Beck shook his head. “You can’t get us out. They’ll be on us the minute we leave the Dellacourt building. You can’t save us, Uncle Alex. It’s fate that we came back here just as this happened.”
Cian’s mouth turned down. “Save Meg. Beck and I will find a way. Torin will wait to kill us. He’ll want to make it public.”
Dante’s mother stood and grasped his father’s hand. “Please, Alex. You have to help them. We can’t turn them over. They’re all I have left of my sister.”
His father looked down at his mother, love shining in his eyes. Gods, he loved his parents. Dante turned to Kaja and sent out his own love. His parents had taught him how to love. He’d always thought their wealth and position was the greatest gift they had given him, but now he could see. His parents’ passion had informed his own. Kaja was a song in his soul.
“I would never turn them over, wife. They’re my blood, too. Dante and I have a plan.” Alexander waved to the servants. They opened the door.
Vampire Meg walked in, and all eyes shifted her way.
“Holy shit, that’s me.” Meg stepped up and looked at the mirrorlike version of herself.
“That’s so cool,” they both said in unison.
“There are two of them,” Cian breathed as he and Beck stepped up. “Will you look at that, brother? Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Beck slapped at his brother’s chest. “No. I know what you’re thinking. And you’re crazy if you think she’s going to do that. I’m thinking that’s twice the trouble.”
Real Meg turned, her face in a perfectly outraged mask. “Cian Finn. That is not happening.”
Vampire Meg smiled at the brothers. “I don’t know. That might be fun.”
Meg’s eyes narrowed.
Vampire Meg paled. “Or not.”
“And they call you the smart one,” Beck huffed under his breath.
Kaja had come to Dante’s side, and she slipped her hand into his. Just touching her brought him a feeling of peace. He kissed her hair and prayed he never ran into her twin. One Kaja was all he could handle. “Vampire Meg has agreed to pose as the queen. We found a set of vampire twins with the proper coloring. In thirty minutes, they are going to flee the building. Shortly after that, Beck, Cian, and Meg will leave very quietly from the ground. We have a hovercar and a group of soldiers waiting to take us to the west door. It will be guarded, but Simon Roan assures me he’ll kill anyone who tries to stop us.”
Beck turned to
him. “It sounds dangerous.”
“Everything is dangerous from here on out, cos. You know the way this will go.” Dante squeezed Kaja’s hand.
Cian put a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Yes. There is no other path, brother. I know you wanted to live peacefully, but Torin won’t allow it. And you know what he’s doing. If he has his way, he’ll purge the Seelie plane of undesirables, and then he will go after the other planes. We can’t duck this fight anymore. It’s time to stand. It’s time to claim what is ours.”
Beck seemed to grow taller. He took his place at Meg’s side, the three connected in ways Dante knew most people couldn’t dream of. “Then we’ll go. We’ll meet with Fergus and see what happens.”
His mother hugged all three of them. “We’ll work from here. We’ll do everything we can.”
Cian shook his head. “You have to be careful, Aunt Alana. You can’t let them know you’re helping. If it comes to it, you have to renounce us.”
His father took his mother’s hand and pulled her into a comforting embrace. Susan and Colin stood.
“It won’t come to that,” Susan said. “We have power, Ci. Once the Council realizes what our sunscreen can do, they will back off. We won’t be able to openly defy them, but we’ll have their balls in our hands, if you know what I mean.”
That was his sister, a ballbuster to the end.
He was going to miss her.
“We need to leave soon. I want to be on our way right as the decoys leave.” Dante had a bag packed for both him and Kaja, but they wouldn’t be taking much. He would have to learn to travel light.
The room erupted into chaos as his parents and sister began to argue. Dante listened to all the reasons he shouldn’t go with a patient ear. This was why he hadn’t mentioned this part of the plan until now. Meg started in on how it was too dangerous, and Cian told him to stay behind as well.
“Stop!” Beck’s command had everyone taking a step back. The room quieted. The warrior king of the Seelie Fae looked at Dante. “You know what you’re giving up, cos?”