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“Look, I love a happy reunion as much as the next traumatized soldier,” Darla said, exhaustedly dragging herself into the back of the wagon. “But let’s get to wherever we’re resting tonight, and we can all talk around a warm fire with full bellies.”
Well, I couldn’t argue with that logic.
Although there were still a couple more hugs and warm welcomes to go around, we did hurry into the wagon so Aodin and Mad Dog could drive us to a safe house.
I’d expected us to end up in the same place we’d stayed in for several days when we fled, but no. Instead of an abandoned farm, we ended up at a smaller homestead, and this one had three residents in it: a human husband, a fae wife, and their adopted siren daughter. It was an unusual combination, that was for certain, but a welcome one. People in mixed species marriages did seem to be much more open than many of the shifters I knew in the capital.
The night of rest did us well, along with the full meal. By the morning, the idea of infiltrating the capital we had fled from earlier didn't seem quite as daunting. It didn't seem easy, but definitely much less of an impossibility. With Aodin’s shaky glamours, we marched back into the steam-carriage and rode our way toward a different entrance to the underground network the fae had mined.
It wasn't until we were under the city, however, and I heard the telltale signs of traffic above our head, that the true weight of what we were doing began to fully sink in. We were really about to break into the palace in order to confront my father, banish the Shrouded Shriek from within him, and take back the throne. It was a coup, for lack of a better word, and the future of Camdaria relied solely on the outcome of our surprise meeting.
What if all was wrong? Our entire plan was predicated on the fact that my father was somehow possessed by an ancient, malevolent, borderline deity, who’d violated all the laws of nature. If he wasn't, then we still would be locked in combat with my adversarial father, but it was going to go a whole lot differently.
Not to mention how we were going to deal with Vekas. If we were right, then our enemy would lose their biggest player if we took out the Shriek, and my mate would finally be free from her curse. Not just living with it suppressed inside of her, but actually, fully, totally free. But if we were wrong and we did manage to depose my father, we still had to deal with a powerful enemy hellbent on destroying Ayla, as well as a nation that craved war more than anything else.
Gods, I hoped Yvonne and Ayla were right.
I couldn't say quite how long we traveled through the underground, taking multiple turns, exiting in some places on the street level just to carefully duck into a different building and go down another passageway. If I was impressed before when we fled Merrick, I was now outright gob smacked. What else about the kingdom didn't I know? How many other failsafe and protective measures did non-shifters have “just in case” because of my father’s tyrannical rule? And how had I not known it’d gotten so bad?
For years, I’d thought I was the only one who truly despised the way my father ran things and knew it had to change. But now I was learning that a majority of the common folk I met, those who weren’t happily cushioned by the walls and decrees of ignorance in the courts, felt much the same as I did. How many other potential allies were there in the palace who just kept silent because they thought they were completely and utterly alone?
When Aodin stopped beneath a ladder, his face incredibly grim, I knew we’d arrived.
It was time.
After our impromptu vacation on the aisles, where Ayla and I had gotten to connect in a way that just wasn’t possible before, we were about to go above ground and sneak our way into the palace I’d once considered my home long ago. Although Prince Nikolai often seemed like a separate entity than myself, Kai Reid, it was that young royal who’d started me on the journey to becoming the alpha I now was. Without him, there would be no Fort Canid, and my father would be free to continue his abusive rule without opposition.
“Ready?” Aodin asked, his voice barely above a whisper. Because even far below ground, we needed to be quiet to make sure no shifter overhead could hear us. The way the fae had explained it to me, we weren't anywhere actually in the palace, as that would be far too difficult to conceal, but we were going to end up somewhere between the wolf run forest and the servants’ quarters. Just populated enough that it wouldn't be suspicious to run into a group of our size, but not so populated that people would see us emerge out of nowhere.
“Ready,” I confirmed, with a nod of agreement from everyone around me.
Well, everybody except Ayla, who blurted out that we needed to wait.
“Are you all right?" I asked, worried about the urgency of her tone. Did she sense something I couldn't see or hear?
“Yes,” she said, but she didn’t sound scared. Determined, sure, and most certainly serious. But not scared. “I just wanted to do this first.”
At that, she flung her arms around my shoulders and kissed me, truly kissed me, with no restraint, and I kissed her right back, savoring the press of her mouth against mine.
No matter how many times our lips joined together, every single kiss was its own experience. My body surged forward, responding like it was breathing for the first time. Gods, I really was the luckiest man alive.
We broke apart far too soon, but there was only so long we could make out while our entire group watched before it got awkward. Especially considering my little sister was with us.
Although we were traveling quietly, our group was actually quite large: fourteen of us in total, several of whom I’d never traveled with before. But I was nevertheless grateful for Felicity, the two hawk shifters, and Samir. They would be wild cards that’d certainly help, because if the Shrouded Shriek was expecting us, he certainly couldn’t anticipate the random new members of our party. How could he?
“All right,” Aodin said, grinning ever so slightly. The moment was still serious, but there was nothing wrong with gearing ourselves up, or at least that’s what I told myself as I leaned down once more to kiss the top of Ayla’s head. Gods, I loved her so much it sometimes hurt, but I was more than happy to endure the pain. “Now are we ready?”
“Ready,” Ayla said with a little salute, taking a page out of Darla’s book.
The mood sobered as Aodin nodded, then led us up the ladder. It took what felt like an inordinate amount of time for all of us to get above ground, and I hadn’t expected us to emerge in a façade of a compost pile.
It smelled terrible, telling me that there was definitely real, rotting, organic matter above the inner wooden shelter. Its presence begged the question of just how many Arbiter sympathizers we had on staff at the palace, because whoever was maintaining the secret entrance had to be in on it. There was no way they were unaware and just coincidentally piled the waste on in ways that wouldn’t obscure the entrance.
We hurried toward the northernmost servants’ exit, and I was surprised to see that twilight had begun to settle in, the brilliant corals of the sunset giving way to the silken lavender of the approaching night. It would’ve been beautiful to watch that glorious circle of light sink between the mountains housing my secret getaway, but we couldn’t risk it. We had a contact waiting with uniforms and more scent-neutralizing tools, yet every second exposed was a second we could be found out.
Because it was one thing entirely to get close to my father while in disguise so that we could confront him directly and see if he really had been taken over by the Shrouded Shriek, and another thing to get discovered outside the physical palace and try to fight all the way to him.
Yes, one circumstance was preferable over the other, and considering that we were going up against the strongest alpha I’d ever met, and our nation’s greatest enemy, we needed every single iota of an advantage we could get.
