Episode Eighty-Six

GROWING brOMANCE

The Summer Queen, possessing my sister, and determined to destroy me, doesn't make it any farther than a foot from her chair before Damien is between us, his back to me.

"Don't even consider it." His voice is quiet and even.

But a quiet, controlled Damien Duval is no less terrifying than a violent one.

I think that's where his violence resides: in the silence.

"Or you'll what?" The Summer Queen challenges using my sister's mouth, my sister's voice. "You'll do nothing to put your precious mortal girl at risk."

"It's not the mortal girl you have to worry about."

The queen's smile is tight for a beat before a laugh interrupts it. It's a little trill in the back of her throat, meant to sound sinister but instead betrays her fear.

Even with the gate sealed all these years, she must know of Damien's reputation. He's been around a long time.

The queen sits down again and the chair legs rock back and forth on the uneven stone floor.

"I guess that's it then?" Kelly— the queen —leans to the side so she can see me around the hard line of Damien's body. "We've drawn our lines, princess. So I will be going."

Kelly slumps suddenly, eyes closed, and then a second later, she's awake and screaming.

The chain rattles and grows taut as she lurches for the door. Damien catches her. "Stop. Look at me, Kelly."

Big, fat tears are streaming down her pale face. Her hands are practically claws on his bicep, like she's holding on with every ounce she has left.

She finally looks up. "Damien?"

"I'm here," he tells her, his tone soothing and filled with worry.

I know Kelly is strong—she had to be in order to take over my care when our mother died—but this is different.

The queen may be gone, but I'm not stupid. She can come back whenever she likes until we figure out how to sever that open magical link between Kelly and the fae realm, the one left over from the spell cast by the Renshaw witches.

With that connection still open, if the queen wanted to, could she make my sister jump off a bridge? Light herself on fire? I shudder at the possibilities. I don't want to contemplate all of the horrible things that woman could do to my sister if given the freedom to do it.

I'm grateful we caught the connection early enough so we could put Kelly in a safe location. The queen revealing it so soon was a reckless mistake.

She's clearly no strategist. Not like Bran and Damien.

And I'm going to use that to my advantage.

I turn away from Damien and my sister. "Please keep her safe," I tell him before I leave and he barely acknowledges me, as if to say, How dare you question my dedication to her.

At the door, I find the Alpha and his third-in-command waiting. "Well played," Cal says, nodding at the cell phone in my hand. "But how do you plan to get that recording in front of Arion?"

Bran comes up behind me. "He's lived here on the mortal side for decades. He must have a cell phone."

"Yeah and do you have his number?" Cal asks.

"I'm sure someone does."

"No." I shake my head and make my way back down the stone hallway. "I want to see his face when he hears the queen's words. I want to make sure he doesn't dismiss it as some kind of ploy."

They follow me out of the basement, and I realize, once we reach the first floor of Duval House, that they've all been waiting for me to give my final thoughts.

In the side hall, where the door to the basement is tucked into an alcove, I turn to the three of them. Bran, tall, dark and scorchingly handsome, equal parts dangerous and terrifying, and Cal, hard-edged with muscle, raw with power, and Keiko, fierce, loyal, but willing to speak her mind, and all of them are staring at me waiting, willing to hear me out.

Not that long ago, I thought I was just a mortal girl who was destined to pledge her life to a vampire house and let her veins become a 24-hour buffet unless I escaped.

And now some of the most powerful figures in Midnight Harbor are watching me with interest, waiting to see what my plan is. As if my ideas might also hold value.

A flare of pride rushes through my body and because I'm a dork about this stuff, tears burn in my eyes until I sniff them back and turn away.

"Let's put together a team," I say over my shoulder, making my way back through the house to the library and the coffee bar. I need some caffeine first.

"A team for what?" Bran asks.

"A team to help separate my brother from his fae army."

Bran doesn't argue my plan. And neither does Cal. In fact, I think they like the plan way too much because they've assembled several vampires, and three more shifters in a gallery hall in the back of Duval House in record time, much to Keiko's dismay.

I approach her as the vampires and Cal talk about possibilities and concerns.

"I'm really sorry he's dragged you into this," I tell her, lifting my chin in the Alpha's direction.

She uncorks a bottle of whiskey she's pulled from the small bar along the wall and pours a shot into a glass. "He didn't drag me into it. You did."

I wince. "The Alpha is his own man. He can make his own decisions."

Glass in hand, she takes a sip, but if the alcohol burns, she doesn't show it. "That's where you're wrong." She curls her arm inward, holding the glass up by her shoulder as she considers me. "A shifter is always fighting for balance with their animal. It's a give and take relationship. And what Cal and Cal's wolf wants, is their mate. And both of them think you have influence over that mating. So they're going to do whatever they can to protect you too."

I really can't argue with any of that. Cal said as much when he revealed the secret to me. But I would never force him to follow me into battle just to manipulate the situation with my best friend.

Keiko doesn't look much older than I am. Maybe in human years, she'd be about thirty. But as a shifter, I know she could easily be a hundred. Probably she has lots and lots of wisdom from experiences that I don't have.

"Okay," I say and pour myself a glass too, downing the shot for courage. I, unlike the dark-haired shifter, do wince at the burn. "If you were me, what would you do?"

She narrows her eyes, assessing me. She takes another tentative sip, lets the alcohol roll around on her tongue before swallowing it. "In your position, I would do the same thing." She knocks back the rest of the whiskey and sets the glass down with a loud thud. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Fair enough."

"Just know that when it comes down to it, I'm protecting him, no matter what. Even if it leaves you in the lurch. Even if you end up dead. Even if he'll hate me for it later."

"I understand."

She crosses her arms over her chest. She's wearing a black crop top that's boxy on her lithe frame. There's an Art Deco dagger tattooed on the underside of her left arm with the initials MXP etched on the hilt.

"I would regret not trying one last effort to save him though," she says to me.

"What do you mean?"

She pulls her cell phone from the back pocket of her jeans and types out a message. It takes me a second to put it together—she's typing me a message so Cal won't hear it, whatever it is. In fact, I can feel his eyes on us, watching, waiting for some detail to slip.

Keiko shows me the screen.

Use your voice power on him. Turn him away from this.

I look over at Cal again. In the overhead lighting, his blond hair almost looks white. It's a sharp contrast from the black ink that swirls in an arch over each side of his scalp.

Our gazes lock and he gives me a barely perceptible shake of his head.

It doesn't matter what the request was, he doesn't want to ditch this fight.

And I think this might be where Keiko is wrong. I don't think Cal is here solely to protect me because I'm Sam's best friend. I think it's more complicated than that.

I think he's a good man who wants to do the right thing.

But I also think he and Bran are becoming friends, and men like Cal and Bran do not turn their backs on the people they care about.

It makes my chest a little warm and fuzzy with how adorable it is, but I don't want to get distracted by it. Not yet anyway. Someday when this is over I will properly admire their growing bromance.

For now, I need to focus on one thing: kidnapping my fae brother.