Page 43

CHAPTER FORTY

FRANKIE

My body crashed into the wall of the Seelie tunnels so hard my breath was knocked from my lungs. My legs gave out. I crashed onto my knees on the bright-green vines. Pain laced up my thighs. One second we were fighting for our lives in New Orleans, the next I was on all fours gasping for breath in the Seelie tunnels. All around me I heard the coughing and relieved curses from my Coven-mates. We were alive.

Everest had saved us.

Everest saved us. Everest was in the sunlight. I flopped onto my ass and sat up, looking up to find that beautiful face of his flushed with rage. I saw it. I felt it flowing through him. He was furious. Those white and blue eyes were blazing. His gaze was sharp as he moved from person to person with a nod as if he was counting that we were all there.

Tegan hissed like a cat and curled over, burying her face in her hands and hair. Tenn cursed and dove for her. The second his hands touched her, she threw herself into his chest. She put her hands up to the sides of her face like she was blocking light and then Tenn covered her hands with his.

Everest glanced at them, then did a double take and cursed. “Sorry, Tegan. You’re going to have to suffer through the tunnel for a moment.”

She groaned. Tenn wrapped his thick arms around her head like he was smothering her in his chest. But she fisted his shirt in her hands and held on tight.

Tenn sighed. “Thanks for the save. Again?—”

“ What were you thinking ?” Everest yelled, his voice raised and his cheeks flushed. “You knew that was a trap and you went anyway?—”

“It’s my fault. It was my fault.” Cooper was bent over with his hands on his knees. “I should’ve paid closer attention to the dream, should’ve talked to you before I told them what I saw.”

Everest scrubbed his face with his hands. “Be easy on your conscience, Mr. Bishop. You are only eighteen years old. He is nearing eighteen-hundred. This is what he does, what they do.”

“You said he .” Tenn cocked his head to the side. “You think the Prince sent that dream to Cooper? Not Sweyn?—”

“Sweyn does not have that power,” Everest answered softly. He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back off his face. “Is everyone all right? Anyone injured?”

I shook my head and glanced around to see everyone was fine. No blood. No injuries. We’d made it out of that one with a shit ton of luck.

“Wait, when I first got to Eden . . .” I stared off into the tunnel wall as I replayed the memory in my mind. “Sweyn had lured me from my dream to go outside?—”

“No.” Everest stepped forward and took my chin in his hand. He forced my eyes to his, then watched me close. With his other hand, he brushed the backs of his fingers over my forehead and pressure lifted instantly. “Asmodeus lured you out of Coven Headquarters just as he lured you from your home in Tampa that night Tegan found you.”

“ So Sweyn can’t get into our minds? ” Tegan’s voice was muffled by Tenn’s chest and arms.

“No, she cannot. The fallen can . . .” Everest took a deep breath and lowered his hand from my face. “And the Prince can. I need to remind you the Prince is a powerful siphon and his power is stronger now that he fed from Seelie. He will continue to get stronger with every day he is here. You have to be careful.”

“We knew it was a trap, but Tegan said we needed to go anyway?—”

“Tegan is crazy.” Everest hung his head. “Tegan will have to learn when she can and cannot use her crazy. This is a new game. Enemies of your past could be toyed with. You are no longer free to behave the same way you would have.”

Tegan mumbled but her words were lost to my ears. Everest growled deep in his throat in response.

Tim cleared his throat and stepped forward, stopping next to Tenn. “Thank you for saving us again, Everest. But why are we still here? ”

Jackson snapped his fingers. “Oi. What he said.”

“ Oi? ” Everest smirked. “You are so much like your father it’s uncanny.”

“Right tosser, you are.” Jackson held his hand up and I spotted a single stem red rose tattooed on the side of his thumb. “Out with it, mate.”

“We are waiting to see what the next phase of their trap was, so I’m holding you here to be ready to move.” Everest frowned over to Tenn and Tegan. “Except for you two. Stay home.”

Tenn opened his mouth to protest when the floor opened up beneath their feet and they dropped. Tim flinched. Hunter gasped and leapt forward but Everest caught him and shook his head.

“Nope, don’t like that,” Thiago mumbled. He patted Royce’s chest. “Said that for him.”

“Excuse me.” I pushed up to stand, then tugged my sweater down. I looked to my soulmate. “You can go out in the sunlight.”

He stared at me for a moment. “Yes.”

I threw my hands up. “Like all the time? Any time? Since fucking when? And why didn’t you tell me?”

“Since I was born. Technically you never asked, and it was an important secret to keep from our enemies.” He shrugged one shoulder. “And yes, all the time. Any time. Sunlight has no different effect on me than it does any of you.”

A strangled whimper left my lips. I had no words for this revelation.

Thorne stepped through the tunnel wall. “I’d love to see you with a suntan.”

At that, Everest grinned. “I had a tan for two centuries before Sweyn was born. You missed it.”

Thorne sighed and strolled closer as Sage stepped out of the tunnel wall behind him. “Yet another thing to hate our father for.”

“ What? ” I shouted.

“Excuse me?” Cooper yelled.

Jackson raised his hand. “ OI. ”

Warner put his hands on his head. “What the fuck?”

Deacon’s projection leaned against the tunnel wall beside Everest. “Fitting.”

“No, no, no. Hold on, just hold on a second. ” I pressed my fingers to my temples. “ Our father. He said our and he was looking at you, not Sage, so you and Thorne—-and Sage—-have the same father. What am I missing that the rest of them are freaking out about? Explain this to me like I’m five, please.”

Everest gave me a soft, warm smile that sent warm, fuzzy butterflies through my body. “My father was Seelie King Atzaran. I am Seelie.”

My jaw dropped. “You’re Seelie, not Unseelie . . . the other vampires?—”

“The other vampires, literally every other vampire—” he paused and met my stare, and I got the message, he was telling me not Saber , “—is half-Unseelie. I am the only one that is half-Seelie.”

“Then why are you a vampire?” Warner asked.

Jackson smacked the back of his head. “Oi. We don’t ask people why they aren’t vampires.”

Everest chuckled. “My mother is what makes me a vampire. The genetics I got from her. Which, to clarify for you, is where the Unseelie get it.”

“Which Lilith gave to them after our fuckface of a father banished them from Seelie.” Thorne grinned. “Her magic allowed them to evolve into being bloodsuckers, whereas pretty boy here was born that way naturally.”

“And that’s why you don’t need to feed as often.” Tim nodded.

“Wait, wait, wait.” I held my hands up. My brain was moving slowly, but the pieces were coming together. “You were the first ever vampire then?”

He nodded.

“Father did love that.” Thorne wagged his eyebrows. “Pity he didn’t live long enough to rub it in their faces.”

“It was glorious to watch him die.” Everest pressed his hand to his chest. “Perhaps we could summon his spirit one day just to rub it in?”

“ Everest, ” I hissed.

Thorne pointed to him. “There’s the little brother I love.”

Sage cackled. She wrapped her arm around her little brother’s shoulders and grinned. “It’s funny though . . . his first two children have a literal angel for a mother and we turned out much more twisted and fucked up than the child he had with the mistress of evil herself.”

Everest grinned. “Father hated me so much.”

The three of them laughed. The stress and anxiety rolling around in me lightened for a moment just seeing him smile, seeing him be happy. I wondered how this felt for him, to finally be free.

Thorne clapped him on the shoulder. “Though, we weren’t expecting you to play your biggest secret yet.”

Everest grimaced and gestured to us. “He tricked them. I had no choice.”

Thorne cocked his head to the side. “I am surprised you even let them out of the house?—”

“He was knocked out.” I arched one eyebrow. “I tried to wake him and got a bunch of growling and mumbling.”

Everest looked to me with a crooked smirk. “The finger prick was a nice touch.”

I chuckled. My face heated so I knew I blushed. “You were really asleep.”

“Took me a minute to process what you’d said.”

“Sorry we could not beat you there, Brother.” Thorne pointed behind him. “Trouble sent us a message.”

“She really needs to start warning us that you might be in danger before you’re walking into danger.” Sage rolled her pretty purple eyes. “Give a girl a chance to prepare.”

Everest shook his head. “The last thing we need is them getting back into Seelie. You two need to focus on your border.”

“I think—” Thorne stopped and narrowed his eyes.

Everest and Sage turned to their left and stared at the tunnel wall, but no one was there.

Gold glitter sparkled within the green vines and then the wall opened. Saffie leapt into the tunnel with wide lavender eyes and a pale face. “UNSEELIES ARE ATTACKING HUMAN CITIES ON THE FEY LINES!”

“ There it is ,” Everest whispered. He gripped Thorne and Sage’s arms and threw them in the opposite direction. “Don’t you dare join us unless we’re near dying. Got it? Guard Seelie. Do not let them get in a consume again.”

Thorne nodded and shoved at Everest. “Saraphina, go with them.”

“WAIT, ROYCE!” Sage ripped vines off the tunnel wall and shoved them into his chest. “Poison Roycy, only if you have to. We don’t wanna show off too soon.”

He grinned and let out a silent cackle, then leapt out the tunnel opening behind Saffie.

I started to follow when Everest slid in front of me. He cupped my face and pressed a kiss to my lips, then pulled away. “Absolutely not.” Then he pushed me backwards.

“NO!” I screamed and pushed my magic, propelling me forward through the wall opening . . . and then I landed on all fours in the living room of Coven Headquarters. I slammed my hands on the floor. “DAMMIT, EVEREST! NO!”