Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

I left Rasmus sleeping and stumbled my way to the dining room. Hart and Jessing were already there enjoying breakfast. I murmured a morning greeting and poured coffee without spilling it on my hands.

The day was off to a good start so far.

"Give me five minutes of silent coffee time and then we can talk," I said to them, sitting as far away from the happy, perky morning diners as I could.

The enforcers chuckled at my grogginess before returning to their meal. Gale had laid out a breakfast buffet on a beautiful white oak sideboard that had mysteriously appeared overnight. This morning, someone had loaded it with food.

I never knew how Henry and Gale could put so much effort into caring for the weird strangers I regularly brought into the house. But this morning, I felt so grateful that it nearly made me cry.

Rasmus kept both of us awake until the wee hours. I'd slept well for a solid three after he got tired, but I'd need a nap later to make it through the whole day.

I couldn't afford to sleep, though. There was too much to do.

Hart and Jessing looked at each other across the table. Finally, Hart turned to me. "Do you realize that you broadcast your thoughts?"

I finished my first cup of rejuvenation and rose to get a refill. Henry had brought out the urn this morning and I could tell it was full.

When I came back to the table, I looked at Hart and nodded. "Yes. I hired a dragon mage to help me learn to not do it. He said it would be nearly impossible because I had too much energy to constrain my thoughts properly. The broadcasting seems to serve the purpose of relieving pressure buildup in my brain. Did ya hear anything that ya want me to explain to ya?"

Hart chuckled. "You seem to love your coffee."

"Yes, I truly do," I said. "Anything else?"

Jessing giggled. "Your man did not let you sleep much last night."

I lifted my coffee cup and saluted her rightness. The owl shifter chuckled and shook her head at our silliness.

Conn stumbled into the room looking worse than I did. But I didn't think it was for the same reasons.

"How's Mulan feeling this morning?"

"She's acting strangely. One moment she is angry. The next she is in tears. And then she gets violently sick."

Jessing looked at me and then at Conn. "Women get hormonal at certain times in their lives," she told him.

Conn frowned at Jessing's comment. "Mulan is only fifty. She's not old enough to be hormonal in the way you are implying."

A smirk twisted the lines of my mouth against my coffee cup. Jessing hadn't been implying Mulan was menopausal. Conn was just being dense… and rude.

Hart turned to stare at Conn. "We did not mention the Wu Shaman's age. Why did you assume what you did?"

When Conn stared blankly at him without answering, I realized the enforcers already knew Mulan's big secret. I also realized that Conn still did not know about the baby because he couldn't hear it.

No amount of coffee I drank this morning was going to keep what I had to do from being a hot mess.

I sighed and sipped more before talking. "Conn, can ya read my thoughts today?"

"I work hard not to do that. Why do you ask?"

I stared at him while I pictured myself rocking a demon baby with tiny red horns. I tried not to make it look too similar to Lilith's toddler son.

His startled, puzzled gaze wandered around the room as he poured coffee for himself. He turned and looked at me. "Why are you acting weird? Am I missing something?"

"Yes. Ya're missing a lot," I said, but it was too early to fight about it. I'd yell at him later when I felt better.

I turned to look at her when Mulan angrily stomped into the dining room. She sniffed the air, turned green, and put a hand over her mouth.

Surely, not even Conn could ignore that enormous sign.

Retreating from the room, I heard Mulan's small feet picking up speed as she ran back across the foyer to get outside to barf.

Conn frowned at her abrupt exit.

I rolled my eyes at him because who wouldn't be suspicious after that? Apparently… Conn wouldn't.

Jessing made a sympathetic noise. "Hart, you must make the baby sickness tea for the Wu Shaman. She is one of those unfortunate females who get so terribly sick she cannot function. You will do this as a favor for me, yes?"

Hart nodded. "Yes, darling. I have the ingredients for it in my herb bag. I'll brew the tea for the poor Wu Shaman right after I finish eating."

"Thank you, Hart. Last night, you were an unleashed animal. Today, you are a very kind man. I adore you for being both and consider myself a lucky, lucky female," Jessing said with genuine delight in her voice."

I looked at Conn who looked back at me in confusion. He slouched his shoulders as I watched. He was genuinely upset that she was so sick but I could tell he was completely clueless about the most logical reason.

He sighed as he looked at me. "Mulan said she ate some bad sushi. Does food poisoning last more than one day? I don't remember you ever being this sick with it. You could eat week-long leftovers and be fine. I guess Mulan has a weak constitution."

I sighed and shook my head at his nonsense. Conn had totally tuned out Hart and Jessing because he didn't like them. Nothing they said about baby sickness tea had reached his demon brain.

Good Goddess, it was way too early for all this drama. I sipped my coffee and took my time answering. Maybe it was a two-cups-of-coffee day for Conn.

I spoke slowly to him. "I believe I was only that sick during my first few weeks of carrying Fiona. That was the worst I ever felt in my life. Ma baked me ginger snaps and plied me with saltine crackers. That was right around the time we made our contract."

Jessing sipped her coffee and looked between Conn and me. Finally, she broke. "Are you keeping it a secret?"

She had directed her question to me, but Conn was the one who answered. "Keeping what a secret?" he asked.

Jessing shrugged as she looked at him. "The real reason for the poor Wu Shaman's illness."

Conn grunted to show his disgust over the hinting. He went back to drinking his coffee.

"He's usually much smarter than this," I told her.

"Males panic at first," Jessing said as she sipped her drink.

"I never panicked," Hart said, staring at her over his cup.

Jessing stared at Hart over her cup. "And if I said right now that I was carrying five more?"

"But you aren't, are you? Come on, Jessing. We agreed thirteen was enough."

Conn rolled his eyes. "No amount of coffee is going to make any of this conversation make sense. I'm going to check on Mulan. We might have to call in a healer to look at her. She can't seem to hold anything down. I thought the sushi was fine."

We watched as the clueless high demon strolled out to check on the love of his life with his refilled coffee cup casually in hand like he hadn't a care in the world.

Jessing looked at Hart. "Congratulations, Hart. The demon king is worse at taking hints than you are."

"But you're not pregnant again, right?"

Jessing laughed. "No. I wouldn't do that to either of us. Thirteen was too many."

Hart sank into his seat. His relief made me laugh. "Thirteen was just right, but now there are just the two of us again. That is the perfect number for this new season of our life."

Jessing nodded. "It is enough until the grandchildren come along. Who knows how many of those we'll have?"

Hart blew out a breath. "Can we talk about something less stressful? I would like to enjoy my coffee."

I started laughing, and then I suddenly couldn't stop. Everything in my life was too ridiculous to be happening.

There was a contract on my head.

Mulan was lying about sushi.

And Conn was clueless that he would soon be a father.

The enforcers were funny and liked to tease me, but they hadn't come up with any original ideas. When I stopped laughing, my sigh was loud.

Rasmus suddenly appeared in the dining room. His shirt was hanging open and his fly was barely zipped. "I woke up and missed you. Why did you get up so early?"

Behind him, Jessing grinned and fanned herself. I smiled into my coffee when Hart glared and threw a piece of toast at her.

"I'm not Yoko Ono and I can't solve my problems from bed. This is my second cup of coffee and I'm going to need one more today. It's a three-cup day."

Rasmus snorted at my excuse. "You have a caffeine addiction and are in denial. Who is Yoko Ono?"

"John Lennon was a singer. Have ya heard of him?"

"Yes. He was in a musical group called The Beatles."

"Right. John's wife was Yoko Ono. They were infamous for working from their bed."

Rasmus sighed. "Oh. Now I get the sarcasm. You need to be out of bed. Perhaps I should go dress for the day as well."

"Yes," I said to him sweetly. "That would probably be a good idea."

Rasmus waved to Hart and Jessing before leaving. "Good morning. I'll be back shortly."

At their end of the table, Hart and Jessing hid their faces in their hands while their shoulders shook with muffled laughter.

"It's okay if ya laugh aloud. This is my crazy life. Now ya see why the contract on my head wasn't at the top of my problem list until the third time a fairy tried to kill me."

"Was it like this when you were married to the evil human?" Jessing asked.

I smiled at Jessing for calling Jack evil. It made me like her even more. "No. But only because I lied to Jack to keep the peace. It's much harder to deal with what comes from the truth. How did ya know about the baby?"

Hart beamed at his wife. "It's another of Jessing's gifts."

I lifted my chin and nodded. "I said nothing directly to Conn because it's not my place to drop the big news on the clueless father. Mulan needs to do it."

"Why does he believe the problem is bad sushi?" Hart asked.

"Because she made it for them and was being sarcastic when she agreed with him. Mulan is quite the cook."

"Ah... very clever. Is she afraid of having a child?" Jessing asked.

"Terrified... and unprepared," I said. "But it will be fine. I just need to find a solution that gets the fairies to leave us all alone. Murder contracts and secret pregnancies don't mix well."

"Hart has come up with a potential solution. It is somewhat risky but might work to solve the kill-for-power contract."

I held up a hand. "Hold that thought, please. Let's talk business after I eat."

I got up and refilled my cup a third time. I set it on the table before filling my plate with fluffy eggs and little crepes filled with fresh strawberries. I stared at my food for a long while because it looked too perfect to eat.

Then I glanced down the table at the quizzical enforcers when I stopped mooning over my unbelievable life. "Some mornings I pinch myself because I spent seven years in prison. The moment I got out and divorced Jack, all this wonderfulness happened. I tell myself forty is not too old to deal with this level of change, but then I look at Rasmus and wonder if I'm fooling myself."

"You deserve him and what he brings you," Jessing said firmly. "You have a good brain to deal with the ancient one's inquiries and the passion he so obviously needs. That man would sin for you if necessary. It's in his eyes, Aran."

I chuckled softly. The caffeine was kicking in... finally . "Has Hart ever sinned for you?"

"No," Jessing said. "Hart was never a saint and I am grateful for that. I am no saint, either. If we could, we would kill both fairies for you and the other two siblings if necessary. But there are greater things to consider. We must seek another way."

I nodded at her. "I know. If we killed them, there would be a war between fairies and humans. We don't want that to happen."

While they came to terms with my admission, I ate. It might be the last calm meal I had today.

Conn was going to eventually find out about Mulan being pregnant.

And I was going to let the guardians buy a mean horse to genetically alter.

Then somehow I had to come up with a plan that forced Ezra to rethink stealing the stone from my dead body and get the enforcers to agree to help me carry it out.

"Yes," Hart said. "We figured that a war was what worried you most about your situation. Despite your time in prison, you are still the good magickal we remember. We will not leave until this is resolved."

"Killing the fairies could have been an option if I hadn't missed my chance to do it legitimately. But a fairy friend—or one I currently still call a friend—warned me not to kill Ezra. I vaguely knew Ezra was a royal but I didn't know about his sister. I thought she was masquerading as an ambassador to gain access to my home. Now I know she's an arbitrator. Henry takes in special guests for secret liaisons. She came in with a very old centaur."

"Was the centaur handsome?" Jessing asked. "I've heard they are very handsome."

Hart turned to glare at her. "Do you always have to ask that question?"

Jessing smiled and shrugged. "I'm curious because I have never met a centaur."

I shook my head. "The centaur was large and gruff. I doubt he'll be talking about what she did to him. He's too embarrassed." I laid down my fork. "But Ezra's sister might tell the world and spin the story to make me look like the bad guy. She could say anything and no one would doubt her."

"That is true," Hart said with a nod.

My sigh was loud. "Maybe it wasn't such a good thing that Mulan froze her before I managed to take her head." I looked at both of them. "I think I will have to set Princess Lulutha free and drop the charges against Ezra to get through this without dying again. But I really, really don't want to let them get off unpunished for their crimes."

Hart studied me over his coffee cup. "You have your guardian now. Why do you care about what happens to the fairy? Are you still seeking revenge for his betrayal?"

"I only care because Ezra killed a bunch of dark witches while turning Hisser into a naga. Goddess only knows how many other beings died for his wicked purposes. He attempted to kill Dylan, who barely escaped. Then he went after Fiona until her angel intervened and stopped him. Before that, he captured Conn and Mulan, and Conn never gets captured."

"My goodness," Jessing said, staring at me.

I went right on. "Ezra is an extremely dangerous fairy and has no reason to pretend to be nice to humans any longer. The fairy I knew all those years ago was only someone Ezra pretended to be. It will be hard for me to trust any of their kind going forward. He has misrepresented his people and they're in denial about him."

Hart gave me a reassuring smile. "We will find a way to convince him to nullify the contract, Aran. We always find a way to resolve things."

"Well, I'm hoping to look for one as well. I'd like to get back to my life while I'm still young enough to enjoy it."

Jessing giggled. "And to sleeping in until your handsome guardian wakes you up wake properly, I imagine."

Yes, I wanted to get back to that too.

When the guardian in question returned to the dining room completely dressed and once more composed, I sipped my coffee, looked at Jessing, and winked.

I decided a tour of the property would provide the perfect cover for a private chat with the enforcers. The two demon wolves trotted beside the three of us. I didn't call them away from anywhere they roamed.

As Dylan suggested, I let them do as they pleased. They stayed close without me saying a word.

Hart and Jessing exclaimed over their cute little horns and asked where I'd found such creatures. I'd begged off telling that story because I wanted to focus on dealing with Ezra.

"Okay, let's hear it, Hart. What's your risky idea?"

"Bribery," Hart said. "Ezra is greedy. We could probably bribe him into removing the contract seeking your death."

"Have ya ever fought Ezra?" I asked.

The enforcers looked at each other. I took their blank stares as a no and went on to make my point.

"I have fought by the fairy's side as his work partner. To my eternal shame, I also took him to my bed. Now I can add fighting the fairy to the death twice. All this has painfully taught me that I never knew him at all. Ezra feels no remorse for his wicked actions. He feels entitled to kill me like I'm his primary enemy. He also feels entitled to gain back his power in any way he sees fit. But one thing he doesn't care about is human money."

Hart hummed low in disappointment. "How unfortunate he cannot be bribed into doing the right thing. It would be the easiest path for us," he said.

"I understand now that Ezra of Airing Dale feels no shame because of his important sister. Princess Lulutha makes him a special snowflake even though he is not one without her."

I stopped. "Good Goddess, that's it. Ezra has been competing with his older sister for the throne. And I messed up his chance to prove to his parents that his power is greater than his sibling's. No wonder he hates me. The only way he can redeem himself is to kill me and take the Dagda stone. The Dagda put the fairies where they are. Some have never forgiven him. What a boon it would be for Ezra to bring any source of The Dagda's power back home to his parents. It all makes sense now."

Hart nodded at my conclusions. "I think you are right, Aran. Possessing The Dagda's power might convince his royal parents that he belongs on the throne instead of Lulutha who is first in the line of succession. He's always been power-hungry. Perhaps taking his father's throne has been his life's goal all along."

"Ezra has been on earth for nearly six hundred years and told me that he would never tie himself to anything or anyone in our realm. He said staying here was not in his plans—just as caring about me was not in them, either."

"Yet he told others he loved you and seemed to be heartbroken when you married your ex-husband and got pregnant right away. The wicked fairy certainly seemed to be grieving for you the first few years you were gone. He was never linked intimately to other women."

Ezra wasn't linked to them because he got better at hiding his affairs after I nagged him about his infidelity. Pretending to love and miss me would have improved his image.

"I liked Ezra, but I didn't love him. After we broke up, I didn't care whose bed he visited so long as it wasn't mine. I was faithful to Ezra while we were together, and later all I wanted was Jack. Neither of them was faithful to me. Being a realist, I accept their unfaithfulness as my lack of good judgment about men back then. I pretended to be a doormat female to hold their attention."

Jessing's wide eyes blinked at me. "Was that the only reason you broke up with the fairy? I heard Ezra was bad in bed. I heard he was a selfish, self-absorbed lover. Many females talked about him. All would have taken him back if they thought he could have been trained. He was very handsome."

I laughed. "He wasn't terrible in bed. He just wasn't good. His heart wasn't into it."

"No magick sharing, eh?" Jessing asked with a sneer. "Hart was my first and my only. He has made himself into a superb lover for me. My eagle sisters wish they'd found him first. I would bite their fingers off if they touched him."

Hart covered his now red face with both hands. "Why do you insist on telling Aran so many personal details about us?"

I chuckled and patted Hart's arm. "She's proud of ya, Hart. Let her brag. Most men never get to hear what their wives think of them."

Hart blew out an embarrassed breath and nodded. "What if we used his competition with sister to prove to Lulutha that her brother isn't the scion of worthiness he pretends to be?"

I smiled at the witch. "Now that is a plan I like. Can ya bring him and his cage through a portal?"

"It can be done. It would take the whole day to prepare and we'd have to bring several guards along with it. He's under constant supervision," Hart said.

"How did he put a contract on me then?"

Jessing looked at Hart and then at me. "We think some guards are more loyal to the fairy than to the Shadow Breakers organization. Ezra often bribed people when he controlled the organization's purse things."

Goddess, Ezra could have emptied the coffers of the group on both sides of the ocean. I guess that would have cut off his primary source of finding beings of power he could rob. Working his way up in the Shadow Breakers had been a brilliant strategy.

I rubbed my chest when the stone rested inside me. It vibrated against my fingers.

"If the two of ya can work on transporting Ezra here, I'll see if the Wu Shaman can thaw out the fairy princess. That will take me most of the day because I have to get Conn to pay attention."

Jessing clicked her tongue in sympathy. "The poor Wu Shaman needs tea to prevent her sick stomach. I'll work on fetching the wicked fairy and Hart can brew the tea for her. You must work on demon king who will freak when he discovers his secret baby."

"Yes to all that, but first I must work on getting the Wu Shaman herself to own what is happening to her. Right now, she's blaming her shaman staff for everything. That's not fair."

Hart and Jessing each patted one of my shoulders. They were both so large that I felt like a child standing between them. Mulan had seemed like a child to me when I found her curled around her toilet and too sick to care for herself.

My sigh of dread over what I had to do was loud and made both enforcers laugh. I would rather fight Ezra to the death again than have to mediate between Mulan and Conn.

"Will ya do me one more favor? I would normally send Conn but that won't work today. I need ya to get a message to Murray. I understand he works with yer office."

Hart nodded. "We like Murray but don't know what he does."

That made me laugh. "Tell him to call or come see me. The wards won't stop him. It needs to be today because I want him to make sure the rest of the royal family will not pop up with more magickal daggers in their hands. I know Murray has their ear."

"That's an excellent idea," Jessing said, bobbing her large owl head.

I left Hart and Jessing sitting by my firepit watching dappled sunlight stream down as it filtered through the leaves of the surrounding trees. They were already on their phones using modern human magick to arrange things.

Heading back to the house, I walked slowly and let myself enjoy a moment of peaceful solitude before the chaos started again.

I wanted Rasmus to be my backup referee, but I'd have to tell him about the baby and explain why it was important to get it all out in the open today.

It might not be easy to talk the nephilim child into releasing Lulutha from her prison. I still had the spell to drain off the power, but I had no talisman to put it in. Zenos had made the last one and the jiangshi had absorbed it during his conversation.

Where was I going to get another one by the end of the day?

I got to the doorstep of the main house and glanced up at the sky. No man-made guardians hovered there with bows aimed at me. However, that didn't stop my panic as I stood outside in the open all by myself.

Some of my worry was that I still hadn't confirmed Ben's problem and mine were related. Rasmus said they were, but I wanted a second opinion.

Maybe the military and their scientists had discovered the Shadow Breakers were in town.

Maybe Ben had hired one of them without knowing who and what the person was. Stranger things had happened.

There was also a good possibility that Ezra had ratted Ben out after hearing the story of his past. Had Ben gone to one of the military scientists who worked on him for help?

Ben said Ezra arranged his trip. But he hadn't revealed where he'd gone while Ezra ran things in his absence. Dylan had found several locations where others from Ben's old unit seemed to be hidden from view.

I blew out a breath and tried to stop thinking about Ben. His problem with his creators wanting to capture him would have to wait until the Ezra issue got resolved. I couldn't go chasing down his tormentors while fighting off assassins all day long. It was too much to expect us to do daily, even for a solid team like Conn and me.

Luckily, Ben wasn't still running around in his beast form, trying to hide in trees. It was a very fortunate thing that Ben's witch wife, Felicity, had made that extra control charm for him. She'd used her magick to destroy the stolen one and power the second.

As I stood there thinking about Ben, the answer to all my problems suddenly dawned on me. I even knew what I would do if the Caribbean witch hadn't created a third talisman I could use as bait. The only big unknown was how the nephilim power currently restraining Princess Lulutha might affect the talisman Ben wore if I had to use it instead.

Well, that, and what kind of being the spell we'd used on the jiangshi might end up turning Ben into.