Chapter 18

Eighteen

brAN

The flower is innocuous on its own. Faintly tropical with its long, curling petals and vibrant red color. But when Mouse opens the jar and plucks the flower from inside, the petals unfurl for her and the stamen glows brighter.

If there was any question of its magical nature before now, it’s quashed.

Mouse looks up at me and smiles, the glow of the flower glancing off her cheeks.

Watching her become the fae princess she’s always been is fucking sexy as hell. Even if I object to her chasing power and waging war. Even if I dislike her endangering herself. Perhaps there was always some deep, dark part of me that wanted a partner who could fuck shit up beside me.

Because watching that powerful, magical flower react to Mouse like she’s the sun has me slightly aroused.

“So now what?” Mouse asks Baspin. Long curling vines grow from the cut stem. Several of them curl around her index finger, but gently, I notice. As if they don’t want to hurt her.

Behind me, the Alpha and his third-in-command are whispering to one another. I can hear every word—she’s still worried about the risk, and the Alpha is being far too nice about being questioned.

Of course, Jimmy questions me all the time. I suppose I can understand where the Alpha is coming from.

“The power is already open to you,” Baspin tells Mouse, nodding at the glowing flower in her hand. “Now use your voice and tell it what you want. But be careful with the words. You have to be extremely direct and concise.”

Mouse nods. We’ve already discussed what we’d like the flower to do, what commands we’d like it to issue to Arion. That’s not the hard part. The hard part will be getting it to him, and then getting him out, separate from his army.

We’ve discussed that too, but it’s a bit of a risky plan.

Mouse bends forward and whispers to the flower. There is a hint of a blush to her cheeks, as if she feels silly speaking to a plant.

“ Arion ,” she says, using the power of her voice, “ come to me directly, without question, without harming anyone, without speaking a word of it to anyone. You’ll find me at my home. Bran will take you there.”

I’m not one to be physically moved by words, but when Mouse uses her voice, it’s fucking nirvana. Even though the words aren’t directed at me or the Alpha or his shifter, we’re all a little dazzled by it.

It’s like a cool drink of water on a hot summer day.

The flower pulses once, then twice, and then the glow fades until the flower looks like any flower.

“Is that it?” Mouse asks.

Baspin gives her a nod of encouragement. “That should suffice. Well done, Your Highness.”

She smiles at the title now instead of cringing.

She’s well on her way to being a queen.

Because I’m still an asshole who wants to shield Mouse at all costs, we split up. Jimmy takes her to her former house in Midnight suburbia, while the Alpha, Baspin, Bianca, and I go to Bramwell Park.

Our latest intel on the fae lord is that he’s preparing for our battle in the fae grotto. So we need to get inside and get to him. I suspect he doesn’t want to fight his sibling and so offering him some kind of truce will get us an audience with him. After that, things get a little shaky and I’m putting all of my faith in Baspin and Bianca.

“Everyone know what to do?” I ask them on the edge of Bramwell, far from the grotto’s entrance.

The Alpha strips off his clothes without hesitation. Shifters care not for modesty.

Though most shifters have a hard time using their animal form outside of a full moon, most Alphas I’ve met can use their animal at will. It comes with the power. And Cal is no different.

Within seconds, a few pops of his joints, a contortion of his back, the Alpha is a wolf.

His animal form is a large black wolf with bright yellow eyes. It’s plain to anyone that he’s a shifter and not a wolf, considering his shoulders reach as high as my torso. But we’re not trying to hide that fact.

“Ready?” I ask them and they all give me a nod. Cal growls deep in his throat. “Let’s go kidnap a fae lord, then, shall we?”

The hidden door into the fae grotto appears as soon as we near it, almost like they were waiting. Two guards come out to greet us and Baspin, as planned, speaks for us. “Friends of the princess would like to speak to our esteemed lord to discuss a truce.”

The guards stand back, giving us entrance and we move forward with Baspin in the lead, the Alpha at our rear. His hearing is better than all of ours combined in wolf form, and we all agreed if an attack were to come from behind, he’d be the one to hear it first.

The grotto is quiet as we’re led across the main gathering room. It’s a far cry from the party atmosphere when I was here last.

In fact, I don’t see a single soldier. Baspin already warned us that the soldiers are likely hiding in the level below the main hall, so this isn’t unexpected.

I’m not nervous, yet .

We’re led to a hallway tucked behind a half-wall of entangled vines. Yellow and purple flowers bloom along the vines and the air smells sickly sweet with their scent.

At the end of the hallway, two large, arched doors pull open, revealing a suite of rooms beyond. “Our Summer Lord will see you here,” one of the guards says and gestures for us to enter.

I glance at Baspin, and he gives me a nod. I don’t yet know if I trust the lower ranking fae, but he’s all I have, so I go with it.

Beside me, Bianca’s fists are curled at her side and her teeth worry at her bottom lip. Before the fae lord comes in, I grab her hand and give her a squeeze. She glances up at me. I need her relaxed. I need her in control. Not afraid. Not anxious.

She swallows and gives me a nod and I let go.

The anteroom has a domed ceiling with more vines. Tendrils of moss grow along the thicker branches. Lanterns are fastened to the wall every six feet, giving the hollowed room a bright golden glow.

The furniture is elegant and gilded, the furniture of royalty.

If only Arion knew he had more of a right to the throne than Maven does.

If all goes as planned, he’ll know by sunrise.

At the far corner of the room, the wall pops open, revealing a door.

The fae lord steps through.

He’s in full battle gear. I know this for the tactic it is. He wants us to know he means to follow through.

I have no doubts about him or his intentions.

He scans us. “Where is she?” he asks. “And why bring a dog?”

The dog growls.

“This is the Midnight Alpha,” I tell him. “Have some respect.”

Now he’s on guard. His shoulders rock back, his fingers twitching at his side. “Last I knew, the vampires and the shifters were not cooperative.”

“We’ve had a change of heart,” I answer.

“That change of heart have anything to do with a fae princess and impending war?”

“Don’t all changes of heart start with war?”

He tilts his head, regarding me. I can tell he wants to reach for his sword but won’t risk war right here in his pretty little grotto.

“And the witch?”

“I don’t trust your fae,” I say and nod at Baspin. “I needed some kind of magical intervention just in case.”

“She’s no match for me,” he says.

“I have no doubt.”

“So, you come to speak of a truce. Speak.”

It’s ironic, really. Speak we shall.

“Baspin?” I say.

He smiles at his superior. Even I can tell the smile is loaded. Is Arion really so oblivious that he never noticed Baspin’s ambitions?

“My lord,” Baspin says and bows ever so slightly. And as he does, he reaches inside the pocket of his pants and produces the flower with a flourish.

Everything hinges on this moment, this magical flower. And for a brief second, I worry that Baspin has tricked us all. That somehow this plant will do nothing but earn us a laugh from both fae, but the look on Arion’s face tells me all there is to know. It’s a look of horror.

He tries to bring his hands to his ears, boxing out the sound, but he’s not quick enough.

Mouse’s voice slithers from the petals. The stamen glows, the anther pulsing, the filaments stretching.

The command comes in a whisper, a ribbon of words curling in the air.

Arion’s back goes rigid as Mouse’s voice takes over like she is the puppeteer, and Arion her man on strings.

The fae lord grits his teeth, his arms locked at his sides. “Clever,” he says. “But you’ll never get me past my guards.”

“Let us worry about that,” I tell him. “Witch?”

She goes over to the fae lord, her gaze downcast as if she’s afraid to meet his eyes. “Bianca, isn’t it?” Arion says. “I remember you working for me a few years ago. This isn’t like you.”

She licks her lips. “I’ve made my loyalties, and I am a woman of her word.”

“Hurry, witch,” I tell her.

Cal trots up beside her and Bianca buries her hand in his thick ruff. She whispers several foreign words and magic glitters in the air.

“You’ll pay for this,” Arion says right before he turns into a wolf, an exact copy of Cal.

The Alpha shifts back to his human form and gives his shoulders a roll.

Bianca’s face turns bright red at the sight of the fully nude Alpha. She turns away, a hand over her mouth.

Baspin points at the door Arion entered from. “Through there,” he tells the Alpha, “then the second door on the left. Follow the hall all the way down. Take another left. That’s where the hall will turn into a tunnel. There will be other fae coming and going. Make sure you use your nose to avoid them. If you need concealment, you’ll find lots of alcoves dark enough for you in your wolf form to hide. Keep going straight and you’ll eventually come to a door. That’ll get you out the other side of Bramwell Park.”

“Be careful,” I tell the Alpha.

“I’m more careful than you,” he counters.

“I’m just saying, I would hate for you to get your dick cut off in a faerie grotto on my account.”

He laughs. “I’m glad you care, Duval. I’ll meet you at Jessie’s house in thirty minutes.”

“Make it twenty,” I tell him, and he grumbles before shifting back into his wolf and slipping through the door.

“Here we go,” I tell the rest of them and snap my fingers at the newly transformed fae lord. “Come, doggie.”

He growls, but come he does.