by K. F. Breene
The basajaun stopped in front of me, towering over me. “May the stars guide our feet,” he said, his beard starting to come loose from its braid. The hair on his neck nearly covered the bow tie.
“Thank you for joining,” I said lamely. “Welcome.” It would’ve been cooler if I’d had some snappy answer. I needed to work on that.
He turned and took the third seat, his size making Cyra look like a child.
Hollace stepped forward next, grinning as he reached the flag. “What a trip.”
“Right?” Cyra said.
At least they’d fit in. No one seemed to regard this as the solemn occasion Ivy House probably wanted it to be. Which was kind of nice, but I should’ve lit some incense or something to pacify her.
“Thank you for asking me,” Hollace said as he stopped in front of me, also bowing. “It’s an honor. I look forward to serving on the most powerful magical team in the world.” His smile was infectious as he took the fourth seat.
Finally Niamh stepped forward, nonchalant as she took the fifth chair next to Ulric. Nathanial was next, and I had to wonder why Ivy House hadn’t replaced Ulric or even pushed Niamh farther back. He was an alpha in his own right and had the ability to lead the gargoyles. His call could rouse them from stone or summon them from town.
“This is an incredible honor that will bring much status and attention to my family,” Nathanial said, offering me the deepest bow of all. Given I was one of the near-mythical females of his species, it surely meant more to him.
“Welcome,” I said, still feeling lame. I hadn’t had a chance to think of something better yet.
He skipped the chair after Mr. Tom, taking the eleventh spot, next to Edgar.
“He is your anchor,” Ivy House said. “He is a solid choice and an excellent specimen of the species. He will lead your gargoyles well.”
“Then why put him so far back?”
“I just said—because he’s the anchor.”
“Right, but…Edgar is the twelfth spot. Isn’t he the anchor in this setup?”
“Edgar fits nowhere and everywhere at the same time. He’s necessary but forgettable. He adds incredible value, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how until it’s happening. Honestly…I didn’t really know where to stick him, so I just tacked him onto the end.”
I stifled a laugh. Poor Edgar. He did, absolutely, add incredible value to the team. He took random jobs no one else really wanted, and he did it without needing to be told. He always just…filled in the holes, preventing the enemy from getting through in ways that defied planning. But yeah, I got what she meant. It was hard to actually assign value because, well, he was just so weird and you never knew what would happen next with him.
I looked at the two empty spots, seats eight and ten. I wondered which of those Sebastian would have taken—or would he have earned a seat closer to Austin?
“Oh no, she’s sad. Do you feel that, Hollace?” Cyra pushed halfway to standing. “How do we handle this? Human women hug in these situations, don’t they?”
“We quietly allow her privacy unless she expresses a need.” Mr. Tom sniffed, and I wondered who he was trying to fool.
I quickly muted my links to everyone except Austin. I’d need to get used to feeling the new people, and I didn’t have the mindset right at the moment.
“Okay, well…” I held out my hands. “This is what we have so far. All of us will be going to Elliot Graves’s…meeting next week, along with an additional three shifters, hand-selected by Austin. That’s all we’re allowed, fourteen in all. In case you haven’t heard, we’ll have our own room in a wing within the mountain. We’ll have facilities with which to cook and store food, all of which will be provided for us. We can use the cook and cleaners provided to us or not, but we cannot bring a cook and cleaners.”
“Well, that’s Earl uninvited, hey, Earl?” Niamh said. “Back to useless again.”
“I’m not the one who lost her seat,” Earl responded.
“Might have lost my seat, but I’m still ahead of ye. How’s that feel, then?” she retorted.
“Okay, okay.” I rubbed my temples. “We have a week to go, and then things get serious. So let’s make the most of the time we have. Once we set foot inside that mountain, it’ll be a game of hide-and-seek, except the loser dies.”
Ten
“You sent in our list of attendees?” I pointed at Niamh as she kept pace, walking down the line of limos waiting on the street next to the house. We didn’t need six limos to carry fourteen people to the jet that would fly us to Elliot’s collection of mountain tunnels, but we apparently did need plenty of room for all the luggage.
“Yes. But I was vague about what each one of us is, magically speaking. Elliot Graves doesn’t need a detailed rundown, are ye jokin’?” Niamh frowned. “He gets to know head count, and that’s about it. He can be surprised like everyone else.”
Given we hadn’t been told to stay home, he was apparently fine with that.
The crew waited outside the limos, dressed in pristine suits or flowing dresses, looking the part of a prestigious magical unit.
“Jet is standing by?” I asked, approaching Austin at the back of the group, standing beside his people with an air of patient confidence. Nothing but tranquil waters drifted through the link. He clearly wasn’t worried about the unfamiliar conditions we’d be facing or the danger from Elliot Graves and the other mages we’d be meeting.
“Yes. Waiting for us on the private magical airstrip.”
“How is that even possible, to have a private airstrip for magical people? That doesn’t make sense,” I mumbled, stopping in front of the shifters.
“It’s a private piece of land owned by magical people.” Niamh stopped with me. “We pay a fee to use it. Honestly, girl, where is yer head at?”
Kace stood beside Austin, his face hard and his onyx eyes tracking me.
I nodded at him, then nodded at Isabelle beside him. Good additions to the team.
I hadn’t met the guy next to Isabelle, though, and his whole vibe sent shivers racing across my skin. I backed up a step, unable to help it.
A wicked scar ran down his cheek and pooled under his severe jaw. Sharp cheekbones set off a narrow nose, ending in a little uptick that would’ve been cute on anyone else. His eyebrows rose over heavy-lidded eyes with long black lashes. He topped Austin’s height and then some, probably six-five, but his huge shoulders nearly made him look shorter. But it was his eyes that tripped me up. They weren’t just hard—they were off-kilter. When this guy looked at me, I felt like shrinking into myself and waiting for death. Pain lurked in those eyes. Imbalance. As though he’d been broken ten times over and had barely stitched himself back together.
“You remember Kace and Isabelle,” Austin said. I nodded. He motioned at the man on the end. “This is Brochan.” His name sounded like the word “broken” with a lilting accent. It fit perfectly, and I half wondered if he’d named himself. “He’s something of a unique situation. I hadn’t thought to include him originally because of his newness to the area, but after learning a bit more about his history, I figured he’d be a strong asset for our team.”
“Well, I didn’t send his name in,” Niamh said, bracing her hands on her hips. “What sort of unique situation? Because this isn’t the time for Jessie to be meetin’ someone new, and it definitely isn’t the time for some unhinged shifter to lose his marbles and act the bollocks.”
Brochan’s stare rose from the ground, where it had been resting after I had—quickly—broken eye contact, and narrowed in on her. Darkness moved within that gaze, raw and ruthless, setting me on edge.
Niamh’s eyebrows lowered. “Goin’ta give me that look, are ye? Don’t think I know yer type, do ye? I know what kinda guy sits in the corner, back to the wall, and drinks by himself until he staggers from the bar. And he’s not the sort we should trust in close quarters, especially since he hasn’t trained with Jessie these last few weeks.”
“I trust Austin
’s judgment,” I said, feeling the urgency to get moving. We had to get on the road if we were going to make our time window at Elliot’s, between two o’clock and two eighteen. We needed to be punctual. “If Austin thinks Brochan is a good fit, I’m okay with that.”
“Well, don’t come crying to me if they don’t let him in because his name isn’t on the list,” Niamh murmured.
“Austin only brought three, so he’s clearly replacing someone. We’ll just give him that person’s name,” I replied.
“Shauna? He doesn’t look like a Shauna.”
“I don’t mind being a Shauna,” Brochan said. “Maybe Sue for short?”
“Yeah, fine, whatever. Let’s get going.” I made a circle in the air with my finger and turned for the lead limo.
Mr. Tom struggled to drag a large suitcase without wheels toward the open trunk of the middle limo.
“What do you have in there?” I asked, hurrying to help.
“My disguises,” he said as we labored to fit the suitcase into the space.
“Why do you need… What kind of…” I just shook my head and stepped back. “Fine, are you ready? We need to go.”
“Yes.”
Austin met me at the front limo. I stopped beside the open door, the driver waiting to close it behind us. Ivy House sat in the morning sun, large and hulking, a magical shadow hanging from it like a curtain.
“I hope this isn’t the last time I see this house,” I murmured. “You never even got to decorate it properly.”
“Oh, I’m decorating it?”
“Yeah. You’re good at that stuff. Surprise!”
He slid his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. “You’ll see it again, I promise.”
With a last look at my crew and the shifters waiting for my cue, I ducked into the limo.
“Since Brochan will be going with us, I figure I might tell you about his history,” Austin said once we were both inside, the door closed behind us. It would just be the two of us in this limo. Mr. Tom had decided that was more prudent, his reasoning made clear when he tried to force condoms into my handbag and muttered about wings and just making do with what I had.
“It’s not like you to make a hasty decision,” I said as the limo got underway. A time check said we were only five minutes behind schedule.
“It isn’t. And if it weren’t for something the basajaun said, I wouldn’t have.”
“What did he say?”
Austin hit a button above him, and the divider between us and the driver rose.
“He said that it is wise to harness the power of revenge, as long as it is used for good.”
I slipped my hand into Austin’s, frowning. “I always thought revenge was problematic. That it ends up eating a person from the inside out so that when they finally get it, they’re basically just a shell of a person.”
“Brochan’s case is different. He never planned to seek revenge. He was a man defeated. He had a well-established pack with a healthy dose of power, and a mage completely steamrolled them.”
“But if he is a man defeated…”
“He came to the area a month ago, shortly after we sent Kinsella running. A few of my people tipped me off that another alpha had arrived, and I could sense his status as soon as I saw him. It was obvious from the way he held himself. I looked into it, and he used to be alpha of a good-sized pack in Ohio. The pack was prosperous and established, on the land for generations. He took it over from his father, who had taken it over from his mother, and so on.
“They ran into trouble when a fairly powerful mage moved his operation close by, liking the somewhat rural area. As you might guess, the mage didn’t at all respect the territory boundaries or the prior claim on the area. He used Brochan’s land for hunting, gathering supplies, felling trees for wood, and after Brochan started defending his territory, the mage resorted to burning land and trying to push the shifters back.
“A man like Brochan—like me—isn’t the type to be pushed anywhere. He continued to defend his territory, growing increasingly violent. Shifters started disappearing, and some were attacked and left for dead. Any of the mage’s people caught on Brochan’s land were killed. It came to a head, and finally the mage led a full-scale attack.
“He came through at dawn with all his people and a group of mercenaries in tow, not unlike the forces we met with Kinsella. They had magic and they had numbers. The mage killed nearly all of Brochan’s pack, including older people, pregnant women, and children.” A nerve pulsed in Austin’s cheek. Anger roiled through the link. “Brochan’s pregnant mate and two young children were also slain. He almost joined them, and I think he wishes he had. He certainly blames himself for what happened.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
“After he healed, he had no choice but to move on—to find a new place for his people. And he did. He shouldered his duty to the last, even though I imagine all he wanted to do was wither away and die. Once he had a new situation established for them, he relinquished his alpha position to someone capable and moved on. He wandered as a nomad for a while, doing his own mercenary work.”
“So he kinda drifted here?”
“He came here after hearing about Kinsella. He told me, just recently, that he’d wanted to see what kind of alpha could withstand an attack from a mage and a host of mercenaries.”
“Kinsella wasn’t the one who killed his family…”
“No. Not Kinsella. Someone else who’s rumored to be going to this meeting.”
I bit my lip, suddenly unsure about all this.
Austin nodded, feeling it through the link, or maybe just reading my face. “I wouldn’t bring him if I thought he was bent on getting revenge. He’s trying to find purpose again. Protecting you—his alpha’s future mate—is giving him that. Being a part of a greater cause is giving him that.”
“Or maybe he sees that you can give him an element of safety. You weren’t defeated by an attacking mage.”
“That shifter doesn’t crave safety for himself; he craves providing it for others. He doesn’t fear death, especially now.”
“So he came here to see about an alpha who didn’t lose everything to an attacking mage, and then just hung around in the bar for a while, or… Because you didn’t have him training with us, and even though Niamh has clearly noticed him, I haven’t seen him around the streets or anything…”
“He did hang around for a while, but he did it by the book. Given that he isn’t an alpha with a territory, he didn’t need to introduce himself or ask for passage. Many people who have been alphas for a while can’t help dominating those around them or comparing status.” Kingsley had been like that on his visit. He certainly couldn’t help it. “Brochan didn’t do any of that. He kept his head down. Then, a couple of weeks ago, when he decided to join my pack, he approached me directly and explained his history. He wanted me to know he’d been an alpha, and also that he’d hung up his desire to reestablish a pack. He would never be an alpha again. He was content to follow someone else’s rule; he just needed to make sure that someone was strong enough to lead him.”
“Which you are.”
“Yes. I think the first two weeks was him assessing the situation. Me, basically. When he challenged into the pack…” Austin shook his head. “I had to stop three fights and take over. No one could handle him. He’s better than anyone in my pack now, even Kace. He’s on a level nearly as high as Kingsley. He’d be my beta, no problem, if not for his emotional issues. First we need to see if he can get beyond them. If he gets a handle on himself, and learns to live again, he might still be my beta.”
“If you can trust him.”
“Yes. For the last couple weeks he’s been training with the pack and doing very well. He’s a strong addition. He could be to me what Nathanial is to you.”
“If you can trust him.”
“Right.”
“And how did you decide you trusted him enough to bring him?”
“Because even though he’
d heard by that point which mages were going, he never once asked to come.”
The limos pulled off the highway, the land flat and covered in dried golden grass. Smaller planes were parked to our right, and a few jets were stationed a little closer.
“Oh,” I said, taking in what Austin was saying. “But won’t it mess with his head if he sees this mage?”
“Maybe. But then the basajaun said that, and…” Austin shook his head. “Something clicked. I can’t describe it. I feel it in my gut that he should come. That he needs to be in the tiptop of my hierarchy. He will help me protect my mate better than anyone else in the world, because he knows what it’s like to lose one. He won’t wish that on anyone.”
The limo slowed as we passed a mostly empty parking lot. A small building accompanied by a tower rising into the sky hunkered in front of us. An open hangar sat to our right, a large jet waiting for us to board.
Butterflies swam in my stomach. I’d never so much as flown first class. This was a sort of luxury I’d never experienced, and it was somewhat alarming that my excitement level was competing with my churning worry about meeting a bunch of conniving mages and a guy I was going to try to kill in not-at-all-cold blood.
“My life has taken a very strange turn,” I muttered to myself, nearly plastering my face to the window so I could stare at the jet. “Ever since my divorce, my life has been just plain weird.” After a moment, I asked, “Did you ask him how he might react if he sees that mage?”
“Of course. I also asked him if he thought he could handle standing idly in a room where that mage might be sneering at him. He said it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“I find that hard to believe. Oh my God, Austin, there’s even a red carpet.” I beamed at him, patting his arm. I felt like a little kid in a candy shop with unlimited funds and zero restrictions. “There’s a red carpet. Look! The door thing is coming down. The steps. This is awesome. I mean, the whole nature of this trip is the pits, but this one shining moment is awesome.”
“I found it hard to believe as well, until I realized that Brochan is emotionally dead where his family is concerned. He cauterized the wound, shoved it into a cold, dark box, and shut the lid. He won’t have a problem handling it because he won’t be able to feel at all. In theory.”
