by Juniper Hart
“Two weeks,” Harmony repeated. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Orion shrugged again.
“I couldn’t imagine that you’d want anything to do with that,” he said. “Although, there is a fox on the Council now. I’m not sure how that will affect you—”
“Samantha Jagger?” Harmony asked slowly. “Is that the fox on the Council?”
Orion shook his head. “Her name is Elle, I think. Do you know her?”
Harmony released a low groan and sank back against the pillows, closing her eyes. Baby Elle is on the Council of Seven now. Or is it the Council of Eight? This is going to be bad.
“What?” Orion asked. “Are you going to respond?”
“I have no choice,” she muttered dully. “Family calls.”
As if on cue, she heard the low wail of her baby daughter from the nursery, causing Harmony to sit up again and shake her head in disbelief. How is it that Lane didn’t reach out to me about this? She slipped over the side of the bed, moving toward the door to deal with her toddler. Harmony already knew the answer to her own question—Lane hadn’t said anything because she wanted nothing to do with the foxes anymore. Not that I can blame her. We’ve certainly reached our weirdness quota for the years.
4
Trevor’s hand snaked out to take Kendra’s, and she eagerly accepted it, grateful that he could so easily sense her nervousness.
“Everything is going to be fine,” he told her lightly. “They’re your family, after all.”
“Family I haven’t seen in years,” she reminded him. She looked at Ellsbeth, who sat coloring at her art desk, oblivious to the impending arrival. “I don’t even know what they want from me, Trevor,” she breathed. “All Elle said was that she needed to see me urgently.”
“It’s high time you saw them, anyway,” Trevor said. “I never thought I’d be the one to encourage it, but even the estranged families should get back together.”
She heard the amused lilt in his tone, and she knew he was thinking about Elyse and Chris. Their stunning reappearance from the dead was something that Kendra still hadn’t had time to process, even though it had been months.
“Anyway, we never did get around to having a housewarming,” Trevor continued before she could answer. “Look at this place—all this space now that Svetlana moved into the guesthouse and no one to share it with.” He was teasing, of course, and Ellsbeth laughed from where she’d been listening.
“More room for me to ride my scooter,” she joked.
“Not in the house!” the couple told her in unison, but the ice was broken, and Kendra felt herself relaxing. It was true; while they still watched Ellsbeth frequently, the house was much too big for the two of them. Kendra gave Trevor a sidelong look, wondering if it wasn’t time for them to think about starting a family of their own.
The doorbell rang, stalling any further conversation between them, and Kendra hurried forward to answer it. Steeling herself for what was to come, she pulled open the heavy front door and stared at the two couples before her.
“Wow,” Elle mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief. “You’re old now.”
Kendra snorted and stepped back, allowing her and her mate to enter alongside Samantha and her husband. Both Samantha and Jordan held a sleeping baby in their arms.
“We’ve set up a playpen for the twins,” Kendra told them. “I’m Kendra. This is Trevor.”
“Dane Hawthorne,” Elle’s mate introduced himself.
“Jordan Archer,” the other volunteered.
“I’m Ellsbeth!” Ellsbeth cried, appearing in the foyer. Her eyes widened at the sight of the babies. “AW! TWINS!”
“Shh, Ellie, you’ll wake them,” Kendra chided, but Sam only laughed.
“Nothing will wake these little demons.”
Kendra extended her arms to take one of the babies, and her sister dropped the girl twin into her embrace. Kendra felt a swell of emotion in her as she stared at the child.
“This way,” she instructed, leading the way across the marble floor toward the dark living room where she’d set up a small, mobile nursery.
Sam let out a low whistle. “Kendra, if you’re like this now, what are you going to be like when you have a baby?”
Kendra blushed at the thought of having her own child.
“Thank you,” Jordan said quietly. “This is very nice.”
They laid the twins onto their respective beds, and Kendra led the way to the front sitting room, where the housekeeper was waiting with drinks.
“So what is this all about?” Kendra asked without preamble when they were seated on the soft sofas. “What’s wrong?”
“And how are you, Kendra? Nice to see you, too,” Sam laughed dryly, taking a sip of wine. Kendra stifled a sigh and looked at Trevor, who smiled encouragingly.
“Are we going to make small talk, or are we going to get to the point?” Kendra insisted. “I haven’t seen either of you or Harmony in a decade. You call me out of the blue and expect me to what? Jump for joy? I wasn’t there for the birth of your children. I wasn’t invited to your weddings!” The hurt poured from her lips well before she could stop it, but it was already out there, despite her embarrassment.
“You didn’t call on us, either,” Samantha reminded her gently. “This is a two-way street.”
Kendra’s mouth firmed into a fine line, and she shook her head.
“Never mind all that,” she said impatiently. “Why are you here now?”
“Because of something you did, Kendra,” Elle sighed. Kendra blinked and eyed her younger sister in confusion.
“What could I have possibly done?” she demanded. “I only got back into the country recently.”
“You’ve been here long enough to create a problem,” Elle told her dryly. Kendra bristled, her shoulders squaring.
“If you came into my house to insult me—”
“Does she have an accent?” Sam interjected suddenly, her brow furrowing as she looked at Elle. “She does, doesn’t she?” Elle nodded.
“Yeah, I heard it, too.” Kendra gaped at them. “Why do you have an Eastern European accent?”
“Can we try to stay on point here?” she snapped. “We can catch up later. What do you mean, I did something?”
Dane cleared his throat.
“If I may,” he offered tentatively. “How much do you know about your fox heritage?”
Kendra snorted and looked at Trevor.
“I have no abilities, if that’s what you mean,” she said quickly. “Is that what this is about?”
“You do have abilities,” Dane corrected. “And I’m proof of it.” Kendra continued to look at him blankly. “I’m Alaric Aldwin,” Dane explained. “Do you know who I am?”
Kendra snorted and laughed. “Is this a joke?”
Dane and Elle exchanged a glance.
“I’m having déjà vu,” she mumbled.
“Alaric Aldwin is dead,” Kendra told them flatly.
“As dead as your brother-in-law and sister-in-law were,” Dane replied softly. “But you brought them back.”
Kendra balked, shaking her head slowly.
“I-I didn’t,” she breathed. “I couldn’t have. How?”
“I don’t know how,” Elle interrupted quickly. “But you did, and now Dane has come back, too.”
Suddenly, Kendra thought of the moment she’d felt the shift of change as she stood in the cemetery. Is that the change I felt?
“But how?” Kendra wondered aloud. She’d spent her whole life believing that she was powerless, and all that time…
“How do we do anything we do?” Elle asked lightly. Kendra turned her eyes on her younger sister.
“What is it you do, exactly?” she asked, realizing too late that her words were cutting. Elle seemed appropriately hurt.
“Apparently, she’s the reason that Alaric returned,” Sam interjected smoothly. “And now she’s the official Vulpes seat holder on the Council.”
“Right. Congrats on that,” Kendr
a said, shifting her eyes back toward Trevor. He seemed just as overwhelmed by what he was hearing as Kendra felt. “So it looks like all’s right in the world,” she added after a moment of awkward silence. “What is this urgency?”
Elle cleared her throat.
“You opened up a portal that allows the dead to enter the earthly realm,” she explained. “And now His Highness of the Underworld has sent out minions to bring all the souls back.”
Panic spiked through Kendra’s veins as she gaped around the room.
“All the souls?” she echoed. “Like, all of them?”
“Trevor’s brother and sister-in-law will eventually be reclaimed, but right now, it seems that His Highness is only focussed on Dane.”
“Alaric?” Kendra asked in confusion.
“Dane,” Elle said firmly. “His name is Dane.”
Kendra rose from her spot on the couch and began to pace around the room, her mind whirling.
Escaping. That was what she was best at, wasn’t it? She’d run so far and found a new life, a secure, happy life where everyone she loved was safe. Simultaneously, she’d threatened it with her own abilities.
“What can we do?” she asked, finally stopping to look at her sisters. “How do we stop him?”
“Dane thinks that together, the foxes can do something,” Elle said, but the words sounded lame to Kendra’s ears.
“Do what? I don’t even know how I opened the portal, let alone how to close it.”
“We need to know where it is,” Trevor said, speaking for what felt like the first time in hours. “Then we’ll have to find a way to stop the minions from getting through.”
“It’s too late for that,” Dane said flatly. “They’re here. The only thing we can do is stop more from coming and lock out the ones that are here.” He sounded conflicted, and Kendra asked him why. “Because the dead shouldn’t mingle with the living,” Dane sighed. “The results could be catastrophic.”
“Your father said the same thing about creating the Enchanted,” Elle reminded him. “And we’re all still right here, no apocalypse in sight.”
The sisters looked at one another, and Kendra already knew what each of them was thinking without asking.
“We need to find Harmony,” she finally said when no one else would speak. “She’s the one who can cause the most destruction.”
Jordan sighed, and all eyes turned to him.
“Not that I like the way that sounds,” he muttered. “But I think I know who can find her.”
5
The underworld was unsettled. There was a tangible tension among the dead that didn’t sit well with His Highness, King Onyx.
“Any word on my son?” he demanded, furious that he was still asking the same questions, that this much time had passed.
“No, Your Highness,” Edan mumbled. It was clear that he’d never really been the same since returning to the underworld. “Nor Berlin. She has disappeared with the Enchanted creature.”
“You aren’t looking hard enough!” Onyx howled, pounding his fists against his thighs with so much force that he genuinely felt pain. “You must look harder, faster, stronger.” But it was clear to the king that no matter how much he berated his minions or his soldiers, nothing was making them work better.
I will have to go myself, he thought furiously. It was not something he wanted to do. Never in his reign had Onyx ever ventured over the threshold of the living and dead. It had little to do with the fact that his rightful place was ruling his kingdom and everything to do with the notion that the gods rained fury upon those who betrayed nature.
He had taken a big risk sending Alaric to Earth all those years ago, and of course he had suffered the consequences as a result. True, Onyx had sent minions to scope out the scene and report back, but the minions were nothing more than modern-day drones; trolls, dispensable and useless. Sending the army to find Alaric had been something bigger than Onyx had ever done, but it was so easy now that there was a portal and magic wasn’t required to do so.
He paced along the mouth of the iridescent opening, debating whether to cross the veld.
I could find him easily, Onyx thought with confidence. And I would be back before anyone would even know I was gone. The gods were always watching, though, weren’t they? How would they reward his disobedience? It did not fare well for Alaric when he went. He made enemies of demons, turned mortals and mankind against him. On the other hand, Onyx reasoned, he wouldn’t be there for long enough for any of that to happen, would he?
Looking behind him to ensure he wasn’t being watched, Onyx poked a bare foot over the shimmering white light. What was on the other side? Where would he land if he crossed over?
All his soldiers had returned depleted and disheartened. If that was any indication of what lay ahead, Onyx knew he had much to worry about. But he was King of the Underworld. He had survived eternity before, and he would continue to thrive in eternity beyond. There was nothing there that could weaken him.
Without permitting himself to think about it another minute, Onyx gathered his robes and stepped forward, allowing the white light to consume him fully.
In less than a second, he had crossed over and sat at the side of a filthy roadway, his flowing, black silk blowing in the putrid wind. With a grimace, he looked up, noting the hideous graffiti on the wall over his head. It was only then that he realized he was soaking wet.
A rat scurried over his foot. A sewer system. He had crossed over into a sewer system.
The white light remained, guiding Onyx through the muck until he found himself above ground entirely. To his chagrin, the air did not seem any less rancid when he climbed out. With a sneer, Onyx shook his head.
My son, the prince, wants to return to this cesspool rather than to his rightful home. Where have I gone so wrong?
He didn’t give himself time to ponder the question as he moved further along, his mind on one thing only: finding Alaric and getting home before he disrupted nature anymore than it had already been.
And then I’ll figure out a way to shut that portal forever, he thought grimly.
6
Sabine yelled happily at the sight of other children, but Harmony pulled her hand back before the child could move.
“Let her go, Harmony. Those are her cousins,” Orion said gently.
“Mama!” Sabine complained. Reluctantly, Harmony let the girl go forward. Like a rocket, her mini doppelganger ran toward the babies in their carriers as their mothers locked eyes.
“Harmony,” Samantha said. “You look… good.”
Harmony grimaced and slowly approached her oldest sister, worried about an attack, but she read nothing other than warmth in Samantha’s eyes.
“You’re not going to overwhelm me, are you?” Harmony asked with more bite than she meant. Sam’s smile faded slightly, and she shook her head.
“Not if you’re not going to start destroying the house,” she replied lightly. In spite of her wariness, Harmony grinned.
“You look good, too,” she said. “Motherhood suits you.”
The sisters embraced, and Harmony felt a flow of relief surge through her body. She’d missed their closeness more than she’d realized.
“Where have you been?” Sam muttered when they parted. “I’d heard rumors—”
“We can discuss that later,” Lane interjected. The sisters looked at the witch with slight disdain, but Harmony could see that she didn’t want to be there. “I arranged for this little reunion so we could get to work,” Lane reminded them, though she had the decency to look abashed by her own tone.
She had reached out the very night that Orion had told Harmony about the call for foxes. The telephone call hadn’t come as a surprise, now that she knew what it was all about, but she knew that Lane was still very leery of her after becoming pregnant. Lane filled her in and explained that her sisters were looking for her, bringing them to the moment they shared now.
“I don’t see how I can help if we don’t know where
the portal is,” Harmony said. “I don’t even know how I can help if I know where the portal is. I mean, how does one close a portal to the underworld?”
“That’s something we’re all going to have to discuss,” Sam said quietly, nodding toward the porch where the children sat. “Elle and Kendra are inside.”
“Isn’t Kendra the reason we’re in this mess to begin with?” Harmony asked sullenly, and Sam paused to glare at her.
She gave Orion a sidelong look.
“This is a good thing,” he whispered, detecting her uncertainly with clarity. “They missed you, even if they’re having a hard time showing it.”
She didn’t respond but continued into the sprawling front foyer as Sam gathered her twins, Sabine in hot pursuit.
“I don’t need to be here for this, do I?” Lane asked. “Ember is with a sitter…” She trailed off, and Harmony gave her a wan smile.
“Your duties here are done,” she replied sarcastically. Lane scowled slightly.
“Fine,” she snapped.
“Thank you, Lane!” Sam called out after her, but Lane was already gone, leaving the sisters alone in the massive house with their respective mates.
Uneasy introductions were done around the room, and Harmony found herself wondering if she would have recognized any of her sisters had she seen them on the street before that day.
Eden did such a number on my mind. Did being there wipe out all the good memories I had of my sisters, too? The question gave her a sense of sadness, and she instantly glowered at Samantha. Is she making me feel sad?
But Sam wasn’t looking at her. Her emotions were real, even if they were unusual.
“Sit down,” Sam instructed. “Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
“I just want to get through this,” Harmony said tersely, again looking at Orion. He gave her a watery grin, but it didn’t meet his eyes. She could see he was disappointed in the way she was acting, and yet, she couldn’t help it. This was all too much, being in the same room as her sisters after far so long, and for what? To devise a ridiculous plan that probably wouldn’t work anyway?
