Page 6 of Vengeance and Vipers

I give him a look. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Double bluff. We pretend her hold is leaving us. Quickly. Over the next few hours, we start acting less and less like we give a shit about her. If we play our cards right, they’ll let us go free.’

‘And what then?’

Axel stops in the road and turns to me. ‘Then we break ties with the clan. We find a way into the Mountain, and we get Jules out of there.’

I nod my head. ‘Agreed.’

We walk back to the house and go our separate ways, enacting our plan of pretending Jules isn’t our top priority.

For my part, I go back to the library with a dustpan and brush, and I start cleaning up the mess I made in here earlier when I threw the glass.

‘I didn’t think you’d be back so soon,’ Maddox says from his spot in the chair, still on his laptop.

I don’t lay it on thick; just grunt my response. ‘You said yourself there’s no one else to damn well do it.’

He doesn’t answer.

‘There’s someone I could call,’ I say as I keep sweeping up the shards of glass.

‘Call?’ he enquires, not looking up.

I grit my teeth at the smug cunt. ‘Aye, to keep the house for us. He and his wife are pixies. Older. Quiet sort. Lived in my village. He’s had run-ins with the fae himself over the years, so he’s none too sympathetic to their cause.’

Now, Maddox looks up, and I can see he’s half surprised, half suspicious. I roll my eyes. ‘We need someone. They’ll do the job, no problems. No tattling to the fae on us.’

He regards me for a moment.

‘Call them,’ he says finally, going back to reading, and I resist the urge to snatch it away and throw it out onto the wet lawn.

‘Aye, I’ll do it now.’

I leave the cleaning supplies in the library and open one of the French doors, walking out onto the terrace and taking my phone from my pocket. It feels alien in my hand, though it’s only been three weeks since we were taken in by the authorities.

I dial the number, and Fergus picks up almost immediately. ‘Have a job for you and the missus.’

‘Aye?’

‘Aye.’

I tell Fergus what we need, frowning as I look over the lawn and see a depression in the grass as if a large creature was lying there in the night.

Odd shape for a deer.

I turn away, thinking no more of it while he talks to the Missus, and they agree to come the next day, and I go back inside, ending the call and telling Maddox it’s sorted.

The prick just nods, going back to his work, and I walk from the room, forcing myself to pretend I’m not furious about this entire situation, that I don’t want to go out to the border and hurl myself at it until it breaks or kills me.

But that won’t help Jules.

I go back up to my room and pace. Jules is a smart woman, and I know she’s spent a lot of time with supes. I’d guarantee that her position right now isn’t the first life-or-death situation she’s been in, and she’s very good at keeping herself alive. I have to trust that she will do everything she can to survive because I don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck here. If I had any chance of taking Maddox, I would, but his power as the leader makes sure he can keep us in line even with the extra I got from Jules in the Mountain.

I throw myself in a chair, trying to think of a way to speed things up but coming up with nothing. The clan used to mean everything to me, but after the Mountain, and now that Krase is gone, Axel is the only one I can trust.

I put thoughts of my brother from my mind. I miss him, but there’s no point in dwelling on his loss. Jules is what’s important now. Nothing else matters.

The clan be damned.