I reached for her and found that empty space where our bond had been and—just like every other time during the last four days that I reached for her and found her gone—my heart physically hurt. It was a pain in my chest that spread through my body to my soul and left me wanting to give up on everything. But I couldn’t give up. That feeling was a lie.
She was out there somewhere. It’d been four days—an excruciating four days that felt like four years—and I had to do something. Even if it was stupid.
The fey took her.
And if the fey took her, then Helen—the queen of the most powerful fey court—knew something.
I would make her tell me.
Cosette sighed, and it sounded like wind chimes tinkling in the distance. “Van. Come back, please.” She crossed her arms, and I wondered if she realized she was now standing in the same way, with the same attitude, as Chris. They were like mirrors of each other.
A second later, the fey warrior stood in front of me.
Axel startled—slamming into the wood railing behind him and snapping it. He muttered something, but I ignored him. My focus was on Van. Finally, he was here. He would take me to see the queen.
I’d never spoken to Van before. Not really. We’d fought demons together and were bound together by the magic of the new council we’d formed, but I didn’t know him. Not even a little bit. But I knew enough to respect him.
His long white hair was tied back. There was something splattered on his clothes, and by the scent alone, I knew it was blood. Not his, but another fey.
Cosette’s eyes widened just a bit. “What have you been doing?” If I wasn’t mistaken, she almost sounded amused by the fact that he was covered in blood.
“It’s best if you don’t know the exact details.” He turned to me, and his overflowing pity was plain on his face.
I could’ve lived without the pity.
“I was trying to come to an agreement with Helen to have you visit, but she wasn’t hearing me. So, I moved on to searching for Tessa among the courts,” Van said.
The teak chair scratched against the porch floor as I stood. “What did you—”
He held up a hand, stopping my question before I could finish. “Nothing yet. I’m not giving up, but I ran into some trouble at the Solar Court.” He looked down at himself, motioning toward the blood. “Seems they’re very upset about losing one of theirs to us.”
Cosette groaned, and I turned in time to see her shake her head in disgust. “They’re always upset about something. They didn’t care about Kyra seven months ago. And now they can’t survive without her? It’s beyond absurd. She’s part of our council now, and that’s that.”
“Yes, well, their anger isn’t helping my search.” Van turned to me, facing me fully. “I don’t have anything concrete, but I have a guess and a suggestion.”
“I’ll take both.” And I’d be thankful for them, but I wasn’t saying th
at part aloud. Although if he found Tessa, I would gladly bind myself in a bargain with him. I would do anything to get her back.
“The person most angry about us and our magical binding, but also hurt by deeply, is Cosette’s mother.”
“You think she did this? Personally?” Cosette asked. “No. What am I saying? Of course, she did this. She told me to get out and never come back, but revenge was in her eyes when I left.”
“Yes. I saw it, too. And I believe this is the first of their plan to weaken the wolves. But it’s not just the Lunar Court that’s upset. It’s all the fey who stayed in hiding.”
“All the fey?”
“All.”
That was bad. There were way more fey than werewolves, and some of those fey were beyond powerful. If it came down to war, I wasn’t sure we’d win.
“So what do I do? I can’t fight all the fey, but I need Tessa back. She’s my mate. I can’t lose her—” I couldn’t think like that. She wasn’t gone forever. Just for now. Just until I found her. “I need her back. So, what do I do?”
“We confront Helen.” Van said that as if it were an actual plan instead of insanity. “I can’t guarantee your safety as I’d hoped, but if we ask her plainly, depending on what she tells us or gives away, we can make some real choices. But there’s going to be a battle ahead with the fey.”
He turned back to Cosette. “They won’t stand with what you’ve done.” His gaze slid to Chris. “What the three of us have done. We’ve insulted their strongest queen, and even with the threat of the archons, they will try to find a way to take us down. And not helping is the fact that the courts are upset at being confined to their underhills.” He looked at me. “They blame Tessa for that, and she was the easiest target in some ways. Cosette and I still have some allies among the courts.”
It always seemed like we were doing the best for everyone. We were fighting against evil without their help. We sacrificed our lives to protect this world. And they took offense how we did it?