Chapter 26

26

W ill was ready for battle in his suit, a familiar charcoal-gray double-breasted ensemble I’d seen him wear before.

He rarely changed before heading to the bar with his buddies.

With his familiar expensive scent, I remembered him, and in a flash I remembered my father. The wintergreen and moss and dark forest. The big shoulders.

I remembered both their boisterous laughs, but Will wasn’t laughing now.

Not even close.

His gaze skipped between the four of us and landed on me, the lines around his eyes softening slightly. “ Tavi .”

Oh god, my throat was going to close up. Already, it was hard to breathe. Somehow I forced my tongue into action and my lips to form the words. “Hi, Uncle Will.”

The others knew me. I caught the flash of recognition across their faces but they never let on.

I swallowed over the sharp lump in my throat as my eyes took in every familiar line of my uncle's face.

“If I’d known you were going to return for a visit, I would have stayed home.” His jaw tightened and on his right, his beta’s hand curled into a fist.

“You could have done without the company.” I gestured toward the other three. Two betas, one delta.

My fingers twitched, my hands stiff from clenching them at my side. A bead of sweat trailed along my spine and seemed to freeze just above my tailbone.

Uncle Will lifted his chin. “You took off on me. You lied to me, and you bolted. You have no idea what kind of mess you left behind. The Grimaldi pack has done unspeakable things to us in your absence. Now I find you here, unharmed, and surrounded by Faerie pigs.”

His delta hissed at the name-calling.

Will’s commanding presence filled the foyer in a physical cloud. It was one of the things that made him effective as an alpha and caused the others to fall in line. He was one of the only alphas of the last hundred years who never had any challengers step up. His dominance was so completely established they didn’t even try.

A feared opponent in the courtroom, too.

“You shouldn’t have forced me into a match with Kendrick Grimaldi.” I stiffened, craning to see past him as if saying the name out loud would conjure the devil.

I was scared.

I’d never really felt that way around my uncle, despite our issues in the past.

Panic set in when the betas stepped around Will, their sights set on Laina and Livvy.

Will chuckled. “Dae. I’d love to say it’s a pleasure, but then again you did break into my house.”

His powerful baritone had goosebumps rising on my skin and my wolf aching to submit to him. Will stepped inside and flicked the switch on the wall. The glow of the massive chandelier overhead cast his tall, muscled frame into relief.

In his late forties, his auburn hair only sported a few streaks of gray. That was where I’d gotten my color from. I’d always thought it, and now that I saw the two of them standing in the same room, the realization hit home.

Livvy’s hair had only the slightest reddish hue whereas mine would have gotten me teased if I’d gone to public school.

Will’s hazel eyes pierced through me and pinned me in place. “Get out of my house or I will make you leave.”

His fury left me cold and dark and hollow.

“Tell me where the journal is, Will,” Livvy demanded. She stepped forward and physically blocked the two of us, keeping us apart. Using her body like a shield. “We’re not leaving without it.”

The fierceness in her voice resounded through me. Tears welled in my eyes but I kept them contained, this moment too surreal to allow myself to weaken now.

“He’s not going to hurt me.” I reached for her but she ignored me.

He tilted his head to the side in an animalistic gesture. “You come into my house, threaten my niece with your lies, and expect me to speak to you? What have you told her, Dae? Did you spout off about your insane prophecy again? Did you feed her your insane bullshit the moment you met?”

“My lies?” Livvy seemed to grow several inches. “She is my daughter.”

“You abandoned her.”

The others stepped up behind Will with growls, their hackles raised and their wolves close to the surface. No matter what happened, we had to protect the queen. If anything happened to Laina, Mike would never forgive me, and Faerie would be in more danger.

“I did what I had to do in order to keep her safe. I’m not the one she needs to worry about,” Livvy insisted.

The quiet was almost worse than the conversation. My hands froze, my forearm throbbing as it pressed in, and there was no comfort to be found.

My heart was nothing more than a ravaged lump of meat in my chest and a terrible dread sank through me.

I thought I’d been through the worst? No. The worst was yet to come.

The time to talk ended. The room might as well have been slowed like on one of those old-fashioned VCRs. The betas moved first. They flanked Will and stepped forward, their claws lengthening as they swiped the air in front of him, a clear threat to anyone bent on harming him.

Livvy lifted both hands and pressed them together, her magic a shield for all of us.

“I don’t think so,” she muttered. “You three will stay out of it. This is between me and Will.”

Was she speaking to me, Laina, and Elfwaite? Or the others? We were evenly matched body count wise but that was about the only thing matched. My zombie bite burned as I grabbed Livvy’s arm, tightening my grip in an attempt to wrench her backwards.

They weren’t about to back down, and I waited for Will to give the command but it never came.

Instead he stepped around them and his fist lifted and connected with her outstretched palms. He cut right through her fae magic. I reacted without thought, moving in front of Laina and intercepting the delta stealthily creeping forward while the rest of us were preoccupied.

“I don’t think so,” he mimicked, crowing in her face.

A growl rocked through the room and before the delta could attack, I forced my leaden legs to carry me forward, intercepting the hit before he reached the queen.

The weight in the air tripled.

Death would come to this place if we weren’t careful.

My muscles quaked with the effort of holding back the delta as our strength met. Will’s attention fractured when he glanced at me. The opportunity gave Livvy time to retaliate, but rather than use her magic, she met him with fists. Her knuckles plowed into his chin and forced his head to snap back on his neck.

“Baronne would be ashamed of you,” she grunted.

She fought with violence and fury, locking her knees and twisting to use all of her weight with each punch. As though she needed to use her fists rather than magic.

Veins stood out on the side of Will’s neck as he regained his bearings. Pulling no punches, he lifted a knee and slammed it into Livvy’s thigh.

“Don’t say his name,” Will growled. “Don’t you dare fucking say his name.”

In the distance, I swear I caught the sound of a mournful howl cutting through the tension. Bloodlust filled the air around us as Laina and Elfwaite thundered the betas with their magic attacks.

The foyer beneath our feet rocked and my arms thrust out to the side to keep my balance.

“He was my husband! Your brother,” Livvy insisted. Her chest was covered in blood where Will had clawed her.

“He’s dead. You got him killed with your bullshit. If it hadn’t been for you, he’d still be alive! The best thing you could have done was give up your daughter.” Will panted, his suit torn with his half shift.

Their movements were almost too swift for me to follow, and before I had a chance to yell, to tell them to stop, the beta made a move. He dashed for Livvy and shifted mid-jump, the other beta closer to Laina in the same moment.

The delta beneath me squirmed, held in place with a magic that wasn’t mine to command.

The wolves were a team. And once, I’d envied them for their ability to work together in such complete trust.

But so were we. I’d formed my own team and I moved to intercept the one on the left.

Livvy and Will were locked together in their own battle but the queen had none of her guards now. Only me. If I didn’t get it together, we were done for.

I drove down past the pain, into the piece of my magic growing smaller and farther away with every passing second. Sweat lined my brow and I set my jaw, fighting to channel the magic into the change.

I bared my teeth, my canines lengthening as I allowed the wolf inside of me some breathing space. I was not strong enough to take on the betas if they both chose to attack me together but I’d do whatever it took to protect Laina.

And then…it wasn’t necessary. None of it was necessary.

I stalled mid-shift as Laina sent out a wave of magic that forced the wolves, outside of Uncle Will, to their knees and kept them there.

Livvy fought with the vengeance of someone who had nothing to lose and everything to gain and had Will on his back a heartbeat later. Both betas struggled, the one on the left sucking in his breath as he realized what had happened.

He’d failed to protect his alpha.

“Tell me where the journal is,” Livvy demanded.

She wrenched Will’s arm back and his shoulder dislocated with a pop. Rather than make a sound, he sneered at her.

“You can kick my ass but I’m not talking.” He spat at her and she dodged the phlegm, bringing her face in close enough for their noses to touch.

“For the last time. Where is it? ” she hissed out.

Another wrench and his wrist looked dangerously close to breaking. He stared at her with pure hatred and, torn between them, I didn’t move at all. My mother or my alpha. The man who raised me or the woman who birthed me.

Laina’s hands fell on both of my shoulders and made the choice for me. She shook her head, a barely perceptible movement. Regal, yes, and powerful beyond reckoning. How had I thought of her as some delicate flower unable to stand up for herself? How had I forgotten what she did for me in the forest?

“I banished the journal and everything of yours to the Abyss,” Will bit out.

Behind me, Laina stiffened at the word.

“You’ll never see it again. The best thing you can do, Dae, is go there yourself and never come back.”

“You bastard .” Livvy dropped toward Will, going for the throat, and he twisted out of the way so her snapping teeth gnashed against open air.

She wasn’t a wolf but she must have been around our kind enough to fight like one. Whatever she could use to gain the advantage she would.

“Get Tavi out of here now!” Even on his back, Will’s thought was for me. “Fight these fae assholes for my niece!”

His concern, whether he meant it or not, stoked the flames of Livvy’s fury. She roared, her magic blasting out of her and carving a hole in the floor.

Laina’s arms banded around my waist and dragged me toward the door, her spellwork keeping the betas and delta in place. I shook my head, digging my heels in and skidding on the marble. The soles of my sneakers found no purchase.

“We can’t leave them like this!”

I lost my balance and dropped hard on my knees, bones creaking and my head dizzy. Black spots danced in front of my eyes as pain shot through my system.

“Come on, Tavi, move!” Elfwaite grabbed hold of my forearm and tugged with disproportionate strength to her small size.

Barbara’s Band-aid was disintegrating, piece by piece…

She’d warned me it wouldn’t last forever. The attack lasted too long to do me any favors before the dizziness began to subside and Elfwaite hauled me up. Laina was blocked from the door by one of the wolves, his teeth bared in a snarl at her.

He’d somehow managed to break free of her spell.

“You don’t want to do anything,” she warned.

I found my balance again and thrust myself between them before the beta made a move.

A pain-filled screech sounded and when I looked over, Will had a claw-tipped hand wrapped around Livvy’s throat.

“You couldn't just stay dead,” he growled in her face.

“You pawned my daughter off on a monster.” Livvy fought back with a fury I never would have imagined.

Laina reached for my hand and our fumbling fingers linked together.

“Go for the door,” Elfwaite whispered in my ear. “I’ll distract them for you.”

“I can't leave my mom.” I begged her to understand. “She needs me.”

“If you don't get out now, they’re not going to let you leave. Her Majesty’s spell will only hold for so long before the rest of the pack arrives.”

She was right. Elfwaite was always right.

My instincts roared for me to do something but when I reached again for my own halfling form, the change refused to come this time. My wolf may be close but initiating the shift was impossible.

Another wave of dizziness rocked through me and I tilted forward, held in place only because of Laina.

“Tavi, hold on,” she urged roughly.

I felt eyes on me but I didn’t care. None of it mattered when I felt the ending gaining speed, ready to crash down on us and take everyone in this room down.

Laina tightened her grip and hauled me toward the door as my head lightened in the opposite direction. I stumbled over my feet before I regained my composure.

A hasty yell toward Livvy broke through the sounds of growls but I didn’t have the strength to look back to see if she followed.

If she could even tear herself away from the fight.

I felt like shit.

Whatever quick fix Barbara had slapped on my malady was almost gone.

My next breath filled with the sweet scents of night and memories of childhood. Something cracked behind us but Laina refused to slow, Elfwaite no more than a flash of pink ahead.

“Keep going, Tavi. My magic will only hold for a short time here,” Laina urged. Her cheeks darkened with a blush as she fought to keep the spell in place and help me along as well.

Even Elfwaite’s power wasn’t enough to shift the tide in our favor.

“What about my mother?” I protested.

“She’ll be fine.”

Another yelp sounded but Laina made sure we kept pace down the front steps and along the path toward the street.

“They’ll catch us. We’re going too slow.” My snarl fell short and ended on a gargle.

“Trust me when I tell you I have this covered,” she insisted.

“Then stop the fight.”

Another yelp, followed by a long lupine whine cut off by sudden silence.

My heart thrummed against my ribs. Laina headed straight for the gates to the community at a tempo I had a hard time matching. I held her tight enough for Laina to swallow over a cry of pain yet she never faltered.

My mouth filled with the taste of something bitter. “I’ve gone downhill fast,” I mumbled.

“It’s the stress.” Laina’s voice was sharp. “You’ll be fine once we get home.”

Home . Faerie was home, not this moral world. Not the house where I grew up with nothing but Uncle Will and his rules to keep me safe. The same house I was now being hustled from.

Footsteps sounded from behind and Laina and I turned to see Livvy booking it, pumping her legs for more speed and blood dripping down the side of her arm. Magic pulsed out from her in a wave, wrapping around me and hurtling us forward at a great clip.

Air magic, tied to the elements themselves.

A fresh chorus of howls sounded from behind and my hackles rose. “I hope your magic can take us far away,” I said once Livvy caught up with us. “Because the pack is coming.”

“They aren't the only ones,” she muttered. She tucked her hair over her shoulder and her next breath rattled in her lungs. “The blockade?”

Laina bobbed her head. “It will hold as long as we need it to.”

We got away but if the pack caught up to us, then we were screwed. My head lightened further until the black at the edge of my vision crept inward and left only a tiny tunnel of reality left in front of me.

Somehow we made it to the portal. Somehow we managed to escape, but I wasn’t sure how.

Livvy removed her key from her pocket and opened the door, the wolves howling balefully behind us. Then it opened, and Mike stood on the other side gesturing madly for us to hurry.

“Go, go!” Elfwaite added her own magic to Livvy’s and carried us further, her tiny voice a bellow of command.

Blinding, needle-like pain drove into me and disintegrated the air in my body. Sweat glistened on my skin and the rest of me shook with fatigue.

“Come with us, Elfwaite. Please.” Oh yeah, I was slurring badly.

“Not yet. It isn’t the right time. I’ll be here when you need me.” Her little eyes lit up. “Trust me, Tavi, the time’s coming when you’ll need me. Now hurry!”

Laina practically threw me onto Noren’s back and the direwolf hurtled through the doorway. The moment his feet touched down on land, I sucked air in through my burning nostrils, the lightheaded feeling slowly dissipating and the ache in my bones only a dull roar.

Laina followed with Livvy close behind her.

Mike was about to slam the door shut when another body flew over the threshold. Uncle Will came out of nowhere and reached out with claw-tipped fingers, snagging Livvy’s shirt and dragging her backwards.