“What was the reason you called us here today, Queen Winter? I have a feeling the revelation about the crown is new to you,” Harold asks as everyone finally sits down, and I stand up from my seat. I look around the room at the mixture of supernaturals in here, all of them sitting side by side to plan a fight. Harold, Drake, and Leigha are here for the vampires, today. Lucinda, a man I recognise as one of her mates, and Harris are here for the shifters. Then there are three witches, one man and two older women I do not know, but I’m sure they look familiar to me. For the angels, are Gabriel, Lucifer, and a female angel with long, dark hair and black wings; she also wears a stern expression as she watches me for the answer. I clear my throat before I speak, having the eyes of so many powerful people on me is a little daunting.

“Do any of you know about the fray? The fairies? Some call them Fey,” I ask, and no one says anything until one of the witches I didn’t recognise puts her hand up.

“I’m sorry, I do not know your name,” I say, and she stands up, bowing before she speaks.

“My name is Duzella. I was on the council for Atticus’ mother, and she was a true queen, as well as loyal friend. I was kept in the dungeons until Atticus took the throne, like he always should have. My loyalty is to our king, the rightful heir and the rightful new Queen.”

“Thank you, Duzella, my mother spoke kindly of you often,” Atti says with a sad smile directed at Duzella.

“I’ve heard stories of the fray, the ones who live in a dimension next to ours. They say the fray cross over when the wards between worlds are weak, to cause havoc. There were many books on the fray in the royal libraries of the witches. Unfortunately, I only read a few, but I will ask around the surviving witches and see if anyone read more than I did. I only saw them as fairy tales, I’m afraid,” Duzella tells me.

“Thank you, that would be highly appreciated. Let it be known, the fray are a very real race, with a very real world,” I reply.

“The plants tell me the fray are not to be trusted, that they only bring sorrow. Their world is connected to ours, with portals only fray can see. The plants told me about the portals but nothing else,” Lucinda tells me. I nod at her and give her a friendly smile. I haven’t had time to speak to Lucinda, but I did watch her in training the other day. She was teaching sword skills to some teenagers, they looked terrified of her by the end of the day. Well, except Freddy, Josh and Mich, who loved it. They are all amazing fighters, and it’s clear they have been training since they were little, with the way they fought. A clearing of someone’s throat makes me come back to the present and remember what I was going to say.

“I apparently can dream call, a demon power I have. It’s a variation of the demon king’s power to control his own blood. My mother was rumoured to be able to control people, but I can only control bringing blood relatives into my dreams. I dream called the Queen of the fray by accident, her name is Lily, or that’s what she told me. But, it seems like she played me for a fool by making me believe she was friends with my mother,” I say, and Wyatt frowns as I look down at him.

“Just before I was taken and controlled by the demon king, I had a dream. In this dream, my mother, Elissa, and Demtra were there.” There’s hushed whispers following my words. “They told me about how Lily is no friend of my mother’s like I was told, and how she cannot be trusted.”

“How does that affect us all, Queen Winter?” Lucinda asks me.

“It’s just Winter, no need for the title every time we speak. We have a lot of discussions to be made,” I say, and my mates chuckle a little. I hold in the urge to kick one of them under the table.

“I made a promise with the Queen of Fray. I promised to hand over a half-fray child that is in this world, in exchange for soldiers and weapons on the day of war,” I say, and there are more whispers around the room following my words. I wait for someone to say something, knowing that all my mates know of this already, so it’s no shock to them. It is a shock that the fray has tricked me, and the anger written all over each of their faces says it to me. They are as mad as I am.

“It sounds like an easy enough promise, and I don’t see how she will get herself out of it,” Lucifer says.

“But, I disagree, mate. The child part is easy, the offer she made is not. There is always a way around what you promise in a deal. If the fray are not be trusted, then we can expect them to betray us,” the woman next to Lucifer says.

“I don’t trust her. I have no idea if those soldiers will betray us, but I know we need to be prepared if they do,” I say, and there’s silence around the room for a long time as we think about it. I don’t know how she is going to betray me, but I just remember my mother’s panicked look when I told her I had made a deal with Lily. She wouldn’t have wasted her time warning me otherwise.

“Right we need a plan, no more waiting around and training,” Wyatt says, and there’s quiet agreements around the room.

“How are we going to win this war?” Jaxson asks no one specifically, but all of us.

“How many of us are there for starters? Let’s talk numbers.” Atti asks as he stands up and goes over to the white board. I watch as he gets a marker off the side and opens it.

“We did a head count, and not including women and children, we have nine thousand and twelve,” the vampire who spoke before says, and I feel a sharp pain at the thought of how many have died to get us here. So, so many are lost.

“We have to take into account that it takes at least two of us to kill one. We can get lucky, but we don’t have the weapons we know the demon king’s army has.”

“What is the weapon count? The pack doesn’t need weapons, remember that,” Jaxson asks, reminding us how the wolves are weapons themselves.

“Neither do witches, not really. Most witches have element powers enough to fight,” Atti says. His point is true.

“Okay . . . we have no idea how big his army is, but I’m guessing he has at least ten thousand, if not more, turned humans from Paris, alone. We know he has two dragons, and they will be able to fly in,” Atti says and writes this on the board.

“Why can they fly in? In the witches’ city, the ward had to be broken to let them in.”

“I figured this out last night,” Atti gives me a worried look, “the wards are always weaker on a solstice. It interferes with them somehow, and I forgot about it. It means the dragons might be able to get through easily.”

“Dragon,” Milo says, flying off from the window and sitting on the table.

“Dragons. There will be two of them. How do we kill them?” Atti asks Milo.

“Yes, dragon Milo,” Jaxson says.

“I will call dragon,” Milo says and flies off towards the door. I shake my head at him, having no idea what he is going on about. We really need to work on making full sentences with him some time.

“We need help, and I doubt the humans will help us with this war, not after Paris,” I finally say into the silent room.

“I know a place with supernatural people who may help us because the demons will be after them, too, but a warning, My Queen,” Lucifer says, “They might just as easily betray us, this is why I never wanted to tell anyone about them.”

“Who?” I ask him.

“My son is half angel, and they came to me once, asking if I wanted to give my son to them to protect. They claimed to have thousands of refugees and half’s that are hidden,” Lucifer says.

“We cannot trust a load of halflings, my Queen and Kings. I’ve heard of these people, and they will betray you all,” Gabriel says.

“Be careful, my son is a half, and I will rip your throat out if you say another word about them,” Wyatt snaps, his sentence followed by the wolves’ light, warning growls. I place a hand on Wyatt’s shoulder.

“We need help, or it doesn’t matter whose blood we have. It doesn’t matter if we are halfs, if we are full bloods, or even human, we will all die the same way. The demon king doesn’t care what blood we have, to him we are all dead already, and this is just a game. I suggest we stop acting like children and win the big game,” I tell the room of supernaturals, who watch me with fear and hope in their eyes.

“Wise words, My Queen, I am sorry for speaking out of turn,” Gabriel says and bows his head.

“Our Queen is right. It doesn’t matter anymore. We all have family and children we want to keep safe and alive, and we need help to do that,” Dabriel says, his sentence hanging around the now silent room.

“Where can we find these people?” Atti asks, leaning over me on the table, his chest brushing against my back. I have to resist the urge to lean back into him with all the eyes of the people in here on us.

“They said you call for them in your mind, they have a witch who listens out for calls about halfs. I can get Josh to call for them, and then I will explain,” Lucifer says.

“That must be one hell of a powerful witch,” Atti comments, and he has a point. I’ve never seen even Atti use that amount of power.

“The man and woman who came to see me, were very powerful. They put a ward around us while we spoke and then just disappeared,” Lucifer says.

“Like how witches move?” I ask.

“No. With witches you can see them, a glimmer or something. Supernaturals can always tell when a witch uses their power. This was different, and the people that I saw, I believed were an angel and a vampire, anyway,” he says. I can’t tell much, but that might be because I never really look.

“Freddy, my nephew, is powerful. Far more than I’ve ever seen any child,” Jaxson says.

“I believe mixing our blood makes us more powerful, stronger,” Dabriel comments, and a few people nod. My eyes meet with Leigha’s across the room, but she only looks at me for a second before looking at Harris. The look says everything, she wants it to be okay for wolves and vampires to mix. She loves him.

“Call for them, tell them the new kings and queen want to make a deal for help. We want to meet,” I tell Lucifer, who nods.

“I can’t call from here, but I can from the local town. I will go there now with Josh.”

“I will take you and protect you,” Atti says before I can even offer to send someone to go. I don’t like the idea of Lucifer or Josh going outside the castle right now.

“I’m coming, too. Freddy wouldn’t forgive me if his new best friend got hurt,” Wyatt says, standing up as well.

“I should come,” I say, and both Atti and Wyatt shake their heads.

“No, the crowning for Dabriel is in two days, and important. I know Alex has a dress she needs you to try on,” Atti says, and I groan, looking around for Alex but not seeing her. I dread to know what kind of dress she has planned.

“We will meet the day after the crowning to plan for war. Every person who is going to fight, needs to be training. Working together,” Atti says firmly and walks out with Lucifer and Wyatt following.

“Soon you will be my Queen, officially,” Dabriel says once everyone other than Jaxson has left.

“Erm . . . I want to say I’m looking forward to it, but I don’t want to know what dress Alex has planned,” I say, and he laughs.

“Dabriel, I need a word,” Harris says, poking his head around the door.

“Hey Harris,” I say, and he smiles.

“Hey, Win, but I’m serious, two of your angels are fighting, and it’s not good. We have stopped them, but they are talking about the laws of females or something,” Harris says with a worried look, and then we hear a loud bang outside the room, followed by the sound of glass smashing.

“Be right back,” Dabriel says and kisses me gently before walking out. I look down at Jaxson, who pats his lap, and I move so I’m sitting on him.

“That right there, was a Queen I’m extremely proud of,” he tells me, and I laugh.

“I thought I was being a little too bossy,” I say, hoping I wasn’t, but I know they need to get over their silly traditions and hate for halfs. Things have to change now.

“It was a major turn on, if you want to know,” Jax says, leaning closer and trailing his lips down my jaw.

“Oh yeah, I can tell,” I say, moving a little on his lap and feeling how hard he is. Jaxson laughs before he picks me up and lays me down on the table, kissing me, pressing his body into mine. Jaxson seems to have as much urgency as me, as we quickly remove all our clothes and he thrusts into me, capturing my moans with a kiss.

“Best be quiet, lass, we wouldn’t want someone to walk in,” Jaxson says with a slight growl before he does everything he can to make sure I can’t stay quiet.