Ready to return so soon?
Knox and I shared a quick look, both of us having heard the rogue fey, and he nodded.
“Yes.”
Do you have what I want?”
No.
“Yes.”
Etherian didn’t bother to answer. Instead, he sent the swirling vortex of wind and water up toward the bridge. The eyes of those standing on land—those that had not witnessed it before—went wide with shock. Even Knox’s new pack appeared unnerved by the form the portal took.
“Lead the way,” Merc said in my ear.
In response, I climbed onto the creaky railing. I turned to face our army, taking a moment to meet each one of their stares, as I’d seen Merc and Knox do many times before. To instill confidence in those I led. To be the leader they needed me to be.
Then I turned my attention to the infinite swirling darkness below and jumped.
As I fell, I looked back to see the others trailing in my wake like a cluster of asteroids falling from space. I felt the strange resistance of the veil as I passed into the Ether, and I scrambled to try to get my feet beneath me. I failed miserably, my flailing limbs unable to right myself, but it didn’t matter. Before I crashed into the hard-packed ground, something plucked me from the air. Instead of a bone-jarring landing, two strong arms pulled me into a bone-breaking hug.
Not a huge improvement.
“Grizz!” I screamed, hugging him back just as hard. “I missed you so much!” The pain of his absence roared to life again, and it was all I could not to break down right there. And given the way he wouldn’t let me go, I couldn’t help but think that he felt the same.
But now wasn’t the time for that.
“Okay, big guy,” I wheezed as he crushed me to him. “I need air.”
The man-bear huffed as the others began to appear—each one managing to land upright in a way I never could—but he clearly had no intention of letting me go anytime soon. His ward had been taken from him, and the stress that had caused was apparent in the way he sheltered me; in the way his cheek pressed to the top of my head. In the way he growled at Merc and Knox as they came over to check on me.
Grizz was in no mood to share, apparently—at least until he saw Kat drop down. He pulled her into our hug, smooshing us all together, much to her delight.
“I missed you, too, you furry bastard.”
While my guardian held me, more wolves, witches, enforcers, and warlocks dropped into the Ether; reinforcements for the battle to come. With each one’s arrival, my sense of confidence grew. Maybe we could pull off this ridiculous plan.
Maybe we could rid the world of the fey royals yet.
Bea’s voice drew my attention, and I turned to see her run to her brother, arms open wide. He caught her in a hug and held her like a man reunited with someone he’d treasured and lost—because that was exactly what he was. The coven queen stood nearby, an unreadable expression on her face as she watched her children: one beloved, one estranged. Then Bea pulled away from Kingston to greet her mother in a far more restrained manner, bowing slightly to her leader.
The coven queen caught her chin lightly and raised her face. “We have missed you,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. Then she pulled her close and hugged her, just as her son had done. I smiled at the sight until an errant and panicked thought ripped through my mind.
I turned back to the man-bear. “Grizz! Is Liam here?” He pinned me in place with a curious stare, one that showed he most definitely had no idea what I was talking about. My heart sank immediately.
Then a voice from nowhere nearly made it stop.
“I see my leverage was well chosen,” Etherian said, his voice taking the newcomers by surprise. I watched them search the area for its owner, to no avail.
Ignoring his dig, I got down to business. “Should we figure out how we’re going to do this once everyone has arrived?”
“I see you succeeded in scavenging an army.” There was something hidden just beneath his tone that set me on edge. A warning? A thinly-veiled eruption waiting to blow? “Tell me something, Piper…where is the body you promised me?” My eyes darted to Reinhardt, who shook his head once. “We had a deal, you see. I have kept up my side of the bargain. I expect that you’ve done the same.”
“That was the plan,” I said, doing all I could to sound as confident as Merc and Knox did when negotiating, “but a problem arose as we worked out the logistics.”
“A problem?” he asked as his voice circled me like an angry predator.
“We can’t use your body,” I said, bracing myself for his anger.
“And we need power that we do not have,” Merc said as he stepped to my side. “There is no way to get it until the fey king is dead.”
“I see.” Everything about Etherian’s tone said he most certainly did not see—or care. “So, you’ve changed the terms of our agreement.”
“That was never the intention—”
“But that was indeed the outcome,” he said, cutting me off.
I took a deep breath. “Yes.”
Silence.
“Apparently,” he began, his voice too calm for my liking, “I didn’t effectively communicate the importance of you following through on our deal the first time.” He paused. “You were preoccupied when you arrived here—I suppose that, in a way, you’re not to blame for this outcome. You’re young and naïve and new to this world and its rules. I’m even willing to bet that you weren’t behind this treachery.” I could feel his energy shift away from me to focus elsewhere, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “But now we’re at an impasse of sorts, Piper, thanks to this breach of trust, and I’m left wondering how best to deal with it.”
“As soon as the king is dead, we’ll get you your body!”
That pulsating power snapped its attention back to me and slammed me against the wall.
“And I am to believe you?” he hissed in my ear. “You who have proven yourself unreliable at best, and a traitor at worst? Whether or not you are indeed behind this betrayal doesn’t matter in the end, Piper.”
“I made this to bind your essence to the body,” Sherry said, stepping forward and raising a crimson stone high in the air. “She is not lying. She came to me, begging me to make a talisman that would indeed make you corporeal again.” Her composure under the circumstances was commendable, and for a moment, I thought she had sold the change of plans—that he believed her words.
Then her body flew backward and crashed into the stone wall, just as mine had. But unlike me, she fell in a heap on the ground—red crystal still in hand—and didn’t move. The coven queen and Bea ran to her side while the others in the cave steeled themselves for a battle with a body-less being.
“You can’t kill the king and queen on your own,” I argued as I struggled to breathe under the weight of his attack.
“And you cannot kill them without your army,” he replied, and my blood ran cold. I felt the energy of the portal waver, then snap shut, cutting off the conduit between our worlds—and cutting one of Knox’s Alaskan wolves in half as he entered the Ether. His lower half hit the floor in the center of our crew, splitting the silence. “I wonder how many of them are jumping to their deaths right now, Piper? How many of your friends and allies will die because of this betrayal?”