The door opened then. Tanner returned with Faye. Luce was behind them, carrying the bottles of soda under her arm and a file in her other hand. She saw me and did a double-take.
I slid a little in my seat. Yet another person I needed to talk to STAT.
Tanner told Luce who had the sodas in a low voice. She placed one in front of me, her eyebrow raised. I gave her a sheepish grin.
“The Winter Court is nowhere near uttering their final, dying battle cry. Unfortunately,” Caden said, nodding his thanks to Tanner as he placed a glass of water in front of him, “even without some of the Ancients, they are so very much a threat, but the doorways to the Otherworld are sealed. They cannot be reopened.”
My gaze flicked to Tanner as he sat across from me. The doors could be reopened, but as much as I liked Ren, I would not trust him with that information. I wouldn’t trust any Order member with that.
A shock surged through my system. I wouldn’t trust any Order member? Wasn’t I one? Could I even still be one once married to the freaking King of the Summer fae? Sure, they’d kept Ivy on, and she was a halfling. And Miles was open to things that other sects would’ve been dead set against. But Caden had…well, Caden was different.
Did I even want to be an Order member?
Being part of the Order was ingrained in my blood and bones. What would I be without my duty? Not that there was anything wrong with being a wife and a mother, but I needed more than that.
But the better question was, should I even still be Order when I wouldn’t turn over highly necessary information about how the gates could be opened at any time by Caden?
While I had my little moral crisis, Caden was saying, “Unless she’s somehow tripled in power, which is impossible, there is no way for her to physically open the gate.”
“They can worship her like she’s a god,” Fabian chimed in. “But they cannot free her simply by praying for it to happen. What they would need is impossible.”
Not exactly…
I wasn’t sure if Ren accepted the answer or not, but he quieted as I unscrewed the lid of the bottle. There was no fizz. Was it flat? I sighed, but flat soda was better than none. I took a drink, relieved to feel some carbonation, although it sort of tasted like...like diet? I checked the bottle just to make sure I could read properly. It wasn’t diet. Looking up, I saw Fabian frowning at his opened bottle.
“Luce has some information to share,” Tanner announced, drawing my attention.
Luce nodded. “I was able to do a rapid test thanks to Benji’s affinity for spitting when I went in to see him.”
My lip curled as I took another drink.
“I was also able to get a urine sample,” she said, and Caden’s brows lifted. “You do not want to know how I accomplished that.”
“I was there for it. She is right,” Ren tossed out.
“I’ll take both of your words on that,” Caden said, and I grinned a little.
“This isn’t entirely comprehensive.” She opened the folder. “But from his saliva, I was able to determine that he hadn’t consumed any alcohol in the last two hours, but there were trace amounts in his urine.”
“What does that mean?” Faye asked.
“It means that he drank at some point in the last ninety days, but not recently, and not a lot. If the Devil’s Breath is still being mixed with nightshade and liquor, I don’t believe he’s consumed any of it in the last couple of days.”
Faye started to speak and then stopped to swallow before finding her voice. “But we don’t know how long the Devil’s Breath influences a fae.”
“From what I’ve learned about the borrachero, it’s that it only stays in a human’s system for four hours and then is utterly undetectable in blood tests,” Luce stated carefully.
I recognized that tone. Not the greatest news was coming. I started to drown my sorrow in my soda.
“I can one hundred percent say that it works the same in one of us—that it’s only effective in terms of making one susceptible to persuasion for a short period of time. But there were no traces of scopolamine—the drug most similar here—in his system.” Luce drew in a shallow breath. “I know these results don’t tell us much.”
“But what do you think it does tell us?” Caden asked, sensing there was something she wanted to add.
“This isn’t my specialty,” she started.
“I know. Tell us what you think.”
She nodded curtly as she folded her hands over the file. “I think that Devil’s Breath is only a part of the equation here. We know certain drugs and food and drinks react differently in us. Nightshade for example is poisonous to humans, but it gives us the same effect as some alcoholic beverages do. We also know that scopolamine, in most forms, is absolutely harmless to humans and fae. It’s a common ingredient in motion sickness medication but when it’s chemically processed into what we know as Devil’s Breath, it’s a different story. The fae could obviously be susceptible to it, but I have no reason to believe that it wouldn’t have worn off by now. Very few human drugs have any impact on us.”
Faye shook her head. “What…what does that mean exactly?”
“What I believe that means is there is a missing link. Something we don’t know,” she said. “And I know that’s not exactly helpful, but there has to be something used or done in addition to this drink. Finding out what that is may be the key to stopping this more long-term influence over us.”
“That actually tells us something,” Caden said. “More than we knew.”
“You don’t think he’ll come out of this then, do you?” Faye asked.
“I…I don’t want to say for sure, but…” She pressed her lips together and then exhaled roughly. “But he’s been here long enough for the effects to have worn off, and with nothing showing in his samples, I don’t believe it is something reversible without knowing what the missing link is.”
Faye closed her eyes as my stomach churned sharply with sympathy.
“I’m not saying he has to be…handled immediately. He’s contained,” Luce said. “We could wait.”
Caden looked to Tanner, who gave a quick nod. “We could.”
“No. I mean no offense.” Faye opened her eyes. “I know you’re suggesting that to be kind. Both of you. But there’s no point.”
“We can wait,” Kalen insisted in a low voice.
“I knew the moment I saw him, he was gone,” Faye said. “I knew deep down. There is nothing left of Benji in him. He’s already gone, and there is no reason for us to delay this. Doing so won’t make this easier for anyone.”
A muscle ticked in Caden’s jaw. “I can do it whenever you and your family are ready.”
My stomach twisted again as I thought of Caden having to be the one to do that. It might be his duty, but who would want that kind of responsibility? What had been done to Benji wasn’t his fault. I shifted, uncomfortable.
“I would.” Faye’s voice steadied. “I would ask your permission to allow either me or another member of his family to carry this out. We are all yours, but—”
“But he belongs to you and yours. I understand,” Caden said. “Let me know when you wish to do it. I would like to be there just in case you decide you would prefer that I handle it.”