20
Nora
“What the bloody fuck did you just say?” I demanded of Sebastian. I’d been surprised to see him, happy that we could maybe spend some time together and that meant things were going well as they had been.
Instead, he came with news that sounded too crazy to believe, and we’d had a lot of crazy that I’d had to believe. For years now even.
He nodded, looking frazzled. “Aether gave Inez a warning and—she kept us safe in the building and walked outside to turn the bombs and jet into energy beads. She also sent an electrical charge to kill the guy. I guess he ejected because he knew someone would go for the jet. They found him dead sitting in the parachute chair thing.”
“How the bloody…” I simply blinked at him.
He snorted. “You should have been there. We were already reeling from the fucked of the earthquakes and what she put together about the mines. Then she’s—whatever she saw at the castle terrified her, Nora. It was like her seeing her mother and brother again and hurt my heart she was so scared.
“She can’t even really explain it. Matilda shows up without Lloyd and that’s finally good news and something is going right. But then it was like she was hit upside the head. I saw her head move and the pain. That’s Aether’s warning burning into her brain to help. It’s—she suffers too much and it kills me to see. How Jaxon deals with it…”
I blinked back tears as Sebastian wiped some as well. “What is being done now?” I swore up a storm when he gave me a look that it wasn’t good. “What did she order?”
“She passed out from—pick any one thing. Right now, Matilda is in charge and trying to figure out what the fuck happened.”
“How it happened even,” I seethed.
“Exactly.”
“I have to go help,” I told him.
“I know. Do you want me to stay here or go back—what do we do, Nora?”
I didn’t have an answer. There was no right answer for something like this. There really wasn’t. “Stay here for now because you’re the only one I truly trust with Jamelle there. I will tell our children we’re going into lockdown and the Florida fun is over. I’m putting Ciara in charge of the coven while I’m gone.”
“She’s not ready,” he worried.
I snorted. “She’s better than half the princesses already in power. I also don’t plan on dying, so feck off, thank you very much.”
He grabbed my arm as I went to brush by him and turned me to face him, giving me a smoldering kiss. “Don’t leave me upset when you’re walking into battle. If anyone could take on Erebus to protect our daughter-in-law, it’s you. But we’ve lost a lot and I cannot lose you. You better keep your word that you’re coming back to me. Don’t fucking leave me.”
“Not like this, love,” I promised him. I gave him another kiss. “Come visit more often with good news and to fulfill your duties as my mate. I’m lonely.”
“We can’t have that,” he chuckled. “I promise. I will perform all the duties you love so many times when this fight is over. Things have been better. Go be her hero and I will thank you. More times than you can count.”
I shivered. No matter how old we got, no matter what happened, Sebastian still made me feel young and set my body on fire with just a few words.
I went right to Ciara and told her what happened. “You are in charge of the coven while I get help and go handle this threat. I have all the faith in you. Keep the coven on lockdown and be extra safe, Daughter. Only focus on burying the mines.”
“I will. And the fishing.”
“And the fishing, but sparingly,” I agreed. Shutting down getting food when people were still worried about that would lead to panic and we couldn’t afford that either.
“I won’t fail you, Mother. You can trust me.”
“Aye, I always do, and you never have, lass,” I whispered, being her mother more than her princess for a moment. I kissed her cheeks. “I go fiercely because she’s Aether’s champion, but I also go because I love her too. Thank you for being so strong so I can. She needs us like she’s been there for us.”
“Someday I hope to finally meet her,” she chuckled. “I feel weird that I haven’t yet.”
“I was hoping you could after Arpa was done there. Apparently, it’s good for all princesses to have a stay there. Maybe soon.”
“Maybe soon,” she agreed.
I went right to Olivia and ignored the shock that I was alone, people bowing and hurrying to show me in. I did a double take when I saw Cerdic there. “How can you leave your wife at a time like this and say you love her?”
He bowed to me. “Wrong twin.”
I swallowed some more cursing. “Of course. I keep forgetting the change. You were there?”
“No, but I saw the fucking energy beads rain from the sky right after,” Ceawlin said, looking a bit shell-shocked, so I didn’t even care about his language. “People came to tell me Mother arrived and something happened—something good with Lloyd not in the party. So I raced to where I knew Inez was because she couldn’t go to the castle because—”
“Whyever not?” Olivia asked with a frown.
“The ghosts are holding it hostage from what Sebastian says,” I answered for him. “Some new trick of Keres and Erebus’s. It’s why Aether couldn’t give any of them visions and the earthquakes.”
“I didn’t get that part of the message, just the earthquakes were a warning we would all listen to instead of some not believing such a young princess getting visions. Most would never believe her nobles,” Olivia muttered.
That was smart. Whoever framed it that way and told others—it was genius.
Ceawlin told us the rest, and I had only one question for Olivia.
“Are you ready to honor the treaty you signed, darling?” I raised an eyebrow at her when she didn’t immediately answer. “Some human stole a feckin’ jet and tried to bomb her—your brother who stands at her side.”
“Yes, of course I’ll help,” Olivia said firmly. “I was simply waiting for you to—I don’t know how I’ll be of help when Mother’s already there.”
That was fair but a bit too much like a daughter instead of a ruling princess. “You’re the leader now, Olivia. It’s time to be one and Inez’s sister-in-law. We need all the princesses to stand up—show they will stand up. Go talk to some as I will and get them there to help Inez. Matilda and I will take the lead as Inez’s mothers, but we need their support now.”
“Okay, I’m in,” Olivia agreed.
“Good, see you there.” I looked to Ceawlin. “Tell Matilda I will get her all the help to handle this. Just don’t let anyone do something stupid that Inez won’t forgive.”
He swallowed loudly. “I would hurry. Kristof has been shouldering too much for too long. I’m worried he’s going to burn down both Fort Knox and the settlement in New Orleans since people from both were involved.”
That was what I was worried about.
“He’s not the only one. There’s a list, so instead of sitting on him, some of the most powerful and oldest are riling him up. Jamelle was losing the battle to hold back Vitor when I left. I stopped in Paris first and told Joi to get back there.”
Well, that would buy us a bit of time.
I moved fast, and clearly other visiting nobles had traveled to their home covens as well. I found most of the ones I’d recognized there… And oddly enough, Princess Lawan was already gone?
One of her nobles bowed to me at the door of the coven. “The princess has the coven in lockdown but left a message to be delivered personally if any of Princesses Inez’s family showed up.”
“I will hear it,” I accepted.
“‘She saved my sister’s life and I’m heading to tell others to honor the treaty. Hopefully, I will beat you there.” He handed me the list of where she went.
“Excellent. I knew she was worthy of leading. I assume her mother can’t get into much trouble while she’s gone.” I nodded when he looked worried. “She won’t be gone long, love. We’re just going to make sure the one we need to win is protected and scorch the ground around her. Just keep reminding people that everything they have is because of Lawan and Arpa.”
“Yes, thank you, Princess Nora.”
Lawan was handling three. Olivia and Hanna were each as well. That left a few more for me and I blinked and it was time to swim the ocean.
Always fun, but it had to be done. At least now we all remembered to swim the little strip between Russia and Alaska. Hiding for so many years among humans led to forgetting things like logic and maps at times when we suddenly could let our true abilities out.
I wasn’t the first to arrive at Inez’s castle, but I wasn’t the last either, and I really didn’t expect Princess Leonor to look like she was going to vomit all over the ground. But then I realized she had the ghost gift and that was why she was so pale and upset.
“What do you see, darling?” I asked as I made her focus on me.
She rattled off something too fast for me to understand even if I understood Portuguese… Which I didn’t.
Cerdic was there and dipped his head to me. “Basically, she’s saying it’s like the portal to hell or the underworld has opened above the castle. Almost like it’s dumped ghosts and death on top or all over it.” He frowned and gestured, asking to take my place getting Leonor’s attention. “So they aren’t touching the physical castle?”
She gave him a look like he was stupid to care right then but then sighed and spoke again.
“She says no, they’re sort of hovering over top mostly. It looks like they are an umbrella over the center—”
“The tree,” I gasped. “The ghosts cannot get closer than the tree allows. They used to be able to reach her to a point, but her tree is stronger and bigger.” I moved into Leonor’s view. “The ghosts don’t come near your tree or into certain parts of your coven as well, yes?”
She nodded, looking relieved that I understood.
Cerdic kind of shrugged. “She kept saying it wasn’t like normal. We knew that. I just didn’t understand she meant her normal and not what we know from Inez.”
Fair enough.
“Take us to where she is and the rest can be brought as they arrive. Leonor shouldn’t be here either,” I instructed.
Leonor waved us off and moved towards the castle and I felt some of her power flare. She frowned and moved closer, entering past the guard station and stopping just in front of the entrance before trying again. Then she rattled off in Portuguese.
“She said—” Cerdic started to say.
“We know when someone is cursing no matter the language, lad,” I drawled. “She can’t help. We get it. Take us to Inez.”
He did, and I immediately had eyes for the head of their military who said he loved her and yet let this happen to risk her. His sister saw me coming with death and wisely headed me off.
“We don’t know how it happened, but we don’t have any missing jets, Princess Nora,” Trisha said quietly. “Best guess is we’ve had this and that all over the damn place. Someone who knows planes knows planes . James could pick pieces up here and there and put one together and make this work.”
“You know for sure that someone didn’t just walk up to one of the locations and fly a jet off?” I checked, glad when Trisha had anger flaring in her eyes not to insult her that they’d be that lax.
“Yes, we know for sure, and there are no humans with that kind of access. Do we have them fully locked up like we should on bases and checking IDs at the stations of every vamp and shifter like we should? No. Fuck no, and we can’t. But this guy was a human. None of them are active in our defenses, and we don’t have a jet missing.”
And I didn’t know enough about jets to know how hard it would be to switch out anything to fix it. Some of the cars were minor to get running again.
“I’m certainly not going to blame the victim here or put this back on Inez,” she said under her breath.
“But?” I pushed.
“But our leader doesn’t always tell us everything, and there are many times that she’s fixed more than she’s intended to. Many. Times.”
Damnit, she was right. I lost the rest of my upset then. “Alright, you’ve made your point, lass.”
“Good because there is nothing you could say to make my brother feel worse than he already does right now, and we need him to get it together so he can fix this and figure out what we do next.”
I looked past her, and sure enough James looked crushed and was staring at Inez looking how Sebastian did when I’d had a scare of miscarrying one of our children. Anytime I’d come too close or been hurt or betrayed by someone I shouldn’t have been. That look only someone in love could give.
Poor lad .
I went over to Inez and knelt down in front of her, smiling and tucking some of her hair behind her ear. I opened my mouth to greet her, but she talked first.
“I’m not a bad leader, Nora. I’m not. There’s no reason for them to want me dead. I’ve done everything and more to help everyone I can. So many times, even when it bit me in the ass or hurt me physically. It always hurts, but I still do it. I’ve not been mean to anyone or treated them poorly. I don’t understand what I did wrong.”
“Not a damn thing, lass,” I whispered. “You are kind and loving and perfect. You are better than I am, but being the leader means someone will always hate you because they cannot be the leader. They will blame you for things that they won’t take responsibility for. You are their scapegoat.”
She bobbed her head, a few tears falling on one of the shifter cats on her lap, Simon I recognized for sure. “I was willing to be the one they blamed for bad things or yelled at sometimes even if it wasn’t my fault. I get that. I can’t make things perfect or have to prioritize other things. But killing me? That’s a level of taking out someone bad.”
Sometimes she was dark because she’d seen and been through so much—even more than I had.
But other times, Inez truly was innocent and pure like her name.
“No, lass, it just means this time that the person behind it was bad. And we’re going to get you answers. Your mums are, okay? Matilda and I are going to handle this and make it so this doesn’t happen again.”
She sniffled and looked like a lost little lass when she met my gaze. “I was getting better. I felt better and strong. Why can’t I just ever stay that way? I don’t know what to do again, Nora. The ghosts are all over my home—my first real home. And now—I can’t—Aether wants me to protect the humans, and Kristof wants them all dead now. I don’t know what to do.”
“I do. At least on the last part. The ghosts—rest up and pray to Aether now that they’re not blocking you from Her. She’ll help. I know She will.”
Her eyes filled with relief. “Thanks for coming again, Mom.”
“Always, my beautiful, perfect daughter.” I kissed her hair and told her to rest before going to find Kristof. “She needs you.”
“She needs me to take out this threat to her, Nora,” he bellowed, clearly pushed too far this time. He didn’t even give a shit more than normal about who he was speaking to. “She kept me inside again . I couldn’t protect her again , Nora! She took bombs and a fucking plane out of the sky. How can I protect her from that?”
Kristof let out a bellow that hurt my soul and sank to his knees in pain.
I moved closer and rubbed his shoulder. “You can’t. You just have to accept that she can protect herself just like the men who love me do too. The rest I’m going to go handle so she can keep loving you because she needs you to keep breathing. Don’t let your monster win. Let her mothers be mothers and protect her.”
“Please, I beg you. Don’t let them take her from me. I cannot—I will burn this world to ash if she is not in it, Nora. I swear it.”
I believed him. I fully believed him.
And when I glanced up and saw the pain in Jaxon’s eyes, I knew my son was right there with Kristof. I went over to him and gave him a quick hug. “I will handle the people side of this to start. Give us the power and we will. Think of a plan for the security side so this can’t happen again.”
“I can’t think past they almost dropped a bomb on her,” he whispered, sounding destroyed. “All she suffers isn’t worth it.”
No, it wasn’t, but that was life no matter our station and birth. I wasn’t going to remind him of that right now when he was grieving.
“Inez gave me full control of the coven to do what I think is best,” Matilda told me as she moved up next to me. “Shall we?”
“Yes, we shall.” I turned to Trisha. “I think it best you decide how to handle the security part of this, yes?”
“I would say turn every plane we don’t have full control of and guards for to fucking beads even if that’s annoying and too time-consuming,” she muttered. She grabbed my arm when I went to turn away but immediately let go again. “I don’t think the humans did this alone.”
“No one else has said anything other than them,” Matilda pushed back.
Trisha nodded but kept my gaze. “Keres went to Fort Knox once already and it worked. Those fucked governors sent their people out right away to take us over. What would happen if someone slipped out from here with information? How are they getting back and forth and slipping in to pull panels and check planes or engines that they’d need?
“Go all over the country to find that? Lifting out those parts takes forklifts and more. It could be done, but it’s not easy without a setup. Even with one. Where did it take off that we didn’t notice? How did they get there so easily? And she can’t get to us and we just found her ace in the mines, so why would we think she only had one going? Do you only have one plan ever?”
“No, and you’re a smart lass. Are you coming with us?”
Rage filled her eyes. “Damn right, I am. She might be your family, but she’s mine too. I’m shooting someone for this—whoever gave the order for sure.”
Yes, yes, she was from the death I saw in her eyes.
Matilda already had the coven’s vampires assembled. For this, it was just the ones fully accepted. We went right to Fort Knox and I stopped right at the first fence and ripped off the gate. Olivia was ready and did the next one and Hanna the final layer.
“Take their toys away,” I ordered those with us, waiting right up front and center to keep the focus as thousands of vampires went inside and started disarming humans. They tossed them over the fences to handle later. More and more of the humans gathered and I stared around at them. “If you do not all wish to die today, I suggest you turn over whoever tried to kill my daughter.”
“Someone from here gave the order or was involved in a human from here trying to bomb Princess Inez who gave many from here a safe place and better life including protection,” Matilda continued. “Against the judgment and advice of many of us. She risked herself and then left you alone to do as you wanted to live your lives.
“ I would have taken you all out because people who are left behind become bitter and a threat. But she is a better person than I am. She didn’t want to take the lives of humans for not seeing the world as she did. But all I really see is people not worthy of living in this world and the better future it will have if you take out a leader keeping so many safe!”
“I am the leader of this country,” a man bellowed. “I’m who is in charge of the United States of America and some monster just as bad as—”
I tore out his throat. I was standing among the humans with blood all over one hand and a dead human on the ground. “Anyone else think my daughter is a monster? You want to call us monsters? Fine, I will more than show you exactly how monstrous we can be.”
Matilda snorted. “This is just being a mother. They came for our daughter. I’m with Kristof and we burn this place to the ground.”
A man stepped forward with his hands raised. “Look, I don’t like this whole other religion thing or a young woman with magic being the new world leader shit. That’s crazy to me, and I wasn’t invited to her coven anyways, but I did respect the fact she didn’t force us in, and they’re fucking crazy here. The governors were all in on with some—”
Three humans tried to jump him and stop him from spilling the information, but the coven’s vampires got in the way and broke them apart.
“They got information from a vampire,” the human finished. “That princess killed someone in Florida. That’s all I heard, and the governors were all over helping. It’s not about her being a vamp or—the governor of Indiana would never be president. They want power and are fucking nuts. Most of everyone left here had no clue or knowledge.”
“You did, lad,” I purred. “That makes you just as culpable.”
He nodded. “I knew something was up but no real information nor any way to get it out, and the princess said if we came close to any of her outposts she’d shoot us. How could I even think to help? Damned if I do and damned if I didn’t. Seriously.”
He wasn’t wrong, and he looked as exhausted as I felt most days.
“I work in the office as their dog who fetches,” he continued. “I heard when the vamp arrived with information where to find the fixed jet. No one could fly it on their side, but they had information and could find the ammo. That was all I heard. Some heard other pieces, but there were only like ten involved besides the governors. That I know of.”
“And what about the one from here that went to New Orleans?” Olivia pushed. “It was clear there was a traitor among the humans who all originated from here.”
The man shook his head. “I don’t know about that. I don’t know how. We haven’t seen any of them back here, and from what we know, they’re all locked down there. I don’t know that any of them could get out?”
That was a good point. They weren’t roaming free and there were vampire guards all over to protect them. Layers of fencing. How did one just slip out? A work detail or tour gone bad? No, someone would have noticed a human missing and not around to take back, right?
“The traitor is still there with the others in New Orleans,” Hanna muttered. “Keres’s noble slipped in to get information or—Aether was clear it was a traitor from there? Not just the fools here?”
“That was what Inez said,” I mumbled. “We should ask Darius to pray to Aether so She might give him images of the faces. He can draw them so we can find everyone.”
“And mount them on pikes like we will this one,” Matilda said firmly. “Grab his body and the other governors. I want them mounted on crosses. They wanted to think they’re victims? They can be now. That should give Kristof and Inez’s husbands the target they need for their rage before they burn this place down.”
“And everyone in it,” someone else added, clearly still worried about that. “We need to secure a lot and fast so there’s no chance this happens again.”
“Yes, we have a lot of work before us, Sisters,” I said firmly. “Starting with cleaning some house here since my daughter is too kind. We are more hardened.”
“Yes, yes, we are,” Hanna chuckled darkly.
Clearly, Aether agreed with the plan to help Inez and our dedication to protecting her because after we spent most of the day ridding the world of problems at Fort Knox, every princess who had honored the alliance woke with a new gift. The gift that would help Inez and the world most so we could move forward one day.
One day, after we won this war against Erebus.
We just had to keep supporting our champion so we could… And make sure she stayed alive.
The End
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Thank you for continuing Inez’s journey.