2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Sadavir

I t was a strange thing, being amidst a group of people other than the vampire coven where I had spent years as a voluntary slave in order to protect my family. Though I was surrounded by strangers, I didn't feel as on-edge as I had during my time in the vampire queen's menagerie. The dragon and I sometimes butted heads, but didn't have to walk on eggshells nearly as much here. I didn't have to suppress everything I was the way I had around the vampires, for fear they would take any defiance on my part as an excuse to go after my naga clan. I also knew, instinctively, that I didn't have to worry about any of my current companions flying off the handle and attacking me with true intent to kill. Nor did I have cause to worry about them using Josh to manipulate me, going after him in retaliation because I pissed them off.

The relief I felt was overwhelming. Like a crushing weight lifted off my chest after years of suffocation.

But still, the people in this new court were strangers. And I knew they mostly tolerated us only because of Ruya. I had to remind myself that no matter how much I might yearn for it, these people weren't my family. There wasn't the warmth and trust of a lifetime of love and connection between us, and I knew I could never fully let my guard down.

I was trying to build that trust. I had to fight my alpha instincts and all the possessiveness and entitlement that came with that status, fight my ingrained defensive reactions and suspicion caused by years of captivity and abuse. But I was trying. And so were they.

I was surprised when the sorcerer asked me to accompany him on their mission today. Surprised that he wouldn't just assume a deaf man would be a burden or a hindrance. And yet, here we were. I climbed out of the backseat of the generic black SUV, allowed the sorcerer to cloak me in a spell that would muddy my specific auric signature, and followed him down a deer path into the woods.

My senses came alive, my awareness flooded with the scent and taste of nature around me. The Maumee fae preserve was teaming with life, both magical and non-magical. With everything that had happened over the past long years in Acacia's coven, it had been a long time since I felt the earthy, wild call of nature that was my birthright. I shuddered at the influx of scents, parted my lips slightly to taste the air, wanting nothing more than to shift into my naga form, or go full snake and sip the world through flicks of my sensitive tongue and the slide of my scales against earth and leaf.

A hand touched my shoulder, bringing me out of my trance. The chupacabra shifter. She clumsily signed to me as she mouthed the words. "Are you okay, snake?"

I drew in one more deep breath of fresh forest air and let out a sigh, then nodded. I didn't know how to explain to her what just this small thing—just being able to be outside under the light of day—meant to me. But she seemed to get it. Something dark and sad flashed across her expression as her eyes met mine. "It's a lot," she said in her clumsy signing. "But it gets easier. You'll find your feet again."

This small, fierce woman was an alpha too. I didn't know much about her struggles. But I had gathered that she had some sort of dark history with the vampires. We had that in common, as well as our alpha designations. If she could overcome whatever she had been through and emerge with such grace, and with her strong alpha presence still intact, it gave me some hope that I might yet manage not to disgrace myself.

"Thank you," I signed, my shoulders back and my chin up. It was hard for an alpha to show weakness. But I had often had that choice taken from me. My weaknesses were always on display. I might not like it, but I was used to it at this point. It affected me less to acknowledge my struggles than it probably would most other alphas.

She seemed to understand. She simply patted my shoulder as we lengthened our strides to catch up to the men in front of us. Sanka, the sorcerer, was a good man. I hadn't made any attempt to hide what Ruya was to me, the way I was drawn to her and determined to stay by her side, and that had ruffled his feathers at first, but he was a beta. Despite his fiery demon-blood lineage, he knew how to pick his battles. Mostly. It helped that he was wrapped around Ruya's little finger.

But the pixie at his side was harder to read. I had known his kind, back when I was a prince among my people. I knew some cultures, some clans or families, seemed to think any show of warmth was a weakness. The high fae clans were infamous for that ridiculous line of thinking. I wasn't sure if it was this cultural difference, or actual loathing for me that drove Yukio's cold demeanor toward me. Perhaps it was just genetic. He had gruffly informed me one day that he was half yuki-onna. Perhaps warmer emotions like acceptance and camaraderie were impossible for him.

He seemed to feel me looking at him and turned to glance over his shoulder at me, his frosty blue eyes narrowed. He said something, but he spoke too fast, and he turned away as he said it, making it impossible for me to read his lips. I frowned as I watched the way the light glinted off his silky black hair and iridescent wings. Like ice, he was glittering but sharp.

Beside me, I caught Martina signing "asshole."

Sanka turned around and walked backward on the narrow path, risking a broken neck to make sure I could see him speak. "He asked why it felt like a viper was creeping up behind him about to strike. Then implied that snakes creep him out." He dodged a smack from the pixie and continued with a grin. " I said he should shut his chilly pie-hole. But maybe you'd be willing to help him overcome his mortal fear of squiggly things with scales?"

I arched my brows at the confusing words that poured out of the man. He looked so serious sometimes, and he had the build and bearing of a warrior. But then he spoke and… I was often taken off guard by his odd humor.

Yukio took to the air, not meeting my eyes as he flew off ahead of us. The tips of his pointed ears were pink. "I realize you are mostly joking," I signed. "Trying to embarrass your friend and put me at ease. But… is he really afraid of snakes ?"

Sanka winked at me and turned back around. Martina shook her head and I glanced at her for clarification. Her chest and shoulders rose and fell as she heaved a massive sigh. Then she quirked an eyebrow at me. "Terrified," she mouthed, her motions exaggerated, and I assumed she hadn't said that out loud for fear Yukio might hear.

Interesting—strange, completely unfounded and silly, especially for someone who I had heard referred to as an assassin—but interesting, I supposed. It certainly explained why the pixie-cross was the hardest person for me to speak to or interact with. Not only was he simply not a warm, fuzzy person to begin with. Apparently, he was also mortally afraid of everything I was. And he was not the type to enjoy admitting to something like that. Gammas were often nearly as stubborn as alphas.

I heaved a sigh of my own. My freedom, Josh's freedom and safety, and Ruya's happiness were all worth it, but… navigating this court was an exercise in frustration.

"Quiet," Sanka signed back at us, serious once more.

Deep within these magical woods, was the tether to the pocket world where the corrupt emperor of the paranormal syndicate nested. We had parked some distance from the area of the preserve where we believed the pocket world entrance was located, so our presence wouldn't be immediately obvious and traceable to prying eyes—magical or non-magical. But apparently, we were drawing close now.

My magical abilities weren't as acute as the sorcerer's—my magic tuned more inward than outward—but I could still feel the slightest sense of something not right as we drew closer to the place where the pocket world was tethered. The currents of magic and nature around me felt… warped. As if they were pulling inward, distorted and wrong.

"You can feel it?" Sanka signed to me as we all crouched behind a couple of thick tree trunks.

I nodded.

"I thought you might," he said with a pleased smile. "Your kind are more in tune with earth magic, right? Can you tell exactly where it's anchored to the ground? I want to know if that matches up with what I am sensing from the air and the aether."

I considered for a moment, sinking my fingers into the leaf mold and down into dark, rich soil. Then I nodded yes. I could feel it, though it wavered from time to time, like a living thing taking breaths. Or like an electrical current with fluctuations here and there. I jiggled my head side to side, since I couldn't easily explain the nuances of what I was feeling.

His brown eyes studied my face for a moment, then he nodded. "I gotcha. Let's go poke around. Keep track of everything you smell and taste, and we'll compare notes later, yeah?"

I nodded.

Then we crept out from behind our hiding spot and began exploring the forest. It was hard to say for certain, but Sanka said he didn't think there was any visual monitoring of the area. There were some heavy illusion spells to prevent anyone discovering the pocket world. And there were magical detection wards that would tell the owner that someone had been here. The wards weren't a problem. In fact, it was my understanding that Sanka thought they were a good thing. A tool we could use to our benefit.

He wanted the emperor to know we were here. It was why he brought the pixie and the chupacabra shifter as well as myself. Their dragon princess wanted the emperor to sense that there were shifters and fae poking around the area together. She wanted the emperor to suspect that the shifter and fae factions of the syndicate had teamed up to find his hiding spot for some nefarious purpose.

I immediately understood her goal. She wanted the emperor to think his own people had turned on him and retaliate. She wanted a distraction, something that would turn attention and blame away from her court.

Robin and I might rub each other the wrong way, but she was very effective at playing the syndicate's games. Underhanded… and, I suspected, quite cutthroat when she had to be. But sometimes a ruler had to be ruthless to get results.

I did my best to do as Sanka instructed, pushing away the part of me that hated taking orders from a beta. This was not my court. I had taken orders from far lesser beings than the sorcerer over the past few years. I would survive.

When we were finished, we hurried back to our vehicle and headed back to the city. "What did we learn?" I signed to Martina, who sat in the second row of seats beside me.

She repeated my question aloud for Sanka and Yukio, then answered. "I can only say what I smelled, which isn't hugely helpful. But I can confirm that people are coming and going from that point. Especially one vampire in particular." Her eyes narrowed. According to the information Ruya had gathered, Acacia visited the emperor every full moon. Apparently, Martina knew the vampire's scent well enough to pick it up from the area, even with the passage of time.

I had thought I tasted the woman's foul essence, and Martina confirmed it. So, we at least knew that Ruya's information was likely correct.

Yukio turned in the front passenger seat so I could see his face as he spoke. "The preserve is full of lesser fae, mostly beings who are more animal than person. Some of them don't mind the emperor's comings and goings. But some of them have more awareness and reason—and they would be very happy to get rid of the unnatural disturbance in their environment. They won't interfere."

I nodded.

Then, because I couldn't help myself, I flicked my forked tongue out to lick my bottom lip. The pixie immediately seized up and turned to face front. I suppressed a laugh. By all that was holy, he really was afraid of snakes. What a silly fear. Especially for someone who followed a dragon alpha.

Martina jabbed me with an elbow, clearly predicting my thoughts, and I resisted the urge to shift to naga form. "We'll go over everything once we get back home," she informed me. "Robin likes to meet with everyone and get every perspective before we come to any conclusions."

I nodded. Wise. I supposed the dragon wasn't a terrible princess, if she took time to listen to her court.

I met Sanka's eyes in the rearview mirror, and was struck with a strange and unsettling feeling. It reminded me of the look I'd share with my cousin growing up, when we were deviling my younger sister. Yukio turned away from all of us to look out the window, his body language sharp and waspish. Martina shook her head and rolled her eyes at the lot of us, like a big sister pretending to be above her brothers' shenanigans. And… for one strange, dizzying moment, I almost felt at home.