So I’d flirted with the pretty courtier, whose name I didn’t even remember. Samara had cried, and Rynn had put some typeof dye into my hair products that could only be described as puke green.
My options had been letting it grow out or shaving my head. I’d chosen the latter and learned that, while Alaric could pull off a closely shorn haircut quite well, I could not.
I’d been very careful to not piss off Rynn again after that.
“Those are wraith wounds.” Cali finally gave up on trying to get a better look at Rynn’s side but didn’t step back. “What. Happened.” She somehow made it more of an order than a question.
Clearly sensing how on edge her friend was, Rynn’s shoulders sagged and some of the defiance fled from her face. “It’s a long story, so I’m going to give you all the short version because we need to get back as soon as possible.”
“Get back where, exactly?” Alaric gave Rynn a questioning look.
Rynn opened her mouth but closed it, glancing at Aniela and then to Samara.
It was a gamble, but we needed more help, and my gut told me to trust Aniela. Apparently, Samara felt the same because she gave her best friend a curt nod.
“Ruined temple,” Rynn answered. “In the badlands.”
“I know that place . . .” Aniela trailed off with a frown. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“It’s where we got our asses kicked by some wraiths and barely survived.” My brows furrowed together. “Why exactly would we go back there?”
“Because I couldn’t remove the scrolls and books I found, and they have answers we need. Plus, Samara can read Unseelie faster than I can, and I’m pretty sure one of the books talks about the Seelie royal line.” She frowned. “Although why the Unseelie were writing about that, I’m not sure . . .”
Everyone stared at the lycan. I sighed and glanced at Samara, who was now sitting on the arm of the settee, leaning against Roth, the two of them smirking. They were used to Rynn’s roundabout way of explaining things.
I caught Samara’s eye and arched an eyebrow. She arched one back but took my hint to steer her friend back onto the trail. “Rynn,” she said evenly, “why don’t you start at the beginning? Like how you got from the far northern part of the Velesian realm to the badlands?”
“Oh . . . right.” Rynn nodded. “I found another one of those hidden rooms, like the one under Lake Malov, but underneath the Alpha House. I . . . uhh . . . might have locked the Alphas out and then stepped through a mirror that took me to another room, which turned out to be underneath that shitty, abandoned temple.”
“Feels like there’s a lot to unpack there,” Draven said in a completely even tone.
I chuckled while Alaric rubbed his forehead and Vail redirected his glare from Cali to Rynn.
Aniela pondered all of us from where she was settled between Petra and Brennan, her lips quirked up in a barely there smirk.
“Fae mirrors,” Roth said slowly and then looked up at Samara. “We’ve read about them, but it seemed like they were for communication—not travel.”
“Maybe the Fae here adapted them?” Samara mused. “I mean, it makes sense, right? Before they turned themselves into wraiths, they would have had to travel through this fucked-up land of monsters too. That’d be a lot easier if they could just step through a mirror in one location and end up on the other side of the continent.”
“I’m sorry,” Brennan cut in, leaning forward slightly. “Did you just say that the wraiths used to be Fae?”
Samara nodded.
Brennan looked around Aniela and pointed aggressively at Petra. “I fuckingtoldyouthey were Fae! The Unseelie fucked up their shadow magic somehow.”
“Actually, it was the Seelie,” Samara corrected. “We don’t exactly know what happened to the Unseelie, but the Seelie did something to steal their shadows. I’m guessing the Unseelie are dead.”
“Can we focus please?” Vail growled.
For the first time since entering the room, Rynn looked at Vail, and a golden sheen rolled over her eyes before she went predatorily still. Samara cleared her throat, and after a second, Rynn relaxed. Slightly.
Something told me it wouldn’t be a humiliating but ultimately harmless prank she played on him in the future. Vail had knocked her out and stolen the crown off her unconscious form before absconding with it. Sure, he might have stashed her body behind a magical ward to keep her safe until she’d woken up, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d fucking attacked her.
For a second, there was regret in Vail’s dark grey eyes before he hid it. “You found another hidden room beneath the Alpha Pack stronghold. Somehow—and I don’t give a fuck about the specifics or the historical implications”—he gave Samara and Roth a hard look before focusing on Rynn again—“you used the mirror to travel across Lunaria and ended up in a different hidden room, this time beneath the abandoned temple, yes?”
“Correct.” Rynn started pacing, stepping around Cali. “It’s, like, triple the size of the one beneath the lake. I think maybe it was some kind of archive?—”
“Stop,” Vail cut her off again, earning himself a warning growl from Cali, which he ignored. Brave man. Stupid too. Pissing off Cali seemed like a good way to get your dick cut off. “Why did you leave the room, Rynn? What sent you into thebadlands instead of back through that mirror and to the safety of the Alpha Pack?”
