“What’s going on in the Furie realm, Cali?” I asked quietly. She hadn’t mentioned Malachi, her ex-lover and usual hunting partner. Nor the fact that she’d been summoned back to her realm during the period Samara and her mates had been rising to power and we hadn’t seen her for months afterwards. And when we had, she’d acted like nothing had happened.
“I’ll tell you later.” The muscles along her jawline flexed before she swallowed and some of the tension faded. “We’ve been waiting days for an opportunity to get into the stronghold, and tonight was a good opportunity. Given that you were sneaking away from the party after putting on that show with Bastian”—she gave me a pointed look that said she wanted more details on that when we weren’t pressed for time—“I’m assuming you have similar motivations. Are you here for him too?
“Him?” I glanced at the building, and the answer dawned on me. Cali was reckless, but never without reason. There was only one person who would have made her risk coming here. I turned back to my friend. My beautiful, brash friend. “Lucian. That’s who you’re hunting.”
She nodded. “We’ve been tracking the rumors all over Fervis territory and we’re pretty confident he’s here. I’ve done some flyovers and spotted the Dragomir Alpha and his enforcer coming out of this building several times. It seems like an odd place for them to be visiting so often.” Cali frowned before narrowing her gaze at me. “But if you’re not here for him . . . what are you here for?
“I think that’s something that will also have to wait until later.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “Short version is there’s a silver crest in there that once belonged to the Unseelie Princes. I need it to fix the mirror beneath the Alpha stronghold.”
Nyx’ dark gaze rose to the perimeter wall. “We should get going. The wall patrols will be back in about forty seconds.”
Neither Cali nor I argued; nothing beat the hearing of a Moroi. Silently, the three of us raced across the garden. I tried the door and found it locked, which wasn’t all that surprising. I reached into my pocket to grab the unlocking gem I’d brought with me, only for Cali’s shadow magic to shoot out into the lock. A few seconds later, the door clicked open.
My eyebrows rose. That was new.
Cali winked at me. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
We let ourselves in and shut the door behind us, leaving it unlocked in case we needed to make a fast exit, and then we made our way down the narrow stairs in the back of the room. There was only one level beneath the building, which was split into multiple rooms. We passed through the first one, which mostly had extra ale plus some weapons.
The second room was the one I was interested in. Piled high on tables that lined the walls were various treasures, even more than the last time I’d been here.
Most of them were Fae artifacts, which was mildly annoying because I knew Alexis had zero interest in any of these books or scrolls. He just didn’t want Drudonia to have them because they would share the knowledge with the Moroi and he was that much of an asshole.
Cali and Nyx went straight for the closed door at the back of the room that appeared to be inlaid with iron. Shadows stretched out from Cali before they even reached it, seeping into the lock.
“Shit,” she muttered before crouching in front of the door. “Fucking Fae bullshit.”
While she tried to get the door open, I started searching for the crest. Alexis hadn’t bothered to organize anything, so there were just piles of random artifacts all over the place. Every time something silver caught my eye, I would dig it out, but so far, I’d only found necklaces, bracelets, and a few clasps with fragile-looking designs that I was fairly certain were meant to be used with cloaks.
Fae fashion seemed overly complicated.
I was digging through a pile on the third table when I saw silver peeking out underneath several thick gold necklaces. Carefully, I grasped the edge and tugged it out slowly so I didn’t knock everything over. My heart beat a little faster at the smooth, flat, oval shape that fit perfectly into the palm of my hand—the exact shape missing from the mirror. I flipped it over and let out a relieved breath.
A beautiful night sky was carved onto the other side. There were words written around the top and bottom, but they were hard to make out because of the stylized design. I’d give it a more careful examination later. For now, I clutched it in my hand and moved to join Cali and Nyx, only to freeze as two other people stepped into the room.
Bastian’s green eyes connected with mine immediately, and I felt a faint burn in my chest. My breath caught. That had to be a coincidence. I did not have a second mating bond to deal with.
No. Absolutely the fuck not.
I watched Bastian’s face carefully, looking for any hints that he felt something. Nothing. Either he didn’t feel it or he was just that good at hiding his reactions. Not comforting, given how talented I knew he was at lying.
My fingers tightened around the crest. It didn’t matter. I was close to fixing this problem for everyone.
His eyes drifted down to my hand. “You found it?”
I nodded, but by this point, my gaze had drifted to the second person wielding a sword. Warrick ignored me entirely, his attention on Nyx and Cali.
“I’d put that down before you hurt yourself,” Nyx drawled as they casually took a step left, putting their back to Cali’s, who was still focused on the door. Their dark gaze was locked on Warrick, and they’d drawn their own sword and held a dagger in their other hand.
Shit.
I moved to stand between them, putting myself directly in Warrick’s line of sight. “How about we all calm down and not get all stabby?”
“It’s like you don’t even know us,” Cali said with a chuckle.
“Not helping,” I snapped, glancing over my shoulder quickly to confirm she was still working on the lock. Nyx had gone predatorily still, and the blue lines that wove through their eyes looked a little thinner. Not good. I returned my attention to Warrick and Bastian. “I didn’t know they were going to be here, I swear.”
“You didn’t know your best friend and whatever the fuck that is”—Warrick leaned over slightly so he could point his sword around me at Nyx—“were going to be here? Try again, sweetheart.”
