Page 21

CHAPTER 21

CHARLIE

I froze at the sight of Clawdia naked on my breakfast table and Baelen holding her tight against him.

I narrowed my eyes at him and pointed. “This better mean you apologized and she forgave you.”

They both let out a breath, chuckling and smiling as though they thought I’d get mad at them. I wasn’t mad. I was jealous. Eating Clawdia on my breakfast table had been an unrealized fantasy of mine, but I supposed it made sense that the vampire ate her first … and it was only polite to snack in the kitchen.

Clawdia wriggled back into her trousers and explained, “We both apologized and forgave each other. We’re all right now.”

“Better than.” Baelen kissed her head, looking way too smug for my liking, but I ignored him.

I bent and flicked her shirt at her, which had caught on the knob of my cutlery drawer. “Well, I’m chuffed for you both, but your vision is ringing in my ears, so I need you to talk us through it again, with Elizabeth and the task team.”

“Now? I need to shower,” she protested as I guided her out of the house, Baelen following silently behind us.

Now that he’d made up with her, I knew he was going to play guard dog for a while until he’d felt like he’d made up for being a shitty mate and bringing down the team. From the sounds of things, I was going to be too busy to monitor her, so I was glad he’d be stepping up.

“No time. You can shower later,” I told her and pushed her into Winnie’s house with a tap on her arse.

I was going to be distracted, knowing she had nothing underneath her clothes.

“Smells like the akari,” Dralie complained. “Our mate should smell of us.”

“We’ll fuck around later. Now’s not the time.”

“She still can’t hear me,” he noted more quietly.

“No. But we’ll figure it out. It’s going to be fine.” I took a breath. One thing at a time…

Clawdia explained her vision in front of the task team, her hands knotting and twisting and her voice breaking as she recounted our deaths. It was hard for me to believe the fucker won in any version of reality, and I really didn’t like that.

He doesn’t get to abuse Clawdia and then kill her. He doesn’t get to break his bond with his dragon, only to kill him with me. He doesn’t get to rise from the dead twice, make supernaturals fear for their lives, make hunters stronger, and then win by taking out my family when I just found them.

It’s not going to happen.

I’m going to make sure of it.

As she spoke, I made detailed notes on everything she said. If we wanted a fighting chance to combat this fucker and his squad of wannabe dragon witches, we needed to know exactly what we could do to fight back.

Fire, witches, unable to move, control Baelen to get artifacts, raid my thoughts for locations of the other witches, cages, slashed throat with an enchanted knife.

“So, someone tells him we are here and have artifacts?” Elizabeth asked. “Who could that be?”

“The only people who know that are in these two houses,” Arabella added gravely. “The task team doesn’t know our location, nor do they know exactly what our plan is. They are currently waiting for instruction while in hiding.”

There was a pause as everyone looked at each other with suspicion. My bet was June or Lydia. I couldn’t imagine anyone else would betray us like that.

“We could make a vow to swear not to speak of our location? That might prevent it.” Elizabeth suggested, but I was already shaking my head.

“It doesn’t matter who told him.”

“It doesn’t?” Clawdia asked.

“No, we want him to know where we are.” I grinned at the confused faces surrounding me. “Maybe we don’t want him to know about the artifacts, but if we can get him here, like in your vision, we can set a trap.”

“Trap? You want to trap him?” Clawdia gasped and flapped her arms like it was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. “And then what?”

I rolled my eyes. “We kill him once and for all. Where did you think we were going with this?”

“I don’t understand how my vision of you dying means we should invite him over. Would you like me to lay out some biscuits and hope that’s enough for him to walk into a magical cage?” Her chest was heaving as she looked around the room and asked, “Does no one else think that’s the most hair-brained plan we’ve ever had?”

Baelen, who was standing silently behind her, ran his hands over her shoulders and arms to calm her down and whispered something I couldn’t hear.

Dralie’s voice cut through the silence. “Our mate is not happy with your plan.”

I sighed. “She’s scared, and I understand why.”

Not caring that everyone else was watching and that this was essentially a war meeting, I held her hand, stroking her knuckles with my thumb, and cupped her cheek with my other, catching her gaze while trapping her between me and Baelen.

“Clawdicat, I know this is scary, but you can see the future, and that’s our best weapon against him. That’s the trap. For every bad version of the future, we can think of a solution to fix it before it happens. No Jammie Dodgers needed. Not even Fafnir can fuck with Fate.”

Her bottom lip trembled as she searched my eyes. “You want me to relive attacks on you, watch you die, again and again so we can find a future where the only one who dies is Fafnir?”

I cringed. When you put it that way…

“I know what I’m asking isn’t easy. I’d fucking hate it. I still have nightmares about losing you when Winnie died, but Clawdia, you’re a wonder.” I smiled and shrugged. “I think you can do this.”

She bowed her head and mumbled, “I suppose we have to make sacrifices.”

“That’s my girl.” I kissed her head, then pulled her hand to my lips and kissed that. I joked, “He won’t know what’s hit him. He’ll be too busy monologuing to notice a trap, and then it’ll be all over.”

“This isn’t the Incredibles .” She gave me a bored look. “The bad guys don’t monologue.”

I blinked. “Sometimes you surprise me with your pop culture references.”

“We watched it together. It was a good film,” she said softly. Then any joy at the memories vanished from her face, and her expression turned serious. “I just don’t think he’s going to walk into our trap so easily. He’s slippery. He knows about my visions and may have worked out a way around them. Not to mention that I’m still learning about them and how to use them correctly. I think we rely too heavily on my visions when they aren’t reliable and my knowledge of them is minimal. We don’t even know when this will happen.”

I nodded. “That’s true, but from what you’ve told us, he is too angry right now to think clearly. We’ve just kidnapped his witch and his captive. He’s after revenge, plain and simple, and is probably rushing his plans to end us ASAP. That’s what we can use to our advantage. This is it. This is the end.”

“I’m ready for this to be over,” she whispered, “and it’s not that I don’t trust your plan. I just…”

“We aren’t relying entirely on you,” I assured her. “You’ve already given us a head start with things we can combat. We can go through scenarios and plan for the next most likely things. We’ve got June, who’ll know what he’s more likely to do if one option isn’t available to him, and if you have another vision, then it’s just a bonus.”

She nodded but still looked concerned. “I will try to see more. I’ll try to find a path.”

Arabella spoke up, bringing our attention back to the room and the many faces watching us. “There are so many of us here and ready to fight him, ready to end this, and together, we are more powerful than any dark magic he can conjure. We’ll take him down.”

I smiled at Clawdia and squeezed her hand. “See? It’s all in hand. Go shower while we plan.”

She looked down at herself, and I knew that if our bond was working right, she’d have something to say to me about pushing her in front of everyone when looking like she’d just been laid out on the kitchen table and apologized to. She glared, huffed, crossed her arms, and then waved goodbye before heading back to mine with Baelen.

I chuckled to myself as I watched her storm away. I couldn’t hear her thoughts or follow her home to make her forget she was ever frustrated with me, which would have been a great pick-me-up, but even without hearing them, I was glad her thoughts were full of me instead of her evil ex.

She needed the break from worrying.

When I turned back to the group, Elizabeth had disappeared, but everyone else was still watching and waiting for my plans to win the day. I could get used to this kind of power…

I clapped my hands. “Let’s get to work, team. We’re going to need something to make the houses and ourselves fire retardant, and Lydia, I think you’re the girl for this.”

She surprised me by nodding once, then headed toward the garage. I blinked, then turned my attention to June and pointed, “Your first mission ,should you choose to accept it, is to get a secret message to Maeve with your location.”

“You want me to tell Maeve where I am?” She raised her brow. “I suppose I could send her a message. Just a location?”

“Nothing else. A message she’ll know is from you, with this location. And don’t try any funny business, because Elizabeth will be watching.” I pointed at her in warning, but when she opened her mouth to protest, I continued, “Then we need to figure out how to capture your family. We need Fafnir isolated and alone without a backup of minions.”

“I thought you were only rescuing Maeve,” June argued.

“Well, after Clawdia’s vision, the first step to changing it is getting rid of the witches that block our power as he kills us. That means they need to go.”

She nodded slowly but looked like she wanted to argue. “It’s Sunday today. They visit the market on Sundays for a meander and disguise themselves with magic. It’s nothing another witch can’t see through. They’ve been using it to find supernaturals for Fafnir to drain of magic.”

“We’ll need to move fast, then. Can we get the task teams on this?” I asked Arabella.

She glanced at Isaac and Alcor. “We’ll go with Sarah today and get started on this.”

Isaac cut me a look. “If they are all together and we capture them, then we shouldn’t separate Maeve from the others. If we take them into custody, Maeve will need to go with them in case they realize June isn’t dead and is working with us.”

June gasped. “That’s not what we agreed.”

“We agreed to get her away from Fafnir, and that’s what we are doing.” I told her. “Your situation is a kind of ‘work with the police for less time in prison’ plea deal right now, but you can’t expect that you’re all going to get away with the shit you’ve pulled.”

“She could come here and work with me, with you. Have the same deal,” she argued, rising from her chair and clenching her fists.

“She didn’t know you were working to help her escape. She probably wouldn’t want to be here.”

Elizabeth sneaked in behind me, making me jump as she said, “Singling her out would be dangerous for her, June. You know that. She and the others are going to be held awaiting trial together. It’s the safest place for them.”

“You tricked me.” June was breathing hard and shaking like we’d told her we were going to kill Maeve instead of take her away from the magic-stealing bastard threatening the realm.

“Is your daughter getting away from Fafnir? Yes.” I shook my head. “You’ve not been tricked, because that’s all we agreed. If she wants to spill her guts while she’s in custody and help us, then that’s going to benefit her, but unfortunately, your daughter isn’t the center of the world, and we’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

June really didn’t like that answer. After a few moments of shaking and looking around, she sank back into her chair.

“We’ll need to arrange transport for them.” Arabella had turned to her bunch to discuss the details of their mission, but again, I interrupted.

“You’ll need someone to open a portal for you, there and back. Any of them can get you to the market, but depending on where you want to take them afterward, someone specific will have to be with you for the capturing.”

She frowned, not following my genius. “Why? We can just get someone to pick them up and transport them to a supernatural prison.” She looked at Isaac while I internally freaked out to discover that a supernatural prison existed.

I still know nothing about supernaturals and how they live here. I’m such a noob.

Isaac replied as he reached for his laptop. “I’m not sure which one is nearest to Sweden, but it shouldn’t be too long a journey.”

I pointed out the obvious flaw in their plan. “The longer the journey, the easier it is for them to escape.”

“There are protections in place to stop prisoners from using their power.”

“Have they been tested by dark magic? Do you know for sure it would work against them?”

“Not exactly, but I can’t imagine that it would make too much difference.”

“Best not to chance it.” I rubbed my chin and paced. “I’m assuming you can’t have someone just look at pictures of the prison and portal to it? That there are protections around that?”

“Oh.” She looked at Isaac and nodded. “Yes. That’s a good assumption.”

“Thank God, or you’d be primed for a supernatural jailbreak.” I chuckled and then continued, “Then all we need to know is the location of the nearest prison from one of the safe houses, and then I can ask the others who opened what portal. You can arrange transport from there, which will hopefully be closer than driving to another country.”

Arabella nodded thoughtfully. “That’s a good idea.”

“Don’t look too shocked. I’m a genius,” I replied, smiling, and Isaac laughed, but only because he knew it was true. He’d told me himself.

“Do you have all the equipment you’ll need to capture them?” Elizabeth asked Arabella.

“I’ll double-check if we’re low on anything, and maybe you can help me add to the stocks before we go?”

Elizabeth nodded, and I smiled. “I love it when a plan comes together. This is great. I can practically smell victory.”

“Don’t get too cocky, Charlie.” Elizabeth warned with a pointed look.

I rolled my eyes and then looked back at June, who was sulking. “Any advice for the task team regarding how to get out of dark magic attacks if they throw them at our friends?”

“Don’t let them,” she replied acerbically, but when Elizabeth sighed behind me, June seemed to soften slightly. She looked out the window as she said, “Countering dark magic spells is the same as countering normal magic. To escape the cage, you have to create your own stronger, more powerful one. It has to come from the same place, with the same intentions as the caster. Empathy and power are the key.

“Dark magic comes from a darker, more desperate place, and there is no limit to its power. It is harder to counter unless you can place yourself in the same emotions, betray the will of the Goddess, and suffer the consequences.”

“Be as twisted as the twisted ones” was not the advice I wanted…

“We can’t counter unless we also use dark magic? Or at least embody the principles?” Elizabeth clarified.

“Your best bet is avoidance entirely.” She shrugged and then added, “But if they use dark magic to evade or fight you, you’ll question why you hold on to your principles in the struggle to survive. Fight fire with fire and dance in the flames. You may even like it.”

She thought she was being cryptic and scaring us with her nonsense, but she was obviously being difficult because she didn't get exactly what she wanted from the deal.

But who the fuck was she kidding after all the shit she’d done with Fafnir? I didn’t care if she had helped us with some information. As soon as it was all over, I was making sure her arse was in supernatural jail.

Arabella surprised me with a growl so low she could have taken on Isaac’s wolf form. “Fafnir and your family have killed, drained, and tortured enough of my people for me to want to do it back. Believe me, if you think us so weak and fragile that we can’t cross to the dark side and use spells that cause pain because of our vows to the Goddess, you are wrong.”