Page 66 of Fae Farewells

She grinned thoughtfully, though her brows lifted as if she expected me to just know. “Your mate and his sisters. I helped raise them, and I spent my early years with Reagan. I won’t leave—”

“You won’t need to leave,” I told her. “You won’t have to worry about the queen for much longer, either. We’re going to—”

“That statement alone would be enough to issue orders of execution,” she advised. “Let’s not finish it.”

“She can try. She’ll find me difficult to kill.”

“A beheading is still a beheading. Even if the body doesn’t die, the mind will eventually crumble.”

I dipped my chin, conceding her point. “We’re not fae, though. And she wouldn’t be the first to take my head. I can assure you of two things this day: I can’t die, and she can.”

Briggs sighed, pulling me out of her room. “Your ward is down, so be careful. You know where we are.”

“If she comes for you,” York instructed. “You come to us.”

Lashul waved us away. “I’ll try.”

We backed out, abandoning searching any more rooms in this wing. For now, worrying about Lashul’s safety was enough. I didn’t want to draw further attention to the staff when we weren’t close to making a move against the queen.

There were too many moving pieces shifting around the board, out of our control or on a time limit. Yet, it felt as if we were standing in quicksand, getting nowhere even as we fought.

York closed the ornate double doors behind us, and I turned, just barely preventing a collision with my vampire.

Novak came skidding to a stop on my left side, smirking as I gave him a questioning look.

“Nothing,” he said. “I get in enough trouble on my own, and I don’t want you to be mad at me, too.”

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“You won’t,” he assured me, pointing to our now laced fingers. “Because I’m here, not there.”

Briggs snorted. “What are you talking about?”

“Where are Stone and Palmer?” York asked.

“They’re playing along, but I want no part in it,” he replied evasively.

I narrowed my eyes. “Novak? What’s going on?”

He peered around us before lowering his voice. “The queen sent us some… prostitutes? Is that the correct term here?”

York coughed through his laughter. “What?”

Novak sighed. “I was trying to be polite about it, but there are Fae hookers in the room. Fairy whores. Glittering groupies. Shimmering slu—”

I held my hand up, my mind a little fuzzy, as I replayed his words. “In our room? The one she so graciously locked us in?”

“That would be the one.”

“How did you get here?” Briggs inquired. “Palmer opened the void for you, didn’t he? Probably shoved you straight to us.”

“I tracked my mate through the Void. Fuck you very much.” Novak wiped his fingernails on his shirt, clearly proud of himself.

York raised a brow. “How many times did you try?”

“That’s not important.”

“No, it isn’t,” I growled. “The nerve of this bitch.”