Page 8 of Prey It By Ear

“Fitz!” I hiss as I smack his arm. “That’s not—” My eyes drift to the other guys, and they’re not laughing, which makes me stop. “Oh. You’re not joking. Well, isn’t that just fucking terrible? Okay, back to the weirdness.”

Aubrey chuckles as he flicks his paper. “Lunchable, I forget how sheltered you are sometimes. Spies are not the only creeps who find creative ways to communicate in plain sight.”

“You know, finding all this stuff out makes it really hard not to jump at every shadow,” I mutter as I continue scanning my page. “I mean, I probably don’t get half of this stuff on the page, but I’m just trying to see if anything tweaks my gut. I might not get it, but I can tell you if it makes me feel weird.”

“Princess, you’re very capable now, and none of us will let the nasty folks get close,” Felix says softly. “You don’t need to fret about it.”

“Uh, maybe so, but that Fae chick who’s obsessed with Rennie and me has tricks you guys can’t counter. We know she’s out for blood and vengeance—both from him and from preds in general.” My nose wrinkles as I keep looking at the tiny print, hoping for something to jump out at me. “And she’s got a lot of friends, as we saw at the Yule Ball and the last Pred Game. Plus, who knows what the goddamn hell all her real enemies are plotting?”

Lucille and the leaders of the suspected Society families aren’t to be trifled with, either.

“Truthfully,” Felix begins, and I look up to listen. “I am surprised that your mother has gone quiet for this long. Killing your ‘father’ was certainly a long-term goal, and maybe she intended to when you went to college, anyway. Your emerging as prey may have delayed something she had already planned.”

“That’s how our asshat dad would have done it,” Fitz mumbles, not looking up from his phone. “But he wouldn’t have made it so public. The target would just disappear into the wilds of Bloodstone like our mothers or Chessie’s parents or… well, a lot of people.”

“Very true.” Felix strokes his chin as he thinks for a moment. “So perhaps Lucille needed his death to be public knowledge and her location when it happened to be public as well. Have we checked to see if Bruno had close calls in the past, Fitz?”

“Nope. On it now, bro.”

I blink. “You guys think she might have tried to off him before?”

“Maybe many times since you were born, Snacksize,” Aubrey interjects. “She had to know that when you came of age, her little gambit to have an heir would be revealed. The likelihood of your turning out to be a leopard with zero other anomalies was very small. She must have developed quite a few ways to rid herself of the proof without being implicated by his powerful family.”

“But why… oh. She wanted the Drew holdings, and without a legitimate heir, they'd probably go back to the family in their marriage contracts or whatever.” I frown, looking annoyed as I blow a huff of air out to calm myself. “Fucking rich people's shit, and once she was trapped by my rebellion, she realized she could ditch Bruno now.”

“Which means she definitely has plans for you,” Aubrey says. “You’re still the heir as far as anyone knows, and all your anomalies haven’t been proven to come from anyone not Bruno. I bet she destroyed everything he owned the second that plane took off. It will keep people from using it for evidence in any court claims.”

“You know what?” I grit out. “I don’t give a fuck about their shipping shit, and she can fucking have it. Bruno’s mother can have it. They can battle it out in a goddamn bayou for all I care. The only thing I want to do is protect Mattie—she’s the only one who tried to help before I emerged.”

Felix blinks, rolling his eyes to the ceiling. “Fuck, she’s got at least one hostage she knows you care about, Princess. That’s why she’s quiet; when the time comes, she’ll use the bird as leverage.”

My eyes narrow as I glare. “I’ll kill her my goddamn self and bathe in her blood to keep my skin soft.”

“Not really how blood⁠—”

“Shut up, Spicy Salamander. Not the time for pedantry,” Fitz growls as he keeps working on his phone. “She knows blood doesn’t do that.”

“I do, but thanks, babe.” I lean in and kiss his cheek before I arch a brow at the dragon. “I know you’re just using that to cover up the fact that it worries you. And yes, Lucille having leverage we didn’t consider is not good because I would do dumb shit to save Mattie. But…”

“But, what?” Felix asks curiously. “Tell us.”

I straighten in my seat as I say, “We don’t have to do everything ourselves. We have allies and friends, which means we can ask them to help us get Mattie out of harm’s way.”

The elder twin beams widely as he claps. “Very, very good, Princess! No need for desperate acts yet because we haven’t tapped our allies for help. Between the prey, the McCoys, your friends, and others we’ve befriended? We might get her out while being nowhere near the event, just like your mother did with Bruno.”

“It would be better if she didn’t think I was involved,” I admit. “That might keep her from sending people to recover Mattie just to have the leverage again. Plus, if she knows that we figured out her game, she’ll find someone else to grab—like Luc or Clotilda or fuck knows who else.”

Fitz finally looks up. “The important thing to remember about that is that she’s in tight with the Raj. He has a network of skilled motherfuckers all over the globe. We don’t know who’s running the vamps, and we have no idea what your grandpapa has up his sleeve, either.”

“Not feeling better,” I grumble as I lean back in my seat. “But yes.”

My eyes skate to Chessie over at the bar, watching him for a minute before I murmur, “I don’t want my friends or anyone else to get hurt by that pissy magical bitch or my psycho mother.”

“We can’t keep everyone pristine if a war starts, nibblet.” Aubrey puts his paper down and leans on his forearms as he looks at me. “You know that. The previous incidents with the Fae have clarified that their efforts are not set up to prevent innocents from being harmed or killed. They don’t care who is in the line of fire.”

“I disagree,” I say quietly. “I think they seem specifically aimed at purposefully hurting or killing as many people as possible. It feels like they’re aiming to even the score in some sort of numbers game, and we don’t know what that is.”

Aubrey thinks about that for a moment and nods. “You may be correct, but unless we find whatever atrocity she’s looking to avenge, we won’t know how bad it is going to get.”