by K. N. Banet
“It makes the most sense,” I reminded him.
“Of course, it does,” he replied, chuckling. “The werecat form will always be packed with more muscle than a werewolf.”
“You’re sleeping with a woman who’s more powerful than you?” Rian looked at Heath, obviously picking up one implication. “And is she doing that thing my dad gave her?”
“Yes, she is,” Heath said, raising an eyebrow at me. “You’re not letting them hear you?”
“Didn’t see a reason for them to,” I said, doing the closest thing to a shrug I could in this form. I sent that to everyone in the room, and Fiona gasped, and Rian’s brows came together. I stared at the fae. “I can still communicate, but I’m more dangerous and effective in this form.”
“And yes, she’s stronger than me,” Heath confirmed, checking his ammunition. No one said anything as he put on a holster and tucked in a sidearm, then strapped on a hunting knife. I stepped forward to sniff it, wondering what metal it was. “It’s steel, so the iron will cause them problems if I need to use it. All the ammunition is steel-cased instead of brass,” he said, catching my intentions. “The fae use silver more than anything else, which is going to be troublesome for us, so I figured we should use something problematic for them.”
I nodded, liking his thinking. I wouldn’t have considered the nuances of the ammo we used. As it stood, most fae died with a shot to the head or two to the chest, just like humans. Not that I’d ever had to kill a fae. It was never particularly high on my to-do list. In fact, it never even registered as something I would do until last night.
“Rian, do you have any traditional fae weapons?” Heath asked, looking up from his rifle for a moment. He was, for some reason, taking it apart and looking it over, then putting it back together.
“Um…like a sword?” Rian looked at Heath as though he was crazy. “No, my dad didn’t give me swords or anything.”
“He left Rian with us because my son can make portals to and from the fae realms like his father,” Fiona said, keeping her composure fairly well, considering the circumstances. “But he’s received self-defense training and can fire a weapon accurately, so it’ll be fine.”
“He really doesn’t expect me to do that, does he?” Rian asked, looking at his mother with fear. “He knows—”
“It will be fine,” Fiona said sharply before her expression softened, and she patted her son’s cheek. “Your father and I both have faith in you.”
“That’s a shame about the sword,” Heath said, going back to his rifle. “Fae weapons work the best on fae.”
“Why are you messing with the rifle?” I asked, only half-listening to their conversation. I was focused on my land, watchful and waiting for any sign my intruder was going to pop back up. I needed to know where they were because, without me, the entire group was essentially blind to whatever risk was outside my home.
“I was planning to check it once Landon gave it to me but didn’t think we’d have this much excitement so early. It’s good to look over the condition of your firearm before you rely on it. Does Dirk have access to your gun safe?”
“He does inventory every two weeks,” I answered, turning away from him. I looked at one of my closed windows, wondering who or what was out there. They had gotten into my territory only ten minutes before. Unless they were on a road, it could take them fifteen or twenty minutes to get to Kick Shot. If they went on foot, even longer.
While I wasn’t paying attention to Heath, he finished putting his rifle back together, then I felt his hand on the back of my large head. We didn’t often touch each other in our animal forms, but I leaned into it, and he scratched me behind an ear. It was a friendly touch, letting me know he was right there beside me, even if I didn’t need the reminder. There was something nice about having him armed at my side. We had fought together before, and I liked having someone beside me who knew my strengths and weaknesses, especially when that person was Heath Everson.
“So, we’re just waiting for someone to show up?” Rian asked.
“Yes,” Heath answered softly as I nodded. “Why don’t we move the couches to the windows? And the dining table as another layer of protection.”
“Use any of the furniture to barricade the doors as well.”
Rian struggled to pull things around. None of the fae I had ever seen had super strength, and he fell into that belief. Still, I’d only had a crash course on the sidhe, and Hasan certainly never told me much about the other species of fae out there. Some of them might have been able to lift my couch on their back as Heath could, but Rian wasn’t one of them.
There was no real way to completely barricade my windows, but the back door was blocked, and furniture was placed near the front door, just in case. I was the reason it wasn’t fully barricaded yet.
“They might try to negotiate with us, and I want to have that option,” I said as Heath moved the chairs there.
“We’re not going to hand Fiona and Rian over, right?” He looked back at me in shock for only a second, then he shook his head as if he had missed the obvious, which he had. “They could tell us something useful, and we’ll know how willing they are to get what they want. There’s a chance they don’t want to fight us at all, whoever they are.”
“Exactly,” I agreed, bumping my shoulder against him. It didn’t move him as much as I expected.
When everything was done, I had Fiona and Rian sitting on my bare living room floor with only the coffee table beside them. Heath and I stood between them and each door that led to the outside world. I guarded the front door while Heath guarded the back door, and he had the rifle. He could shoot over me if he needed to. The only way his rifle was going to be fatal to me was if he shot me in the head or the heart, or I bled out from a bad hit to the gut. I trusted him not to make any of those possibilities a reality.
We spent twenty minutes in complete silence, only the sounds of our breathing giving away that anyone was even in the home.
Then I felt magic close to my home, and four people appeared in my territory, in the woods surrounding my house. Instinct told me what magic I felt. Each one felt unique, but there was an underlying current to each of them that matched. They were bundles of magic, and the sensation was like seeing clouds of color and glitter in my mind’s eyes. I could envision what their magic felt like, in some sort of weird synesthesia only werecats had. It told me nothing about what sort of magic they could use or what risk they posed to me, but I knew exactly what they were.
“Fae,” I said, sending it to everyone in the room. “They’re here.”
15
Chapter Fifteen
“How close?” Heath asked in a whisper that barely carried to my ears, and my hearing was sharp. His dark hair was falling over his eyes, and his eyes glowed with the ice blue of his wolf.
“Outside, in the forest, surrounding the house.” I circled slowly, stopping for a second in each direction I knew a fae would be. They didn’t perfectly match the four cardinal directions, but they had certainly covered their bases.
Heath hummed, thoughtful and worried. “This is either a coordinated attack with the attack on Brion in the Market, or—”
“Brion was attacked?” Fiona asked, her volume too loud for comfort. I hissed in her direction.
“Quiet,” I growled into her head. “We’ll talk about it later. There was no reason to worry you. You have your own survival to worry about.”
I had been close to Carey the moment I had met her, but I didn’t have the same feelings for Fiona, maybe because of the blackmail. Maybe it was the shock and surprise. Maybe it was because Fiona was an adult, and Carey had been a vulnerable child. Either way, I didn’t feel like playing nice with Fiona and softening anything nearly as much as I had with Carey. I would die for this woman because that was what I had to do, but I wouldn’t do it because I genuinely cared for her or felt she deserved it.
She chose to marry a fae king, knowing the risks that could bring to her and her sons. Just
like Heath and I know the risks. She should have considered that.
I felt bad for Rian, though, and his brothers, who I barely remembered and had only had a glimpse of. They hadn’t chosen this. They were born into the circumstances their parents gave them and were now dealing with the consequences. On the flip side, they’d reached adulthood and knew who their father was. They could have walked away.
It took me a minute to realize that was a bit heartless, and guilt hit, but it was also reality. Brion had blackmailed Heath and me, and they all allowed it. Fiona hadn’t spoken up until she wanted to make it “fair.” She did nothing to actually stop her husband.
The signatures of the fae slowly came closer. They probably knew they had revealed themselves to me, which made their approach more cautious. If they were experienced fae assassins, they would know the risk they took coming for me and those under my protection. Young werewolves had tried to kill me to get Carey, but I had a feeling Brion’s enemies weren’t going to be as foolish as those werewolves had been.
I took a step closer to my front door as someone entered the yard just in the front. I could feel this one, the closest of all the others.
“Jacqueline, daughter of Hasan. Please come out. We would like to speak to you.” Female, or female-presenting. Since I couldn’t smell and see to confirm, the voice could have been easily faked.
“I can hear you just fine from in here,” I called out mentally, wondering if it hit the mind of the fae I couldn’t see. I knew I could reach people when they weren’t in my sight, and my magic worked on fae, but I still wondered if it would work. That was only one of my worries. “You can say your piece, then leave my territory.”
“We are allies of the Tribunal and loyal servants of the true king,” the fae said, but I glanced at Fiona, who shrugged. Rian was shaking his head.
“Father was telling us last night that our allies would announce their names first, then look for one of his sons, not you or our mother,” Rian whispered. “Fae respect fae, and all the other species are just tools we can use or to earn money. Or people who can betray us.”
“You better not think that way,” Fiona hissed.
“Of course not,” Rian said, his eyes wide. “Mom…” His fear he would disappoint them was stronger than the fear he felt for those outside. It was stronger than the distaste his mother had at Brion’s words for his sons.
Did she never really understand who she married?
“I have it on good faith you are not an ally of King Brion,” I called back to the one outside as I tracked the slow movements of the others, who were slowly creeping to my house.
“Come outside and let’s talk,” she continued sweetly.
“No, and you are not welcome in my territory,” I replied to the fae outside.
“We’re not welcome? Jacqueline, daughter of Hasan, you don’t want to step before the king of the fae and tell his loyal followers no.” There was now a cutting edge to her words. “You have too much to lose.”
“I have nothing to lose more important than the honor of my vow to protect a human,” I answered. “Which will harm my father and our people more thoroughly than you ever could. But if you feel you want to make threats, then come to my door and try to enter my home. We’ll see who limps away from this.”
I waited for a reply, but none came. A fae moved closer to the one I was speaking to until they were side by side. I took three slow, quiet steps closer to the door. My paws were soft, meant to stalk prey in silence, my floors didn’t creak, and my breathing was even, scenting no new magic in the air. I knew they wouldn’t know I moved.
“How is she speaking into our minds?” the one I had spoken to asked in a snappy, impatient way. “I wasn’t told she had telepathy like the werewolves.”
“From our intel, it was a gift of magic given to her by Brion,” the new one whispered, trying to keep his voice down.
I don’t know what happened from there, but one of them came close to the house at the back door.
“Heath, behind you,” I snapped into his head. “Hold until the door opens.”
He turned, pulling his rifle up in a fluid movement at the same time, and took aim at the backdoor.
Another crept up to the glass windows.
“Rian, you can make portals?” I asked, not breaking my eyes from the front door. “Now would be a good time for you to try.”
“But—”
“We need to avoid fights,” I said sharply, not caring who in the room heard my words. “There are four fae out there, but there’s a chance there’s more. They’re currently checking for weaknesses to get in. They’ve decided they’re done trying to negotiate. Four fae of unknown abilities against the four of us? I don’t like the odds. What do you need?”
“Your father always told you to follow your instincts,” Fiona said softly, touching her son’s shoulder. “Just pick a door and see what happens. Anywhere is better than here right now.”
He stood slowly and crept to a closet. I watched him frown deeply, but I didn’t get a chance to know if it worked.
Glass shattered behind and through my curtains. Fiona’s scream pierced my ears, and I started running for her, ignoring the front door to guard her with my body.
“Upstairs!” Heath yelled.
I slammed my body into a fae as I reached Fiona before the intruder could touch her. She scrambled to her feet and started running as I faced off against the one who had dared to try to touch a human who belonged to me.
“Hand her over, and you don’t have to die,” the fae said, his feet shifting to a combat stance. He lifted his sword, and even from a distance, I knew it was silver—painful and deadly silver. I could smell it in the air, and it felt as if it was going to burn my nostrils. “We are loyal to the true king, and we will not shirk from our duties if we have to kill you to complete them.” His black hair was long, but it didn’t hide the pointed ears. It was bone straight and only accented the slightly inhuman bone structure of the man’s face. His eyes were glowing blue with power, but I could smell no magic coming from him. He wore chainmail, but it looked to weigh nothing on his light frame. He wasn’t hindered by it at all. Everything else—his black pants and undershirt—screamed assassin.
“Find someone else,” I snarled in his head, baring my teeth as my chest rumbled with fury. “This human is under my protection.”
Someone else jumped into my living room through the broken window. The woman had two daggers and glared at me malevolently. Her hair was an earthy green and brown mix. I didn’t know if it was originally brown with green accents or vice versa. Or maybe it was her natural color because she was fae. She wore the same outfit, had the same pointed ears, but this time, I realized neither of them had the same exaggerated point Brion’s did. His ears had gone for six to seven inches. Theirs were more human in size, with a smaller, less sharp point.
“Where did the human go?” she asked her compatriot.
“Upstairs,” he answered.
She took one step, and I lunged, swiping her legs out from under her, then jumping back, putting my body between her and the stairs. She struggled to get to her feet under the weight of my glare as blood poured from the four long, gaping slices I left on her lower leg. The way she favored it made me think I broke it, but she was a competent assassin and didn’t let it stop her from standing and facing me down. I could certainly smell her fury, knowing it was rooted in frustration and pain.
She was, no matter how angry, not stupid enough to try to go through me again.
“Fucking werecats,” she spat. “Dirty, filthy, witch-made creatures. Someone needs to exterminate your damn kind. Fucking animals. You and the damn dogs.”
“Let’s try to do this right,” said a detached voice, the one that had been trying to bargain with me. That much I recognized.
As I waited for the next attack or word from Heath upstairs, the remaining two fae walked into the room. Another pair, a man and woman, jumped through my shattered window and landed in my liv
ing room. They were a matching set, with white hair and light pink eyes. They were beautiful—long, lean runway models who could claim hearts and break them just as easily. They wore the same assassin garb, but they walked as if they were in formal wear, more appropriate for a ballroom than invading someone’s home to capture and kill people, but there was a note of cruelty in their eyes that made me cautious. The man carried a bow, something that looked like it was taken out of Tolkien, while the woman was unarmed.
“Just give her to us, Jacqueline, daughter of Hasan,” the white-haired woman said softly, holding out a hand. She had been the one talking to me and was certainly in charge. She had that air about her. “Or we’ll kill everyone here and take her, anyway.”
I could smell magic, but I didn’t know who it was from. The magic drifted across my mind, and something started feeling strange, like a brain fog I couldn’t lift.
“Give her to us,” the fae whispered again, now looking me directly in the eye. “We don’t need to hurt anyone. This is for her own good. The king wants to keep her safe from this conflict. You are a daughter of a king. You should know how protective they are of those who belong to them. Wouldn’t you want someone to give you to Hasan if it was needed? If you were vulnerable and scared? We’re just here to help.”
I shook my head, trying to get it away, whatever it was.
I should just listen. She seems nice.
No. No, I was called to Duty. I have to protect Heath, too. Protect everything we’ve built.
She can protect Fiona. She’s loyal to the king.
“We’re from the Tribunal. The Tribunal who allowed you to live, that your father serves on. You know we’re the good guys. We’re the ones who uphold the Law.”
Her words kept weeding their way into my mind—a persuasive argument.
Yes. The Tribunal. I’m loyal to the Tribunal. My father is on it. I can’t go against the Tribunal. He would be so disappointed in me.
