Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
I don’t know that anyone slept much that night. We ended up with Kes and the kids in one apartment and Shane and Ethan in another, while I slept on Callum’s couch. I wasn’t ready to be more than a few steps away, just in case something happened and his condition worsened unexpectedly.
Angelica and Ryker showed up the next morning, bursting in while Callum and I were barefoot in the kitchen, sipping coffee with my back against his chest and his arm around my waist—a single moment of quiet and contentment that only made me want more.
Even Angelica didn’t bother to give us a side-eye.
“They’re here,” she announced. “I haven’t told the court anything definite about your condition, so they’re still operating under a suspicious assumption that something is very wrong. Maybe even that you’re dead. How would you like to play this?”
Callum set down his mug with exquisite care and control. I could feel a tremor of rage shiver through him, and had to suppress an evil smile at the thought of what was coming for the shapeshifters who’d dared to show their faces here.
“Have them wait downstairs. Tell them they’re free to judge your actions after they’ve seen my current condition.”
She nodded. “Do you wish me to be present at the meeting?”
He eyed her thoughtfully. “It depends on your future plans. I don’t know what my relationship with the court will look like after this, so if you want to keep working for them, you’ll need deniability.
If it helps, I’ll make sure they understand that nothing has been your fault, and you were only following my orders. ”
She folded her arms and regarded him coolly. “And if I don’t want to keep working for them?”
“Then I would ask what you do want,” Callum replied.
“You’re capable, loyal, and the best assistant I’ve ever had.
Your quick thinking is the only reason I’m still alive, and if I continue in my position, I wouldn’t want to lose you.
But I respect you too much to attempt to influence your decision, and I don’t have enough certainty in my own future to promise you anything. ”
She huffed. “I don’t need your promises, Callum. I know my own worth, and I will land on my feet whether I choose to continue with the Shapeshifter Court or not.”
No one would have disagreed with that.
“But I would rather remain loyal to my oath to you,” she continued. “No matter what happens with the court. I would like to see this through, if you will have me.”
Callum’s head tilted, but his gaze remained direct. “It doesn’t have to be about an oath.”
Her nostrils flared. “What else would it be?”
“Family,” he said simply.
For just the tiniest instant, her gaze darted towards Ryker, and her cheeks turned slightly pink.
“Why would I want that?”
“It’s not about blood,” Callum explained, “or any formal ties. Just people who choose each other. And I think you’ve already done that, just by being here.”
She didn’t agree in words, but some part of her softened ever so slightly.
“Maybe,” she allowed grudgingly. “But right now we don’t have time to debate the details. Do you want me to attend the meeting or not?”
He nodded. “I do. You and Raine. I’m putting all my cards on the table. When they leave here, I don’t want any doubts about my intentions.”
We didn’t have long to wait, and I needed all of it to make myself vaguely presentable.
I had to race next door to grab clean clothes, then brush my hair and try to wash all remaining traces of ash and char from my skin.
One of these days, I would have time for a shower, but apparently that day was not going to be today.
And I felt even worse when I rejoined Callum on his doorstep. He looked like he’d showered, changed, and was now ready to take the modeling world by storm. Freshly shaven, his hair in artful waves, wearing dark jeans and a perfectly fitted black tee.
No suit, no entourage. Nothing to suggest that he was technically the king of his people.
Nothing except the look of steely determination that sent shivers down my spine and filled me with an evil sort of anticipation.
When he saw me, his eyes lit up, as if he’d just seen something miraculous. Something other than me in my torn jeans, dark hoodie, and mostly clean running shoes.
And yet, his gaze never wavered, and as I approached, he held out his hand. “Go with me?”
To the ends of the earth.
But for some reason, there was suddenly a lump in my throat, so all I could do was nod.
We made our way down the stairs together, and by the time we reached the foyer, we could already hear voices. Angelica’s cool, crisp tones mingled with a handful of others—by turns sharp, nasally, demanding, or dismissive.
Any one of them might be the traitor who’d wanted Callum dead. Any one of them may have colluded with the fae to stab him with a poisoned dagger. And when I found out who it was, they were going to wish that dagger had taken them instead.
The lights were on in the event space downstairs, but the floor was empty. The furniture and the stage were gone, the wall fountain was silent and still, and in their absence, the voices of the visiting shapeshifters echoed eerily around us as we entered, hand in hand.
I don’t know whether they heard him first or felt him first, but I saw the moment they realized Callum was in the room.
Like prey animals scenting a predator, they froze, even if only for an instant. Nostrils flared. Shoulders hunched. Nervous glances darted from one to another. And then they turned, and saw us standing together.
I didn’t recognize any of the four, but then, I didn’t expect to. I had no experience with the court, but within the next handful of seconds, I’d memorized each of their faces.
A middle-aged black man, about my height but twice my width at the shoulder, with dark brown skin, hair clipped close to his scalp, and a quiet, watchful air.
A woman who appeared barely into her twenties, with flawless russet brown skin and black hair that fell to her waist.
A white man in his sixties, with a bit of a comb-over and a neatly trimmed beard. He was the only one wearing a suit, and his leather shoes looked expensive, as did the gold watch on his wrist.
The fourth was a woman who walked with the aid of a cane.
Her skin was wrinkled and so pale it was nearly transparent, and her white hair was gathered in a precise bun at the top of her head.
Her golden eyes, however, showed no sign of her age.
They screamed raptor, and I felt a shudder as they passed over me and lingered on our joined hands.
Was it one of these four who had betrayed Callum? Or could it even be all of them? And was there a chance they had come to finish the job?
“I would be delighted to know to what I owe the pleasure of this unexpected visit.”
If they were smart, the four shifters would take note of Callum’s tone and run for their lives. But if they were smart, they wouldn’t be here in the first place, so it was no use hoping for miracles.
The old woman pinned us with her gaze, raking Callum with those raptor eyes as if looking for some sort of trick.
“Don’t play games with us, ro-Deverin. We received word that you were attacked at the Fae Court, but then you disappeared, and the gryphon refused to update us on your condition.
” Her glare shifted to Angelica. “We are well within the bounds of our responsibility to the court as a whole to demand the truth of whether our king is alive or dead.”
“You wish to not play games?” Callum said softly.
“Very well. Let’s not. Let’s talk instead about malice and sabotage.
About underhanded plots and cowardly schemes.
About why, while I was away serving the interests of our people, endeavoring to protect them from a potentially hostile situation at the Fae Court, the Shapeshifter Council saw fit to attack and endanger my mate. ”
“That is an utterly baseless accusation,” the old woman snapped. “The council has not been officially informed of a mate bond. How can we scheme against a person who—so far as we are aware—does not exist?”
Callum never flinched. “Gloria, the only reason I have never called you out on your web of plots and machinations is that you are a respected elder in your tribe and have led them with courage since before the fall of Idria.” His tone was almost terrifyingly matter of fact.
“But this time you have gone too far. You disliked my choice of mate and tried to take matters into your own hands, and that I will neither overlook nor forgive.”
The suit-clad older man attempted to intervene on Gloria’s behalf. “What proof do you…”
“I. Don’t. Need. Proof.”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop by at least ten degrees. I had never heard that tone from Callum before. Never felt the chill that ran down my spine in answer to that deep, guttural growl. It was the assertion of an apex predator to a lesser being—that he was no longer holding back.
“I am your king. You chose me. You asked me to lead and protect, and I have done so. Risked everything for the sake of our people. And the minute my back was turned? You stabbed me in it.”
He paused for a moment, but not a single one of them had the nerve to respond.
“So here we are. And, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, the facts and the law are in agreement.” His voice grew even quieter and more deadly until the very air seemed to shiver with terror. “And the fact is, I could eat every one of you, and no one could say a word against me.”
He looked at each of them in turn, a creature of terrifying power with zero doubt in his ability to make this room a scene of unimaginable carnage.
“But do you know why I have not yet done that?”
None of them moved. I wasn’t even sure they were breathing.