Chapter 25 #2
I suddenly see for myself exactly why Daemon chose Jett to be his spy master, because Jett doesn’t even blink. He just nods as if this was already common knowledge. “Oh, sure. I didn’t know there was another word for it.”
Kai turns away, clearly still focused on more important things. “I can’t handle a mutiny right now. I care about you, Fox, but I won’t turn my camp upside-down on your behalf.” He pauses, giving Fox a meaningful look. “Unless you’ve decided you’re willing to help us.”
“Help with what?” I ask, glancing back and forth between them.
Kai doesn’t look at me, and Fox seems reluctant to answer. His jaw tightens. “Yeah,” he says finally, pointedly not meeting my eyes. “‘Course I’ll help.”
“Fine,” Kai says, shoulders relaxing slightly. “Well, that’s something at least.”
“Help with what?” I repeat.
Again, Fox refuses to meet my gaze and speaks only to Kai. “It might help to have Jett with us, actually. In case I…in case it doesn’t work.”
“I suppose it’s only a few hours until we’re leaving anyway.” Kai runs a hand over his beard. “I’ll have to smooth things over first though. No one is going to want more Fae at camp, even if you are all helping us.”
“I’m not Fae,” Connell says again. For whatever reason he seems very concerned that we understand that fact, though I can’t see why it would matter.
Finally Kai glances at him, looking distracted, as if he only just realized Connell was there. “Who are you, again?”
“I’m their prisoner,” he says, sounding perfectly cheerful. “Any chance you lot object to the unlawful capture and imprisonment of innocent men?”
“Innocent,” Jett scoffs. “Sure.”
Kai shakes his head, as if deciding that this is too much for him.
He looks at Fox again, and I can tell they’re communicating silently before Kai abruptly switches back to normal speech.
“Right. Well, I’ll go try and smooth things over.
You all should probably wait before you follow me, give us half an hour if you can. A full hour would be better.”
Fox nods in silent agreement, as Kai’s fingers work at the buckles of his armor, the metal clasps clicking open one by one. He strips off his breastplate, leaving it in the snow next to Fox, then yanks off his tunic as well.
“Whoa there,” Connell says, raising his eyebrows. “Didn’t realize we were getting dinner and a show.”
Kai ignores him, dropping his armor piece by piece onto the snow.
In one fluid motion that still makes my breath catch, his body contorts and shifts, fur sprouting where skin had been seconds before.
The sandy-brown wolf that was Kai shakes once, then bounds away through the trees, leaving nothing but paw prints in the fresh snow.
As soon as Kai leaves, Jett raises an eyebrow at us. “So…you’re soul-bonded, are you?”
Simultaneously, Fox and I raise a hand to quiet him.
I glance over my shoulder toward where Kai disappeared, listening as hard as I can for the distant sound of his footsteps.
I’m all too aware by now of how good the wolves’ hearing is, and I know we have to wait at least a minute before we can speak.
“Alright, go ahead,” I say, lowering my hand even as I glance quickly at Fox to make sure he agrees we’ve waited long enough. He gives a single nod, and lowers his hand as well.
Jett watches us with a strange expression on his face. His eyes flick to the bite mark on my neck, then over to Fox. “I’m not sure if I should say congratulations or ask what the fuck you’re thinking.”
“We’re not really bonded,” I explain.
Fox grumbles beside me, his shoulder tense against mine. He merely nods in agreement. “They would have killed her if she weren’t my mate. They saw her using magic.”
“Alright…” Jett narrows his eyes at us. “Yet you’re living with them. Why?”
“Because it’s the best way to get into the palace,” I explain, pulling my cloak tighter against the cold. “The wolves report to the queen every month.”
Fox shakes his head beside me. “They report to her emissary,” he corrects, his breath visible in the frigid air. “No one even knows the queen’s name.”
“Whatever,” I wave him off. “But wait, what did Kai mean about you helping him?”
“Yeah, what exactly have you volunteered me for?” Jett asks, grinning. “Not that I mind, I just want to know if I’m going to have to pretend to be your mate too.”
Fox growls and tosses Jett an exasperated look. “We’re traveling to the palace tonight at midnight. Kai wants me to kill the queen of Thermia.”
I wait a beat for it to sink in, but all I can think of to say is, “Oh.”
Immediately a million thoughts start racing through my brain. Why? How? How long has Fox known that? Just because Kai asked, is he willing to do it? Was he ever planning to tell me? And, what if the queen turns out to be my mother? Will it matter to him what I want?
“That’s a bit dramatic,” Connell comments conversationally. “You lot certainly get involved with a lot of royalty. I went my whole life not bothered by any of this rubbish, and now there’s a new plot every other month.”
“When I met you, you were an assassin for the king of Hydratta,” Jett says, sounding exasperated.
“Barely,” Connells scoffs, waving him off. “That was just a small assassination plot. More of a kidnapping, really, and it’s not as if you can hold that against me, can you? You kidnap people all the time. Me, for example.”
“Can’t you control him?” Fox demands.
“If only,” Jett grumbles, looking momentarily irritated before his usual smile returns. “So fine. Your wolf friend wants you to kill the queen. Not exactly what I had in mind, but I suppose we could make that happen. I still don’t understand what the two of you are doing here at all, though.”
I take a deep breath, feeling the cold air fill my lungs. “We’re here because of me. Because according to Beatrix, it’s possible that I have living family here in Thermia.”
Jett looks startled. “Really? Your mother is still alive, then?”
I nod. “It seems that way, but if she is…” I suck in another breath to steady myself. “It’s very likely that she’s the queen that you’re all talking about killing.”
Fox shifts uncomfortably, his eyes boring holes in the side of my head.
It doesn’t take long to bring Jett up to speed on the rest of the story about my mother, the sister I have never met, and how one or both of them might still be in Thermia.
“Why do the wolves want to kill the queen?” Jett asks Fox. “Is it just because of their issue with the magic?”
Fox barely moves his mouth as he answers. “Because she’s the one we’re all bound to serve.”
“Because she’s the one who made the law that all the shifters must be in the army?” I clarify.
Fox nods. “Essentially.”
He still doesn’t look entirely comfortable, and I can tell there’s more to it, but he clearly doesn’t want to explain it. Whether it’s me he doesn’t want to know or Jett and Connell, I’m not sure.
“I suppose we could always let them all believe we’re going to help them kill her and then change our minds if it turns out she’s your mother, Aurelia.” Jett says, looking pensive. “I can’t think of anything better than that right now.”
“Nor can I,” I admit.
“So it’s a revolution?” Connell asks, sounding excited. “I fucking love revolutions. Off with all their heads, I say.”
Fox’s eye twitches with irritation and he glances back and forth between Connell and Jett with narrowed eyes. “Why the fuck did you bring him?”
Jett’s grin doesn’t falter but his eyes turn hard. “What else was I supposed to do with him?”
“Leave him in Vernallis.”
“There wasn’t anyone there to make sure he didn’t escape, and before you say I could have left him with the soldiers, believe me, I thought of that.”
“I love the soldiers,” Connell says, grinning wickedly. “You’ve done a bang up job training them. Usually I could escape from guard custody in ten minutes, but it took nearly an hour to escape your guards. I enjoyed the challenge.”
Jett raises his eyebrows at Fox as if to say, See? “I’m the only one who he hasn’t managed to escape from, yet” he mutters.
“Yet, being the key word here, mate,” Connell grins. “I’ll manage it eventually. Or you could just let me go and save yourself the embarrassment.”
“I can’t let you go,” Jet grumbles.
“So you keep saying, but see, typically when one is given a jail sentence there’s a specific term on it. I believe that what you are doing, sir, is against martial law and is a violation of my personhood under the Laws of the Hague.”
“Under the what?” Jett asks, sounding distracted.
“For fuck’s sake, this damned country has no decorum,” Connell mutters, speaking to no one in particular. “You cannot hold a man indefinitely without cause, it’s inhumane.”
“We are inhumane,” I point out. “In a very literal sense. We are not human.”
“Oh I can see that, darling. You’re clearly an angel,” Connell says, winking at me.
Fox growls low in his throat and his eyes flash dangerously, his upper lip curling back to reveal the sharp edge of a canine.
Connell grimaces. “Yikes. Down boy.”
We return to camp, where Kai has clearly worked hard to get everyone to calm down because, although we attract a lot of suspicious glares, no one actually says anything.
As we walk through the center of camp, a woman sharpening her blade pauses mid-stroke, knuckles whitening around the whetstone.
Two men by the fire pit exchange meaningful looks before quickly returning to their work.
Kai stands at the center of it all, arms crossed, giving small nods to each wolf who looks his way.
When one young male rises with a snarl forming on his lips, Kai’s hand settles on his shoulder, squeezing until he sits back down.
“Friendly lot, aren’t they?” Connell mutters under his breath. “Any chance there’s something to eat around here? I’m starving.”