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Rogue simmered with irritation. “Your plans to abduct and employ Sorceress Gwynn are done for. Your simpering war with Falcon over. You either join forces with us or leave.”
“You kept me prisoner until now.” Fafnir looked at me as he said it. “I sought only to save you from disaster.”
“Not only.” I stroked a hand down Darling Hercules’s back and he purred. “You hoped for my help with something else too.”
He sucked his thin lips against his teeth, the gray scale pattern on his face glittering like the undulating coils of a snake. Oddly, instead of triumph, I caught a flash of hope from him. Perhaps he’d stolen Cecily’s corpse not out of a morbid determination to succeed, but out of real attachment. She’d believed he loved her. Perhaps he had.
“If you throw in your army—the cabal’s forces—with ours, I’ll do my best to help you.”
Rogue covered my hand with his, though I already had the strum of warning from him. I knew it would be tricky and very possibly traumatizing for me. This was important. The silent hum of his agreement confirmed that.
Fafnir shook his head. “I do not forget—even if you do—that I owe you a favor still. I will add my forces to yours and we can finish with the bargains between us complete.”
He had his brand of integrity and, though he wouldn’t care, I felt sorry for him and his aloneness. “I’ll help you anyway,” I added on impulse. “If I can.”
His gray-dust gaze met mine. “My army is yours, Sorceress.”
“They’re useless,” Mask Man complained bitterly. “On the other side of Titania’s forces. We cannot get them here. We may as well send them home.”
“Same as my monsters,” Lady Strawberry glumly sympathized. They all sighed in their dismay.
Feeling like the kid seeing the emperor was naked, I looked around the table, totally bemused. Walter, though, met my gaze and rolled his eyes.
“Are you all idiots?” he exclaimed.
Marquise yanked his leash and he subsided, with a strangled squawk.
“Stop that,” I told her. “Everyone here gets to talk. What’s your point, Walt?” Though I knew, of course.
“Duh.” He rubbed his throat under the collar. “Basic strategy. You bring those forces in from behind and trap Tit—the great bitch’s army between them and ours. Then we pick them off.”
“Doesn’t sound very glorious,” Falcon sniffed and Fafnir nodded.
“It’s not,” I chimed in. “It’s effective. And, Lady Strawberry—you could do the same with your monsters.”
She cheered considerably.
“Agreed then.” Rogue stroked the back of my hand thoughtfully. “Once Titania and her army convene, we shall bring in the rest behind.”
“They still haven’t?” That seemed so odd to me.
“You hadn’t looked?” Rogue raised an eyebrow at me.
I hadn’t. I’d stayed off the mind web as much as possible. Taking a quick survey, more like running a search term than delving into the files, I found her forces scattered about. Close enough to threaten, but not immediately outside.
“What are they waiting for?” I asked, more rhetorically than anything.
Now it was my turn to receive incredulous looks. As if in response, the baby kicked for the first time, a jab of reminder from within.
Oh yes. They were all waiting on me.
And, at the bizarrely advanced rate this pregnancy was progressing, we would not be waiting long.
“So.” I tapped my fingers on the table, not sure how I’d come to be leading this meeting. “I go into labor and she makes her move—then we go into pitched battle?”
“I suspect nothing less will draw her out,” Rogue agreed. They all looked uncomfortable, twitching like kids kept at the adult’s table too long. If we’d made this a feast, they would have sat and talked all day and night.
“The big problem with that plan is that I’ll be somewhat preoccupied,” I pointed out to him.
