Chapter 24
Sleep.
Selene needed to sleep so much her bones ached. Her eyes felt like they were going to crawl out of their sockets as she drove away from the estate.
But she couldn’t rest. Not yet. Not until the other players in the scene she cobbled together over the last several hours knew their roles.
Somehow, amid everything else, those tiny tugs and barely audible whispers had coalesced in her subconscious and snuck their way from hidden places into the forefront of her thoughts as she drove away from Fenris Hall’s manor.
Wonders never cease, or something like that, Selene mused with chagrin. Do I think this can work because I’m sleep deprived and delusional? Or is there an actual chance we’ll succeed?
She was depending on the others to make that decision for her.
When she pulled into her driveway, her phone chimed. A message from Tim.
Brought Allie back to our place. Come over when you can.
Selene didn’t bother stopping inside her house but crossed the lawn to knock on Tim and Marley’s door.
A rush of footsteps and the door was flung open, revealing Allie.
“Aunt Sel! Is Natalie okay?”
“For now.” Selene rested her cheek against the crown of Allie’s head when they hugged.
Allie took Selene’s hand and led her inside. “We saved croissants for you. They’re so good.”
“Thanks, sweetie.”
In the living room, Tim wore an anxious expression as he watched Marley flit from plant to plant. It looked like Marley was talking to them.
“Selene.” Tim stood up and walked over to give her a bear hug that squeezed the air out of her lungs. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
When she’d caught her breath, Selene replied, “Did you think Fen would lock me up too?”
It was a joke, but Tim said, “I was a little worried.”
“Fenris wouldn’t hurt Aunt Selene,” Allie said, finding her way to the sofa and another croissant.
“No.” Tim sat beside Allie and patted her hand. “But he might have wanted to keep her from causing trouble with Natalie.”
He had wanted to keep her, but not because of Natalie. Selene shoved memories of his bedroom aside. Hard. What she needed now was focus, not distraction.
Marley flew over and kissed Selene on the cheek. “Sorry for the change of venue. I wasn’t feeling well.”
He gestured to the greenery throughout the room. “My plants help when I’m stressed.”
“No worries,” Selene said. Marley did look much better than earlier, his skin no longer withering the way it had when they were talking about Natalie’s sentence.
Oof. Her plan wasn’t going to make things any easier for him.
“Sit down, Selene.” Marley ushered her to a chair, and Tim brought her a croissant. “Can I get you something to drink before you tell us what happened?”
“I’m fine, thanks,” Selene said, then launched into a review of her trip to Fen’s estate, skipping over her visit to his bedroom.
When she’d finished, Marley sank onto the couch beside a crestfallen Tim and put his arms around the big man.
“I let myself hope, you know?” Tim’s voice wobbled. “I shouldn’t have. Fenris is the law. He’s not going to change. Even for love.”
When Selene winced, he quickly added, “It’s not about you, Selene. I didn’t mean his feelings for you aren’t as strong as you thought.”
“He said the same thing,” Selene replied wearily. “Even Natalie told me not to hold a grudge.”
Marley smiled sadly. “That’s very in character for her. Always thinking of others.”
“I know.”
“Auntie Sel, did Josh let you in?” Allie asked hesitantly.
“I’m sorry, Allie,” Selene told her. “I shouldn’t have forgotten that part. Yes, Josh opened the gate for me. He wasn’t very happy about it, but he did.”
Allie’s shoulders rose and fell as she sighed. “I guess that’s something, but he still won’t argue with Fen about Natalie. I’ve asked him so many times. He won’t listen.”
Gabriel’s stern face rose to the surface of Selene’s mind. “I doubt any of the wolves will. No matter how they feel about it.”
“Fenris Hall has ruled Avondale for centuries,” Marley said. “He’s been a good leader. I don’t think anyone knows how to tell him he’s wrong. They’ve never needed to.”
“Natalie isn’t exactly skipping toward her execution,” Selene grumbled. “But she’s not fighting it at all.”
Marley nodded. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
“It surprised the hell out of me.” Selene fisted her hands. “And I am not done fighting.”
“That’s admirable, Selene,” Tim said, his voice inching toward patronizing. “But you’re tilting at windmills now.”
“I’m not.” She took a moment to look at each one of them. They all needed to be on board for this to work. “I have a plan.”
“You do?” Allie perked up.
At the same instant, Tim and Marley frowned. “You do?”
“Poison,” Selene announced, her mouth running ahead of her brain once again.
“What?” Allie’s eyebrows pulled together.
“Fen is allowing Natalie to choose how she dies,” Selene continued, pulse pumping hard as she got closer to revealing her scheme. “And she’s going to choose poison.”
“Oh no.” Marley’s vines began to wilt again.
“Wait.” Selene waved her hands at Marley. “It’s not bad. She wasn’t going to choose poison, but I made her promise to.”
“Why would you do that, Selene?” Marley zipped up, wings buzzing. “I have to make the poison. Fen will ask me to.”
“I know!” Selene stood up to face the faerie’s outrage. “That’s how we’re going to save her.”
“How can I save her by killing her?” Marley wailed.
The vines covering the walls began to grow rapidly, wildly, sprouting long, wicked-looking thorns.
Tim rose. “Calm down, love. You’re scaring the plants.”
“I’m scared!” Marley glared at Selene. “I don’t want to kill my friend.”
“Romeo and Juliet!” Selene shouted.
The room froze. Even the plants seemed to be staring at Selene in utter bewilderment. Selene’s heart thump, thump, thumped against her sternum. Saying it out loud made it too real. And too laughable when she was dead serious.
But it was all she had.
“Auntie Sel,” Allie broke the silence. “Why are you talking about Shakespeare?”
“Because that’s how we’re going to save Natalie,” Selene said, fully committing herself. “Romeo and Juliet.”
Silence again.
“Oh. Oh.” Marley shook his head vehemently as he flew a little closer to Selene. “No. No. No. No. Noooooooo.”
Tim had gotten there as well, and his eyes bulged.
“Do you remember how that play ends?” he asked Selene, horrified. “They both die. I can’t believe people still call that story a great romance. Red flags from start to finish.”
“Yeah.” Allie nodded. “When we read it freshman year, I had, like, zero swoon. Romeo’s kind of a dick.”
Tim smiled at her. “Such a dick. I’m glad you see that. It’ll spare you a lot of bullshit in relationships.”
Allie bounced on the sofa at the compliment. “Thanks, Tim. But I don’t get how Romeo and Juliet is gonna help Natalie . . . oh wait. Oh.”
She looked at Selene with big eyes. “You want to pretend Natalie’s dead and then help her escape.”
Selene nodded. Now they were all on the same page of sixteenth-century literature.
“Wow,” Allie murmured. “Could that work?”
“It’s a creative approach, Selene. I’ll give you that.” Marley was flitting back and forth across the living room. “But the whole Romeo and Juliet scenario is a nonstarter.”
“Why?” Selene frowned.
“Because Juliet doesn’t actually die,” Marley answered.
“As ruler of Avondale, Fenris passed the sentence, and he will witness the execution. He’s a werewolf, Selene, not a gullible citizen of Verona.
He knows fake death from actual mortis, and it won’t matter that ‘no warmth, no breath shall testify Natalie liveth.’”
He hovered in front of Selene. The vines on the walls were growing again, curling around paintings and strangling mirrors. “For this to work, Natalie will have to die. Not pretend dead, ‘shuffle off this mortal coil’ dead . . . since we’re already doing Shakespeare.”
Okay, she wasn’t counting on that. She also wasn’t going to give up at the first of what would doubtless be many obstacles.
“But she could be dead for a minute or two without permanent damage, couldn’t she?” Selene asked.
Marley scowled at her.
“If we try this,” Tim said haltingly, “it’s treason. Our lives are forfeit if we fail.”
Ignoring Tim’s warning, Selene focused on Marley. “Can she die and come back? Please, Marley.”
“Possibly,” Marley offered at last, the frantic beating of his wings finally beginning to slow. “But that would mean finding a way to revive her without Fen knowing about it. I don’t see how that can happen.”
“I’ll do it,” Selene said. “If you can show me how to bring her back. I’ll make it happen. I have to.”
Tim and Marley exchanged an even longer look. When Tim nodded, Marley sighed.
“Okay, honey, I’ll roll with this, for your sake and for Natalie’s,” Marley said. “But you need to understand there are no guarantees. Absolutely none. We will be killing her. And we may not be able to revive her.”
“The other thing we need to agree on is what comes next,” Tim added. “If we do succeed, staying in Avondale isn’t an option. We have to leave. Forever.”
A little gasp escaped from Allie. They all looked at her.
“We have to leave?” She bit her lower lip. “You mean run away?”
Violence or running. Selene remembered that early exchange with Fen with a painful sense of irony. After everything, that’s exactly where they’d ended up. She was running.
But she couldn’t, wouldn’t, leave Allie behind.
Selene went to the sofa and crouched in front of her niece. “Allie, what we’re doing to help Natalie has very serious consequences. You understand that, don’t you?”
Allie nodded. Her eyes shone with impending tears.