“Getting anything?” Nic asked him.

Lucas shook his head, trying to focus at the same time as he tried to keep pace with the other two. Nic was at the front of the group, keeping his eyes and ears trained on the forest as they stalked through it. Shaun kept the rear, alert and ready to spring into action the moment a threat appeared. If it weren’t for Nic being their guide, it probably would have been Shaun in front. As it was, Shaun was serving well as the rearguard while keeping Lucas steady, and making sure he was following Nic.

Nic might have scouted ahead, and his senses were sharper than either Lucas or Shaun’s were. Yet, it had been agreed that it wouldn’t hurt to have Lucas using his abilities to help sense any incoming patrols. Lucas had assured them he would be able to do both that and keep up with the other two while remaining quiet. The reality was proving to be more difficult than the theory, by a long shot.

His initial attempt at spreading his senses out around them had been too broad for him to focus on the real world as well. It had been like trying to walk in a straight line, while looking through a pair of binoculars. His body couldn’t navigate the physical world around him while trying to perceive the evanescent realm. In order to keep up the pace, he had been forced to pull his senses back into a tighter radius around them. It meant he couldn’t warn them any sooner than Nic would be able to, but at the very least, he might catch something Nic missed.

“You alright?” Shaun asked quietly as he slid up behind Lucas.

He nodded. “I’ll be fine. I’m not doing too much at the moment.”

“And when we get close?” Nic asked giving a quick glance over his shoulder.

“I’ll deal with that when we get there. How long do we have?” Lucas wanted to change the subject and not talk about his abilities, and just get a good idea of just how long he had.

“Another twenty minutes, unless they changed their security since I came back for you guys,” Nic answered, voice low.

Once they reached the point that Nic had refused to go beyond, it would be up to Lucas to guide them. It would mean stopping so Lucas could cast out his senses, but would guarantee them more accurate results for finding the king. He would be reliant on Nic and Shaun to keep an eye around them, however. If he attempted to sense both the immediate vicinity, as well as deeper into the forest where the king was, he would end up stretching himself beyond his limits. Lucas wouldn’t be any good to them if he was incapable of moving because his head felt like it was tearing itself apart from within.

“Why haven’t we seen anyone?” Shaun asked Nic.

“Because the route I chose was a weak point in their patrols,” Nic answered.

“I would have thought the Fae were more efficient than to have a gap in their defenses,” Lucas said, feeling uneasy.

“A defense is just a plan, and every plan has flaws in it. Especially when that plan is made in a hurry, like they did here. I don’t think they expected the hunters to muster that much force in such a short amount of time. Don’t think they knew about Anne and Jacob’s little makeshift council either. A well-made plan can be weakened by surprise,” Nic told them as he paused to confirm their path.

“A truly well-made plan is flexible,” Lucas pointed out as a matter of personal pride.

“But no plan is perfect, and I’m very good at finding the flaws and exploiting them,” Nic said with an air of arrogance.

Lucas was beginning to piece together what Nic was capable of, the more they worked together. The kitsune worked on his own, more often than he worked with others. He was exceptionally capable at stealth, tracking, and scouting. From what Lucas could gather, the man was also very good at blending into other groups, adopting their mannerisms and appearances to ingratiate himself and gain whatever he needed to achieve his goal at hand. If Nic truly had a talent for finding weaknesses in plans, it wouldn’t take much to find a way to exploit those weaknesses.

Thief, spy, assassin: those were all titles that would cover those various skill sets. If he were to hazard a guess, he would say Nic had filled each of those roles at some point in his life. He had killed hunters before, and had done so with ease and precision. He’d nearly done the same with Lucas and Shaun, but had been stopped by circumstances outside his control. Yet, Lucas thought it was more appropriate to think of Nic as a saboteur. There was something of a mischievous nature within the kitsune, and a keen eye for disrupting the order of things and causing chaos.

“This is all a game to you,” Lucas said, realizing the truth as the words left his mouth.

Nic pointed at him over his shoulder. “A dangerous one, but yeah.”

“Killin’ a Fae king is a game?” Shaun asked in confusion.

“It is if you think of it the right way. Anything you do, can be treated like a game. Because everything has its rules, and every piece on the board follows its own patterns. If you take into account the reality that every piece will probably cheat, then you have a game,” Nic explained.

Shaun snorted. “Not everyone cheats.”

“No, but if you always expect that someone will, you’re not surprised when they do. You can even predict when and how they’ll cheat. After that, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to make the rules work for you, and outcheat the cheaters,” Nic shrugged.

“That explains so much about ya,” Shaun grumbled, sounding offended.

“I’ll try not to take that as an insult,” Nic said, sounding affronted anyway.

“Boys, be nice. Let’s focus on the job at hand, and discuss personal philosophy later,” Lucas said before they could really get into the meat of the discussion.

He privately admitted that, when you took out the judgement in Shaun’s voice, he did have a point. If Nic saw all of this as one elaborate game, it would explain a lot about the man’s behavior, now and before. Treating everything as some sort of game that needed to be won meant he would always be looking for a way to come out on top. Not because he necessarily had ambitions, but because the stakes of the “games” he was in usually involved his own life on the line. Nothing had to be taken seriously, and no one could be fully trusted.

It wasn’t the right moment for it, but he felt saddened by the thought all the same. Once more, he found himself wondering what it was that had happened in Nic’s life to bring him to this point. What history lay behind that impish grin and glinting eyes? And what about him and Shaun had somehow broken through that mindset to bring Nic to the point where he was willing to try and trust for the first time in who knew how long?

Shaun nudged him from behind. “You’re thinkin’. Quit it.”

Lucas would have laughed, but Nic motioned over his shoulder for them to quiet down. The three of them fell into a crouch and listened to the forest around them. They followed Nic’s gaze into the line of trees. There was faint movement in the shadows, and Lucas would swear he saw the glint of metal. It took only a moment to extend his senses in that direction, moving to encompass it.

When Nic glanced back at him, Lucas nodded to confirm. It was the strange, tingling sensation of cold metal that he associated with the Fae. There were those who felt like liquid flame, their energies dancing frantically around the caress of his senses. He’d never really bothered to find out why that was, but now he was realizing that it was probably the difference between the Winter and Summer Courts.

They waited until Lucas nodded to indicate that he felt the form pass beyond where they could be seen. The closer they got to where Nic was supposed to take them, the denser the forest became. It started with a few fir trees, spread out at distances that allowed plenty of room to move around. As they walked deeper, the forest became thicker, and Lucas thought there would come a point where they would have to squeeze between branches to move forward. It gave them plenty of cover, but it also gave the enemy cover to hide behind as well.

“At least the moon ain’t full,” Shaun whispered with a glance upward.

Lucas nodded, thinking that the light of a full moon would have made this nearly impossible, regardless of if it was a good trail to follow or not. At least with his own special senses to guide them, they had a slight advantage when it came to hiding from the eyes of the patrols. It wouldn’t have done them much good if the light of the moon reflecting off the blanket of snow illuminated everything.

Nic paused between two trees, reaching up to pull something from the branches. “This is where we need to go. You can do your thing in here, Lucas.”

“What is that?” Shaun asked, leaning forward to get a better look at the object in Nic’s hand.

The kitsune twisted it around. “A wooden coin. Good-luck charm, I guess. I used it to mark this spot, just so I was absolutely sure when we came back.”

Nic’s spot required them to push through the branches of the prickly fir trees. There was a small clearing with just enough bare ground for them to stand together. They wouldn’t be able to see out from the ring of trees that pressed in tight against one another, but no one would be able to see in, either. The branches close to the ground were bunched close together, enough that the only way anyone would spot them was to either press through the branches like they had, or to have a bird’s eye view.

“Got a good idea of what you’re looking for?” Nic asked Lucas.

Lucas brushed away the dusting of snow that had managed to make it through to the small patch of ground. “I’ve never sensed a king before. But if he’s supposed to be so much stronger than anyone else, I’m going to be looking for someone who feels…more Fae.”

Shaun peered down at him in disbelief. “Really?”

Lucas sighed. “Do you have a better idea? It’s not like I know what a Fae king is going to feel like, okay?”

Nic rolled his eyes at them. “Can you two do your bickering like an old married couple later? We’re on a time limit here.”

Just like that, he and Shaun sobered up and shut up. While they were in here bickering over the details, the others were out there fighting for their lives. Every moment they spent in the forest, was another moment for someone to lose their life. Lucas hoped that the minute the king fell, the fighting would stop. Well, that and he hoped they were right about the war ending when the king was killed.

Shaking himself free of such distracting thoughts, he closed his eyes and allowed his senses to expand. His face bunched up as he realized that the icy, metallic feeling of the Fae was everywhere around them. Carefully, he swept his mind’s eye across the area they were intending to head into. The very air itself seemed permeated with the Fae’s energy signature.

“This is a…special place,” Lucas murmured, knowing that the only way for specific energies to fill a place so completely was for the Fae to have been here a long time. He didn’t know if this was one of their homes, or just a key location for special occasions. Whatever it was, it was important enough, and used often only by the Fae so much so that it had taken on their energy.

Worried that he might be sensing only the remains of their energy signature, he pushed further outward. It didn’t take long for that worry to fade when he caught a far more potent sensation of Fae. There were a few of them, not too far from their hiding place. They weren’t moving, but his senses didn’t allow him to see exactly what they were doing. He would guess they were keeping watch, but at least he knew he could still identify individual Fae, even with the background energy mingling around.

Using the individual Fae he found, he leaped from one to another until the individual signatures became more focused. Groups of them were now lighting up his senses and he strained to move among them. A single Fae caught his attention when the edge of his senses brushed against them. Whoever it was seemed to burst outward, their very being filling his senses. It was so strong he could actually taste metal in his mouth, and feel the chilly aura of the Fae reaching into his own core.

He had found the king.

With an effort of will on his part, he forced his physical body to twist about so it was facing in the direction he was sensing the king’s aura. His equilibrium wavered, and he felt someone’s hands steady him. It was nearly impossible to keep his mind split between the two tasks. His effort paid off, and he pulled his extra sense back, letting it sweep along the path they would have to take to get to their destination.

“Lucas?” Shaun whispered, sounding worried.

His eyes snapped open, seeing Shaun and Nic hovering over him. “I’m okay.”

“You sure?” Nic asked, frowning in concern.

“Yeah, but more importantly, I found him,” Lucas told them, trying to clear his head and hoping that the inevitable headache would build slowly. They usually took their time to creep up on him before reaching the full height of the pain. The few times he had willingly pushed himself too far, the build up had been anything but slow, and if that happened he would quickly find himself nearly blinded by the pain.

“Wow, that actually worked?” Nic asked in surprise.

Shaun turned to him, keeping one hand on Lucas’ shoulder. “It was your idea!”

Nic shrugged. “Yeah, but my ideas don’t always work.”

Lucas patted Shaun’s knee. “Don’t worry about it. I found him, and that’s all that matters.”

Nic crouched down beside Shaun. “Where’s he at?”

Lucas nodded in the direction his body was facing. “That way. There’s a handful of others near him, but it’s not too bad. Nothing we can’t handle.”

Shaun seemed to sense something in his voice. “But?”

Lucas sighed. “But, there’s quite a few Fae in between the king and us. He’s not personally surrounded, but the area around is riddled with them.”

Shaun frowned. “We’re not getting through this next part quietly, are we?”

“I told you that, didn’t I?” Nic asked with a grin.

“You don’t have to be so happy about being right. Not about this,” Shaun told him with a glare.

“What do you think we should do?” Nic asked Lucas, ignoring the dirty look Shaun was still giving him.

“I think we should keep to your plan. Try to get to the king as quickly as possible, but keep our stealthy approach going for as long as we can. The closer we are to the guy before the alarm is raised, the better the chance of us succeeding,” Lucas said.

“Y’all happen to think about how we’re gonna get to the king in the first place?” Shaun asked.

Nic frowned. “Meaning?”

“Well, if we’re gonna just charge up to him, how’s that gonna work? We’re gonna have a bunch of his guards on our ass, and we’re gonna just…try to fight him? Or is one of us just supposed to run up and stab him?” Shaun asked, mimicking the gesture as he said it.

Lucas blinked. “Was sort of hoping you could just…do your stabbing thing.”

Shaun stared at him. “You tellin’ me you didn’t have a plan for this?”

He gestured helplessly. “The hardest part was going to be getting to the guy in the first place. Without knowledge of the area and having a good guide and scout, we weren’t even going to get this far. I was working with limited time to plan here.”

“You’re still the guy who’s supposed to be thinkin’ about this stuff! How are we gonna kill this guy without some sort of plan in mind? I’m good at fightin’, but I ain’t good enough to take down a dozen of ‘em at once while takin’ out their king, too!” Shaun protested vehemently.

Lucas turned to Nic, pausing when he saw a strange expression on his face. “Nic?”

The kitsune glanced at him in mock surprise, “Oh, are you guys done? I was just…you know, waiting, for you to be done.”

A thought occurred to him, but Shaun beat him to saying it. “You already had an idea, didn’t ya?”

Nic grinned, holding up a small case, no bigger than his thumb. “You would be correct, my dear Shaun.”

Shaun eyed the box. “And what’s that?”

Nic opened it, a small bullet nestled in the casing. “Voila, the answer to our prayers.”

Lucas frowned. “A bullet? We don’t even have guns on us, and bullets don’t do much good against Fae.”

Shaun sighed, pulling up the back of his coat to show a gun in a holster. “I go everywhere with one, Lucas. C’mon.”

“That still doesn’t change my point about bullets not working,” Lucas pointed out, rolling his eyes at his gun-loving partner.

“It does if the bullet in question happens to be gold,” Nic said with a pleased grin.

“That’s not gold,” Shaun said.

“And gold is too soft to make into bullets, it would shred to nothing when shot out of a gun,” Lucas explained, feeling it should be obvious.

Nic plucked the bullet out of the case. “Well, you know how they make those bullets where part of them pretty much explodes into shrapnel when they hit something?”

“Hollow-point,” Shaun answered almost immediately. “Illegal, but ya can get ‘em. If they work right, they can make one helluva mess, but what’s that got to do with this?”

The kitsune turned the bullet around so the light danced off the metal exterior. “And if someone were to tweak it so that the hollow part of a hollow-point wasn’t so hollow? If you were to, say, fill that hollow with specially made, pure gold fragments that would become the shrapnel instead? Gold fragments that were protected by the exterior, so it could survive being shot out of a gun and then were released only after the exterior shattered on impact?”

Lucas’ eyes widened “Are you telling me, that you have a bullet to kill a Fae?”

“Correction, I have a bullet that can kill a Fae, but only if you shoot them in the heart or head. There’s not enough gold here to poison them completely, so accuracy counts,” Nic said, placing the bullet back into the small case.

Shaun looked surprised when Nic handed it to him. “Me?”

“You’re the best shot here, aren’t you?” Nic asked with a smile.

“He is, but…just how long have you been waiting to pull this one out?” Lucas asked in annoyance.

“Long enough that it would be a dramatic reveal,” Nic answered without the slightest trace of shame in his voice.

“It’s not the right caliber for my gun,” Shaun said suddenly worried.

The kitsune seemed to have been waiting for that too, pulling a gun of his own out from inside his coat. “Et voila, my friend.”

Shaun checked it over carefully before loading the single bullet into it. “Ya cleaned this, right?”

Nic rolled his eyes. “I know how to take care of a gun, Shaun. I didn’t survive by not keeping up on weapon maintenance.”

Lucas watched Shaun. “Why did you have this?”

Nic shrugged. “Because you never know when you might need something like that.”

Lucas caught Nic’s gaze and raised his brow in question. The kitsune shrugged again, looking away and pretending to peer through the branches none of them could actually see through. The only reason Lucas could think of why Nic would need this weapon, would be for another kitsune. He doubted the man would need something like it for a Fae, since a golden knife would have worked just fine. From what Lucas had seen, a kitsune was a far more dangerous opponent than a Fae, at least on an individual level. A bullet would come in handy against a slippery opponent, the sort of unexpected resource that if used correctly, would end a fight quickly.

Shaun stowed the gun away. “Then I guess…we’ve got a king to assassinate.”

Nic wrinkled his nose. “Assassinate? Pretty fancy word for a group of three idiots trying to off some random Fae.”

“Fae murder just don’t sound right,” Shaun said.

Lucas sighed. “Guys? Focus, preferably before they find us and do the killing instead.”

“Fine. Keep your sense open then, Major Buzzkill,” Nic grunted. “Because we’ve got a Fae king to kill.”