned.
“Yes, I’m now also a wolf shifter. A brand-new wolf shifter fae accidentally bit me and now I’m one of the Wolf Mountain pack.”
“Are you all right with this?” Tameron asked her, frowning.
Simon wondered what the king meant to do to him and his pack members, if Letta said she was unhappy with being a wolf. Or maybe the scorpion king had power so great, he could remove the wolf part of her. Simon hadn’t heard of anything like that. Though he reminded himself he hadn't heard of a wolf fae turning a fae before either. He hoped she would want to remain a wolf like them. In fact, he had every intention of convincing her she wanted to stay with him as a wolf, if she had any notion that she didn't want to be one any longer.
“Yes. I’m happy with Simon’s wolf pack. I think I can be of service to them.”
“You have used your powers on the human fae seers,” the king said.
“Yes. I had to. They had taken some of Simon’s pack members hostage. I thought of your teachings and suggested we didn’t kill these men.”
“And now you want me to take them in.”
“Yes, if you would. If they went with us to the village, the wolves they had beaten, might turn on them. Or others who might have suffered at the hands of the fae seers.”
“Very well. It’s good to see you have found a new family to live with.” The king was frowning, as though he wasn’t entirely happy about what had happened to Letta, or maybe because he felt obligated to take care of the fae seers, when he didn't really want to. “Is the one who bit you also part of the Wolf Mountain pack?”
Simon spoke up then. “No, Your Majesty.”
“And when the other wolf wants to find its own people?” the king asked Simon.
“Then she is free to do so.” With Simon's blessing! “In fact, I have every intention of helping her in that regard.”
The king cast him a sardonic smile. Then he frowned again. “Take good care of Letta. If anything untoward happens to my little princess, you will regret it.”
Princess? For real?