Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CALEB
M y parents only have one rule for me and Maddox when we meet with the fae council.
Don’t make asses of ourselves.
Honestly, I should be offended that they have such little faith in me. When have I ever made an ass of myself in front of high-ranking supernaturals? Okay, yes, there was that one time when I attempted to invite one of the ladies back to my room with me. But in my defense, I didn’t know she was a powerful fae. And I definitely didn’t know she was married.
It’s not my fault she eagerly accepted my invitation.
My siblings often refer to me as a player, but I don’t think that’s true. Look at Maddox, for example. That asshole has a new partner every week. He constantly leaves behind a trail of broken hearts and fanboys. He’s just better at hiding his conquests than me. And Sera…
I see the way those fuck faces sniff around her.
Ugh. Now I’m thinking about my little sister being in a relationship with multiple men. Ew. Brain bleach. Disgusting.
I’d like to believe that my baby sis will stay single and a virgin forever. Yup. She doesn’t even know what sex is.
Ignorance is bliss.
I glance inconspicuously around the hotel conference room as I wait for the meeting to adjourn. My parents stand on one side of me, their backs ramrod straight and their chins hefted imperiously, while Maddox rests on the other. Unlike my parents, my younger brother looks decidedly relaxed, with his hands shoved into his front pockets and his eyes lazily trailing over the lords and ladies present.
That’s a front, of course. Only someone who knows my brother as well as I do can see the keenness in his eyes and the pursing of his lips.
This meeting is just routine, but it never hurts to be on guard.
There are twelve lords and ladies in total, six from each court, though only a few are present right now. The rest are scattered throughout the world, serving their queen in some capacity.
My gaze drifts to Brooke first—an Unseelie fae—and I inwardly blanch, especially when I find her cold gaze fixed on me. I lift my hand in the beginnings of an awkward-as-fuck wave before immediately lowering it when Maddox elbows me in the stomach.
But how else am I supposed to greet the woman whose marriage I accidentally ruined? Talk about awkward.
The oldest of the bunch currently seated before us—Duncan, if I remember correctly, and a Seelie fae—clears his throat to begin the meeting.
“We’re here today to discuss the most recent investigations on the murder of the following fae…” Duncan then begins to read off a list of names as my stomach turns over itself painfully.
I hate thinking about that night my sister found all of those fae bodies killed in a pit behind Tristan’s house. We still have yet to find the culprit, hence the reason for today’s meeting. Both my family and the FIB are working tirelessly to find the group behind this attack.
Because it has to be a group. One person couldn’t possibly kidnap all of those fae and arrange such a brutal slaughtering.
My parents believe it was a terrorist attack. Somehow, the terrorists created a weaponized version of the virus that killed the majority of fae hundreds of years ago.
I don’t know what the fuck I believe.
I remain silent as my parents go over the facts of the case with the lords and ladies. Devyn should be here as well, but he got called away a few hours earlier and hasn’t returned. Hopefully, that means he got a lead, but I’m not overly confident.
Snippets of conversation reach me.
“None of the victims seem to have any connection… ”
“ All of the victims came from different cities in the United States…”
“They were all different ages, genders, and species…”
“We have no new leads…”
I ball my hands into fists while hearing our failure firsthand. We’re supposed to protect the fae—protect Sera. What if one of those bodies had been hers? She was right fucking there. If that virus was airborne, she could’ve become infected.
Fuck.
We need to do better.
I need to do better. For Sera. For the fae. For all of the innocent lives that have been taken.
The door to the council room is thrown open. The clacking of high heels precedes the tall, brunette woman stalking towards the raised podium.
“Charise?” Duncan’s eyebrows furrow as the queen’s second-born claims an empty seat at the table with the other lords and ladies.
V’s seat.
Charise is hot. I can give her that, but her personality leaves a lot to be desired. She seems to believe she’s better than everyone here, especially the humans— aka, me and my family—her mother hired. It also doesn’t help matters that she stares at my sister like she’s the scum of the earth.
“What are you doing here?” Amun, an Unseelie fae, asks with a quirked brow.
Charise folds her hands primly on top of the table. “If my brother doesn’t bother to show up for these meetings, I figured I should.” She sniffs haughtily. “Someone with royal blood needs to keep an eye on the proceedings.”
Brooke gives Charise a narrowed-eyed glare. “We may not necessarily agree with everything V does, but he’s next in line for the throne. Not you. You understand that, right?”
Charise doesn’t even blink at Brooke’s words. She simply waves her hand in the air with a flippant, “Yes, yes. Now, can we proceed? I have places to be.”
My mother exchanges an uncomfortable glance with my father—both of them hate involving themselves in fae politics—before asking, “Is there anything else you require of us?”
Duncan scrubs a hand through his trimmed white beard. “No, I don’t believe?—”
He freezes abruptly, and his eyes take on a glazed-over, hazy quality. His mouth parts.
“Are you so incompetent that you can’t even finish your sentence?” Charise rolls her eyes exaggeratedly as she slides her gaze towards the older man. “I don’t think?—”
But then Charise goes still as well.
“What the fuck?” Maddox murmurs, already unsheathing one of his daggers.
I move to grab the bow that I slung over my shoulder before I came here and then notch an arrow.
All of the lords and ladies have gone eerily still.
And then, as one, they begin to scream.
The huge, lumberjack-looking fae grabs at his ears as horrible, desperate sobs shake his body. Brooke starts to convulse uncontrollably, blood seeping from her eyes and ears. Charise, the queen’s fucking daughter, starts crying erratically as her body shakes.
“What the fuck is happening?” I demand as I search the room for a threat.
Panic seizes my lungs, and I find myself unable to take in air.
“We’re under attack!” Mother races towards the nearest fae. Amun, I believe his name is.
He has gone still and is staring blankly up at the ceiling. However, his chest continues to rise and fall steadily, and air puffs from his parted lips.
“Amun!” She snaps her fingers in front of his face, but he doesn’t even acknowledge her.
He seems to be…trapped.
In his own mind.
What the fuck?
“I’ve seen this before,” Maddox whispers, then he exhales raggedly. “Remember in Pittsburgh? When we had to hunt down that fae who was trapping fae in nightmares?”
The air seems to be made of a hundred daggers, and each time I inhale, I swallow more of them down.
“A baku,” my father whispers, his gun held tightly in white-knuckled hands.
“A baku,” I agree, my stomach bottoming out.
And there’s only one baku in the city…
We need to get in contact with the queen. Now.
Then, we need to find Gage and demand answers.
I just pray Sera will forgive us when this is all over.