Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
We had two days to prepare. Two days to alert the city—knowing they might not believe us—and find a way to stop Blake, with or without them.
Because what he wanted wasn’t just chaos.
He wanted destruction. He needed the humans to believe that Idrians posed a clear and present danger to their safety.
He’d already primed the government to think in terms of registration and relocation, so now all he had to do was ignite the powder keg and wait for the fallout.
There were really only two possible outcomes—either the Idrians decided to cooperate and ended up caged for exploitation, or they fought back, and thousands would die. And the end result of that war?
The last remaining Idrians would still be captured and caged for exploitation. Exactly where Blake wanted them. He would have a magic factory of his very own—a power source only he could control… as long as he had Kes.
Just as before, Kes was the linchpin of his plans. But no further attempts had been made to kidnap her, and we’d confirmed that the mercenary contracts had been cancelled. Which meant that Blake had found another way to get what he wanted.
But he definitely wouldn’t want to risk her being hurt in his protest march, so he would be plotting to get her out of the city first.
And that…
That was the only chance we had.
Once we’d talked over all the possibilities and dispersed for the night, I climbed the stairs, one weary step at a time, shoulder to shoulder with Callum.
We told each other goodnight at his door, and then I moved down the hall to the apartment I had yet to sleep in.
Yet another temporary place for us to call home.
I’d tried so hard to make a permanent home for the kids, so they could feel stable and safe.
But every time, it was torn apart—by enemies, by chance, by the consequences of my own actions.
And now it looked like this one might be torn apart as well.
Not by any forces within my control, but by the hunger for power and the implacable weight of fear and hatred.
For a moment as I gripped the door handle, it felt like I was drowning. Like there was no escape from the overwhelming tide of darkness.
But then I opened the door and saw my family asleep on the couches.
Logan was sprawled out with his head flopped over to the side, his mouth open, and a pillow clutched tightly to his chest. My Ari-bug was curled into a tight little ball, her tangled curls askew, and a cherubic expression on her tiny face.
And Kes… She’d been sitting upright at some point before she’d fallen asleep, with her head now resting on Shane’s shoulder.
A movie was playing quietly on a television I didn’t think we owned, and as I crossed the room to turn it off, I saw Shane’s golden eyes glimmering faintly. He was awake, his expression tense, as if he was waiting for me to say something. Expecting me to judge him or be angry.
But instead, I picked up Ari and moved her to bed, then tugged Logan to his feet and urged him into his room. Neither of them truly woke up, just mumbled at me a few times before going back to sleep.
Only then did I return to the living room and take a seat on the couch.
“She fell asleep,” Shane said in a low, gruff tone. “And I didn’t want to wake her.”
I nodded but made no reply. Waiting to see what he would do. Wondering whether he would be brave enough to admit how he truly felt.
“You’re not going to tell me to stay away from her?”
“Why do you think I would do that?”
“You don’t trust me.”
I let out a long breath and allowed my head to fall back against the couch. Tried to let some of the tension bleed from my muscles as I thought about how to answer.
“It isn’t that I don’t trust you,” I countered. “You’ve proven yourself many times over, and I owe you a lot. We all do. And I believe you care about Kes and want her to be safe. But I’m also afraid…” I wasn’t quite sure how to put it into words.
“Just tell me what you need from me,” Shane said simply. “Whatever it is, I’ll do it. Ask your questions. Judge my past. But don’t… Don’t ask me to leave her.”
Under the circumstances, I decided blunt honesty was the best option.
“Whether you stay or go is up to her. And I’m not interested in judging your past. My greatest fear about you?
” I looked him dead in the eye. “I don’t know for sure that you would always act in Kes’s best interests, should they come into conflict with your desire for revenge. ”
He was silent as he absorbed that blow.
“But in the end, it isn’t my fears you should be worried about, because it isn’t my trust that matters—it’s hers.”
Kes’s head lifted suddenly. She looked around, saw Shane, and sat up abruptly, flushing pink and tucking her hair behind her ears.
“Sorry,” she murmured. “I… fell asleep.”
I decided to cut her a break for now.
“How did it go at The Portal today?”
Her entire mood brightened. “You should have seen Ethan. Once he realized what he could do, he didn’t want to stop. Almost burned himself out trying to fix things until Faris got grumpy and made him sit down.”
It seemed like the first real piece of hope we’d had in days. “And his magic? Did you need to drain him again?”
She shook her head. “I tried, but he had nothing left. Fell asleep right after dinner.”
“Did he talk about it at all?”
“No, but he did ask Faris to let him heal his other hand. He kept saying, ‘I can see how to do it. I can see how it all works.’”
“And?”
Kes’s eyes shone as she leaned towards me with excitement.
“It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.
Something none of us ever would have imagined was possible.
All this time… he thought he could only break things and make them worse.
But when he sees how all the elements fit together, he heals instead of destroys. ”
If this was true, and he could do it again?
It meant that as long as everyone around him was willing to keep his secret, Ethan could experience something like a normal life.
He could have freedom. Independence. Everything I’d hoped for.
It was the tiniest glimmer of light in the midst of the day’s darkness, and for some reason it brought sudden tears to my eyes.
“I’m so glad,” I said earnestly, wishing we were in a place where we could simply celebrate this victory. Find joy in the knowledge that Elayara had ultimately failed to break us. She’d tried, but the broken pieces had realigned to produce something beautiful in spite of her efforts.
“Unfortunately, before we can sleep, there are things I need to tell you both,” I said, wishing I didn’t have to turn the conversation to darker matters. “About what Blake has been up to. We think we know what he wants, and how he intends to get it.”
Kes went still, and I saw Shane’s focus instantly realign, as if he could somehow place himself between her and her fears.
“It’s me, isn’t it?” Kes’s calm tone was belied by the tension in her shoulders and the clenching of her fingers around the blanket that lay across her legs.
“I only wish I could say no,” I told her regretfully.
She didn’t want to cry. Didn’t want to show me her fear, but her eyes shut and a tear slipped down her cheek in defiance of her control.
And Shane… He let out a quiet curse and shifted closer to her on the couch. Reached out tentatively and gripped one of her trembling hands in his, as gently as if it were a baby bird. “Kes. Listen to me. He can’t have you. That will never happen, not while I’m alive.”
Her eyes stayed closed, but her fingers slowly, slowly released the blanket… only to curl around his hand in a white-knuckled grip and hang on.
“His plans are bigger this time,” I said bluntly.
“And he’s better prepared. He has fingers in multiple courts and the human government, and he intends to put every Idrian in the country under his feet.
But the key to what he wants to do next—the piece that makes the whole puzzle fit together—is Kes, and he’s not going to rest until he has her. ”
Her chin came up, and she looked back at me resolutely. “You know I would go,” she said firmly. “If it would stop whatever he’s planning, if it would save all of you, I would give myself up without a moment’s hesitation.”
I nodded. “I know you would.”
Shane turned to me, the tips of his fangs bared as a golden sheen of rage rippled across his irises.
I didn’t give him a chance to speak. “But it wouldn’t solve anything, and even if it did, there is not a single person in this family who would be willing to give you up to save ourselves. We would rather fight and fail than sacrifice lives in some kind of utilitarian moral math.”
Kes drew in a deep breath and swiped at her tears almost angrily. “Then what can I do? How can we stop him?”
“We won’t know for sure until he makes contact. But we have two days to start making plans, and we’re going to make the most of them. I just… I need your promise that you’ll trust us. That you won’t do what you tried to do with Chesney, or try to fix everything on your own.”
Kes agreed with evident reluctance. “I promise. But if things go wrong…”
“No buts,” Shane said gruffly. “We’ll find a way that doesn’t force you to sacrifice yourself.”
“Do you know what you’re asking of me?”
He tilted her chin gently until she faced him.
“I do,” he said. “I know because I watched my mother choose the sacrifice. I watched her choose me, choose Kira, choose the safety of everyone around her over her own life and her own freedom.” His voice had grown ragged and hoarse, his features ravaged by a grief he’d never been able to heal from.
“And yes, I know it was her choice, and I even know she didn’t regret it when she bled out on her own living room floor.
But I’m asking you… I’m begging you to make a different choice. As someone who…”
He stopped. Looked away.
“Someone who what?” Kes asked softly.
His eyes closed, and he swallowed.