“It’s new, baby. Myrddin requires a place where he can focus the dark side of his nature.” Daniel frowned as he faced me, as though he knew what was going through my head. “We have a temple for the Fae and a Heavenly shrine. The witches in the building have their own temple. I’m merely accommodating our newest residents.”
“And we are thrilled with it. The king even attended the cursing ceremony.” Myrddin nodded Daniel’s way. “I think relations with the Hell plane will soon be better than ever. You don’t have to come down with us. I have a key. It seems you are needed here. We’ll be ready at midnight.”
They turned and left the office.
I stared at my husband and wondered what else he was keeping from me.
“Trent and I will be back at midnight, too,” Gray said, his voice grave. “I’m going up to speak with Albert now.”
“The boys are out at soccer practice,” I informed them. “You don’t have to worry about Fen seeing you. I’d like to keep my kids in the dark until we can see if Nim’s magic works better than Sarah’s. I don’t want to worry them if I don’t have to.”
They nodded their agreement and left me alone with Daniel.
“I didn’t tell you because I knew you wouldn’t like it.” Daniel got the words out quickly, as if he knew the storm was coming and thought he could hold it off.
“Well, you’re right. I don’t like it. What happened to our official ‘demons are bad’ stance? Now we’re suddenly building cursed spaces for them to hold potlucks in? How many are we inviting in, Danny? Because I kind of thought it would only be the one. And since when is Myrddin a permanent resident?”
“Since we met him.” Daniel moved around to his desk, sinking behind it. The big maple monstrosity put an effective barrier between us. “You’ve always known I intended for him to live here at the Council headquarters and when he was ready, he would take his place as my advisor. It’s his right as long as I carry Excalibur. As for the demons, talk to your friend when we find her. It was Kelsey who convinced me I needed to open discussions with the Hell plane.”
I knew exactly why she’d done that. “I agree with the Nex Apparatus. We can’t shut out the lower plane forever. It was a dangerous path, but I didn’t dream you would open the Earth plane up to the point that they need their own temple in our house. Are we letting them use the daycare services too? Want them to drop off their demonic spawn while they head up to the spa?”
“Are you done berating me?” A huff of a laugh came out of his mouth. “You know he called this, right? He knew you wouldn’t understand.”
A chill went over my skin. “You better be talking about Devinshea.”
Daniel’s jaw went rigid and I knew exactly who he’d been discussing me with. His mentor.
“You always choose me, huh?” I turned because I had better things to do with my time than stand here and argue with Daniel. He obviously didn’t need me to help him make decisions.
“Zoey?” He’d stood again. There was a weariness in his eyes that almost made me go back to him. Almost. “Come on, baby. Don’t do this now. We’ve got bigger trouble than the fact that you never warmed up to Myrddin. I don’t know how to make you understand that he’s not here to take your place. Dev gets it. Dev is perfectly comfortable with him. Why do you have to be jealous of him? He’s here to help us.”
“We don’t need help.” We had taken the crown. We had formed the Council. Danny, Dev, and I, along with our friends. We’d built this place and all of our alliances while Myrddin had been doing god knew what on the Hell plane. And I wasn’t jealous. I was afraid.
Daniel’s hands were suddenly fists at his sides, and I could see the wealth of anger in his eyes. “Maybe you don’t need help. Maybe you’re perfectly happy with your job. Mine doesn’t include shopping and playing with the kids. Mine includes constantly being worried about keeping this alliance together, constantly knowing that it could all fall apart. Your biggest worry is what lip gloss to wear, so no you don’t need help.”
Danny can get testy when things go wrong. He’d always been this way, though it had been years since he’d fucked up like this. Dev smoothed things over for him, or maybe we simply hadn’t clashed in a long time. We seemed so in synch, and no one had tried to murder us in…like a week. It was plain to see that the stress of having Dev missing was getting to us both.
And I didn’t care. All I could see was my husband shutting me out in favor of that fucking wizard who would kill our son if he knew. I was all alone in dealing with this because he would choose Myrddin. I knew it deep inside.
Hadn’t Gray said something about his fury being a thunderstorm or something? If he ever knew how Heaven had tricked him… What if the “him” in the prophecy was Myrddin Emrys? Gray didn’t seem to like the wizard. He couldn’t tell me straight out what was happening, but he could show it in small ways. He could lead me to the truth.
“Zoey, I didn’t mean that.” Daniel stared at me across the room. “I’m stressed and I’m sorry. I know it was wrong not to tell you about the temple, but it didn’t seem important.”
Or Myrddin had convinced him it wasn’t, and what Myrddin wanted was important to Daniel. More important than being open and honest with me. I had to wonder if Myrddin had been the one to plant it in Danny’s head that all I did was put on makeup and run the kids around town.
Having a knock-down, drag-out fight seemed like playing into the wizard’s hands. What I really needed to do was stop freaking out and start playing this smart.
Devinshea was gone. Marcus was gone. Kelsey was gone. All of Daniel’s closest advisors, including his Nex Apparatus.
Daniel would be left with no one but Myrddin to advise him during delicate negotiations with the Hell plane. Wasn’t that convenient?
And now there was a place built to help focus Myrddin’s demonic powers.
“I’m going to go upstairs with Gray and Trent, make sure they have everything they need.” I wasn’t, but I didn’t want Danny to know where I was going. It was time to plot behind my husband’s back. It had been a while, but I still knew how to do it and I knew exactly who would help me.
“Zoey, please,” Daniel said.
But I kept walking. I had things I needed to do.
It was time to really figure out why Myrddin was here.
Chapter Four
Summer
The woman named Kelsey had to have an incredibly high pain threshold.
Or she wasn’t as human and fragile as I’d thought she was. Either way, I moved back when she gestured for me to. I was well versed at fighting, but I stood no chance against these warriors. I didn’t even have a weapon. Erna would have my hide for losing my knife, but I’d sold it for the information I’d needed to complete my mission. I could always steal another one, I’d thought at the time, but there hadn’t been any handy ones left out on my way home. Then there had been all the running.
I could fight hand to hand, but again, I was woefully outnumbered.
Kelsey didn’t seem to think that was an issue.