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“We have to try my plan,” I said. “We can’t wait any longer. She’s already amassing an army and she knows we were monitoring her. We’ve already lost the element of surprise. We can’t afford to put this off.”
“She’s right,” David said. “We go with your plan.”
“I still think it’s a bad idea,” Madison said. “There’s no guarantee the queen won’t just kill her on sight.”
“She won’t. She always wants more. David and Elias are bigger than me. She’ll want to at least use me as bait for them,” I said.
“What if she doesn’t?” Madison said.
“What will it matter if we fail? We’re all dead if she continues to build a shifter army. You think she’s going to keep any of us around?” I asked.
“What if she uses the stone on you?” David asked.
“Then you’re going to have to rescue me,” I said.
“I thought you always rescued yourself,” he said.
“Sometimes I need help,” I admitted. “We don’t have a choice.”
“When the others return, we’ll discuss it. If there’s no better plan, I’ll support it,” Shelly said.
“I hope those other mages your mates went after have some ideas,” Madison said. “Because I’m pretty sure if I walk into that palace with you, you’re not going to like how it goes down. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my time with the queen, it’s that she’s unpredictable and tends to let emotions win over strategy. If she sees you as an enemy, I won’t be able to stop her.”
“I know,” I said. “But she had a chance to kill me before.” I glanced over at David. I’d taken the same risk with him. He’d had me alone multiple times. He could have killed me but my intuition told me he wouldn’t.
“She won’t kill Skylar,” David said.
I wondered if he was thinking the same thing as I was. “You better rescue me.”
He laughed. “I will always rescue you.”
“The queen wasn’t the one who used the stone on us,” Jasper said. He sounded more lucid now.
We all turned to him and I noticed he looked more like himself again. Less confused.
“It was Clara,” Jasper said.
My jaw dropped open and my eyes widened. “Are you sure?”
He nodded.
“It was her,” Hadrian confirmed.
“That’s how she got the stone to work,” I said. “She convinced or compelled Clara to help.”
“She wasn’t herself,” Hadrian said. “She was spelled, I think.”
David was silent and his expression was blank. I could feel the rage swirling around him despite his neutral body language. Darkness seemed to fill the room, swirling and twisting, angry and unstable. It was the same magic I’d felt before from both him and Elias. Strong demon magic not of this realm.
“David,” I said, reaching my hand for his. He didn’t respond. He didn’t even look at me. He was in his own head, letting the magic flow and twist.
“Save it, David. Save it all for the queen. Don’t let it out yet. Save every bit of it for that bitch.”
He turned to me and looked at me as if seeing me for the first time. I felt the magic subside, retreat. For now. He let out a breath, then nodded. “You’re right.”
A pink glow made us all turn to the front door. We were getting more company.
Xander, Elias and four mages passed through our ward. Xander and Elias looked about as good as Madison and Shelly.
