Chapter 59

Isat cross legged on the floor of Darius's bedroom, wearing his Pitball shirt with my hair tied in a scruffy knot on the top of my head, the sound of his deep breathing and the occasional turn of a page all that disturbed the silence of the room.

Dawn was breaking across the horizon, the light like golden fire which set the distant mountaintops ablaze and crested the waves of the sea in flames beyond Rump Island. The sky was a watercolour of orange, pink and gold, all hazy lines and picturesque beauty, so at odds with the ugliness of war which dominated the land beneath it.

I turned another page in the Book of Ether, making a note in the journal that lay open beside me, sketching out a stone figure as the bones of a plan began to form in my mind. It wouldn't be easy…hell, I doubted it would even be possible at all, but if I could just combine the right runes…

"Roxy?" Darius grumbled from the bed, the sound of him rolling over following his words.

I looked around, smiling at him as he sat up, a moment of panic rising behind his eyes then falling away as he found me sitting on the floor.

"Did you think I'd snuck off in the night?" I teased, my eyes roaming down the rigid muscles of his chest, the mussed-up bed hair which always looked so good on him, like my fingers had been knotted within the dark strands for hours. Which to be fair, they had.

"Wouldn't put it past you," he agreed, his gaze moving to the open books before me, scanning the pages and my notes and making his own assumptions. "So we're still seeking The Ferryman today, are we?"

"Mmm," I agreed in a non-committal way which instantly got his back up.

"No more bullshit half plans, Roxy. If you have more great ideas about leaping into canyons alone or-"

"First off, I wasn't alone - I was with Darcy. Secondly, I am the queen which means I don't answer to you. Third-"

"Don't be an asshole," he griped, getting out of bed and pacing over to me.

"Impossible. Asshole is my standard setting."

"Then don't be a coward." He fell still at my back, his imposing height even more obvious than usual as he towered over me.

I tipped my head back until it was resting against his knees so I could look up at him. "How am I a coward?"

"By hiding things from me. If you don't think you can handle my reaction then it stands to reason that you're afraid of it, so-"

I rolled my eyes and looked back down at my books. "I'm not afraid of your reactions, dude. I just enjoy that look of utter fury you get behind your eyes when I surprise you."

"What have I told you about calling me-"

A loud knock sounded at the door, and I called out for whoever it was to come in before my dude could get much more irritable about being my dude.

Geraldine swept in, calling out a greeting with a platter of freshly-baked bagels perched on her arm.

"My Queen, you look utterly regal this morn. Beauty beyond compare. Even at the crack of dawn you shine brighter than the sun," she gushed, making me snort a laugh because my hair definitely needed washing and as I basically hadn't slept all night, I was pretty certain the bags beneath my eyes had bags of their own now too. But I appreciated the pretty lie all the same.

"I look like I spent the night crawling backwards through a thorn bush, but thank you for the compliment, Geraldine. You look stunning as always. Is that a new dress?"

"Oh this old potato sack?" she laughed, placing the bagels on Darius's coffee table then doing a twirl so I could fully appreciate the peach dress she wore, the skirt floating around her thighs as she turned. "You are too kind."

"Gerry? You left me on the damn stairs," Max grunted, and I looked around as he stomped into the room, carrying a huge chest with bits of paper sticking out of the closed lid. He dropped it by the door with a bang then glanced between me and Darius with a word of greeting.

"Morning, Darius, are you planning to get dressed for the meeting or just stand about shirtless the whole time?" he asked.

"Pish posh, Maxy, don't encourage the man to don clothing - let us have something to gaze upon with unfettered appreciation, won't you?" Geraldine scolded.

"He looks cold," Max insisted, stalking over to Darius's closet and tossing him a hoody.

"I thought you said we were meeting at seven?" I questioned, glancing at the clock which said we had half an hour until then and wondering whether I was going to get dressed or just stay like this for it now.

"Yes, yes, my dear Queen. But the buffet won't deliver itself. Come, Maxy." Geraldine swept from the room, clicking her fingers at Max to get him to follow and he did so, though I could hear him complaining about the fact that Geraldine hadn't let him eat so much as a single bagel yet as they disappeared down the corridor.

"You gonna tell me what you're planning then?" Darius asked, bending down to pick up the journal I'd been writing in and flipping through the pages. He frowned as he got back to the start of it then turned the front cover to me with a questioning look. The words Property of Lance Orion had been embossed in gold on the navy cover and I shrugged innocently as I read them.

"He has like ten of those," I said. "He doesn't need them all. And they're fancy. The paper is all soft and there's a little built-in bookmark thing."

"There are at least fifteen pages of notes in his handwriting in the front of this," Darius pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's all just theoretical blah, blah, blah stuff. I needed it for important things."

Darius flipped through my notes then turned the open book back to me showing me a doodle of a green Dragon with a sword sticking out of his fat head and little Xs for eyes to prove that he was definitely dead.

"Those are my cunning plans," I added in a low whisper that made him laugh.

"I was thinking more along the lines of decapitation, but whatever works," he said, turning more pages then pausing again, showing me the runes I'd scrawled there. "What are these for?"

"An idea," I said cryptically. "One which almost certainly won't work and I don't want to discuss without giving it more thought."

Darius looked inclined to argue with me on that, then he ran his gaze over my face, seeming to realise it would get him nowhere and he sighed, tossing the journal back down beside me.

"Coffee?"

"I knew I didn't just marry you because you were dying," I groaned longingly.

"No," he agreed. "It was because I was dying and I have a big cock."

"Hail to that."

I gave him an indecent look as I considered forgetting the coffee and using his body to help wake me up but…coffee. And I really needed a bath before everyone turned up here too.

Darius seemed to read my mind, giving me a rueful grin which I distinctly remembered him giving me from a position between my thighs last night. He leaned down to press a kiss to my lips then headed for the door.

I watched him go, blowing him a kiss as he left before peeling myself off of the floor and heading into his ensuite to run myself that bath.

I darted back for a bagel, slathering it in butter and eating it in five bites before stripping off and sinking into the scalding, bubble-filled water.

My eyes fell closed as I relaxed into the tub, the jacuzzi bubbles bringing a smile to the corners of my lips as I noted their ridiculousness while simultaneously enjoying them.

"Hey," Caleb's voice startled me awake, making me realise I'd dozed off and I looked up at him over a mountain of bubbles where he stood in the doorway. "Geraldine said to meet here, didn't she?" he confirmed, seeming to think my current state suggested that I wasn't expecting guests.

"Yeah. She's in the midst of bringing breakfast and Darius went for coffee. I just…fell asleep in the bath for like a minute. I'll be out in a sec."

"Have you found anything useful in the books?" he asked, moving away from the door but leaving it open so we could talk. He picked up the Book of Ether and looked down at the page I'd been studying.

"Maybe," I hedged. "Ether is so…long game. It's kinda hard to see many ways that it could be used in a fight because most of those spells and incantations require set-up, sacrifice, time. And even then they're not really aggressive spells. Sure there are curses and shit like that, but honestly the cost involved in those, not to mention the fact that many require hair or toenails or whatever from the intended victim make them pretty useless to us. The Elemental books have more aggressive magics in them like bone and blood magic which could be used to bolster the power available to the wielder, but they take time to learn and we don't have time. Besides, they're pretty fucking dangerous if you get it wrong."

"So what's with all the research?" Caleb asked, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, still studying the book.

"I'm trying to think outside the box. Looking at some of the spells and taking pieces from one to add to another, using my understanding of the runes to…well I'm not totally sure on what yet but I feel like I have the threads of a plan coming together in my mind. Whether or not it will actually work is another question."

The door to the room opened again and I craned my neck to see who else had arrived, smiling as I spotted Darius with the coffees, but his face fell to stone as he looked between me and Caleb.

"Why the fuck are you sitting in the bath while he's in the room?" he snapped, his words coated in a possessive growl.

Honestly, I'd been about to ask Caleb to shut the door while I got out, but Darius's tone made me narrow my eyes instead.

"I fell asleep in here and he arrived, no big deal."

"You're naked," he pointed out in a low voice, and I glanced at the bag of coffees nervously. If he spilled those while throwing a bitch fit over me falling asleep in the damn bath then I was going to kick his ass.

"There are a million bubbles in this thing," I pointed out. "I'm more covered up than I am in most of the clothes I own."

"That's true," Caleb agreed unhelpfully and Darius's eyes flashed gold.

"That is not the-" he began, raising his hand to point at me, the paper bag full of precious coffees swinging wildly.

"Gah, put the coffees down and stop freaking out," I demanded. "They're just tits, dude. No one cares."

"You seriously did not just dude me again," Darius growled, stalking across the room and Caleb casually turned his eyes back down to the book in his hands even though I could tell he was holding back a laugh and not reading at all. "And they are not just tits. They're your tits."

"You wouldn't care if I was having a bath while you were in the room," I said.

"That's because I'm your husband and we fuck each other so I get to see them."

"You assholes get naked to shift all the time and it's not like I'm concerned about that. Caleb must have seen Seth's cock a thousand times before he was tempted to start sucking it."

"A thousand and one," Caleb put in, biting back his laughter. "The one over was the charm."

"See? He'd have to see my tits at least nine hundred more times before he'd be tempted by them, and I don't bathe that often. You've probably got a couple of years before you need to start caring and by then we might be thinking another three-way would be just the thing to spice up our marriage bed so-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you mean another three-way?" Seth demanded, stalking into the room.

Darius snarled furiously, spinning him towards the wall with a slap of water magic so that the supposedly holy, only-for-his-viewing-pleasure, tits wouldn't be seen by yet another of his friends. I rolled my eyes and dunked my head beneath the water to wash the conditioner out of it. When I emerged, the two of them were bickering like a pair of old biddies who had just spotted the last tin of peaches on the shelf.

"What's with the secrecy?" Seth barked, shoving his own power against the water magic Darius was aiming at him. He broke through it as my big Dragon asshole of a husband found himself tapped out, reminding me that he'd been going on about hauling his treasure into bed with us last night, but I guessed I'd worn him out and he'd fallen asleep before doing it.

"I will rip your eyes from your fucking heads if either of you look at my wife while she's in that bathtub," he cursed, storming towards me as if he might try and haul me from the water himself, dropping the bag of coffees down on the floor and grabbing a thick bathrobe from the chair closest to the tub.

A flick of my fingers put a barrier of air magic around the ensuite, stopping him from reaching the door and I pointedly ignored him as he punched it with the full force of all of those glorious muscles. Honestly if he'd just made his point without the rage I probably would have listened, but I really didn't like him bossing me around. At least not in public. If he wanted to get himself all worked up then take that rage out on my body in private…well, let's just say I wouldn't be complaining and the thought of it urged me to continue with my stubborn brat routine as I continued to rinse suds from my hair and he kept punching my shield to no avail.

"Why does it sound like someone's being murdered in here?" Orion's voice came from the door, and if Darius hadn't been losing his shit quite so spectacularly, I might have chosen that moment to draw the line. As we were already deep into this game, I ignored Orion's curse of horror as he entered and looked my way, my sister right behind him.

"What's with the public bathing?' Orion snapped, his eyes now firmly on the view beyond the window and shit, I think he might have been blushing because he looked embarrassed as hell. There were a butt ton of bubbles though, so I knew there wasn't actually anything for him to have seen anyway.

Darcy looked from me to Caleb and Seth and finally to my husband whose fist was looking all kinds of fucked up from how hard he was punching the air shield.

I gave her a look which said ‘I can't just bow down to this shit' and she arched a brow which said ‘hell no you can't' before speaking for the whole room to hear.

"What's the problem, Darius? They're only tits."

"Can we get back to the mention of a threesome," Seth pushed.

"When they were Star Crossed, me, Tory and Darius fucked," Caleb said, still not bothering to look up from the book in his lap. "It was like a work around on the ‘keeping them apart' bullshit - you know about this."

"I do not know about this," Seth growled. "I do not know about this at all."

Caleb glanced up at him, finally drawing his attention from the book while Darius continued to slam his fists into my air shield and roar like a beast. There probably wasn't long left before he turned that fury on one of the other people in this room…

"That's like, common knowledge, man," Caleb said.

"Yeah, we all know about that," Darcy agreed, taking a seat on the windowsill beside Orion who was still firmly staring out at the view as if the idea of my naked body disgusted him. Then again, the thought of him getting his professor on with my sister gave me a severe case of the heebie-jeebies so I guessed it was the old tuna sandwich effect. I was his mate's sister, ergo I was the old tuna sandwich - about as appealing as it sounded.

"I'm sorry, are you all deaf?" Seth clipped. "Because I did not know. I knew nothing of this at all. The only three-ways involving another dude that Caleb has ever taken part in to my knowledge were with me."

"Err, I guess you don't really wanna hear about the time me and Milton Hubert met this blazing hot Chimera in Tucana and-"

Seth held out a hand, gagging as if he had just vomited in his own mouth. "I need to be alone," he gasped before pressing his fist to his mouth and heading for the door. "Lance. Are you coming or what?" he demanded.

"Why the fuck would I be coming?" Orion asked Darcy like she might have some clue what Seth was thinking at any given moment.

Darius bellowed in fury, running full force at my shield and I let it drop, sighing dramatically as he charged straight through the place where it had been and stumbled to a halt, looming over me.

"What now?" I taunted, raising a hand coated in bubbles and blowing them straight at him.

Darius looked about ready to commit murder and I bit my lip. Violence looked so fucking good on him.

"Out!" he barked, the word not for me but for the others. "Unless any of you wants a visual demonstration of who owns my wife's body because it's clear to me that she needs a fucking reminder."

My smile widened and Darcy wrinkled her nose.

"We came here for a meeting. Can't you two just argue about this later?" she asked.

"Yeah, I want to eat those bagels before they go cold," Caleb said, getting to his feet, the Book of Ether still in his arms. "Can I have one of those coffees too?"

"Go help Geraldine with the breakfast shit," Darius snarled, grabbing the door to the ensuite and shoving it shut, but he threw it closed too hard and it simply bounced against the door frame and slowly swung open again at his back. "You can come back here once my wife has put her damn clothes on."

"You realise none of us care about her tits, right?" Caleb pushed because apparently I wasn't the only one who got a kick out of poking ill-tempered Dragons.

Darius's gaze snapped to his and he took a threatening step forward which Caleb answered with a wide grin and a salute before shooting from the room. "You can try your luck with me when I get back, asshole." His words carried to us as he disappeared and Darius growled, taking a step as if to follow him, but I caught his wrist with a whip of water that I lifted from the bath, suds sloshing over the sleeve of his shirt.

"Come on, Lance," Seth barked.

Orion threw Darcy over his shoulder and shot from the room without another word, the door slamming at his back.

Within less than a minute, Darius had hauled me from the tub with a fistful of my hair, bent me over it and was ten inches deep inside me before I could even say fuck you.

His clothes were still fully on his body, only his belt ripped open and fly shoved down to reveal every solid inch of him, the only thing he needed to teach me that lesson he'd promised. And despite my rolling eyes and taunting words, I loved every fucking second of it, the way the water sloshed over his clothes as I pressed my hands flat to the bottom of the tub while he fucked me, the way his fingers bit into my flesh and most of all the way he called me his with every single thrust, making absolutely certain that I would never forget who owned me and how much I enjoyed it when he reminded me of the fact.

It was fast and messy and brutal, the two of us coming hard, cursing each other's names the entire time.

"You did that on purpose," he growled as he finally drew me upright, turning me around so he could claim a kiss.

"I didn't," I replied. "But maybe I should in future."

Darius growled, but there was no real irritation to it anymore and I bopped him on the nose with my fingers before cleaning myself off again then getting dressed at last.

By the time the others returned carrying the various platters and breakfast options which Geraldine deemed necessary for the start to the day, I was wearing sweatpants and one of Darius's hoodies, curled up on his lap and enjoying my coffee which had thankfully survived him dumping the bag on the floor.

Caleb dropped into the spot beside us on the couch, seemingly unconcerned about Darius still being pissed and held out the Book of Ether for me to look at.

"This looks promising," he said.

I took the book from him, frowning as I read the description of the complex rune which had been drawn to the right of the page. It was meant for banishment. Though what it banished was unclear.

I flicked my fingers, using air magic to snatch my journal from the floor where I'd left the rest of my study nest and quickly made note of the rune in it, despite not knowing what help it might be.

"Where did you get that?" Orion asked, narrowing his eyes at my journal as he took a seat opposite us, sitting on the floor before the TV with Darcy.

"It was a gift," I told him, tucking the book down the side of the couch so that Darius's leg could guard it from grumpy Vampires.

Geraldine interrupted him before he could say anything else, giving us her routine morning report of the army, explaining how many new recruits had joined the rebellion, gushing about how many of them had come to us both from the liberated Nebula Inquisition Centres and from Solaria as a whole.

"You are a beacon of strength and justice, my Queens," she said, clutching her heart while handing out bagels, fruit and yoghurt, first to Darcy and me, then Darius, Orion, Caleb and finally tossing Seth and Max some half-heartedly.

"Why am I always last?" Max grouched, though he stuffed the food into his mouth all the same.

"It is a matter of prestige, of course," Geraldine told him. "First the Queens, above all as is just and right."

"Uh-huh. But why can't I be after them?"

"Well then, our dear Dragoon, consort to one of the True Queens, returned from death itself where he no doubt had slim pickings when it came to food of this quality-"

"He was dead, he didn't need any food," Seth interrupted as he took a seat on Caleb's other side, taking a savage bite from a bar of chocolate which I'd hidden behind the fucking headboard.

"Hey," I snapped, lunging for him, but he swung the chocolate out of reach and my coffee almost became a casualty. "That's mine."

"It's compensation," he accused, pointing at me with the chocolate. "You should just be glad I'm not demanding you and Darius have a three-way with me to make this right."

"Ew, I don't want to have a fucking three-way with you. And how would that make it right?"

"It would reset the balance," he said like that was the most obvious thing in the world. "Or…actually the balance would be better reset if I had the three-way with you two," he said, now pointing my chocolate bar at Orion and Darcy.

"Ewww, Seth," Darcy protested, and Orion glared at him.

"I would sooner peel my own skin from my bones than have your cock anywhere near my mate."

"But not you," Seth sniggered, and Orion's glare grew deadly.

"Ew," Darcy hissed again.

"Stop with the fucking ews," Seth barked. "I don't want to have to fuck any of you either. I'm just saying what we should do."

"How many pack orgies did you have before you and Caleb started hooking up?" Max asked pointedly, but Seth whipped his hand through the air like that meant nothing.

"That's not the point."

"It is the point," Caleb said. "Besides, you definitely knew this already."

"I did not-" Seth began, but Caleb kissed him to shut him up.

"Point is that I'm yours now, right?"

Seth looked at him then sighed, reaching out to caress the mate mark behind Caleb's ear. "Okay. I won't have any revenge threesomes. But don't ever mention that vicious rumour about you and Milton again."

Caleb rolled his eyes then sat back in his seat, throwing his arm around Seth, who offered me the half-chewed, definitely slobbered on remains of my chocolate bar.

"Here," he said.

"Keep it," I replied. But I was going to need another hiding place.

"Well, now that nary nonsense has been put aside, perhaps we can get on with discussing the war?" Geraldine interrupted.

We fell into discussions about tactics and what else we still needed to achieve before our army came to blows with Lionel's. Geraldine had sent scouts to assess the damage those monsters had caused to Lionel's army but so far none of them had returned and we had to assume that he had tightened the defences surrounding his perimeters after we'd managed to slip through them twice.

"We heard from Voldrakia," she added, the tone of her voice giving me the answer before she even offered it. "They won't take any part in a foreign war, but Emperor Adhara sends his well wishes to his granddaughters, saying he will pray to the stars for your victory and hopes you will visit with him once the war is won to discuss a peaceful alliance with his nation."

"Fat lot of good that does us," Darcy growled, though Gabriel had already foreseen that Voldrakia wouldn't be swayed in this matter. It was why we hadn't wasted any time heading there ourselves. He said that no matter which way he looked at it, the stars never showed the Voldrakians joining this war.

"He did send a gift," Geraldine added, moving to the huge chest which Max had carried into the room earlier and I looked at it with interest as she unlatched the lid. "My Queens, you must be the ones to look upon it first."

I frowned, getting to my feet and moving closer with Darcy at my side.

"The gift he sent to Lionel was a psycho snake," Darcy said warily, raising her hands.

"Perhaps a shield would be prudent then," Geraldine said. "Just in case this is some trick – though dear Gabriel swears it is not."

I glanced at Darcy and placed a shield of air up around us, wondering what the hell could be in that box to make it necessary.

Geraldine stepped back, wafting the others aside as they leaned in to look and Darcy threw the lid wide.

The room drew in a collective breath and I blinked down at the four little lizards who peered up at us from within a nest of shredded paper, broken eggshells crushed beneath their iridescent bodies. They were each a different colour; one a pearly coral, another silvery white, the third sparkling pale green and the last opalescent sky blue.

"I thought they were extinct," Orion breathed from behind me, but I couldn't tear my gaze from the little creatures who were blinking up at Darcy and I as if we were where their world began and ended.

"What are they?" I murmured.

"Sayer dragons," Geraldine replied in a hushed voice. "Now imprinted upon the two of you, forever faithful to your will, forever loyal to your wishes."

"Four of them," Orion gasped in disbelief, and by the awed silence of the others I was willing to bet this was a bigger deal than us just getting four baby lizards in a box as pets.

"They don't look much like the Dragons I know," I pointed out, though I could see wings tucked tight to the reptilian bodies, and as if answering my question, the coral lizard stretched hers wide for me to see, the membrane so fine that it was transparent though the slight orange colour was just visible across it.

"They have bonded to your will already," Geraldine gushed enthusiastically.

"But what does that mean?" Darcy asked.

"Their loyalty is assured and they will grow into the most faithful and helpful of companions. They will fight and die for you if required, their bond nothing more or less simple than love."

The pale blue lizard leapt from the box and I reached out on instinct, letting it land on my hand where it promptly turned in a circle and fell asleep.

"Something this small will fight for us?" I asked, the smile on my lips making my appreciation of them undeniable though I couldn't see how it could make the slightest bit of difference in this war.

"They're so cute," Darcy breathed.

"They're not cute, Blue. Their powers are vast and unknown, unpredictable and immense," Orion explained. "Each of them growing into magic unique to its own personality, the power of which is sustained by the connection it holds with its masters."

"They use our power?" Darcy questioned, tickling the green lizard beneath its chin.

"No, but there is some kind of link, one which is as impossible to deny as it has been to pinpoint. They were highly coveted creatures in the Slovian Ages. But once they have bonded to a Fae their loyalty cannot be turned. When Fae realised they couldn't steal the beasts, their jealousy over the power and protection they offered up to their owners resulted in them being hunted to extinction. Or so I thought until now," Orion explained.

"Nice. So we have four baby lizards, clean shadows and the friendlier Nymphs considering their options, an army of rightly pissed off and motivated Fae, the two most powerful Fae in the kingdom plus seven of the second most powerful and you, Geraldine, who is arguably an army all on your own. We have a Shadow Beast, the Nox plant, the greatest Seer of our time, and a powerful glacia diamond. So why do I still have this awful feeling that we don't have enough to win this war?" I asked.

"It has to be enough," Darcy said passionately. "And I'm sure it will be against Lionel and Lavinia and their armies…"

"I'm just gonna say what no one else is saying," Seth interrupted. "Clyde. And the utter failure and waste of time which is the Guild Stones, no offence Professor Shame," he added to Orion.

"You can't just say ‘no offence' and expect me not to take offence," Orion growled. "And cut that fucking nickname too. I'm not even Power Shamed anymore. Or a professor."

"Not technically, no." Seth patted his arm sympathetically and shared a look with Caleb who frowned then looked to Orion too.

The Vampires exchanged a loaded look but with an almost unnoticeable shake of his head, Orion clearly decided not to explain whatever it was. I trusted him to have a good reason for that then sighed, returning the sayer dragon to its crate then moving to sit on Darius's lap again. I vaguely wondered if any queen before me had been so casually un-royal-like but I didn't have a shit to give about that.

"I have a plan, or at least the beginnings of one," I said.

"Tor…" Darcy frowned at me as she sat again too. I'd discussed this with her but not in detail, mostly because I hadn't figured out the details and I didn't want to offer any kind of false hope to anyone.

"I'm working on it, but fuck knows if we have enough time for that. Either way, I'm going to visit The Ferryman today. I need to understand the cost which me and Darius are paying in bloodshed, and I was thinking of making a bargain with-"

"Only a fool would bargain with death," Max muttered.

"Then I must be a fool because the last deal I made with him ended in Darius sitting in this room."

Silence followed that and Max nodded in reluctant agreement.

"Anything else that might help us?" Darcy asked, looking from face to face, hunting for more because we all knew that we needed more if we wanted to stand a chance in this fight.

"Tharix," Darius said slowly. "I can't believe I'm saying this but he has let me live twice. He let the twins pass too. He's…searching for something, kinship or…family perhaps." His lip peeled back on the word, and I knew he didn't even want to admit to the blood tie which bound him to that wicked creation, but there was no denying what he said.

"You think you can turn him?" Caleb asked with interest.

"I think he has no real loyalty at all," Darius corrected. "He feels some obligation to our father and Lavinia because they were the ones who created him, but I don't think they're giving him much reason to hold on to that tie. I think he wants to choose his own path and perhaps he could be persuaded-"

"No," Seth blurted. "I've held this in for far too long, dancing around the truth of all I saw, of the demon vagina, of the…the…the fucking heads."

"It's okay," Max said, leaning forward to take Seth's hand and offer him some relief from the memory but he cried out as the connection clearly showed him what Seth had witnessed. The flash of horror and revulsion he felt was so vivid and powerful that it crashed from him and collided with all of us, showing us a momentary vision of Lavinia squatting over what looked like a fucking nest and a severed head poised beneath her, its mouth fixed in a silent scream.

"Ahh!" we all yelled out at once, cursing Max, Seth, and the universe for ever allowing such a thing to happen. I scrunched my eyes up against the vision as I recoiled into Darius's arms.

"Those four souls are trapped in Tharix, stuck on this side of The Veil, unable to cross into death and screaming for release," Max added in a shaky voice. "He isn't…right."

No one seemed inclined to speak up on the idea to bring the demon spawn of our enemies over to our side again, so we dropped it.

"The Guild Stones aren't useless," Orion said after several seconds of silence and Seth patted his arm again.

"Sure they're not, Professor Shame, sure they're not. They'll be the key to victory, just like you said." He winked at the rest of us as though asking us to play along for Orion's sake, but Orion could clearly see him and he knocked Seth's stroking hand away, baring his fangs at him in warning.

"We're going to figure it out," he said forcefully, getting to his feet. "Me and Blue already made a breakthrough, there has to be more to it. We have the beginnings of a plan and if it works then maybe we can do something about Clydinius."

"We'll keep working on it now," Darcy agreed. The two of them stood and headed out, my sister touching a hand to my shoulder in farewell as she passed.

Seth sighed loudly once they were gone. "That's just plain sad, that is," he said. "The scent of shame is growing again, isn't it?"

"You're such an asshole," Darius said, tossing a handful of water into the side of Seth's head.

"I'm a realist," Seth protested, getting to his feet. "And I've got things of my own to do. Mysterious pack things with my pack and my mate and my mother."

"You're going to challenge your mom for her spot?" I guessed and his lips twitched before he flattened them again.

"There are many things I might be doing or not doing. But…nah, it would cause too big of a shift in our family right now to introduce a new Alpha on the brink of war. After that though, who can say," he said in a mysterious voice, tugging Caleb after him as he headed for the door.

"How about you, Max?" I asked. "Going to challenge your dad?"

Max frowned and Geraldine gave him a smile in reassurance.

"No," he said, not seeming to need long to think it over. "Not now. Not on the brink of war. He's already lost so much – not that I think he was too cut up over Linda, but Ellis…" He sighed and I looked to Geraldine who shook her head minutely.

Max hadn't heard from Ellis since he'd offered her the ultimatum of needing to choose a side in this war and several press pieces had confirmed she was still freely moving about with her mother, supporting Lionel's campaign. It didn't look like she was going to switch sides and with the battle looming on the horizon that surely meant Tiberius was going to lose at least one of his children soon. The best he could hope for would be imprisonment for Ellis. The worst…

"I'll order her captured and not killed if possible," I offered. "At least then she won't be dead."

All those who had supported Lionel in his efforts and any of his remaining army had been rounded up and sent to Darkmore after trial. Linda would be among them soon, and though it had been seriously tempting to send Kylie Major that way too, she hadn't truly earned herself that hell, so she had been given a Power Shaming instead and sent into exile.

"Thank you," Max said stiffly. "But there's still time for her to come to her senses."

"There is," Darius agreed firmly.

I nodded, though it was seeming less and less likely that Ellis would change her allegiance and if she didn't, even if we managed to win this war and she was captured instead of killed, she'd played too prominent a part in Lionel's tyranny. She'd been a figurehead, joining with him in a show of support. The best we would be able to offer her was life imprisonment, and even then a lot of people would be out for her blood. I knew enough of this kingdom to understand that. People would expect execution for the key players in the losing side of this war.

Geraldine gave me a few more updates on the army and the tactics she was thinking might be best employed when it came to the battle then the two of them left to check in with Washer to get any further news from our scouts.

Then me and Darius got ourselves changed into something more appropriate to greet the keeper of death and headed out to find The Ferryman.