The queen kissed Meryn's temple. "You're the only one who could have possibly gotten through to me."
Meryn sniffled. "I know."
"Is it because she's your niece?" Law asked, then pointed to Darian and Oron. "Wouldn't they have worked?"
The queen shook her head. "It had to be Meryn, because I know for a fact that she would never, ever want to take the throne. The absurdity of the whole scenario got through my anger, defenses, and guilt."
"Aunt Aleks, we have ferals trying to get into the city," Meryn said, leaning back to look up at the queen.
Aleksandra sighed. "I know. Of course, I know. I’ve known from the beginning. I just cannot fathom how."
"That's where we can help," Aiden said, opening his eyes. "We've been dealing with these kind of scenarios for months now."
Meryn sighed. "There's something else we need to figure out in addition to the portals," she said, leaning to one side to rest her head against Brennus' shoulder.
"There's something else?" Kincaid asked incredulously. "Isn't that enough?"
Meryn shrugged. "I'm not making the rules here."
Brennus kissed her forehead. "What have you figured out now?"
Meryn glanced at the queen, then looked around the table before staring down at her hands.
The queen placed her fingers under her chin and lifted her face. "No matter what you say, I won't be angry," she promised.
"Ferals and reapers trying to get into a pillar city to wreak havoc is kinda normal now, right? First in Lycaonia then in Noctem Falls."
Thane winced. "I hate that that is normal for you."
"Go on," Kendrick encouraged.
"Well, them trying to get into Éire Danu makes sense." She looked over at Oron. "What I don't get is, if his family murdered Darian's family like thousands of years ago, how come they aren't drooling insane ferals? Aren't the necklaces kinda a new thing?"
Ari felt his heart constrict. How had no one caught that?
Meryn continued. "The queen said they should have faded honorably, which means they weren't a typical feral back then, right?" She eyed her aunt. "I woulda killed every single one, but that's just me."
The queen grimaced. "They were all mated, Meryn.
I would have been sentencing innocent women to insanity or death. The men were bound by magic to be docile, so they could be handled by their mates. Over time, the women's lights would dim, meaning they would have had time to fade honorably, taking their mates with them."
"Obviously that didn't happen. How did Oron's dad regain and keep his mind intact?"
The queen sighed and collapsed against the back of her chair. "I have no idea; it should have been impossible."
Meryn gave her a wry look. "Y'all really need to work on redefining your sense of impossible, because that shit is happening all over the damn place."
Ain't that the damn truth, Ari thought as the whole room nodded in agreement.
Chapter Two
"I want to apologize to you, Ari," the queen said, with a pained expression.
"For what, Your Majesty?" he asked, bewildered.
"You've been doing so much to protect the city. It must not have been easy."
Ari pointed to Aiden. "Your nephew is the one you should be thanking. He made arrangements to get unit warriors from Lycaonia here to train us on how to fight invisible ferals." Ari decided he'd take this opportunity to get the queen caught up, especially if she was in a forgiving mood. "Kendrick and Thane have also been teaching our unit witches how to use sweeps to combat the enemy in large open spaces, as well as creating distant early warning spells all along the Border City perimeter."