Page 7

Zoey

I oftentimes wish my life was calm enough that I could keep a pet. The pixies who cling to my hair don’t count. They have their own whole society, and I can’t run a hand along their fur because one, they don’t have any, and two, they would probably consider petting to be some form of crime against their dainty personhood, and I don’t fuck with pixies. They know about revenge.

But the puppy with his head in my lap simply wants some treats. My daughter has a hellhound. The kind from the actual Hell plane, so he’s got darker fur and eyes, but he’s the sweetest puppy. Naturally when she decided to take a trip to Gray’s kingdom, she took Puff with her. I miss him.

“Did you tell her we are not keeping hellhounds?”

Devinshea says as he paces the floor to the designated conference room/dining room. “Zoey, are you feeding that dog under the table? You have no idea what that is going to do to his belly.”

“Mother might not be, but I assure you Shy is.”

Rhys seems calmer now, but he might not be in a few minutes. “Baby, I need you to understand that I adore you, but I’m not cleaning that up.”

“They’re hellhounds,”

a familiar voice says. “They don’t poop the way other dogs do. It comes out as fire. You need to be careful, though, because it can catch you off guard. Now, I need to know everything that happened because Arawn wouldn’t send the hounds on an everyday errand. I don’t know these hounds personally, but Arawn is serious about all his creatures. It’s been a long time since I was in Annwn but I still know a bit. They are telling me their names are Caddoc, Bledig, and Emyr, though the truth is you can call them whatever you like. They are not smart creatures.”

I look down the table where Dev and Rhys set up a…well, a system to keep Nimue upright in a chair because she is not all there. And I do not mean her mind. Myrddin chopped her head off when he realized the thrall stone he’d placed there had made its way out and she was no longer under the influence of his magical roofie. He placed her head in a magical box that became her prison for years until I sent some huldrefólk to do a little recon in the Council building and they brought back Nim. She’s been hanging out in a cold-ass lake for a couple of weeks, but apparently regrowing a body takes time.

“You should know that Arawn is one of the Unseelie who fought the idea of forcing me to play priest for the sitheins.”

Rhys sits beside Shy. When we returned, he was still on the errand with his papa to bring Nimue back. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Shy. He hasn’t let her out of his sight again. “When a group dragged me and Lee to the Unseelie sithein, it was Arawn who stopped them. And maybe one of these guys. They’re sweet now, but you should know I’ve watched them take apart an ogre.”

My heart clenches because I think he’s talking about the incident that led to his twin brother losing an eye. Oh, it grew back after he died and rose as a vampire king, but I’m sure it was incredibly traumatic at the time. I know Rhys still dreams about that day and carries guilt with him like a millstone around his neck. I have to wonder if there’s a part of that trauma in his deep desire to avoid Faery. “I’m glad to hear Arawn helped you.”

Nimue sighs. Her hair is far longer than her body at this point. Apparently it kept growing when the rest of her did not. “In the last couple of hundred years, I’m afraid Arawn has grown apathetic. Once he was a true believer in justice. It seems a few centuries without his original body have taken a toll. He took on some of his hosts’ more hedonistic tendencies, but then I did as well. Until I had a cause again.”

“My father,”

Rhys prompts.

“Your parents,”

Nim corrects. “I know Daniel Donovan is the King of the Sword, but it was obvious from the first meeting that he was a member of a royal trio. When I found your family I remembered my purpose. If only I remembered how duplicitous the wizard can be. There’s a reason I lock the fucker up when he’s done.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Nim,”

Danny sits at the head of the table, Sasha on the opposite end. A king and his general.

“Technically, it was.”

The Russian watches Nim with dark eyes. “She took you to the wizard. She allowed the plan that ended in the king and His Grace receiving thrall stones that kept them in Myrddin’s pocket for years, that led you all to lose twelve years of time.”

“I had one, too,”

Nim argues and then sighs. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am. What a fool I have been, and I do not have the excuse of youth.”

I’m not sure what Sasha is trying to do, but I can’t let Nim think I blame her. “You were doing your job, and Myrddin certainly didn’t treat Arthur or the other kings of the sword in such a fashion.”

“I wonder about that now,”

Nim admits. “But there’s nothing I can do but move forward. I know what Myrddin’s planning. He must be stopped. I assume Arawn has figured it out. Closing off the celestial planes would be devastating for the dead, so of course Arawn is concerned. If he requested a meeting with you, perhaps you could do it on some neutral site.”

“I got the feeling the meeting he’s requesting isn’t with me,”

Danny says, and I fear his next words but know they’re coming. Danny isn’t one to play politics with his family. He does too much of that in his job. He’ll rip this bandage right off. “He wants to meet Shy.”

Shy winces. “I think they have me mixed up with someone else.”

Rhys has gone quiet and still. Like really still. Like “trying to keep his cool so we don’t find ourselves in a prison of grass and leaves” cool.

“Rhys, we would never let Arawn hurt Shy,”

I say, trying to calm my son down.

“He wants to meet Shy? He sent the C?n Annwn to find Rhys’s girlfriend?” Nim asks.

“His goddess,”

Dev corrects.

At least he’s on board supporting Rhys’s choice now. In public. The problem is I’m not absolutely certain Shy wants to be his goddess. Or thinks she can be. One I can work with. The other will break my son’s heart.

“And that Matilda person,”

Shy adds even as I see her sneak one of the hounds a piece of cheese. Gotta pay the cheese tax.

Nim goes still. Or rather stiller. There’s not a lot she can do with those stubby things growing out of her shoulders. “He sent Mallt-y-nos?”

Danny nods. “I believe that is what the crone called herself, though she allowed us to call her Matilda.”

“It’s her informal name though she hasn’t been around in centuries. I thought she was on another plane. She’s a crone who often traveled with the C?n Annwn. She acted as Arawn’s eyes from time to time. If he sent her, then he believes Shahidi is important,”

Nimue explains. “You’re a psychic, correct? From a family of psychics?”

Shy nods, more somber now. “Yes. My family was famous in the supernatural world for their abilities. I took after my mother. I’m a medium.”

“Matilda called her the sacred one,”

Danny says.

“Like I said. She’s confused.”

Shy puts a hand on Rhys’s, obviously offering him comfort.

Rhys threads their fingers together and brings their hands to his chest, holding them over his heart. “I doubt that. Shy is afraid of her power. I believe she is far more powerful than anyone knows. Even her. If the King of the Dead sent his hounds to find her, then he understands things we do not. Nimue, Lady of the Lake, do you know what Arawn wants with my goddess?”

“Rhys, technically she isn’t your goddess,”

Nim says with quiet sympathy. “You are not married. You’re not sleeping together.”

“How would you…”

Rhys growls a bit. “My brother, of course. He doesn’t know when to shut up.”

“Rhys, you have to know that in the Fae world there is no marriage without a properly witnessed ceremony. Like your parents,”

Nim reminds us. “You can call her your goddess, but you have no technical claim on Shy. Not one any Fae will recognize.”

“My parents’ marriage had to be witnessed because my father was taking on a god. I didn’t need to take on an old one to ascend. I did that all on my own. My goddess is powerful, but she was traumatized at a tender age. Myrddin wiped out her family and forced her to take on her power with no support. My grandfather found her and took care of her, but he shared what she calls a soul space with him up until recently. I will not push her and traumatize her further because the Fae have rules I care nothing about.”

In this moment my son reminds me so much of his papa I can barely stand it.

In the beginning Dev couldn’t care less what Fae society thought. He wanted to be with me and damn the consequences. But then we found ourselves in a place where we had to deal with them. I fear Rhys will learn this lesson far too soon.

“Rhys, you are Fae,”

Dev begins carefully. “You are considered divine. No one in the sitheins has seen an elemental in millennia. From a religious standpoint, you’re important.”

“I don’t care,”

Rhys replies with a shrug. “I need you to understand this, Papa. I know you think I’m going to get to Faery and become like this super sidhe, but you’re wrong. You can be the high priest for all of time on the Fae planes. I will remain here with my goddess. I will serve the Fae on this plane. For me, this is nothing more than a trip to facilitate Mom’s mission. Finding the Days. However, if Arawn has some sense of my goddess’s power and thinks he can claim her, he’s in for a surprise.”

Shy’s head comes up. “I’m sorry, what? Claim me?”

“I don’t think Arawn is trying to claim her as his bride,”

Nim replies.

“Whoa.”

Shy moves closer to Rhys. “I am not Persephone. I am also not playing out Twilight fantasies because I’m assuming the god of the dead is super old.”

“As old as time.”

Nim manages an amused smile. “I think you’re safe. Young women were never Arawn’s thing. I was his woman for a couple of hundred years. I would be surprised if he’s trying to move on. No. I assume he’s intrigued with Shy’s power.”

“Does the god of the dead need a medium to speak to his subjects?”

Rhys asks.

I know the answer to that one. I watched him not merely speak to the dead, but reanimate them and have their corpses fight for him. “He doesn’t need her medium powers. Which makes me wonder what power he thinks Shy has. The crone called her the sacred one. That sounds pretty specific.”

If Nim had arms, she would have waved that one off. I can tell from her expression.

“You would be surprised. The old ones use the term sacred a lot. Like when Arawn was forced to give up his corporeal body, he had to divest himself of his sacred objects. Every Fae deity had objects of magical power and when they began to pass through into immortal life, leaving behind those objects was considered dangerous, though some of course remain. Then he would call his hounds sacred. His torc. You would call it a crown. They can’t be destroyed, so they were changed into things humans or Fae wouldn’t recognize as magical to hide them. He’s been obsessed for the last hundred years with finding them. It might be that he thinks Shy can help him.”

“But Shy is a human,”

Devinshea points out. “She has no real connection with Fae planes. She’s lived her whole life here.”

“A human who can speak to the dead, a power considered sacred to Arawn,”

Nim returns. “I’m trying to not put too much into his crone calling her the sacred one. There are a lot of sacred ones in Fae lore.”

“So this king is like Devinshea,”

Sasha begins. “He holds the soul of a non-corporeal god within? Is there any possibility he would see Shahidi as a better vessel given her unique abilities?”

The general always asks the pertinent questions.

“No, he has never taken a woman as a host. Arawn’s particular power is masculine in nature. It’s why I was such a good mate for him. The power I hold is of the feminine divine.”

She frowns. “However, the feminine divine can get fucked over by a wizard just like the rest of you. I left Arawn behind because I had a job to do. I always intended to go back. Over the hundreds of years we’ve been together, we’ve taken these breaks often. I didn’t mean to be gone for so long.”

She looks my way. “Zoey, I’m not ready to see him. I’m not ready to see Rourke. Not yet. I need to be whole again before I admit what happened. What I got myself into.”

“Nim, you were raped.”

I know what it means to be forced into some asshole’s bed to save the people around me. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t have to beat me. Threat is coercion, and drugs and spells certainly are, too.

“And yet I remember how eager I was.”

She looks behind me as though she can’t quite meet my eyes. “It’s there. Those memories are there. I can see them. Feel them deep inside my mind. I was happy with him. I did things, things that hurt people, but at the time it felt right. Like what I allowed to happen to the pixie queen.”

“You mean when Olivia spelled her to find Devinshea and she died?”

Danny asks, his voice cold.

“And her priest brought her back to life.”

Dev’s tone is softer, more forgiving. “Daniel, you know how the thrall stones work. You know we betrayed our wife’s trust time and time again because it seemed like the right thing to do. I know how good I felt when Myrddin would praise me. Like I was worthy. What I wasn’t is a fool. Nor were you, Nimue. You were caught in a trap. We were lucky enough to find a way out, and so were you. There is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Tears well in Nim’s violet eyes. “I remember when the coup began. I didn’t kill anyone myself, but I remember crying even while I knew…I knew…it was necessary. And then one day the veil lifted and I realized it was all blood and murder and pain, and it only benefits one man. The rest of us don’t matter. We all live to serve Myrddin. Our wants, needs, desires, who we are as individuals mean nothing to him. He truly believes he can control the demons and force the humans to worship him. To make him their god. And then they will matter to him no more.”

“Can Arawn aid us?”

Sasha asks.

“We shouldn’t trust him,”

Danny adds quickly.

“Yes, he can and he will,”

Nimue says with obvious confidence. “Arawn is serious about Annwn. It’s his home, his place of power, and it is not like Hell. It is connected to the celestial planes. If Myrddin cuts off Heaven, he cuts off Annwn, too. And I don’t know what happens to Arawn if he can’t spend time there. He is dual natured. Of Annwn and of the Earth plane. Rourke, his host, is Fae and must have access to those energies. Myrddin’s plan could kill him. So yes, you can trust that he will aid you in taking down the wizard.”

“What do you mean Annwn is connected to the celestial planes?”

I ask and the crone’s words come back to me. “Matilda said Annwn wasn’t like Hell. What does that mean?”

“It means the underworld isn’t the same for all cultures. Annwn is closer to Valhalla than Hell,”

Nim says, and then gasps a little. “I wonder if Odin’s still around. He’ll be pissed, too, and that old guy does not hold back. His son is an asshole, though. I’m not joking. Marvel makes Loki look good. He’s a little shit.”

“So all of the old gods are hanging around?”

I’ve only really dealt with the Fae, which I should be forgiven for since they’re my in-laws. Luckily Danny didn’t come with a whole religious background. Vampires are pretty pragmatic.

“Some of them,”

Nim explains. “Some left for the outer planes. Some became like Arawn when people stopped worshipping at levels that could keep their godhood up. Some cling to their places of power and never leave. Some are whispers, still trying to influence the humans. You can trust Arawn in this, Your Highness. It serves his interests to do anything he can to stop Myrddin. Your mission will be his mission.”

And if I’m right, it might serve my personal mission. “I believe Sarah took her family to one of the lesser celestial planes. Felix and Mia would be able to move on them. Sarah would need magic, but she would do anything to save them.”

“Arawn might be able to help. He knows doorways no one else dreams exist. If he doesn’t, he knows someone who does,”

Nim affirms.

I know what I’m going to vote for. “So if we take Arawn’s invite, we don’t have to worry about getting around Myrddin’s guards and we might have a handy way to find my friends that means I don’t have to grovel to my mother-in-law. And we get to hang with the puppies.”

“I’m afraid Z’s right.”

Danny sighs but looks resigned. “I don’t want a fight with Myrddin while the Nex Apparatus is on the Hell Plane.”

“I’ll handle my mother,”

Dev assures me. “And I’ll get Nim back to her lake if it’s really her will to stay.”

“I can’t face him, and I will be a burden without my hands and heart. There is magic I can do with my mind, but Myrddin knew what he was doing. He cut me off from heart and body magic,”

Nim explains.

Sasha stands. “Then we will be going to Wales. I will alert our allies and get the plane ready. We can be there tonight. I, for one, would like to get this mission started so we can rejoin our group in New Zealand. I’m leaving Chad and Lily in charge since the rest of my team is either coming with me or in Hell.”

He chuckles. “It’s fun to say that.”

Kelsey and Trent aren’t exactly in Hell as we think of it. They’re in Gray Sloane’s territory on the Hell plane. I was told it’s called a midnight plane, and Fenrir will be powerful in that night kingdom. I hope so because my children Lee and Evan intend to either negotiate with or steal from Lucifer Morningstar.

All in all, it feels like I’m getting the easy end of this particular stick.

And I’m worried sick about my babies.

Danny stands, too. “We’re ready to go. Dev, did you pack enough Scotch?”

My Fae hubby sends my vampire hubby a smile. “Oh, Your Highness. We are packing light, but I assure you we can find something in the palace to get in trouble with.”

See, that makes me perk up. I love it when my guys go at it.

“I’m not letting Shy get anywhere close to this male,”

Rhys announces. “Mother, I understand that you need to go. You need to find the Days. You need good relations with the Fae. But Shy and I are staying here. I will ensure our safe transfer to New Zealand.”

“Rhys…”

Dev begins.

But Shy is standing up, pulling her hand from Rhys’s. “You are not my master, Rhys Donovan-Quinn.”

Rhys’s eyes narrow. “No. I am your commanding officer, however.”

“And I am yours,”

Sasha says, his voice deep. “Or do you forget your place?”

“I think things have changed, General.”

Rhys stands, his shoulders back like the good soldier he is. “I think our little army unit has shifted since my parents returned, and I know my powers have grown. I know Faery better than you.”

“You know it from your childhood and you fear it from your adolescence,”

I say, trying to reason with him. “Rhys, we all need to go. Shy most of all because if Arawn knows something about her power that we don’t, we have to explore it.”

The hounds take up positions around Shy, and I feel the minute this could go poorly.

Rhys doesn’t seem to feel the shift. His hand slaps on the table. “She is my goddess, and I will not have her in danger.”

Not the way he should have gone.

I hear thunder in the distance.

“And this is how I know she is not your true goddess,”

Dev says with a frown. “Not yet. If she was you wouldn’t be about to bring a storm down on our heads in the middle of a pocket world. Do we even have drainage? Are we about to flood?”

Shy looks my way, a frown on her face. “If I have sex with your son, will he be easier to control?”

There’s only one answer to that. Though it’s not a question I thought I would ever be asked. I should have known better. “Infinitely. And you’ll be the only woman he’s ever had so you won’t even have to compete with faulty memory.”

“Excellent,”

she declares as she stands. “Then we’ll be ready to go when it’s time. Let us know, but you should probably knock, Your Highness.”

She takes Rhys’s hand and my stunned son follows her out. Along with two of the hounds. The third finds his way back to me and sits, obviously asking for a treat. I give the good boy some of Albert’s bacon.

I know how to deal with a hellhound.

And it feels like Shy is about to figure out how to deal with my son.

“It really should be…”

Dev begins.

Danny picks up an orange and fast balls it at Dev’s head.

“Oww.”

Dev’s hand goes to his head as he frowns Danny’s way. “Fine. I’ll stay out of it.”

Words we should all follow.