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Anyone would’ve, in her situation.
And something told me that because of those thoughts, everything was going to change.
We just had to survive until then.
Eight
Ervo
“Hold your positions. They’re coming,”Nev hissed. “Screw this up and we castrate you.”
He’d stepped into the leadership position after all hell broke loose, and though I wouldn’t admit it aloud, I was grateful.
I could feel the rope of my sanity fraying, piece by piece.
When my female had disappeared, called away by the full name she had never given me, I could’ve ripped that fucking cave apart with my bare hands. I tried to, even—but my brothers stopped me before I got anyone killed.
Now, I waited with the others.
The waiting might be the end of me, but it was safer for my female.
So I waited.
Mariah’s damned hellhounds had emerged from the forest shortly after she vanished, interrupting the fighting to report to me what they’d found when they followed the female fae:
A back entrance to the cave.
It was small—too small for any of the males to fit through.
But they’d listened in, and heard my Mariah declared a harsh fae.
And heard North challenge Fovea’s leadership.
We weren’t sure what would happen—but we had listened to every tense moment that had gone down in the cave, carefully morphing the crack in the stone to amplify the noise.
Mariah’s counting had calmed the fury coursing through my blood, just enough to let me remain in control. The repetition of her voice, reminding me that she was alive and whole, kept me anchored.
And when Fovea finally commanded her females to retreat, we were prepared.
Our masses parted, a quarter of the men remaining at the front entrance to the cave, in case the women decided to use it.
We waited silently, following the plan Nev had set into motion.
All of us remained hidden as the women began to emerge, never looking far enough into the trees to see us, in part thanks to the memis leaves that Vuvim had ordered all of us to use to conceal our scents.
As much as it rankled to obey the unseelie general, the basilisk knew how to remain hidden better than anyone else, so we followed his orders.
The hellhounds and basilisks silently stalked all of the female fae into the forest, until the last one finally emerged.
And then, our men attacked.
No blood was spilled—we’d prepared the same damn koveko they had, and used it to knock them out just as swiftly as they had used it on us. But rather than cowardly filling a dome with poisonous gas, we’d soaked cloth with the plant’s liquid.
The cloth was pressed to their lips and noses, so they knew exactly what had happened and who had bested them.
The bitches had caught us off-guard, but it wouldn’t happen again.
Not on my mate’s life.
