“If you help me kill the royals, we can discuss you ruling Faerie in my stead,” I told him as I drew closer. “I said before that I didn’t want anything to do with Faerie, and I meant it. It’s not my home; but it is a part of me. I won’t give up my birthright, but I don’t want to exercise it, either.”
His eyes surveyed the army at my back, then landed on me. “I can agree to those terms.”
“Good, because you don’t really have a choice. Now, tell us what we need to know about Phineas. His weaknesses. Ways to take him out.”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t have ended up how I did, now would I?”
Right. Fuck.
“Surely you know something that can be used against him,” Merc said.
“Phineas has a weakness for power,” Liam said. We all turned to face him as he walked through the crowd toward Etherian. “It’s what has always fueled him. What drives his instability. Along with it comes his paranoia. There are many reasons why he and Larken ruled separate halves of Faerie, and I am convinced that the only reason they’ve reunited is because she’s made him an offer that he stands to gain from—”
“One we can exploit by undermining,” Knox said, finishing his thought for him.
“Exactly, if we make him one that’s equally tempting. His weakness is his mind, not his body.”
“And you have access to it directly through Mack’s old pack—or what’s left of them,” I added, the pieces of the puzzle slowly falling into place. But as soon as the words left my mouth, I cringed. Using that connection against Phineas would come at a high price; one that I wasn’t sure Knox could afford. Would he survive it physically? Yes—hopefully. But would he survive it mentally?
My eyes met his, and I feared the answer to that question.
“That and your connection to him, too, Piper.”
Great.
“But how does that help when he has an army of fairies around him and the queen bitch at his side?” Kat asked. Grizz grunted in agreement.
“Phineas does not trust Larken. He never has,” Liam replied. “He thinks Piper can be manipulated—that she is young and impressionable. A being he can control.”
“I see that trait has not improved over time,” Etherian muttered quietly.
“If anything, I’d wager it has only worsened. Knox and the others escaped before he could turn on them, but it would have happened eventually.” Liam’s sad gaze turned to his fellow Originals one by one. “What happened to me wasn’t your fault. Your escape only sped up the timeline, not the end result.”
Tears welled in my eyes at his grim but poignant realization—his subtle pardoning of his brothers. And one look at them told me they were equally moved by it.
“Liam—”
“It’s true, Knox, and you know it, as I do now, as well. We must use this against Phineas. Separate him from Larken. Divide their forces and take them out one at a time.”
“He will expect this,” Merc said, his tone dubious, “as will Larken.”
“Maybe not,” Reinhardt replied. I could practically hear the wheels in his mind turning, working to find the answer to our debacle. And by the look on his face, he was so very close to succeeding. “Not if we can reach him without her knowing—if we can draw him here without her.”
“And if he brings Larken along?” Merc countered.
“Then that doesn’t change much, does it? We will have to fight them both if he doesn’t agree. All we’ll have done is speed up the timeline.”
“Then we need a plan in place for that eventuality,” Liam said, “because it could very well come to pass.”
I looked around the dimly lit space, insulated from fey magic. “I guess we picked a solid place to start a war with them since they can’t portal in, and even if they could, their powers won’t work here.”
“They’d work,” Liam corrected, “but they would be so diminished that they would never come.”
Knox paled a bit at his words. “But they would send others.”
His grim observation was punctuated by a loud, metallic thud that reverberated through the space. In unison, we all turned toward the entrance door that shook violently. There was no mistaking the dent pressed into the metal. It was six feet tall and oddly human in shape.
It was soon joined by others like it.
An assault on the bunker had begun.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Knox’s body went rigid, and every wolf in the room snapped their attention to their struggling leader, but whether it was for guidance or because they could sense something I couldn’t, I didn’t know. I hoped it was the former but feared it was the latter. Because as he clearly struggled against a force I couldn’t see, I felt that familiar sensation that accompanied the presence of the fey king; his call that enthralled and entrapped me.
Come to me, Piper…
I stepped away from Knox and into Merc’s body. “I will not,” I said aloud to the voice in my head, “but I can give you what you want. I can give you the queen’s head. I know that’s what you really want, isn’t it? To reign alone? To rule Faerie without Larken at your side?”
I could feel the weight of the room’s eyes on me, but I focused on the feeling of the king and awaited his response.
I know that…that is the reason I am here. The banging on the entrance ceased. I did not come here to fight you, Piper. I came here to help give you what you want.
“You want her dead, too,” I said softly. The treachery amongst the fey knew no bounds.
Merc, Knox, and Reinhardt were in my face, as though they could possibly hear Phineas if they just got closer.
“What’s your plan, then?”
You and I will work together to take out her army.
“And then what?”
I could practically feel him smiling. We will come to some arrangement, I’m sure.
I felt our connection disappear as quickly as it had come, and I turned to the group.
“What does he want?” Knox asked, impatience brimming in his tone.
“He wants to join up against Larken.” I looked at Reinhardt, who clearly shared my skepticism.
“It is likely a trap.”
“Oh, I’m damn sure it is. The question is whether the trap springs now or later. So, how do we proceed? We can’t stay here indefinitely. We have to make a move. We know he owns the New York pack, but there aren’t enough of them to fight us all if we open the door, and the feys’ magic won’t work well in here, so they won’t dare come in and try to force us out. It’s a fairly even playing field, as far as I can tell, but I’m no expert.”
“The fey lie,” Etherian cooed as he picked some dirt off his coat.
“We’re well aware of that—”
“You’re correct in your observation, Piper,” Merc said, ignoring Etherian’s comment, “but I’m not certain we should rush out to meet Phineas.”
“If not now, then when?” Knox asked. “She’s right. We can’t stay in here forever. Think of what Larken is doing to New York—the humans that live here. They’re helpless against her. We can’t do nothing.”