18. Chapter Eighteen

We were led up the double staircase and down the opposite hallway than Cassius had disappeared down. I could still smell his anger in the air, and I wondered if it was just the draft of the building or the magic of the world. He hadn't been angry when he realized my name or even knew we were intruding on his lands. He became angry when I mentioned his father, then tried to politic him. That had pissed him off incredibly well.

"You, human." Sorcha snapped her fingers to make Fiona look at her. "You will stay here." She opened a door in the hall and revealed a beautiful suite.

"My name is Fiona."

"Beautiful name," Sorcha replied, smiling charmingly as if she turned on her charisma again. "You have an adjoining room. Do you want someone in it? For your safety? It's dangerous for humans to be in this realm. You might attract all sorts of unwanted attention…or some old predators we've kept locked away for a very long time."

"I'll take it," Rian said, stepping up beside his mother and wrapping a protective arm around her shoulder.

Sorcha tilted her head to the side, studying Rian and Fiona.

"Definitely not lovers…" she whispered, voicing a thought. She wasn't talking to us. "But close…"

"He's my son. His name is Rian," Fiona said quickly.

"Ah, good," Sorcha said, nodding quickly. "If he was a boyfriend or lover, I would have hung him by his heels for being so stupid to bring a human here, but I feel the wild magic around him. Not the best control over it, right, Rian?" Sorcha's smile was still beautiful and charming, but her jab was clear. "Take better care of your mother. Her safety is your responsibility now."

"Actually, it's mine," I said, stepping up.

"No," Sorcha said, shaking her head. "You are about to enter a battle with my husband you shouldn't have asked for. You should focus on what you plan to say to the Lord. Rian will keep his mother safe until the moment you leave these halls. And you, werewolf? What's your part in this?"

"Heath Everson, rogue werewolf. I'm a friend of Jacky's."

Sorcha's smile was delighted now. "Liar," she purred. "Not a friend," she murmured. "You two are the ones who are the lovers. Don't fret. I have an eye for these things. My friends say I meddle too much in their love lives." She looked between us with a curious light in her eye. I was stuck on the fact this strange woman had friends. "Don't werecats and werewolves hate each other?"

"If you want to sit in on my meeting with Cassius, you're more than welcome to hear an explanation," I said stiffly, uncomfortable with her intense scrutiny.

"Oh, this just keeps getting more and more interesting. I'm so glad we didn't let the hounds eat you." She turned back to Rian and Fiona. "Go into your rooms. The midday meal is about to be served. I'll have someone bring you a bite to eat here. I'm not up for showing you around the estate, so you'll be confined to your rooms unless we send for you."

Rian took his chance and dragged Fiona into the bedroom, closing himself and his mother inside.

"Paranoid boy. It's as though he's never been in a fae home before and thinks the walls are going to eat him," Sorcha said, looking back at me. "Your rooms will be here, right across the hall. You can stay together in one of the rooms if it suits you. No one will bother either of you unless there's an emergency." She opened one door then the other. "These two. We'll be summoning you, Jacqueline, soon. Or do you prefer Jacky? Normally, when Cassius is about to truly name someone, he doesn't use variations on a name."

"Jacqueline is better," I said softly.

"So, Jacky is for friends and family," Sorcha said, nodding quickly. "And we're not friends or family. Jacqueline, it is." She ushered us through one of the doors and blocked our way out with her body, leaning on the door frame. "Collect your thoughts, Jacqueline. He'll be calling to speak with you soon. You will not be taking the midday meal here in your rooms with your lover werewolf. You will be taking it with Cassius and me."

"That fast?" My palms went sweaty.

"The sooner you tell us what's going on, the longer my husband has to think about the situation you have brought to our doorstep." She never lost that smile, but her eyes softened. "Beyond you, there's too much happening among the fae for us to pretend you don't have vital information. Now, if that's all—"

"Wait," Heath spoke up, holding out a hand to stop Sorcha as she began to close the door. She gave him a questioning look but said nothing. "Time…I have a human daughter. Will I lose time with her the longer we stay here?"

"Oh…" Sorcha sighed, looking relieved and sympathetic. "No. This is a stable realm, and its timing is equal to the modern mortal realm. Don't worry about that. We're going to get you back to the human realm and to your daughter, and you'll find that the day you spent here is the only day you have lost."

"Th—" Heath stopped before he said thank you, then looked uncomfortable because he was too polite not to say something.

"Only the foolish young fae or the weak need to trap people in the bargains of a thank you for something freely offered," Sorcha said softly. "I am neither of those, but the thought of your gratitude is noted."

She closed us in, and I listened as her heels walked down the hall until they faded away.

"Well, Rian did something right," I whispered, looking at Heath as he surveyed the room.

"Did he?" my lover growled.

"He was hoping to find his father or his brothers," I reminded him, going back to what Rian had said. "And he did…in a sense."

"Damn it." Heath's dry, humorless laugh made me feel as hollow as he sounded. "This is out of my depth, Jacky."

"Out of mine, too." I reached for him and took the chance to wrap my arms around him when he didn't pull away. "At least we know you won't lose time with Carey."

"You won't, either," he said, turning in my arms to embrace me in turn. "How do these things always go so wrong?"

"We're unlucky," I said, shrugging. He chuckled and kissed my forehead, then dipped lower. A soft growl made his chest rumble against mine right before his mouth descended to claim my lips.

"We are," he agreed. "But I'm grateful, too. Sometimes, our unluckiness runs into a stroke of luck. Look at this. We're in the fae realms, yet we're in a stable one where we won't lose time in our normal lives and show up a hundred years in the future. We've also found Cassius, though I wish we hadn't."

"Same. I just wanted to protect Fiona. I don't want to get in the middle of fae politics, but he could help us. He might want to defend his family, even if he doesn't know about them. We could use him."

"We could," Heath agreed again. "I guess we'll find out when you talk to him."

"I wish you were going to be there for it," I admitted softly, leaning to put my head on his chest.

"Why?" he scoffed. "You know your way around the powerful. I'm not his equal the way you are—a child of powerful people expected to maintain something—I'm a werewolf Alpha who reported to a council, which reported to Callahan, even if he did sit on it with us. He only did that for appearances, to make us feel close to him, trust him more, and so, he could keep an eye on us to make sure we could never challenge him." Heath shrugged this time. "I'm not Cassius' equal, but you are. Royalty." He pushed some of my messy hair from my face. "Why don't we try to find the bathroom to clean you up?"

"Am I dirty?"

"I can still smell blood and silver," he murmured, kissing my cheek. "I can't do anything about the silver, but you can at least walk in there feeling a bit more confident, if not for you, then for me. I don't want to send you to him looking vulnerable."

"Would you make Landon clean up?" I carefully asked as he pulled away to grab my hand. I let him lead me to a few of the side doors, checking each one until we found the expansive bathroom. There was a door on the other side, which he checked as well. It was our second bedroom.

"Yes," he finally answered as he started the shower, testing the temperature. "If I was sending him to see another werewolf, I would make sure he was the best I could make him. While he never got many, people did challenge him for his position in the pack. Landon never fit well with a large pack, and he had to fight. Even though he was my son, it didn't make him untouchable, even if that was the perception. Over time, he was challenged less and less, but the threat was always there. So, if he was injured, I personally cleaned him up, making sure he would walk out looking less vulnerable. I never wanted there to be a day when my son didn't come home to me."

By the time he was done talking, I was stripped down and ready to get into the shower. When Heath didn't leave as I got under the water, I realized he was treating me the same way he would Landon. He looked over my injuries, made sure the blood I couldn't reach was well and truly washed. The touch was caring but not romantic, helpful but not overstepping.

"What's next after the shower?" I asked, wrapping myself in a towel.

"Appearance," he said softly, then a pained look passed over his face. "Emma wore what she called war makeup."

I remembered Emma—half-witch, half-werewolf, able to use everything from both of her bloodlines. Or maybe she was like Subira, not half anything. Subira had been born a witch and been Changed. She was both. Emma may have been like that. Emma became power-hungry and had been so offended by Heath not giving her power, she had led a coup against him and Tywin to take the Dallas pack. She had taken both her husband and Richard, Heath's oldest son, down that dark path.

None of them had survived it.

"Tell me," I said softly in the silence Heath left behind.

"She said as a powerful woman, she had to work harder. It wasn't so much throwing on a suit as I could, or Landon often did. She had to make sure everything was perfect because if she was even a little wrong, people would see her as less competent. Now, we don't have any fine things for you to wear, but you can at least clean up."

I nodded. He was right. I dried and left my hair down, something I didn't often do. I normally kept it pulled back and out of my way. It was longer than I had remembered. The curls bounced at the bottom, but it was too long and heavy to be curly throughout. I washed my face, glad my skin was clear. I had bags under my eyes but didn't have any makeup, so there was no hope for that. Plus, Cassius and Sorcha knew exactly what state I was in when we had been dragged through their doors. This was all purely to appease a werewolf who was so far out of his element, he was clinging to something he understood.

Heath was gone by the time I was done. I got dressed in the only set of clothes I had and went into the main bedroom to find him sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Better?" I asked, gesturing at myself as I walked into his view.

"Much," he murmured, pulling me to stand between his legs. He wrapped his arms around my waist and put his face against my stomach. "Sorry if I seem pushy right now."

"It's been a long week," I reminded him, playing with his hair.

"No…this. We've faced everything together. It was hard letting you deal with Price on your own, but I knew you had Hasan. If I'm ever not there to back you up, someone from your family is." He gave some mix of a sigh and a growl. "But you have to talk to Cassius alone."

"You're just across the building," I whispered.

"Across the building is too far," he countered.

"He won't kill me."

"We don't know that."

No, we didn't, but I didn't tell him he was right. Cassius was the lord here, the ultimate power, and if I deeply offended him, he would have the justifiable right to kill me and send everyone with me out on their own or kill them as well. I didn't know Cassius, didn't know what he was like, and he was backed by a woman like Sorcha. Something about her screamed power, but not in the way of Brion or Cassius. They had both been brimming with power, which made them apparently deadly. Sorcha was nonchalant, casual, smiling, and charismatic, which made me wonder if she was the most powerful of the three of them. I had seen that act before. Many in my family were very good at it when they needed to turn it on.

We waited in silence, knowing the summons could come any minute. A soft knock on the door had me walking to it without thinking to stop. Heath followed me, having my back as I answered it, his body tense with held-back energy. He was ready to launch into a fight to defend me at any moment.

I was greeted by the man who had been riding with Sorcha with the hunting hounds.

"The lord and lady will see you now, Jacqueline, daughter of Hasan."