Unless you were willing to be recorded and then have that recording played for the whole team on a loop.
Forever.
Probably with popcorn, candy, and other refreshments made available.
The clock ran out as I weighed the pros and cons of selling the rest of my soul for a box of Junior Mints. “Give me video of the stairwell, please.”
“Clear,” Reece reported without glancing up, but he moved the live feed to a monitor for my benefit.
“Thanks.” I grabbed the doorknob and twisted. “Here we go.”
Midas let me go first, an impressive feat, one I rewarded with a saucy wink. Knowing my luck, I probably looked like I had something in my eye, but hey. I tried to keep the romance alive.
Creeping down the stairs, I gave him room to shut the door behind him.
With HQ secure once more, I trusted Bishop to rip the magic out of this location as soon as he returned to his command center.
“We need to get clear of the stairwell.” Midas breathed in the lingering scents. “We don’t want to get pinned here if they don’t fall for Bishop’s ploy.”
“Say no more.” I jogged down the stairs. “Race you to the bottom.”
Surplus magic from Faerie was the only reason I had a bounce in my step. I was exhausted. I wanted to drop, curl up in a ball, and sleep forever. But I also vibrated with energy, with power, with purpose. It was like I wanted to go to sleep and dream I was a superheroine who saved the world or something, a dream to pull you under but keep your heart pumping.
Midas won the race.
He cheated.
To be fair, he leapt over my head to plant himself in front of me, not from any desire to beat me, but to place himself squarely between me and the lean gwyllgi who emerged from behind the car where he had been hiding out of view.
Magic washed away his furry form and left us facing a tall, slender man as beautiful as Ferro had been. Not that I would admit it aloud. Fae used beauty as a weapon. It was almost expected that the worst among them would also be the most jaw-dropping.
“Midas Kinase,” he said, his voice sonorous. “It has been an age since we last met.”
“Richter,” Midas growled the name. “What business do you have here?”
“You are young, but not ignorant. You won us from Ferro.” He spread his hands, taking in the surroundings. “Now, what would you have us do?”
“Hightail it back to Faerie before the Earthen Conclave notices you’re here?” I suggested. “I’m not real familiar with them or their rules, but I believe crossing realms is a big no-no.” I held up the burner phone and bluffed my butt off. “I’ve also recently added their tip line for reporting suspicious fae activities to my contacts.”
“Ah.” Richter peered at me over Midas’s shoulder, from a safe distance. “Lady Alpha.”
“I have enough titles.” I positioned myself beside Midas. “I don’t need another.”
“Have you no opinion on the matter?” Richter studied Midas. “Or does she speak for you?”
“Your alpha tortured me.”
“Former alpha, but yes.”
“You watched.”
“I did.” He turned pensive. “It was a slow year, as I recall.”
The casual disregard for another’s suffering set my teeth on edge, but I let Midas speak for himself.
“You were a strange half-mortal pup who killed one of our own,” Richter continued. “You compounded that mistake when you made a fool’s bargain to spare your sister. Why would I have fought my alpha of millennia for you?”
“You viewed a child’s suffering as entertainment,” Midas countered. “I have no use for men like you.”
Richter laughed, actually laughed, at Midas’s ire. “I’m not a mortal to be held to your standards.”
“All that means is you’ve had time to learn better,” I said, unable to keep out of it, “and you chose to ignore right for wrong.”
“I’m not human either.” He exhaled. “I don’t hide what I am. I have no reason to ape being one.”
“I believe,” a gentle voice threaded with iron rang out, “what my son means is you lack honor.”
Midas and I whipped our heads toward the voice to find Tisdale strolling out of the elevator near the exit stairs, dressed in a mint-green suit. The polite expression smoothing her features contrasted with the murder promised in her eyes, and I was suddenly very glad she was on our side.
Eighteen
Never in his long life had Midas ever been afraid of his mother, but there was a first time for everything.
“Tisdale,” Richter rumbled, sliding his gaze down her body like a caress. “You’re as lovely as ever.”
The tone, and its implied familiarity, stood Midas’s hackles on end, but he kept a leash on his temper.
“You two know each other?” Hadley glanced between them. “Small worlds.”
Never taking her eyes off him, his mother enlightened Hadley. “Richter is Natisha’s consort.”
“I was Natisha’s consort,” he corrected her, tapping into famed reservoirs of charm. “I am no longer.”
“We met when I summoned her the first time.” The painful details of that bargain, she kept to herself. “I was younger then, and foolish, but not so ignorant of Faerie or scorned women to entertain his interest. It would have been an insult to my guest, whom I called to me across a great distance to ask for a favor.”
A smile twitched in Midas’s cheek, but he managed to keep it off his face.
As a mischievous and indulged child, he had received many tongue lashings from his mother. He hadn’t appreciated her talent for verbal evisceration then, but he had grown to appreciate her way with words.
Especially when she aimed them at someone else.
“I would have left her for you, stayed with you,” Richter countered. “You wouldn’t have me.”
“You watched my son suffer.” A growl laced her words. “You let him be sold. How could I forgive that?”
Leaning in, Hadley pitched her voice low. “I kind of wish I had popcorn.”
“Me too,” Midas admitted just as softly. “Mom will disembowel him if he keeps it up much longer.”
“Has Richter always been stupid? Or does he have a death wish?” She watched as his eyebrows climbed. “He tried to cheat on Natisha. She has a scorched-earth policy when it comes to men who do her wrong.”
“I wasn’t…” Midas struggled with how to phrase it, “…myself then. I don’t remember much about him.”
A brush of Hadley’s fingers across his lips told him he didn’t have to dig deeper for the answers.
“Since he’s still alive,” she mused, leaning into him, “Natisha must have never learned of his crush.”
“Oh, Natisha knew.” Richter proved his hearing was as excellent as any gwyllgi. “She beat me within an inch of my life. The only reason she didn’t kill me outright was Ferro offered a boon to appease her.”
“The concept of loyalty isn’t totally foreign to you then,” Tisdale said, drawing his attention back to her.