“She’s right.” Tyler stepped up beside Sadra. “We’re here to stop Celise, not to fight each other. If we’re going to make it through this, we need to work together. Period.”
The alphas grumbled but nodded, the tension in the room easing slightly. Tyler let out a breath, thankful for Sadra’s intervention. But before anyone could speak, the air in the room shifted. A ripple of energy—sharp and electric—swept through the hall and raised the hair on the back of Tyler’s neck. Every supernatural present stilled, their voices falling silent as a shimmering portal appeared on the far side of the room.
A figure stepped through, and Tyler’s stomach dropped.
It was a djinn warrior. One he had not seen in a very long time. Raith.
The djinn’s golden eyes gleamed with amusement as he surveyed the room, his smirk sharp and mocking. He was tall and lean, his dark hair slicked back and his movements smooth as he strolled into the hall like he owned the place. His hands rested casually on his hips.
“Well,” Raith drawled, his voice smooth and dripping with amusement. “This is cozy. Quite the gathering. Alphas, fae, warlocks … wolves playing politics. How quaint.”
Synica, one of the djinn elders, rose from her seat, her expression cold. “Raith. Why are you here? It’s not like you to join in the plight of other supernaturals.”
Raith’s smirk widened. “Oh, you know me, Synica. I like to shake things up. Being predictable gets boring when you live as long as we do.” He shrugged and then continued. “Since I know it’s going to make your elder head pop off if I don’t actually give you an answer, I’ll humor you. Shade is up to some shady shit, pun intended, and I’m personally tired of it.”
“By the goddess,” Synica muttered as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
“How did you get here?” Tyler demanded.
Raith turned to him, tilting his head as though considering the question. “That’s actually an interesting tidbit of information, Alpha. My comrades and I acquired theNushtonia. Handy little artifact, isn’t it? Makes opening portals child’s play. One of those comrades is the shady one. Hence, again, why I’m here and not there with them.”
The room erupted into chaos. Voices rose in shock and anger, the alphas demanding answers while the djinn elders exchanged grim looks. They obviously did not think it was a good idea for Shade to have the powerful artifact. Tyler’s stomach sank. TheNushtonia—Celise’s weapon—had a new master. He wondered what that meant for Celise. Was she still alive? If so, did she still have the power that she’d been given by the Book of the Dead?
“And where are your comrades?”
“Is Celise still alive?”
Synica and Drayden spoke at the same time.
Raith looked at the Canada alpha, “She is alive, although quite pissed off that she’s lost her evil BFF. As far as I know, she’s still out there wreaking havoc like the deranged sprite that she seems to be. He turned to the djinn elder. “You mean Shade, Edric, and Valin?” Raith’s tone was light and mocking. “I left them at the veil of draheim. They’re trying to open it. Shade is trying to find Myanin. Celise couldn’t tell him which realm she was sent to because apparently that wasn’t part of the spell when she decided to treat Fane’s people like confetti and toss them into the air. But he did some blood bonding with the book and is convinced it’s told him she’s in the draheim realm, so I figured I’d let him get on with it.”
“Why is Shade looking for Myanin?” Myron, another djinn elder, asked, his dark eyes narrowing.
Raith chuckled, the sound sharp and hollow. “Oh, Myanin, the great tragedy of Shade’s life. Maybe you elders were too busy doing whatever it is you do. Long ago, Shade wanted Myanin for himself, but he felt she was too young. Myanin fell for someone new, and we all know how that turned out, right? Well, Shade? He’s still obsessed with her. Claims she’s his mate.” Raith snorted. “He can’t let go.” Raith folded his arms across his chest as he leaned a hip against the table. “He’s also a little obsessed with Thadrick, but not for the same reason. Fair warning, if Thadrick happens to come out of draheim realm, Shade is going to kill him.”
“Myanin is mated to Gerick. Does Shade know that?” Tyler frowned.
Raith’s smirk turned sharp. “Oh, he knows. He just doesn’t care. He’s almost as bad as you wolves with his possessiveness of her.”
“If that’s the case, then where has he been all these long centuries?”
Raith rolled his eyes at Synica. “He’s an immortal being who got butt-hurt because the girl he wanted went and fell for another guy. He’s been moping. And you know time is irrelevant to us. Ten years to us is like a month to a human.”
“So let me get this straight.” Jeff spoke up, resting his elbows on the table as he leaned forward in his chair. “A powerful supernatural being has a powerful, dark magical object, and he wants to use that object to get a female that isn’t his and kill a guy that said female chose over him?”
Raith winked and pointed at the Coldspring alpha. “Nailed it.”
Jeff shrugged. “Honestly, it just sounds like any other day in the supernatural world.”
“Fair,” Raith agreed.
Tyler’s mind raced as he exchanged a glance with Drayden. Shade using theNushtoniato open the veils so he could either kidnap his lost love or kill her former crush was a disaster waiting to happen—but it was also the only chance they had to free Fane, Gustavo, Ciro, and the others.
“If Shade is opening the veils,” Drayden said slowly, “then we need to be there. Not to stop him, but to help him. If the veils open, we can get our people back.”
Tyler nodded, his jaw tightening. “Agreed. We can’t win this war without them.”
“This isn’t a decision to take lightly,” Synica warned. “We have no idea if that book will open only one veil or all of them. And one of those veils was closed for a reason. If Shade’s plan backfires, we could unleash things far worse than Celise.”
