Forty minutes later I watched as Neil took a seat in the queen’s dining room. He looked thin and slightly afraid of what was to come. Zoey was kneeling beside him, talking to him, as Liv and Sarah held a deep discussion about exactly how to deal with the spell. There had been a bunch of herb chopping and potion brewing, and they’d been debating over the proper usages of Latin.

  I’d been sitting rather peacefully while Trent napped away, though I had one worry running through my mind. More than one, really, but this one stood out.

  Dev strode back into the room, coming to stand beside me. “All right, here’s the report on the wards.”

  While I was up in the penthouse, Henri and Hugo had been manning command central. Casey said he was close to getting me a name to go with that face we’d pulled off the video from the crazy neighbor. I glanced down and read the report Hugo had typed up for me. God, I loved having a team of academics on my side. The ward blocked the ill intentioned, but there were some symbols on the back that they didn’t recognize. One of the witches did theorize that the language was actually angelic in origin. Angels seemed to be popping up everywhere.

  “So the working theory is that ward would have been rendered useless to someone angelic or perhaps someone carrying a powerful angelic object,” I murmured.

  “Yes,” Dev replied. “It looks like someone left an angelic back door, and that’s not good for any of us.”

  “Would a demon know the angelic languages? I mean, I would suspect they would. After all, they descended from the Heaven plane. When an angel falls it’s not always to earth.” I worked through the possible scenarios in my mind. “I need to find out if anyone’s fallen lately. They could have stolen the sword and gone looking for a little revenge. Nemcox would be happy to oblige. Hell, if he’s working with a recently fallen angel, maybe that’s how he’s ducking my call.”

  “I don’t know. We can ask Felix, but he lost his powers shortly after he chose to fall,” Dev explained. “We can certainly ask him if that’s possible.”

  One more thing on my to-do list. It was starting to get never ending.

  Trent was sleeping roughly ten feet away from me. When the great spell debate had begun, he’d found a sunny spot and gone to sleep. I watched him. He sleep growled and his paws moved like he was running from time to time.

  Was he running away from what had happened? From what might happen?

  “If he doesn’t know, we might have to ask for another angelic audience. I’d like to have that protective tat before I need to meet up with those three again,” I replied in a soft tone. I didn’t want to wake that wolf. There were ramifications he hadn’t thought of, and I was cool with that. It was going to be damn awkward dealing with him when he was back to his normal, gorgeous man self. I wasn’t sure what protocol was in this instance. He’d saved my life by having sex with me. Did I send a cookie bouquet? Or high-five him for his virility? Did I offer to pay for his therapy? Did I ask him if he wanted to go again? This time, without the sword in his gut? It was all too much. I chose to focus on what was in front of me.

  “I’ll bring in our tattoo artist,” Dev assured me. “She’s brilliant. A witch and an artist.”

  I was sure she was the best. Quinn always sprung for the best. “Now, I need you to do something else for me.”

  “Of course,” Dev replied. “What do you need?”

  “I need you to tell me if I’m pregnant.” This was what I’d been sitting here thinking about. It hadn’t occurred to me until everyone else had something to do and I’d gone over the night again in my head.

  Dev put a hand on my arm, the touch oddly warming. “You’re not. I did check last night to ensure that you weren’t in a place where it would be a big risk. You weren’t ovulating. And as for anything else, well, Trent mostly lives like a monk. Especially the last two years.”

  “I wasn’t worried about catching a disease.” I breathed a sigh of relief. Wolves didn’t get venereal diseases. They could manwhore it up all they liked and never worry about the clap. They could, however, knock a chick up. “I thought I should ask if I was suddenly carrying a litter.”

  “You understand why he couldn’t wear a condom, right?”

  I could guess. “Because he had to hold that freaking sword in. Because he was a vessel and he had to do everything he could to not lose the connection to Gray.”

  How much pain had he been in? While I was lost in passion, Trent had been trying to keep himself impaled on something that could poison him.

  I had to ask. “Why would he do that for me?”

  Dev shrugged. “Why does any man do heroic things for a woman?”

  I would have to think about it. Now that I’d put some distance between myself and what had happened, I was feeling guilty. I hadn’t meant to cheat, but it felt like I had. Oh, I’m sure Marcus had already forgiven me given the circumstances, but sometimes it’s way harder to forgive myself. Was Marcus moving out because our connection was gone or because I’d slept with another man? Two, kind of.

  “He knows,” Quinn said, as though he could read my mind. Given the fact that he was a Green Man and something of a sex god, he likely could. Devinshea Quinn was good at reading emotions and guessing what someone would be feeling. It was one of the reasons he was an excellent advisor to the king. “Marcus, I mean. He knows you’re moving past him. I suspect it’s the reason he’s asked the king for permission to go to Venice for a while.”

  “I don’t like that phrase. Moving past him. I never wanted to move past Marcus. He’s been so good to me.”

  “All right. How about this one? He knows you need more.” He was quiet for a moment, as though trying to come up with a way to explain this to me. “I understand that some Hunters and trainers marry and they’re quite happy. Not a one of them was as strong as you. I’ve studied up since you came to live here. I believe you’re something different. Sometimes events occur and the universe aligns. We think God sits high on the Heaven plane and makes decisions, but I’ve learned over time that it’s more like a game of chess. Whatever being we think of as God, he puts things in motion, lines up the pieces, and then allows us to rise or fall as we may. But always we’re given the tools we need. I believe we are in a dangerous time. It’s why Dan rose when he did and as he did.”

  “There hadn’t been another vampire king in a thousand years before Donovan.” If vampires were rare, then kings were practically nonexistent. I did get Quinn’s point. I’d done some studying myself. “The old Council was corrupt. They were planning on enslaving the other supernaturals. Donovan stopped that.”

  “The Council wouldn’t have been happy with merely enslaving the other supernaturals. They would have moved on to the humans.” Quinn’s eyes took on a far-off look, as though remembering that time took him there in some way. “Daniel didn’t want to be king. He wanted to live a quiet life with Zoey. Instead he got the crown and the throne, and me along for the ride.”

  “Somehow I think he’s cool with that.” Though they weren’t demonstrably affectionate in public, it was easy to see that Donovan and Quinn loved each other.

  “Oh, in the beginning he was not, but that brings me back to what I was saying about being given all the tools we need. I am the reason Daniel walks in the light, and that was important. I serve several functions in our triad. If you take any one of the three of us away, I believe Daniel fails to take the crown and the world enters a period of darkness. I also believe we are coming up on another crisis.”

  “Because Donovan won’t deal with the demons.” Marcus believed it, too. It might be the first thing Marcus and Quinn ever agreed on.

  “He’s being unreasonable. Zoey doesn’t want to face any of it. We’ve been so happy that the idea of dark times ahead is unthinkable in a lot of ways. But I figured something out. We have a secret weapon. We have you.”

  I held my hands up because he was wrong about a couple of things. “I’m not anyone’s savior.”

  “Tell that to the deer herd. Tell it to my son,” Quinn argued. “What you don’t understand is that Daniel wasn’t the one who won our war. Zoey did. It’s not always the strongest or the one with the most power. It’s the person who will never stop. It’s the stubborn woman who has no skin in the game other than to see justice done, to ensure the safety of those around her. Daniel is caught up in his emotions and playing a dangerous game. I believe you will be the one to change things because unlike the other Hunters, you are stronger. You are more. Marcus understands that, too. And that is what I meant by you will be given what you need. When you fall, someone will be there to act heroically, to defy all the odds in order to ensure that you can do your job. All you have to do is believe and trust in yourself and accept what you need. Accept the gifts that will be given to you.”

  Something about the way he was talking got to me. I wasn’t destiny girl. I was just me and yet, I had to ask the question. “What am I going to need? Can the other dude, like, tell me?”

  His eyes shifted to a solid emerald green, the color shimmering and pulling me in. Dev Quinn was what is known in the Fae world as “ascendant.” An ancient god lived inside him, the Irish deity, Bris. I’d been told there were others—Arawn, the Welsh death god, Herne the Hunter—but I’d only ever met the gentle Bris. Asking him for guidance was easier than Quinn. There was something about him that warmed me, made me infinitely comfortable.

  “You need to bring the two halves of your whole together, child. That’s your true desire. Beyond the sexual and sensual, more than anything, you want peace, and that means a whole and integrated you. You will not find that until the two sides of your being feel valued and needed. You think the wolf is separate, but she’s not. You think she needs something different and she does, in ways, but she loves the dark prophet, too. Don’t try to separate. That’s where you’ll make the mistake.”

  “So I should be with Gray.”

  “There’s no choice here,” Bris replied. “There is only your heart and what it needs. Don’t try to live by the rules. Make your own. For yourself. For them. Perhaps then you can find what you truly want. What you want even more than the men themselves. What will bring your halves together in a way nothing else can.”

  A vision struck me. My children bouncing on the bed, giggling like the little monsters I call them. My demon son and the she-wolf I can’t stop thinking of.

  I’d seen them in the vision. It was one of the only things I could remember, perhaps because I clung so stubbornly to it. My children by Gray and Trent.

  Sometimes before I go to sleep, I pray that I will dream of them.

  “Kelsey, we’re ready.” Liv’s voice broke through my thoughts, bringing me back to the real world.

  Bris smiled at me and then he was Quinn again, his eyes changing in a blink.

  “I’ll go and check on the kids.” Quinn put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t be too hard on Trent. He’s finding his way through this, too.”

  “Say hi to Lee for me.”

  “If I can find him.” Quinn looked around as though expecting something to come at him from any angle. “He’s a slippery one, my human son. I know Rhys is supposed to be the powerful one, but it’s Lee who can truly wreak havoc. I tried to keep him in the dark about what’s happening here today.”

  “Oh, I’m sure he knows.” Little Lee knew everything. He’d been trained by his grandfather to be a good thief, but he’d also learned at a young age that information was the most valuable thing he could steal. Hell, I went to Lee when I needed to know what was happening around the building. He knew all the best gossip.

  But I wasn’t sure hearing his Uncle Neil discuss what had happened to him in Hell was the best thing for a nine-year-old kid. Some experiences were better off left for adulthood.

  Quinn kissed his wife before moving to the children’s wing of the penthouse.

  I watched as Neil took his seat. He drank the potion Liv gave him, complained bitterly about how it tasted, and then seemed to try to relax.

  “Okay, so what this spell is supposed to do is pull back the curtain,” Sarah explained. “Think of your memory as an actual part of your mind, of your soul in some ways. Everything that you are or have been is locked away in some part of you. Some witches even believe that our past lives are written onto our soul, each evolution of our being marking us in ways and helping to form a new whole.”

  “This is some spiritual shit. I get it. So my time on the Hell plane is like a file in the computer of my soul,” Neil quipped. “While you’re screwing around in there, could you pull up my time as a thirties matinee idol? Because I sometimes dream about that.”

  Sarah smiled, her nose wrinkling. “I’ll be sure to do that. Anyway, I’ve altered a memory spell in order to find the deeper memories. I’m going to pull some energy from the air around me and send it through you. It won’t hurt, but it should target whatever is veiling your memory. It should work quickly and it could be a bit overwhelming.”

  “I can handle it.” Roberts took a deep breath. “It’s always there anyway. It’s a nagging anxiety in the back of my mind, a shadow I can’t quite catch. Maybe it’s better to know.”

  I wasn’t sure about that. Sometimes ignorance was bliss, but I couldn’t let him stay that way. I needed to know.

  Liv brought Sarah a potion to amplify her powers. She downed it and then the chanting started.

  Yep. Always chanting. There was some Latiny things I didn’t understand and then it seemed like energy gathered around Sarah, starting at her feet and rising up through her. The room felt charged and that was when I noticed our intruder.

  As Sarah prepped to rip that veil off her friend’s memory, I caught sight of Lee. He was hiding behind one of the big comfy couches, his eyes wide as he watched the scene in front of him.

  I was about to walk over and nab his ass when the energy shot right through Roberts. I heard him gasp, but I watched in horror as it didn’t stop. It shot through Roberts’s chest and seemed to turn like a heat-seeking missile, finding the hottest target.

  My heart felt like it was going to stop as Lee took the energy bullet Sarah had fired. It sent his body flying across the room and his mother screamed.

  My heart was pounding in my chest as I ran for him. “Call Henri.”

  I would run his body down to the hospital myself if I had to. I loved Lee.

  Quinn came running at the sound of the screams, and everything was chaos as we all tried to huddle around Lee’s body.

  His eyes fluttered open and he frowned. “What the hell is wrong with you people? Damn it, Zoey. What’s going on?” He sat up and rubbed his head. “I need a beer.”

  He sounded different. His voice was deeper, though still Lee’s somehow.

  Sarah’s eyes had gone wide. “Holy shit.”

  Quinn started to try to pick him up. If he was upset his nine-year-old was asking for a beer, he didn’t show it. “Come on, son. We need to get you down to the hospital.”

  Lee pushed back. “Son? Dear god, Quinn. What’s gotten into you? Why is everybody staring at me like that? Wilcox? Is that you? What the hell are you doing here? And put on some goddamn pants. We’re in mixed company. The faeries might be all right with your junk hanging out, but I’m not.”

  “Lee?” Quinn asked.

  Of course it was Lee. He was right there.

  “Owens?” Trent was standing behind me and he’d changed back to his wholly masculine self.

  “Yes?”

  That had been said in stereo. Both Lee and I looked up at Trent, who really should have put some pants on.

  I would have said something but that was the moment the queen chose to faint.

  Lee stood up, looking down on his mom. “Looks like Zoey’s the one who needs the doc, Quinn.” He scratched his belly and then looked at his hand. He frowned and turned to the mirror behind him. “What the hell? Quinn get this damn glamour off me. Why do I always have to be the kid?”

  Quinn held his wife, but he was staring at his son. “I always thought she’d dreamed up that story. I didn’t believe her. Uh, that’s not a glamour, Lee. That’s your body now. And I’m your dad. Zoey’s your mom.” He turned to the witch, desperation plain on his face. “Sarah, I’m going to need my son back.”

  Lee was staring at himself in the mirror and I was trying to process what the hell had happened.

  “Wow.” Roberts had his hands on his hips. “That is Lee. The old Lee. I would know that frown anywhere. Dude, did you know you had a daughter? Owens, meet your dad.”

  Lee turned and stared at me, and then the softest look hit his eyes. “Well, hello there, darlin’. It’s coming back to me now. Damn it all, but you look like your momma.”

  “Huh. I think he’s right. We need a beer.” It was the only way to handle this whole clusterfuck. I looked back. Trent was way too close. “Dude, clothes. Please.”

  “She looks like her momma, but she sounds like her dad. Come on, darlin’. Let’s grab a beer and talk while the crazy people figure a way out of this.” He scratched his belly again. “I remember where the kitchen is.”

  I stood and followed…my dad.

  Chapter Ten

  My head hurt. Sometimes lots of weird information being shoved into a brain will do that to a girl. Sometimes finding out that your previously dead father now lived in the soul of a kid I liked will definitely bring on the migraine.

  “So when the spell was cast, it went for Lee and not Neil.” I’d been given a whole twenty-minute lecture on energy flow and ley lines and veiled souls, but I kind of thought that was what had happened.

  We were all sitting in the living room, the queen having been revived after her brief fainting spell. She was sitting next to her son/my dad. Quinn paced, checking his phone from time to time, and Neil seemed way more interested now that we weren’t talking about him.

  “Apparently the magic that holds the old soul in a new body was more interesting to the forces I was channeling than Neil’s magic.” Sarah was shaking her head like she still couldn’t believe what had happened.

  “I think it’s because it was faery magic,” Liv interjected. “The spell we used comes from the Fae. It’s a bit similar to lifting the veil so you can see the truth of a thing. I believe the force Sarah was using more readily recognized the magic from Heaven than the magic from Hell.”

 

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