Page 26 of Renegade Kings
“You see, that right there shouldn’t be possible,” I pointed out. “You shouldn’t have any awareness of your animals at all. Not until the full moon, which should be in a couple of days, by the way. Yet you’re already acting like you’re shifters. Hell, Maddox has even shifted, which I can’t wrap my brain around, not to mention the…”
My voice trailed off as I thought back to the wall of fire. It was a display of elemental magic and one that I’d seen before, albeit on a much smaller level. It was then that I looked at Dean, who was the closest to me, considering that I was sitting in his lap still.
“Do you mind?” I asked him, holding up my hand close to his cheek.
“You don’t have to keep asking me that,” he murmured, entwining his fingers with mine as he held my hand against his face. “The answer is always going to be no.”
I didn’t have to reach out to look for it this time. Instead, the magic rushed into me almost like the last time I’d shown it the way. Dean gasped in surprise at the sudden rush of energy and then, as he let his breath out, it came in a hazy fog of cold.
“That’s different.” Maddox shuffled to the edge of his seat as he watched intently. “What did you do?”
“Nothing. I didn’t have to reach this time. Dean’s magic reached for me.”
It was exactly what I’d thought through—wild, elemental, essentially everything that Nymeria was made to be.
But if Maddox wielded fire and Dean could do something with the cold, the implication and the conclusion that screamed in my mind were impossible.
These were summer and winter traits.
My gaze cut to the other two men sitting with us. The other two men who held my obsession.
Four men.
Four courts.
Something was happening here and we needed more information about it.
“Ugh, fuck.” I sighed, sinking back against Dean’s side, ignoring his chuckle of amusement. “We need to talk to Fizzle.”
“And that’s another problem we need to talk about.” Maddox sighed, but the look on his face was anything but weary. If anything, he looked pissed.
I got it. Fizzle was an issue I didn’t want to deal with, so I could see why the guys were even more reluctant. They didn’t have the history that we did. Although, maybe that made it easier. It was less of a betrayal when you didn’t have the background we had.
With a sigh, I reluctantly saw this from a different angle. I hadn’t been here, and I hadn’t lived through whatever happened after the Spring Court massacre. I’d run, and I’d left them. But Fizzle had been here to pick up the pieces. To witness horror after horror, he found a way to fight back. Rhidian had given that to him. So maybe I owed it to Rhidian to hear him out. Maybe I owed it to them all.
“You okay?” Dean asked, his arms squeezing around my waist to remind me he was there.
“Yeah… I… I think I need to do this alone. Do you mind?” I looked around at all of them as I asked.
Tank looked proud. Even Maddox and Ryder looked like they understood where I was coming from. Only Dean grumbled and bitched, but it might have been more because I slowly extracted his arms from around me and climbed off his lap.
I could tell they all had something they wanted to say, and I was grateful they were holding off. The first opportunity they gave me to chicken out of this, I’d take. Part of me wanted to run. Hell, I’d been doing it for years. It was second nature to me now. But I couldn’t keep doing that. I’d seen the consequences of my actions now. I couldn’t pretend it had all been for the best anymore. No one had benefited from this but me, and I didn’t know how I’d live with that in the long run.
I was already looking at the door to our suite when the knocking came. The guys looked between each other and then Maddox stood, striding to the door to open it. Once he glanced out into the hallway, he opened the door wider and Fizzle swooped inside, followed by Rhidian, who was carrying a tray of food.
“We don’t have much, but I figured you guys were hungry.” He took a pack off his shoulder and passed it to Maddox. “There're fresh clothes and things in there for you as well. None of you came for medical supplies last night, so I assumed you didn’t need them.”
Maddox nodded, not saying anything about what we’d discovered about Dean and the rest of them. It was the right move. We didn’t understand what was happening between us, and I’d grown up hearing that unusual magic in Nymeria did nothing but put a target on your back. They needed to learn how to use what they had first, how to fight back. Everything they’d learned back in the human realm was nothing compared to the creatures and the magic that would target them here. The fae may be weakening, but they could still inflict enough damage to take your life. With the animals they’d soon have better control over, and whatever the hell magic they seemed to have acquired, they actually stood a chance of surviving this place now. If I could buy them enough time.
“We’re good for now,” I added, drawing Rhidian’s attention to me. “So, I guess now is when you lay your cards on the table and I decide if I’m going to kick you out of my house or not.”
Rhidian laughed. Then he saw the look on my face. “Wait. You’re not actually serious. These people have nowhere else to go, Alyssa.”
“I didn’t say them. I said you, Rhidian. From where I’m standing, you took us hostage, marched us here under threat of harm, intending to force a throne on me I never asked for. You’ve both conspired against me, manipulated me, and you continue to hide the truth from me.” I could feel the anger building inside me the more I spoke. The magic vibrating with a fury that matched my own. “This is your one chance. Tell me everything, and I swear if I even suspect you’re hiding a single piece of information from me, I won’t be throwing your ass out the door, Rhidian, because there won’t be enough of you left for me to do it.”
Rhidian grinned. It wasn’t exactly the response I was expecting. “I missed you, Lyss. It’s good to see you’ve still got that fire inside you.” Then he looked around the room at my guys, at Fizzle, eventually his gaze staring out the window at the cloudless sky outside. “You’re going to need it.”
Fizzle landed on my shoulder as Rhidian strode to the window. He didn’t turn around or say anything else and it was only Fizzle’s claws digging into my shoulder that drew my attention away from him.