Chapter Thirteen
The receiving room was fitted much like the rest of the castle, but here, hand-woven wool rugs covered the stone floor in rich colors. Three red velvet brocade couches surrounded a small fireplace. Off to the side, a beautiful illuminated manuscript was open on a stand, with a floor lamp to light it. A couple chairs rested along the walls next to a small table. The walls held portraits—some more modern than others—but what stood out to me were the different fashions in the portraits. It was a nice collection, and I recognized Donovan in a few paintings, but I couldn’t place any of the other people in the frames. Bookshelves filled in the spaces between portraits.
Ian had taken down the big painting over the fireplace that depicted a Were hunt bringing down a lion in Africa. That frame now rested against the back wall, and the fey mirror had taken its spot above the mantel. It was a long oval with an ornate golden frame, its edges carved swirls and curlicues. The scent gave away that it was actually made of gold, rather than painted gold. I didn’t even want to think about how much it was worth.
“You ready?” Donovan asked.
I took a breath. “I guess so.”
He walked to the mantel and grabbed something from his pocket. I didn’t realize it was a knife until I smelled the coppery scent of blood.
“What’re you doing?”
“Everything comes with a price when you’re dealing with the fey. It’s important to remember that. Also, never say thank you or promise to do something unless it’s clearly defined. The more specific you are, the better off you’ll be.”
I knew most of that, but his little lecture made me nervous. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Cazadores were patrolling last night and still one of ours was killed. Thomas shouldn’t even have even been out in town. I’m not sure who to trust besides you, so I don’t think we have a lot of options. But if you’ve a mind for something else, let me know.”
I shook my head. He was right.
I held my breath as he pressed his bloody hand to the mirror. “Helen. If you’re able, I’d like a word.”
Donovan stepped back, but the mirror stayed a mirror. I cracked my knuckles as I watched its surface, waiting for something to happen. “Maybe she’s not in?”
“She might be tied up or might want us to wait, but she’ll come. Eventually.”
Twenty minutes later, I was sitting on the couch, knee bouncing, as we waited.
The mirror’s surface rippled. A light seemed to come from behind the mirror, reminding me of the way the ocean waves looked as the moon rose. When the motion finally settled back down, the Lunar queen stood front and center.
For some reason, I’d pictured her wearing a long dress with bell sleeves, like something out of Lord of the Rings, but she was wearing a crisp white silk pantsuit. Instead of a jacket, the top was a form-fitting halter, with a dangerously low-cut V-neck, revealing her chest bone. She stood casually looking down at us, with her hands loosely in the pockets of her wide-leg pants. Her long silvery hair was pin straight and tumbled down to her waist, while her eyes were an eerie golden-orange color that reminded me of the harvest moon. Her skin seemed to glitter with a light golden aura, and I wondered if it was really like that or just a show for us.
My gut said that was how she really looked, but I hoped it was a show. Because she was breathtaking. Even though she had to be old, she looked like she was in her mid-thirties, and when she smiled, her expression lit up the room.
“I can’t say I’m surprised to hear from you, Donovan.” She grinned, and it was like I could feel her joy and wanted to smile with her.
I shook my head as the sweet scent of fey magic filled the room. She’s trying to manipulate us, I said to Donovan through our bond.
It’s habit for her. Like breathing. “No need for your magic. You’re looking grand enough.”
She laughed. “I do get carried away.”
Not even a minute had passed, and I couldn’t deny that Donovan and the queen knew each other well. I was fine with it, mostly. He was my mate. I didn’t need to be intimidated by one of his exes.
But I was.
“I’ve a bit of a problem that I think might be one of yours,” Donovan said.
“Let’s not start casting blame about.” The queen shook her finger at him. “Weren’t you there with my daughter when she was caught on film? In the media? You especially know my feelings about this.”
“As I recall, we both agreed it was only a matter of time, but the way it happened was unfortunate. Believe me, this is not the manner in which we wanted to make ourselves known,” Donovan said.
“Unfortunate indeed.” The queen’s laugh was a harsh-sounding thing. “If it had been anyone caught but my Cosette, I might have been able to be a better ally to the wolves, but as things are…” Her eyelids fluttered. “The queens have spoken. The world changes, but our natures stay the same. We choose to hide and disappear rather than rise among the humans. We know what happens when the humans know of our kind… The power is too much, and we dare not risk what terrible things we’d become if we were worshipped again.” She held her hands wide. “I fear there’s nothing I can do to help your cause.”
I’d heard stories, but it was one thing to learn about how some of the fey turned to fearsome gods and ruled over the humans, and another to hear about it from someone who had lived it. Now that I knew why they were leaving, I was kind of thankful. If they really thought that they could turn into gods again, then I wasn’t sure I wanted them sticking around.
Even though I couldn’t scent her emotions through the mirror, the littlest bit of tension around the Lunar Queen’s eyes told me she didn’t agree with what her fellow queens had decided. So maybe there was another option. Too bad it sounded like she couldn’t go against them.
Which meant we might be out of luck, too.
“Is that your new mate with you?”
“Aye. Rude of me not to introduce her. This is Meredith Molloney, my true mate.”
The queen laughed. “I had heard tale of this on the wind, but I didn’t believe such a young one could catch the eye of the notorious Donovan Murry.” She made young sound like it was a bad thing. “And if I’m not mistaken, you were there with my Cosette?”
“I was.”
“Cosette!” The queen called, but her gaze didn’t leave mine. “Did you know your friend was here?”
I tried to cover my shock the best I could. I’d assumed Cosette was still in Colorado, but a moment later, she came into view. With the way her arms were crossed, she looked a little stand-offish. I wasn’t sure if it was because her mother had called her home or because of what’d happened at the mall.
“Is she, Mother?” Cosette met my gaze through the glass, her eyes and tone flat. “Hello, Meredith. What an unexpected surprise.” Her tone was anything but surprised.
“The trip wasn’t planned, but when we got word that Donovan’s second was killed, we had to come.” I had to come. Even after her warnings.
“And that’s why you’re calling?” The queen looked to Donovan. “I’d be happy to step in and take control of the pack if—”
“No. I’ve got it, thank you.” Donovan cut in.
Yeah. That was never happening, but it was scary that she thought—even for a second—that it was a possibility.
“I’m calling as a friend—”
“And former lover.”
Okay. Helen was officially getting on my nerves.
“That, too.” And with Donovan’s snippy tone, the friendly side of him got tucked away. Power expanded out from my mate until the urge to change itched under my skin. It took everything I had to focus on the conversation and keep myself in human form. “Were you aware that a fey intruded in my stronghold and murdered my second?”
“Oh, my. How embarrassing! One of your own killed in your home. But what makes you think it was us?”
“Don’t play coy with me. You know I can scent your kind out, even among the entrails of my dear friend.” Donovan stepped forward, and his voice lowered. “Are you really after starting a war with us?”
The queen’s sigh sounded like twinkling chimes. “No. We—the majority of the queens—do not want war. But not everything is as simple as that.”
“One of your people helped to murder two of my pack. It’s hard to take that lightly, and I promise you everything will get deadly simple if these killings keep up.”
She held up a hand. “Please, Donovan. I’m in a very precarious place. I shouldn’t have taken your call, especially now.”
“If we were closer to another queen’s territory, I’d ask her, but I’m asking you. What is doing this to my people? How do I stop it?”
The queen was quiet for a moment but finally said, “Bhrunyz was never meant to leave underhill. There were protections in place, but it appears they’ve been broken.”
“So someone in your court set something loose on us?” Donovan’s words were fierce. “Am I understanding correctly?”
“It seems we both have troublemakers in our midst. It wasn’t mine alone that did this to your pack.” We knew that, but it was interesting that she knew it, too.
Still, how could someone from Donovan’s pack free a fey from underhill? Especially one as powerful as this Bhrunyz sounded?
“Will you come get what you’ve lost?” Donovan asked.
“I was ordered not to contact or aid any werewolves, but I did not contact you, and I offer you no aid. The problem is yours.”
Wow. So she knew exactly what was going on and just couldn’t say?
My gaze slipped to Cosette at the edge of the mirror. She still had her arms folded, but now her nails were digging into her skin. It wasn’t that hard to figure out what was going on. Cosette was in trouble, so the queen was in trouble. That must mean they were in debt to the other courts, which was not a place I’d ever want to be.
“What if sitting out means starting a war?” Donovan’s words were like ice in my veins. He wasn’t asking that as the Alpha of his pack, which would’ve been serious enough, but as one of the Seven. Someone with the power to actually declare war.
“You won’t find many of us left to battle with. And after that mess in Santa Fe—”
“Mother, please,” Cosette cut in. “I—”
The queen turned to her. I wasn’t sure what passed between them, but the result was Cosette’s already pale skin turning ghostly. “My apologies. I have to go. If you’ll excuse me.” With that, Cosette disappeared from view.
I winced, hoping she’d be okay. She really had gone out of her way trying to help the Weres when she wasn’t supposed to.
The queen turned back to me, staring straight into my eyes. She no longer looked like the kind, beautiful woman I’d wanted to agree with. The shadows on her face darkened and the stench of magic grew, its sweet floral scent turning sour. “I’ve already said what I am able to say. It’s up to you to find Bhrunyz. It would be best if you heeded my warnings.”
Cosette’s warning had come from her mother? I wished I could’ve taken her advice, but I couldn’t. I had to come to Ireland. There was no choice for me.
But I tried to see the positive in this. The queen was leaving the hunting up to us, but she’d given us the creature’s name. It wasn’t a lot to go on, but it wasn’t nothing. We were certainly better off than we were a few minutes ago.
“Then I’ll take care of Bhrunyz,” Donovan said. “I expect no recourse for delivering a final death.”
I hadn’t even thought of that. The fey were hard to kill. Extremely hard. They only dealt out a true death in the most extreme circumstances, and if one of their kind was killed out of turn by a non-fey, they were not above seeking revenge. It was almost as if they all expected to live forever. Death wasn’t in their daily vocabulary. So, when they were reminded of it, they reacted in the worst possible way.
The queen gave us a barely noticeable dip of her chin, and I relaxed a little. At least if we found this thing and somehow managed to kill it before it killed us, we wouldn’t have to worry about the fey courts retaliating.
“If that’s all?” the queen said.
“It is.” Donovan’s voice was cold. All the friendliness and warmth from a few minutes ago had drained away. I got that he was pissed she wasn’t going to do more, but I also understood where she was coming from. Was the creature hers? Yes. Was it meant to stay locked up? Yes. Was it her fault it had gotten loose? Apparently not.
It was officially our mess.
The queen frowned. It was the first hint of real emotion I’d seen on her. “I hope our next chat will be more pleasant.”
“That’s my wish as well, Helen.”
She waved her hand in an arc and the mirror shimmered until we were left staring at our own reflections. I collapsed on the couch, suddenly exhausted.
That was intense. It wasn’t every day we got so close to an epic battle among supernatural races. I still couldn’t believe that Donovan had risked threatening her.
I went over the conversation in my head before speaking. “So, if I’m understanding it correctly, Bhrunyz is something bad. Bad enough that the fey would keep it locked up. The fact that he’s out is an embarrassment to her. She can’t help us catch him because she’s in too much trouble with the other courts. Which kind of makes me wonder what would happen if they found out about this mess…” That was a whole other can of worms. “But since someone in your pack was involved in releasing Bhrunyz, they’re not going to help at all.”
“Our pack.”
It was going to be my pack soon enough, but not yet. I had to start thinking of it as my pack, though. And fast. Especially if I was going to find the traitor.
“It doesn’t seem possible.” Donovan sat down hard next to me. “Shite. This is a nightmare.”
I leaned onto his shoulder. “Agreed, but we have more now than we did an hour ago. We know his name.”
Donovan huffed. “That’s not exactly a lot of information. She didn’t give us a clue how to stop the thing or who might be guiding it.”
Donovan’s attitude was tumbling down the toilet. I had to stop that right now. “Hey,” I said, waiting until his glass-blue gaze met mine to continue. “We will fix this.”
“You’re going to try and tell me that you’ve seen worse?”
I shook my head. “No.” I honestly hadn’t. Fey creature murdering pack members plus pack sabotage was extremely bad. Plus, the mad wolf I’d almost forgotten about in all the chaos. Which begged the question… “Do you think it could be Vivian?”
Donovan leaned back into the couch. “The thought’s crossed my mind, but these murders don’t seem like her usual plots. I don’t think we’d be so lucky that she’d be the one.”
“Should we say something to her?”
“It’s tricky business. She does have supporters. Thomas’ father—Tadhg—is one of them. That’s another reason I don’t think it’s her. She couldn’t kill her strongest ally’s son. It would be mad.”
“But she is mad.” Hurting Tadhg to get him to take a more active role against Donovan might not faze her.
“Aye. She is mad.”
Vivian was officially at the top of my list. “Okay. So we keep an eye on her, but let’s not rule out anyone else.”
“That’d be best.”
“Got it.”
He pulled his arm around my shoulders so that I rested against him. We were quiet for a second. I was lost in my head, trying to sort through everything that had happened. It’d been a really crazy couple of days.
“At least our life isn’t dull,” I said.
You could call it a lot of things, but dull? Nope. Not at all.
Donovan rubbed his nose against mine, clearly needing the comfort of that light touch as much as I did. “That it’s not.”