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“None of this is your fault, Little Bird. But we protect our own, regardless.”
“And I’ll do my best to protect you all in return.”
The reward for my proclamation was a blazing kiss that seared down to my toes. I nearly commanded Casimir to ghost us back to bed but decided it was more important to let Draven update us on his meeting with the fae.
As long as any meetings they requested didn’t involve the fae stepping foot into the Shadowlands, I figured Draven really should be the one to handle things.
What I didn’t say was that if things escalated beyond a meeting taking place through a small portal, I’d probably feel the need to take matters into my own hands.
Must be a family trait, I thought, picturing Kol’s face.
Hopefully this whole mess would be resolved before it ever got that far.
Vera
Henderson
Chapter 26
Casimir
The Council Room was quiet as we stood around the small wooden box sitting on the table. Plain, inconspicuous, and no bigger than Raven's forearm, we all eyed it warily.
“You accepted a gift from the fae?” Raven asked.
Phalen quietly let out a string of curses on his next exhale. He looked much better than when we'd last seen him and seemed no worse for wear.
Raven had hugged him fiercely when he entered, apologizing profusely. Phalen, as was his talent and nature, laughed it off and eased her concerns. It was exactly what she’d needed.
"Not exactly,” Lyric imparted when Draven didn't answer.
"Then why exactly is this sitting here?" I asked.
"They said it had been commissioned by a Shadow Lord long ago–a gift for the babe his mate was carrying. Something happened and neither mother nor child survived. So stricken with grief, he refused to accept the delivery of the item. He wouldn't even take back the gold he'd paid with."
"So it's an unfulfilled bargain, then," Raven assessed. "Whomever handled the transaction would be compelled to see it through, though the timing is extremely suspicious."
Draven hooked an arm around his mate and palmed her belly with the opposite hand. "Lyric is allegedly the first to carry an heir since then."
"Allegedly? Was that the word they used?" I asked.
"No," Draven's head shook. "That's my word. I found it hard to believe."
"If the words came from a fae mouth, it would have to be true, at least as far as they knew." Sure, the fae excelled at word games, but stating it was a gift for an infant, ordered and paid for by a past Shadow Lord, was pretty clear.
Draven, who was still regarding the box as though it might jump up and bite one of us, absently dipped his chin up and down. "I scanned them. Their mental shields were shit."
"And?" I urged.
"And all they knew was what they told me. Not one of them had any knowledge of it being dangerous or some sort of trick."
"It doesn't mean we trust them," Lyric interjected, her hands rubbing circles overtop her mate's where it rested on her swollen belly.
"Exactly," Draven agreed. "We need to be cautious. We don't know what this box contains or what it could do. For all I know, that was all they were told, just that it was a commissioned gift and they'd been waiting to uphold their end of the deal. Now was the first opportunity. An omission of any tampering wouldn’t be a lie. To them, at least."
Phalen shifted closer to the table, his eyes never leaving the brown lacquered box. "I say we open it."
The Shadow Lord shot him a glare. "And risk whatever curse or trap that could be inside? No."
