The fiery wolf sauntered through the masses until she stood right in front of Knox. She stared at him quietly for a moment, her blue eyes roaming his face. Then she open-hand slapped him so hard that my palms stung at the sound.
“If that didn’t knock some fucking sense into you, let me know. I’d be happy to do it again.”
Again, the room went silent. Knox’s eyes blazed, but he didn’t move. Grizz and Merc edged forward to flank her, clearly not sure how her action would be received. But then Knox’s wolf receded, and he took a deep breath before his hand reached for her and cupped the back of her neck.
“I won’t die, Kat—”
“You can’t say—”
“Not if you do everything you can to nail that fey bitch’s ass to the wall.”
Kat’s mouth snapped shut for a moment. “If you die, I’ll hunt you down and kill you again.”
He smiled at her threat. “I’d expect nothing less—even if you aren’t pack.” His playful wink was the perfect punctuation to his jab, and even Kat couldn’t help but take the bait.
“I fucking hate you, you know that?”
His fingers flexed around her neck. “I fucking hate you, too.”
Reinhardt cleared his throat. “I don’t see how you can draw Larken out without her knowing you’re doing it. Therefore, I don’t see how any plan revolving around this could succeed.”
“Simple,” Knox said, releasing Kat to walk over to the warlock lord, “she won’t care. She’ll know, but she’ll think it’s worth the risk. You saw her meltdown when he died and the power didn’t go to her. It fucked up her plan.”
“Meaning?” Merc said.
“Meaning she’s off-kilter and, with any luck, not thinking as clearly as she normally would. She must need his power for something—I’d bet my life on it.”
“You are betting your life on it,” Foust said, his words a grim reminder.
“Not necessarily.” Liam, who’d been so quiet I hadn’t even noticed him, slipped from the group to join Knox. “If all it would have taken was Phineas’ death for the power to switch to her, then she’d have killed him before they ever arrived here.” His remark was both sobering and confusing, because while he was likely right, it left another huge question mark. Another missing piece of the puzzle.
“She seemed expectant when he died,” Reinhardt mused, “as though she thought the power would pass to her. If she needed to do something other than kill Phineas, then she certainly didn’t capitalize on the opportunity.”
“Exactly,” Liam replied, as though that were explanation enough on its own. When it became clear to him that it wasn’t, he continued. “Which then begs the question: what does she have to do to get that power? And what can she not do?”
Apparently, everyone else was as lost as I was, because nobody said a damn thing while we all stared at Liam, the enigmatic oracle from Faerie who was really just confusing the fuck out of me.
Could no one from Faerie just get to the point?
“You don’t think she could have killed him,” Knox finally said. “You think her killing him would have negated the power transfer.” Liam nodded. A smile stretched across Knox’s face. “So you don’t think she can kill me to get it.”
“I don’t believe she can—but she could send someone else to do it.”
“Etherian,” I said softly, as Merc, Foust, and Reinhardt did the same. “She’s going to use him to get it.”
“He’s disposable, but powerful,” Knox said, working through the problem out loud, “and more than happy to do it if he thinks it will get him the prize.”
“Which, if Liam is right, he wouldn’t get once the deed was done—but he wouldn’t know that. He’d find out the hard way afterward,” I added.
Liam smiled. “Precisely.”
“God, your mother is a manipulative bitch,” Kat muttered. “If I didn’t hate her so much, I’d be impressed. Envious, even—”
“But how do we get her to come?” Jagger asked, the hesitation plain in his hazel eyes.
“I think that will be easier than you suspect,” Liam replied. “I have no doubt that she has spies lurking in the shadows, weaving their way through this new, combined world. All it would take is the slightest hint of opportunity and she will strike.”
“So, separate me from the group enough that Etherian has a chance to attack?” Knox asked.
“I believe so, yes.”
“Then let’s fucking do it—”
“Not until I am satisfied that you cannot be beaten,” Merc said, cutting off the alpha. “We need to have reinforcements waiting nearby, but not in a way that Larken will notice.”
“This is where her singular focus will work in our favor,” Liam said. “She will be blinded by this need and will likely make a mistake because of it.”
Merc didn’t look convinced. “That is a large assumption to gamble his life on.”
“But one I’m willing to take,” Knox countered, “and it’s my life.”
“I believe we can aid in this,” the coven queen said as she stepped forward, Bea and Sherry at her sides. “With my strongest witches returned, we can create a veil of sorts to hide those you choose. A magical curtain to shield them from the fey queen’s eyes.”
“It’s old magic,” Sherry said, smiling wickedly, “blood magic, to be precise, but if we can find everything we need, we should be able to pull it off.”
“Whose blood?” I asked, unable to hold back the question.
Her smile grew. “Yours would work pretty nicely, since you’re of both worlds.”
“How much blood?” Knox asked. He shifted closer to me, as though a threat had just stepped into the room.
“I won’t drain her dry, if that’s what you’re worried about. But I need enough to make the spell as strong as possible. She’ll be weakened by it for a little while, I’d imagine, but she should be in good shape by the time we actually need to use it.”
Merc’s jaw flexed as he contemplated, and Knox just fumed silently, but my father looked worried—and that worried me.
“Blood magic is fickle,” he said, the challenge in his tone duly noted. “I would know.”
“I’m sure you would,” Sherry replied, “but then you would also know that elemental magic won’t be enough for this. This is spell magic. It’ll require blood and herbs and a shit-ton of power behind it to do what we need it to—”
“Which is why it might be best if we join forces with the warlocks to accomplish this,” the coven queen said, shooting Sherry a stern look. “Will you aid us, Reinhardt? Will you do what has so rarely been done since you and I were very young—unite our magic against a greater foe, even if it is for the last time?”
My father scrutinized her for a moment, clearly remembering a time long before I’d set foot on Earth. His dark brow furrowed in thought, and he eventually nodded. “Tying all of our magic up with one spell is dangerous,” he said, “but I see no other way, if this plan is to succeed.”