“And that’s the part of herself she wants to destroy.” Nate stood and started to pace.
I glanced over and saw that Trent had come in. He wore a pair of pajama pants and had a mug of coffee in his hand. He leaned against the door jamb as though simply letting me know he was there. I cocked a brow to let him know I wouldn’t hate his opinion.
One broad shoulder shrugged. “He’s not necessarily wrong. Nate, you have to know how hard it is for her to give up on anyone she cares about.”
“I know and I love her for it, but she’s got to understand the rules of engagement are different now,” Nate argued. “Liv is different now. If she doesn’t kill you it’s because Myrddin wants you alive. She’s doing his bidding, and if he tells her to kill you, she will. I know I’m supposed to stay out of it, but Jamie and I have been keeping track of things.”
Trent huffed. “What?”
“We live in Dallas. You can’t expect us to completely stay away. Our families are at stake.” Nate’s spine straightened, his expression turning stubborn. “And we’ve stayed as careful as possible, but I know some things. I have friends who are willing to get me information. I didn’t contact anyone because I knew we weren’t at a point where you could use it, and I knew you would freak out if you found out we had a couple of spies. One of Jeanie’s closest friends is another shifter who specializes in small creatures. I mean really small.”
“We’ve tried sending shifters in.” Trent moved into the room now, joining the conversation that I suspected would turn into a lecture for my brother. “Myrddin’s cat killed two of them. We couldn’t ask more to risk their lives.”
“Because you sent in mice or rats or birds,” Nate replied. “But Alecia can shift into a fly.”
Trent’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
The shifter body can do some remarkable things. Many shifters can move into bodies that were much smaller than their human ones, hence the rodent spies Trent and Sasha had used. However, Myrddin had a familiar, and according to our intelligence, the cat had been trained to kill any small creature who entered his master’s home. But a fly might go unnoticed. A fly might sit high on a windowsill, listening in at all hours of the day.
But I had some questions. “I thought they had wards.”
“That’s the brilliant part,” Nate remarked. “They’ve found that unlike werecreatures, who they can ward against with a single spell, shifters are different. Each family is unique and requires special wards, and the wards that would normally keep out humans don’t work when a shifter is in his or her form.”
“How long have you had this spy in the building?” Trent asked shortly.
I knew all of that wolf’s tells and he was pissed, but he was also going to use whatever my brother had done to better our position.
“Alecia’s only been in a couple of times over the last few months. We didn’t want to overuse her. She’s got a life outside of the spying she does for us,” Nate explained. “I know she’s risking her life every time she goes in, so all she’s done so far is some surveillance. She’s been documenting who lives where in the building. I’m going to be honest. I was going to use it to prove to you a group of shifters who can small shift will work as frontline spies.”
“I’d like to see everything she’s done so far. Can she listen in while she’s in fly form?” Trent asked.
“In certain forms. Most flies don’t have the ability to hear, but a few parasitic ones do. Alecia had to get the right form down but now she hears quite well,” Nate replied.
“So we could potentially put her in one of their meetings.” Trent seemed to be warming to the idea.
“Once she’s had some more training,” Nate allowed. “But she’s already overheard some interesting things. She went in yesterday and Myrddin is worried about the queen. He knows she stole his grimoire and believes she also took the sword. He’s looked everywhere for them. Done every kind of locator spell.”
“We knew that. He’s not a fool. When one of the world’s best thieves pretty much loathes you and your precious goes missing, it was probably her.” I didn’t doubt Myrddin would know who to blame, but I’d been assured no locator spell would be able to find that bag. However we had other problems. “I think the queen might be going for the bag today.”
“Myrddin knows she’ll come for it at some point, but he thinks his wards will hold,” Nate replied. “This is the important part, and it might not mean anything at all for now since we don’t have the sword.”
“You found out something about Gladys?” I sat up straighter. My brain went straight to the worst-case scenario. “Please tell me he hasn’t figured out how to unleash her power on his own.”
“No, but he does have some theories on how she stores power and that she doesn’t have to use it all the minute she fights. He believes Kelsey can choose which power she uses.”
“Absolutely. When I fought Jude in the arena, it was almost like there was a file I could flip through. I had access to all of the power, but I chose which one to use.” I could still remember how it felt to have all that power at my fingertips, but I’d been afraid Gladys had been drained.
“According to Myrddin the power is still there. He believes the sword has sentience and can make choices of its own,” Nate continued. “Which is why he feels like he’s going to need you to wield it and the queen to power it. He thinks he might be able to use Evan, but he definitely needs you to convince the sword to do what he wants.”
“Good luck with that.” I wasn’t about to tell Gladys to help out the evil wizard.
“Kelsey, he can use the people you love to force you,” Trent pointed out. “This is why I need you to be careful. He can use Fenrir or me. And you have to know what I would want.”
I moved into my guy’s space. “You would want me to save you.”
“I would want you to do what’s right for our family and the plane.” His hands came up to brush back my hair. “I would want you to know when it was time to make the sacrifice.”
I wasn’t going to sacrifice him at all, but I simply hugged him and agreed because it wouldn’t do to argue with him.