Chapter Seven
Hunter watched his mate carefully. She was breathing erratically, but hadn’t passed out yet.
Augustus looked to him. “You, the units, have been dealing with this for months and you didn’t call us in?”
“It hasn’t been that bad here,” Hunter answered.
“Not that bad!” his cousin yelled, then stood and began pacing.
Kiera hadn’t taken her eyes off Kendrick.
Kendrick smiled. “I’m still the same witch you met this morning.”
Kiera reached for her shot with a shaking hand.
Augustus saw what she was doing and grabbed his. All five of them downed the shot and slammed the glasses down.
Augustus took a deep breath. “Your Majesty, are you returning?”
“I don’t think that would change anything, just complicate matters.”
“Are you serious? It would change our campaign entirely,” Augustus replied.
“Campaign?” Kendrick asked, looking from brother to brother.
Augustus ignored him. “Right, so, if you’re not returning, we need to focus on building up the warriors and Elder Council.”
“I have our angle,” Rory said, holding up the paper.
“Talk to me” Augustus said.
“Storm Keep is pretty isolated. You’d think it would be Noctem Falls or even éire Danu being in a pocket dimension, but if you look at their weekly issues, Storm Keep’s two newspapers are only reporting on the little news they have in Storm Keep.”
“Go on,” Eoin encouraged.
“If we start flooding them with the recent stories of how the warriors and Elder Council have saved people, especially in the other three pillar cities, it would sway public opinion. It would get them wondering, why is Storm Keep the only one having ‘problems’? And it would make them second guess their own papers since they haven’t reported any of it. ”
“What do you need?” Augustus asked.
“Interviews with Queen Aleksandra, Prince Magnus and Prince Gavriel. They are some of the oldest and most revered in our world,” Rory replied
“I can get you those,” Meryn said, picking up her phone.
Rory blinked. “Seriously?”
Aiden snorted. “Queen Aleksandra and Magnus compete to see who can spoil Meryn the most and Gavriel adores her.”
“What about the Elder Councils from those cities?” Rory asked.
Once again, Aiden pointed to his mate.
Rory smiled. “Meryn, I’ll be working with you directly.”
“Word.”
Augustus pointed to the smaller woman. “We stay on her good side.”
His brothers all nodded.
“You might wanna reach out to the other city’s papers directly and see if we can’t distribute them here. No point reinventing the wheel,” Meryn suggested.
Rory blinked. “I would have gotten there eventually.”
“I have every faith in you,” she teased.
Hunter was keeping an eye on his mate.
Kiera was still staring at Kendrick. “You’re not returning because you don’t know who you can trust, right?” she asked.
Kendrick nodded.
She couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “Can I pretend I don’t know?”
Kendrick’s expression softened. “If that makes it easier you can. I still want to test your magic though.”
She looked up. “Still?”
He frowned. “How does you finding out who I am change my curiosity levels?”
“I can act normal?”
“I’d sincerely prefer it,” he admitted.
She let out a breath. “I can handle normal.”
Pip got up and walked around the table and pulled his mate into a hug. “I am in charge of cuddles.”
Hunter could see his mate stiffen at first, then slowly she relaxed. “Thank you, Pip. I didn’t even know I needed a hug.”
He swayed them back and forth, causing her to smile. “Meryn says that I give the best hugs.”
“You honestly do.”
Hunter waited for his bear to protest, but he stayed silent.
Aiden nodded. “Yeah, Pip doesn’t register with my bear either. I thought it was because he’s family, but seeing you have the same reaction has me wondering.”
“It’s because Pip would never hurt anyone, well, no one that didn’t truly deserve it,” Meryn said.
“Who is Sky Gazette’s competitor?” Rory asked.
“Castle News. We don’t know any of their reporters though,” Meryn said.
“Trust me, if we offer exclusives we won’t have to know them,” Rory said, making notes on his phone.
Eoin pointed to his clothes. “Where can I get something that makes me look more like a witch?”
Meryn giggled. “Like wizard robes?”
Eoin winked at her. “Something like that. The fae have their version of dress robes, witches have them too. They’re usually black with accented colors of the element they have.”
“What about premonition and empathy?” she asked.
Kendrick turned to Meryn. “You want robes now?”
“When in Rome and all that yadda yadda.”
Eoin turned back to Meryn. “You have empathy and premonition? I thought you were half fae.”
“I got crunchy sprinkles mixed in or something,” she replied.
“To answer your question Meryn, higher powers like empathy and premonition are embroidered with arcane glyphs representing those powers on the cuffs on the robe, usually in silver thread.”
“That sounds badass.”
Suddenly the clothes Meryn was wearing shimmered. The next moment she was admiring her new outfit. She looked at the cuffs and burst out laughing.
“What did it give you?” Kendrick asked.
She held up the cuff where, in silver embroidery it read, ‘Badass Glyphs’.
Kendrick scrubbed his face with his hands. “You need to apologize to the entire fae population for corrupting one of their national treasures.”
“No way, she’s cool.”
“She?” Augustus asked.
“My outfit is called Dani, short for the Gown of éire Danu.”
“The famed relic that allows the wearer to appear in any mode of dress they wish including jewels?” Eion asked.
“Yup.”
He squinted. “Under your robes, is that a Doctor Who tee?”
“Yeah. She likes graphic tee shirts.”
“Did you get that from the Queen?” Connor asked.
“Nah. My friend Sydney’s grandma let me borrow it when I needed an All Hallow’s Eve dress, because a local bitch turned the tailors against me,” she explained.
“Meryn, I think we’re going to be great friends,” Connor said.
“If we’re going to be friends, can I get pictures of you and your brothers in your suits?”
“Meryn, can you please delete that damn database?” Aiden begged.
“No way. It doesn’t even really belong to just me anymore. We have a ton of judges. It brings so much joy.”
Rory began to smile. “Can I assume this database has a lot of pictures?”
“You betcha.”
“Including candid shots of the warriors?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll pose for you, if I can use some of those pictures.”
Meryn stared unblinking, then smiled. “I want to be like you when I grow up.”
“Watch and learn.”
Aiden looked from Meryn to Rory and back. “Why do I feel like I have watched the start of an unholy union?”
Zev shivered. “You’re not the only one. I had to remind myself, they’re on our side… twice”
Kendrick turned to Eoin. “You should be fine if you just get plain black robes. Keep your normal clothes visible so that people can’t say you’re trying to sway them. It will just look respectable.”
“We can take you into the city tomorrow, Eoin. The boys are going to escort me to the orphanage to drop off some food,” Genevieve offered.
“Orphanage?” Rory asked.
“My mate has been creating nutritional meals for the kids to ‘test’,” Caiden explained.
Rory made more notes on his phone. “I’ll need an interview with you too, Genevieve. I want everyone to know your side of the story, not just the one-sided narrative they been given.”
“If you think it’ll help,” she replied.
Caiden sat back watching the machinations happening around the table. “Thank you for helping us. To be honest, without someone to fight, I feel pretty useless.”
Meryn growled an adorable little growl. “Tell me about it! They don’t even use technology. They have crystals, and scrolls, and shit. I feel ass out.”
“We have you covered,” Augustus said.
Meryn turned to Elder Ironwood, who was sipping his wine. “Where is Auntie?”
“Lily? She’s in éire Danu with Amelia,” Marshall smiled. “Darian wasn’t exaggerating. My poor daughter has been all over the place lately.”
Aiden looked down at Meryn. “She wasn’t like that when she was first pregnant.”
“Neither was Lily. I bet Darian would give anything to be able to ask your father a thing or two, Meryn,” Marshall said.
“You think Amelia is acting like my mom when she was pregnant with me?”
Marshall nodded. “I’d put money on it.”
“We have a couple spheres we haven’t opened yet. I wonder if any of them show mom when she was pregnant.”
“Let us know whenever you want to look at more. Your Aunt wants to see them all,” Marshall told her.
Kiera sighed. “I wish I had recordings of my parents. We always assumed we’d have more time.”
“I wish I had an assistant,” Rory complained, setting his phone down.
“My friend Kari has a company that assigns those out,” Meryn offered.
Rory nodded. “We’ve actually looked into her services before. The problem is that me and my brothers are a bit eclectic, so no one assistant would do and we don’t really need four.”
Meryn turned and looked at Kiera, then back to Rory. “What about her?”
“Me?” Kiera squeaked.
“Didn’t you say you were like a Jack of All Trades?” Meryn looked to Rory. “Could that help?”
Rory exchanged looks with Augustus, Connor and Eoin. They all looked excited.
“Have you done paralegal work?” Augustus asked.
She nodded.
“Any type of work as a secretary or personal assistant?”
“Yes.”
“It’s too good to be true,” Rory said.
“What else have you done that could help our businesses?” Connor asked.
Kiera held up a hand and began ticking things off. “Photography, online social media organization, and content creation. Oh, and I worked as a barista for a while.”
“Do you need a job?” Augustus asked.
“Are you serious?”
“As the heart attacks humans get,” he replied.
“You can’t steal my mate,” Hunter said.
“Don’t be greedy, Hunter. She’s exactly what we need, especially taking on this massive project to help cover the units’ asses,” Augustus countered.
Kiera looked up at him. “Please let me. They’re family so I’d feel best about working with them.”
“Let?” Meryn said, her eyes narrowing at Hunter.
He held up his hands. “My mate can work with whomever she wants.” He looked to his cousins. “Have fun relocating to Storm Keep.”