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“Outside, playing.”

He nodded.

Cookie dropped down into a chair, looking like someone who’d been hiking uphill for a month.

Kaden rested an arm on the mantel, watching Cookie as closely as I was. “What’s going on?” he said.

“Herrick is putting out word that he wants to have a meeting with you and Billie. He’s saying he wants to come to an arrangement that’s peaceful for all sides. Erquin said he’d broker the talks. I listened to what was being said but told them that I had no idea of your whereabouts.”

“Bullshit he wants peace,” I said. The fact he could even spread that lie made me want to track him down and kill him this second.

Kaden rubbed his shadowed jaw. “Of course he doesn’t, but negotiating might buy us a little more time and possibly a little more insight on what he has planned.”

“Erquin is a man of his word and known for brokering peace deals in the past,” Tiber said. “I think you can trust him.”

“So we meet with Herrick,” I said. I’d thought the next time I’d see Herrick, it would be to kill him. That seemed so much more palatable than having to sit across a table from him and talk like civilized people when he was anything but.

“Do you want me to bring the message back? Negotiate the details?” Cookie asked.

Cookie was a loose cannon and hated Herrick almost as much as I did. I glanced around the room, hoping I wasn’t the only one who thought this was the most horrible idea ever.

“Why don’t you hang out here for a couple of days?” I said. “Just to make sure no one was trying to track your movements?”

“Maybe Connor should go,” Tiber said. “That boy was born with a poker face and few words.”

“I agree,” Kaden said. “We get Connor to deliver the message. I’ll slip into Nowhere tomorrow and get the details to him. Cookie, you hang here for a couple. You’re no help if you're dead on your feet before the fight even happens.”

“I look that shitty?” Cookie asked, looking around the room.

No one answered but Luisca.“You don’t look bad. Just a little tired,” she said.

“Doesn’t help that Herrick moved into the castle. He’s claiming Nowhere openly.” Cookie grimaced and then took more swigs from the bottle I’d given her.

Kaden’s jaw clenched.

“Are Soleil and the rest of the staff okay?” I asked.

“Everyone is good. They’re playing it cool. But knowing he’s there? It burns like I’m chugging down liquid brimstone,” Cookie said.

“We’ll get it back,” Kaden said. “You knew this was going to come. That place is designed to withstand an attack. It was unavoidable.”

“I know, but now that he did it? It sucks.” She held the bottle up. “By the way, talk about burning—what the hell is this shit?”

Tiber and Luisca laughed. “That’s my private stock of special moonshine,” he said.

“I’m going to head out tonight,” Kaden said, then turned toward me.

“You’re going now?” I said, crossing my arms so I didn’t reach out and cling to him.

“Yes. The quicker Herrick gets the message and thinks we’re going to meet, the better. It’ll refocus his energies.” He turned to Cookie. “You’ll be here until I return.”

“I’ll stay until you get back,” she said, acting as if it were a request when Kaden clearly was warning her not to leave.

He nodded and then headed upstairs. I tried not to stare at his back as he went.

I only made it a few minutes before I slipped away and followed him. I walked into the bedroom while he was changing and grabbed a sweater from the chair. “I was getting chilly downstairs.”

He nodded. “I won’t be long,” he said.