I was in a good mood for the first time in ages when Emma and I joined the others for supper that evening. Not everyone was there— Emma’s grandparents, as well as her parents, were noticeably missing.
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Gone into town,” Stefan said. “They’ll be back later.”
Ozzie raced around the room with a side dish in his hands, giggling as he was chased by Jasper. He’d made shepherd’s pie alongside beef wellington, and both smelled amazing.
I had consumed a full plate when Amantha came hustling through the door, followed by Arthur and Kiara. All three of them appeared frantic.
“Ethan,” Amantha said. “Fin’s gone!”
“Gone? What do you mean,gone?” My eyes narrowed.
“He went to Pruska,” Amantha all but wailed. The cheerful demeanor in the room immediately became ice cold.
The stupid bastard. He’d taken my offhand comment about liberating it himselfseriously.“What exactly happened?”
“What do you think? He went in like some kind of hero, put on a good show for a moment or two, then they captured him,” Arthur said spitefully.
Damn Finlay. I should’ve beaten the revolutionary out of him when I had the chance. “Did he go alone?”
“He took a few fae from Trua Gleann he was able to inspire with talks of revolt, but they’re all dead now,” Arthur told me. “Kiara opened a portal for us to go check.”
“Yes, and it seems Finlay was the only one left alive. We watched him be dragged into Pruska’s prison, before we were nearly discovered and had to portal back here,” Kiara said sourly. “He’s certainly being interrogated as we speak.”
“If they get anything out of him, we’re all fucked. We have to go get him,” I said.
“Fin won’t expose us. He’d rather die,” Emma objected.
“I won’t take that chance. Theo, Stefan, Alexei, you’re with me. The rest of you need to get ready to move if we need to.”
“Movewhere? There’s nowhere else to go,” Odette whined.
“Which is exactly why I’m going to rip Finlay limb from limb once we find him,” I replied.
“We’ll be lucky if we find any pieces,” Stefan grumbled.
“Be careful, won’t you?” Emma begged as Theo opened up a portal.
“We’ll be there and back before you know it,” I stated. I gave her a kiss, and no other goodbye as the four of us stepped on through.
I was glad the others hadn’t asked to come along. Nobody else needed to risk themselves for Finlay’s neck, and the less people we were putting on the line, the better.
Theo had teleported us to the battlefield outside Pruska. I knew it well, though the remnants of the fight had been cleaned up long ago, leaving nothing but an empty field.
My stomach clenched. I had hoped to never come back here.
The city’s lights were on the horizon. All was quiet. There weren’t any sounds of an uprising. They must’ve put Finlay and his renegades down quickly.
“Come on,” Stefan whispered. We headed into the trees and remained there as we approached Pruska’s walls. We cast spells over ourselves, to disguise our scents and muffle the noises we made as we drew near.
The walls surrounding the town were tall and foreboding. We had to fly over them to get into the city. Stefan was too big to go flying in unnoticed, so Theo had to give him a lift. When we landed on the other side of the wall, the rest of us remained in our shifter forms while Stefan peered around a corner.
“Shit,” he muttered. “They really massacred them.”
“What do you see?” I asked.
“Ten bodies. Finlay was mad if he thought he could take back the city with so few people.”
