Page 41 of Eternal Light (Fated in the Stars #5)

Torn between wanting Withers’s blind agreement and wanting him to see through the ruse, Grayson holds his breath. He doesn’t want to know what kind of “appreciation” Withers is imagining—but he can’t stop thinking about it, either.

When there’s no answer, Grayson’s stomach sinks. Did they lose him?

“Look, Aleksander, I know you’re suspicious.

I would be, too. I know what it’s like to be powerful and have to hide what you really are.

To have everyone in your life think you’re nothing.

To want to be more than what they say you are—and to have them fucking notice.

But most of all, I know what it is to want to show them. To make them pay.”

Withers chuckles.

“You do get it. They’re holding you back, aren’t they? I was curious why your signature was all over the place—erratic and unpredictable. Are they forcing you to hide some of your power, too?”

“Obviously. I don’t like to show my whole hand. I know what it means to keep secrets.”

“The misery of genius,” he commiserates. “Still, I have to be cautious, as I’m sure you understand. At any rate, I’ve got big plans for Friday night. But after that…there won’t be anything they can do to stop me. So…we can get a drink then.”

Well, that sounds bad.

Leo has his phone out, and he nods when Grayson checks in. Carnell’s party is Friday night.

“How do I know your little Novice isn’t going to run to your new Pack Alpha with your plans?”

“He’s not telling anyone anything. I’ve made sure he can’t.

” The implication is that Grayson has used magical coercion.

“Besides, Allistair Carnell doesn’t listen to the nattering of an inferior-status omega b—bitch.

” It’s hard to get the disgusting words out at all, and he only hopes Withers hasn’t noticed the hesitation.

Luca frowns, clenching his fists, and Leo grabs him around the waist to be sure he won’t come out swinging and take Grayson’s head off for the obvious lie.

Thankfully, Grayson feels Nix squeeze his hand as pure love flows along their bond. His mate knows his heart.

“Oh? That tracks. Like father, like son.” He smirks. “I rarely admit it, but his shields are some of the best I’ve come across—and I’ve triumphed over the best. Will you be bringing him along?”

He doesn’t wait for an answer.

“He likes to play hard to get, but I really felt a connection between us. Not that it would’ve stopped me either way.” He brays like the ass he is.

Grayson doesn’t dignify it with a response. No, he will not be bringing his pregnant mate to this meet-and-greet. Instead, he sidesteps the bait.

“Maybe we could meet before your party,” he says. “So if things work out, you’ll know you’ve already got backup for whatever this big thing is you’ve got planned.”

He hears a noise behind him and turns to see Ignatius entering with Jay and Finn.

He’s brought a tall, blonde woman as well as a shorter brunette with curly hair dressed in what looks like a police uniform, minus the hardware.

The blonde reminds Grayson of the queen of the elves—if Galadriel had a compass tattooed on her neck and wore a black leather jacket and ripped blue jeans.

She puts her finger to her lips and uses her other hand to ask for the phone.

Ignatius gives him a small, encouraging smile.

Just seeing his mentor gives Grayson a tiny twinge of fear at being so far out of his league—but also reminds him that they’re finally in the hands of professional allies.

The blonde woman winks.

Then her eyes lose focus, and she fades out.

The phone remains solid, but the hand holding it does not.

There’s an almost silent collective gasp, and Nix’s hand grips him tighter, to make sure Grayson won’t join her and fade away.

Grayson isn’t eager to join her as much as he yearns to be able to do it himself at will. He wants to unfocus and check The Plain—to see if he can see how she is doing that—but Gideon touches his wrist to get him back on track as the phone beeps its low battery warning again on Withers’s end.

“No can do, hot stuff. It’s my big night. I have no plans to share the limelight, no matter how hot you’d be on your knees.”

Luca is on his feet again, nearly bowling the short brunette woman over in his haste to get to the phone and tell Withers what he could do with his suggestion.

Leo barely manages to snag the (silently) hissing beta around the middle again, where he has to sit on him to get him to stop thrashing.

Checking in with Gideon, Grayson shrugs, not quite sure what to do.

How can they take Withers out of the mix before he gets to that party? What’s the plan if they can’t?

“Are you sure I couldn’t persuade you? Somehow ?”

Grayson lowers his voice to its deepest, most seductive pitch, and Leo shivers behind him. His shiver makes Luca buck and push to get his mate’s peach of an ass off his belly.

Withers groans, too.

Blech.

Grayson will need a boiling-hot hazmat shower and brain bleach after this.

“Tempting as that is, I have been waiting for this for months. Has to be Friday. But afterwards? Yeah. I’ll have lots of energy to burn then, if you know what I mean.”

There’s a pause, and the last of his words are rushed.

“Well, I’ve got to go. People to drain. I’ll be in tou—”

Grayson can’t say another word before the phone disconnects in the woman’s hand.

She pops back to her fully formed, non-transparent self, and Grayson knows through experience that’s a rough landing.

Ignatius steadies her with a hand under her elbow as she grimaces.

“This is Erleuchtete Selinde Varna, the world’s foremost authority on Traveling, and Matilda Paulis, a detective with the Wardens. Did you have any luck, Selinde?” Ignatius asks, nodding toward the phone.

She shakes her head, returning the device to Grayson.

“I had just enough time to get the general location of some residual magic in the area.”

“What if you don’t catch him, and he escapes? He’ll never let us near him, then,” Luca says, as he pushes Leo off so he can adjust his blanket toga.

The ensemble somehow makes him look more regal, not less. Such is the nature of rockstar Luca Wilde.

“From the sound of it, there’s nothing that would make him miss out on Friday night.

Nor is there anything that I did today that would lead him back to you.

I used the phone to pinpoint his magic signal, but he couldn’t possibly detect that.

I hoped he was too busy with your partner and that he would drop his guard.

He’ll assume it was his activity on The Plain. ”

That’s a thing?

“You used the satellite signal?” Grayson asks, not able to keep the awe from his tone, really wishing he’d taken a moment to see how she was working her strands of The Plain.

“It’s Selinde’s technology Talent.”

“I can’t guarantee he won’t be suspicious, but our priority has to be the civilians,” the detective says.

“I agree with your assessment, Erleuchtete Varna: he’s not going to miss what he’s got going on Friday night.

I expect he’ll be drawing hard on The Plain then.

It won’t take us long to find him,” she adds confidently.

Grayson is more concerned that Winnie and Ansel may not survive until then.

“You have a GPS location, Erleuchtete?”

The Warden takes her phone out, ready to type the coordinates.

“I do. 27.8996° N, 82.7009° W. Good luck.”

Without another word, the Warden heads out the front door, slipping into a black SUV idling in the cobblestone drive.

The coordinates mean little to Grayson, but he can only guess that Withers won’t have gone too far from Clearwater—and his targets.

“Erleuchtete, thank you for helping us,” Jay says.

Gideon slips away to the kitchen, returning with a bottle of water and two of Nix’s Oreos on a chipped china plate.

The Traveler smiles her gratitude, making her face much more approachable. Grayson thinks he might learn to like her a great deal.

“Selinde, please. Of course, the global magic community is relatively small, and the Traveling Affinity one is even smaller. You handled yourselves very well.”

“We are lucky you got here in time.”

Leo gets up, gesturing to the loveseat, so the two senior magic users take their seats.

“His name is Aleksander Withers, and he’s using soul magic at the expense of those children to enhance his power,” Ignatius explains. “Selinde, this is Alpha Jay Rhodes, and his mates Gideon, Leo, Finn, Nix, Luca, and Grayson. And Rowan, of course.”

“Nice to meet you all. Oh, this is the Grayson? I’m excited to meet a fellow Traveler. I’d hoped we could spend some time talking about your experiences.”

“I would like that. I would love to hear how you did that with the phone, too.” Grayson can’t keep his enthusiasm out of his tone, but it quickly falls. “But we are…”

Busy didn’t seem like a big enough word.

“In the middle of something. I assume it has something to do with Friday night?”

The room is silent. None of them are willing to bring anyone else into their plans in case Carnell’s demise leads them straight to the pack’s door.

Besides, the less Selinde and Ignatius know, the better.

Grayson’s worry seems to be for nothing when she says, “I think we might help with that. There are a few instructors here who can give some insight into helping you gain some prowess over your magic, Grayson. Even Master Ignatius.”

She winks when the older man sputters, “I’ll have you know I am a formidable opponent, Selinde.”

He adjusts his vest like a combination of the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland , grinning like the Cheshire Cat as he lets a small fireball form in his palm.

Selinde grins, patting his arm, throwing a few water droplets over his flame. It’s obvious to them all that this is a friendship that has existed for some time.

“Of course you are, old friend. It would be best to avoid Matilda and the Wardens though, if you want to keep your plans to yourselves.”

Exactly what Grayson thinks, too.

The offer of help with his magic is one he can’t afford to decline—and that it might include some offensive and defensive maneuvers? Even more so.

He checks with Jay (who shrugs) and Gideon (who nods enthusiastically), but it’s Nix’s opinion he is most concerned with.

“Angel? It’s not just me in this…”

Nix just hugs his arm.

“You have to learn how to control your magic—because right now, it’s controlling you. Plus, we’ll have a better chance of handling whatever Withers sends our way if you do. I say do it.”

Grayson checks in with the others, and there’s not one negative response—with a notable exception.

“Ro?”

Rowan comes out from behind the loveseat so he can rub his nose over Nix’s hoodie-clad belly, where their babies lie tucked up under their mate’s heart. His intention is clear: don’t hurt them .

“Yeah, okay. I get it.”

Selinde’s eyebrows are up into her hairline. Whether it is Rowan-wolf or their pregnant mate, he can’t be sure. Like with most people, it’s probably both.

“I have to be careful of him. He’s my soulmate, and sometimes, if I pull too much…”

She must have good instincts—or good manners—because she nods but doesn’t talk about Nix’s baby bump.

While Nix wants everyone, everywhere, all around the world to take notice, his mates do not.

“We can work with that. Ignatius is quite skilled at helping new magic users manage The Plain. I, too, have access to a significant flow. I believe that once you can understand your Affinities and Talents, you will have better control over how much you draw.”

“That makes sense, Grayson. The more you know, eh?” Jay nods.

“Excellent,” Ignatius replies as he stands. “Perhaps we could see you in my office in an hour? I’ll rally our tutors. Time is of the essence.”

Selinde bows slightly and offers her hand to Jay, who shakes it firmly.

“We’ll see you soon.”

The two magic users depart out the front door this time, as it is the most polite—even though Grayson could see them through the rear kitchen window, heading back the way they came a few minutes later.

“You okay, Gray?” Nix whispers.

Is he?

He’s nervous.

Nervous, because taking Withers on is surely going to fall to him. He can’t afford to fail.

“I’m good. Will you come with me? That way, I can be sure I’m not drawing too much. I won’t be able to concentrate if I can’t see you with my own eyes.”

“Why not take Rowan, too?” Leo suggests, causing the affronted Rowan to growl about being managed.

“You can go as you are, baby-alpha-wolf. Stop being a grump. You like new adventures.”

The old Rowan did, but the new protective enigma alpha soon-to-be father did not.

Strangers and a pregnant omega did not seem like a good idea to Grayson, but Nix was giving happy-claps at having his other baby-daddy along for company.

Even if he was wolf-shaped.

“What are we going to do about Withers and this party?” Finn asks.

He takes their guest’s plate to the kitchen. “We can’t be considering descending on Carnell’s mansion and hoping we can just handle the fallout. What’s so important about this Friday night?”

Leo sits back down on the couch and pulls Luca with him.

“I think we should stick to the plan. Since luring Withers out isn’t possible, we should go undercover. Luc, you said that the butler guy was helpful.”

“Yeah, but Connall said not to come back. He said he had his own unfinished business.”

Gideon perks up from his place where he’d been casually leaning against the wall.

“Connall? Hmm. The guy who told me where Carnell was said his grandson was named Connall. Said Carnell murdered his father. Maybe he’s been playing the long game for revenge.”

“He was snarky and a little bit rude, but smart. Reminds me of you a little, Sugar.”

“I’m not snarky or rude,” Gideon denies, with a raised eyebrow.

“So if team Alpha goes in the back, and team Omega goes in the front…” Jay points first at himself and then at Nix, ignoring Luca’s smirk at going in the back.

“We can do a little recon at Carnell’s, maybe find out what Withers has planned before he is suddenly master of the universe, while you see if you can get Carnell alone and make his day.”

“Permanently,” Gideon mutters under his breath.