AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We have more than enough,” she said. “We could send these out with a few of our people if we thought they might be more useful…elsewhere.”
I studied her expression. “Elsewhere likewhere?”
“The fae rely on their home ground to survive, right? On their chosen plants or whatever. We could have a team ready near the monarch’s territory in case the situation looks like it’s about to turn sour. Ready to burn that whole forest down if that’s what it takes to give us someleverage.”
That’s what I’d suspected she was getting at. My chest tightened. Was that what we were going to be reduced to? Preparing to destroy people we were hoping would become our allies, before we’d even tried to worktogether?
Would it be stupid of me to say no and leave my own people that much morevulnerable?
“When did you become such a pessimist?” I asked, delaying the need to answer the realquestion.
Alice gave me a crooked smile. “When I realized there’s no way in hell we’re fending off an army of vampires and a contingent of fae at the sametime.”
Clearly. I eyed the truck, focusing on the rhythm of my breath. Trying to find a solid path through all the uncertainty around me. I was the one who’d always advocated for listening to reason over our animal instincts, wasn’t I? And this desire to defend against a threat that hadn’t even arisen yet—that was all animal fear. I felt it with a sharp prickle down myspine.
That was my answerthen.
“No,” I said, my heart thumping a little harder as I said the word. “We can’t enter a new alliance already on the verge of burning their homes to theground.”
“Aaron,” my sister said, but I cut her off with a shake of myhead.
“Serenity watched her own mother die at the fae’s hands,” I said. “She’s still willing to give them a chance despite that. If she can be that generous, so canwe.”
* * *
Ren
The clearing where I’d met the fae monarch before looked so much smaller from high above. The little pink flowers nearly blended into the green of thegrass.
There was no sign of the monarch or any other fae yet. My nostrils didn’t pick up any scent that worried me, only the green smells of the wilderness with a faint floralsweetness.
I swept over the trees, the leaves rustling in my wake, and landed in the middle of the field. With a shake, my dragon’s body constricted back into my human form. I’d dropped the leather bag I’d brought with me on the ground beside me. I pulled the dress I’d packed over my head and left the crystal tablets inside the bag. If I had to shift again to make a quick exit, I wanted to be able to grab my cargo quickly with my dragontalons.
It was only a minute or two before the towering but spindly fae woman with her crown of living vine strode from the woods at the other end of the field. No delegation accompanied her thistime.
I drew in a breath, testing the breeze. A cloying smell had trickled into the air, more than I could attribute to just her. I suspected she’d brought company but left them behind in the forest when she’d seen I wasalone.
Well, fair enough. I couldn’t blame her for being cautious. The fact that she was coming out here to meet me without any guards at her side, when I could transform into a dragon in a matter of seconds, was a gesture of trust initself.
She stopped a few paces from me, shoulders back and head high. I’d almost forgotten those eyes, large and stark like black diamonds against her pale skin. The silver blond waves of her hair seemed to clothe her almost as much as her thin but elegantdress.
I supposed I looked a lot less elegant than I had before, with my hair wind-rumpled and this dress I’d picked for ease of changing rather than for looks. But I wasn’t here to try to impress her this time. I just wanted her tolisten.
“Thank you for coming,” I said. “I know you didn’t haveto.”
The monarch acknowledged my comment with a slow blink. “I assume you wouldn’t make such an urgent request without good reason. Only a fool avoids information they mightneed.”
Okay, so she wasn’t any warmer in personality than she’d been last time, but I hadn’t expected anythingelse.
“You know the vampires have been attacking us,” I said. “They’ve said they want to wipe out shifters completely. They’ve been killing my kin in the cruelest ways, innocent people who’ve done nothing tothem.”
Her jaw tightened. “I have heard ofthis.”
I couldn’t read her expression. “You’re not on their side, are you? I know we’ve had our conflicts, I know you’ve been willing to look the other way when your people have acted against us—but you don’t agree with outright slaughter like this, doyou?”
I couldn’t mistake the twist of her lips and the flicker in her eyes now. It was horror. “Absolutely not,” she said sharply. “We will protect our own as we need to, but senseless killing is completely abhorrent. Thevampiresare abhorrent. We have been willing to keep our peace with them only as they offer the same tous.”
That was a step in the right direction. “And do you really think you can trust them to leave you in peace if you let them exterminate us without saying a peep? Once they’ve eliminated the shifters, what’s to stop them from coming after younext?”
