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Our bond was nearly glowing with contentment. I breathed in her scent as the twins went on to explain how the Black Market had effectively assassinated what was left of the Council’s character, their drone lulling me into a sense of relative peace.
It wasn’t until the sun began to droop below the tops of the trees that we all decided to part ways, though the twins did wheedle an agreement to shift and go for a run the next time we were all together. Then, overly pleased with themselves, they shifted and galloped into the woods.
I laced my fingers with Aria’s, and we headed home together, ready to face what came next.
18
TEA TIME
ARIA
He’s talking to a cat.
Sariel didn't immediately respond when I sent that thought.
I was watching Auren with furrowed brows as he crouched and murmured to a black stray. Its tail flicked, and itwasstaring right back at him, but the fact remained that he was accusing acatof avoiding their bond. Most of the conversation was too quiet to pick up even with my supernatural hearing, but I had definitely heard him tell it at one point that it was “being ridiculous.”
I was tempted to point out the irony to him.
When Auren gave up and stormed away, the cat looked around and then disappeared into the brush. I decided I needed to talk to Sariel about his brother. It was one thing to harass people around the compound, but animals?
He’d claimed Ashe was his mate, but last I’d checked, Ashe was a twenty-year-old wolf shifter. In fact, I’d seen his wolf when Pack Olskin had gone on a run—where Elias was a hulking, black, and pretty intimidating wolf, Ashe was long-legged and svelte, having black with silver feathering.
So, he was definitely a wolf. Not a bird, not a cat, not an old man, and not a random woman on the street.
Sariel wasn’t there when I made it back to our room, so I went looking for him in his painting studio; it was the only other place he could be since he wasn’t on patrol duty today.
Upon turning into the makeshift storehouse room, dread crept up my spine.
Johnny was with him, setting out various bottles of paint and other mediums for my mate to use. He’s muttering to himself about how he should be out looking for Marilyn instead of helping Sariel, but since there was no real resentment to it, I let myself relax.
They’re okay.
The two of them hadn’t been on speaking terms ever since Sariel had dominated Johnny's wolf, but things had obviously begun to smooth over between them if he was here trying to help him get through whatever vision this was now.
“He started rambling about needing to paint three hours ago before running off here.”
I jumped when Johnny spoke to me, sighing to himself. “Let’s go grab some lunch. Hopefully, this doesn’t take him days to do this time.”
His bossy tone threw me off, but I followed behind him obediently when he opened the door for me.
“So, I was catching up on the local news—”
“Oh, gross, you’re getting old,” I teased; he fought the twitching of his lips for a moment before giving in with a chuckle.
“Anyway, apparently, there were people out there who thought the fae were myths. They were doing a whole segment about the government keeping things from the public, and a lot of the interviews were people ranting about how they’d thought the fae were just stories. Imagine their surprise when they showed up and started wreaking havoc on their lives.”
My eyebrows shot up, but I wasn’t overly surprised. The Upper Council had kept our country locked down tight, allowing very little outside supernatural influence. There was also the matter of the Free Kingdom’s own attempts at secrecy. It was no shock to me that people were outraged that they hadn’t been warned about real-life fae being out there.
“Honestly, I’m shocked that the Free Kingdom is even bothering to fight with us at this point. There’re revolts happening in a lot of major cities around the world. When the Black Market came out, people lost their minds. The Council started shutting it down and putting people away for it, but a lot of the people involved turned around and started accusing them of funding it all.”
Johnny laughed, sounding a bit breathless as he shook his head.
“I can’t believe how insane this has gotten,” I said, sighing. “And for what? They’ve tried so many different tactics in the last few months that there's no way anyone will trust them again, even if they did manage to beat the Free Kingdom.”
“People will do insane things for power, Aria,” he murmured. I just shook my head again, completely baffled. “To be honest, I think the others put too much faith in Azazel and followed him into some crazy shit.”
I grimaced at the reminder of my mate’s father. That man was a piece of work.
