“We outfitted Ares with an ankle monitor,” his mother added. “If she turns on us, she won’t get far.”
The thick bands contained GPS chips for tracking but could also deploy several needlelike spikes designed to pierce skin and pump the wearer full of bronze nitrate with a press of a button. Between the two, Ares wouldn’t evade recapture. It was as good as they could hope for, given the circumstances.
“Hope for the best,” he said. “Plan for the worst.”
“The coven has reminded us of that,” she said somberly. “We take nothing for granted.”
Midas turned to Hadley, but her troubled expression hinted she was chewing over all they had learned.
“I have to go.” His mother smiled as two enforcers, who had chased after them on four legs, caught up with them. The few blocks barely winded them. “I need to check in with the others.”
Tongues lolling, her guards followed her out to organize their forces from the frontline.
“I’m going to coordinate with Tisdale,” Bishop said. “We need to keep our people all on the same page.”
The pair set a course for the enforcers, heads bowed in conversation, the guards trotting after them.
The scent of witchborn fae blood tickled his nose, and Midas spun to find Remy, bathed in flaking crimson and reeking of copper and black magic, walking toward them.
“You made it out.” Hadley tackled her with a hug. “Thank the goddess.”
“Ow, ow, ow.” Remy shoved at her. “Even my bruises have bruises right now.”
Midas examined her, but she appeared to be all in one piece. “How did you escape?”
“Natisha thought she knocked me unconscious. I wasn’t out, I just had to catch my breath. I bolted up the stairs the second she turned her back.”
Hadley beat him to it. “The hearts?”
“She passed out the hearts from the backpack to five of her daughters and kept one for herself. They ate them, and then left with five more coven members.” Remy lifted her tee to reveal vicious gashes crisscrossing her side and back, made by gwyllgi claws. “The remaining daughter was supposed to force me to sacrifice the last practitioner in exchange for my life, but I wasn’t in the mood.”
Natisha’s ruthless practicality didn’t surprise him, but her disregard for life still turned his stomach.
“How much of that blood is yours?” Hadley’s hands shook. “Are you okay?”
“Okay as I’m going to get.” She tugged her shirt down again. “I hamstrung the final daughter, and the practitioner stayed to watch over her. I couldn’t get through to Faerie. You guys smashed the portal too well. I had to return to Buckhead, pick up my car, and race back here.”
The way she drove, race was the exact word he would use.
“The circle is still holding then.” Hadley blew out a huff of breath. “No one’s broken it to trip the alarm.”
For whatever reason, Natisha had decided to stay within the circle, close to the portal.
“There are strange gwyllgi in the streets with the stink of Faerie on them.” Remy rubbed at a dry stain on her cheek. “How did they get here?”
A deep frown gathered in the corners of Hadley’s mouth. “Good question.”
As they watched, Natisha linked hands with her daughters and their sacrifices around the portal.
Both hands, as in, she had two arms. He looked again, counted again, and was stunned all over again.
Hours passed at half-speed in the archive, but he had never witnessed such a feat in so short a time.
There were definite perks to being a fae healer as old as stardust.
“We need to get in there,” Hadley murmured. “Break up their party before it gets started.”
“I know what Liz is carrying.” Remy grabbed her arm. “You can use her, and the baby, as leverage.”
The idea of bartering a child left a bad taste in his mouth, but the coven had brought them here. He despised the idea of Hadley lowering herself to the coven’s level, but she had to speak a language they understood.
Torn between hanging back to listen and rushing forward to confront Natisha, Hadley rocked on her heels. “This is about to get worse, isn’t it?”
“Archie—whatever his name was—struck a bargain with the coven, okay? He wanted to breed more fae blood into his pack to strengthen their magic. The deal was, the coven kept the girls and the pack kept the boys. It worked until a girl was born with immense power, and Archie decided to keep her. He lied to the coven, told them she was stillborn, but they could sense her. They found the baby, called Archie on his lie, then slapped him in the face with the fine print on their contract. Near as I can tell, he literally sold his soul in the bargain.”
“You’re not serious.” Hadley gawped at her. “His soul?”
“The patriarch of our pack was an idiot,” Midas realized. “I’m shocked Natisha let us live this long.”
“You’ve still got your looks.” Remy smirked. “That’s what really matters.” She snickered. “To Hadley.”
“Hello?” Hadley snapped her fingers at the end of Remy’s nose. “Get to the point.”
“Natisha jumped in bed with the coven after they added her wolf man to their closet.” She slapped away Hadley’s hand. “She wanted him back. Not because she loved him or whatever. She wanted to punish him. They refused. Told her they couldn’t hand him over even if they wanted to, which they didn’t, but anyway. He was spirit, not flesh.”
The origin story for his pack had always been told the same way, handed down from parent to child, as a way to honor those long-distant relatives who founded their pack with an act of love. He figured it had been embellished, the edges smoothed, but he never considered it might be entirely false.
Archimedes had spun a story to earn him condolences and his children acceptance. He spread it as his pack grew, passing it down through the generations until it was known, until it was fact, until it was truth.
But it was a lie.
Maybe not every single detail, but enough to change the narrative in his favor.
To rub salt in the wound, Archimedes had given his daughters their mother’s true name so they could call on her in times of great need. They had passed it down through their line, forcing Natisha to watch as her children’s children were born, lived, and died. From the outside. Without ever knowing them.
The cycle was never ending.
Neither was the servitude.
No wonder she fisted her grudge with both hands. No wonder she wanted to wipe out his family line.
“She did all this to get his soul back?” Midas pursed his lips. “What good would that do her?”
“Plenty.” Reaching out, Remy booped him on the nose. “If she could reincarnate him.”
“Oh frak.” Hadley got there before he did. “That’s the child price?”
“Liz is pregnant with the spirit of Archimedes?” Midas stared, dumbfounded. “That’s…”
“Creepy.” Hadley shivered. “It’s morbid to impregnate someone with your ex-lover’s spirit.”
Not to mention it cost the baby Liz conceived its soul to make room for Archimedes to claim its body.