Peri glanced around to gauge how the rest of the group would take Jen’s words. The she-wolf wasn’t without feeling. If anything she felt things more deeply than many of them. But she was a woman of action. That was how Jen grieved, by taking that pain and fueling it into something useful. No one argued with her. All heads turned to Fane.
Decebel growled low in his throat, his amber eyes glowing as he held Thia in his arms. Even at three, or however the hell old she was, she looked small next to her father. “I agree with my mate. What now? Where do we go from here?”
Before Fane could answer, a pulse of power rippled the ground, and Peri turned her gaze on Gerick, whose dark eyes were fixed on theNushtonia. Her grip on him had loosened under the song of the wolves, and the magic that had grown in him was pushing at her own bindings. The book pulsed faintly, the magic within it alive and dangerous. He didn’t move, didn’t speak, but the tension in his body was palpable. For a moment, everyone had forgotten that they’d lost another in their group. Though not to death, she was still gone, and her mate was barely holding it together.
Lilly approached him cautiously, her steps slow and deliberate. She glanced at the book, then at Gerick, her grey eyes soft with understanding. “Here.” She picked up theNushtoniafrom where it lay on the ground and held it out to him.
Fane’s head snapped toward her, his voice sharp. “Lilly, no.”
She turned to him, her expression calm but firm. “If Jacque was trapped inside that book, wouldn’t you want to hold it? Wouldn’t you want to be the one keeping her close?”
Fane’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue. The answer for every male with a mate would be a resounding “yes.”
Lilly handed the book to Gerick. “Promise me you won’t try to open it on your own. Promise me.”
Gerick’s hands trembled as he took the book, his dark eyes meeting hers. “I promise.”
Peri watched him closely, her magic brushing against his. She could feel the power running through him, stronger than before. It radiated off him in waves, pulsing like a heartbeat. “Something is different,” she said, mostly to herself. “Warlocks haven’t had power like that in a very long time.”
“It must be from theNushtoniabeing opened,” Synica, the djinn elder, said, her tone thoughtful. “The book siphons magic. It always has. It will continue to. But it also seems to be leaking it as well.”
Before Peri could respond, a flash of light illuminated the clearing. Gwen appeared, her silver hair gleaming under the moonlight. Finn, Lizzy, Maxim, Alice, Chris, and Cindy stepped out behind her. Their expressions were grim as they took in the scene. Cindy’s gaze frantically roamed over the group. Her eyes found what she was looking for—Sally—and she relaxed just a bit.
Alice’s gaze landed on the healers gathered around Jewel, and her face paled. “What happened?” Her voice trembled.
The answers came in fragments, spoken by different voices, each one laced with pain.
“We got bitch-slapped by a genie in a book,” Jen growled, her pain turning to anger.
“It’s sort of a long story.” Andora let out a shaky breath.
“Raja, the ruler of the Realm of the Dead, was freed from where he’d been trapped in theNushtonia.The only way he could be freed was if Jewel escaped the book as well. Myanin didn’t know this when she took matters into her own hands and switched places with Jewel. The result was their deaths.” Peri motioned to the couple. “And Raja’s freedom.” It was a very simple recap of what had happened, but then Peri figured the details could be sorted out later. What she’d said would do the job for now.
Peri watched as Lizzy made her way over to Kara, Finn right behind her. She took her friend's hand, and Peri could see how much it hurt the hybrid to see her friend in such anguish. Another person brought into the supernatural world and touched by its darkness.
Fane turned his attention to the djinn elders—Synica, Clarion, Myron, and Rouse. Fane’s blue eyes burned with barely restrained fury, his voice a low growl. “You trapped Raja before. Do it again.” He was not playing around. Peri hadn’t seen this much anger in Fane since his parents' deaths. She’d managed to keep him under control when he’d started to lose it, but she had to admit that it had shocked her at how much power she’d had to use.
The elders exchanged uneasy glances, but it was Synica who spoke. “We can’t. The magic required to do so nearly destroyed us the first time. We won’t survive it again.”
Fane took a step forward, his body radiating power, but Jacque’s hand on his arm kept him from losing control.
Peri closed in. She needed to nip this in the bud before things went south. “We don’t have time to fight amongst ourselves. And it won’t do us any good,” she pointed out. “We are all raw from this, and our emotions are running high.” She looked at Fane, meeting his glowing, blue gaze. “If they say no, then we accept that and figure out a new plan. We find others. Supernaturals willing to give everything.” Her gaze shifted back to Synica. “If you won’t do it, we will.”
“What about Myanin?” Tenia asked, stepping forward. Skender, her mate, matched her movement, his own gaze hard as he stared at the djinn. “You won’t even try for her? Does she mean so little to you?”
The djinn elders didn’t seem moved by the fae’s words. “One life is not worth what it would cost an entire race,” Myron answered, his voice hard like steel. “She had noble intentions, and we will honor her memory. We will even help you as much as we can without sacrificing the power of our race. But if we cannot get her back through these means, then we have to let her go. All of us.”
“Not good enough.” Tenia’s eyes blazed with fury. Myanin was her friend. The loyalty that was evident in the fae’s face made it clear that she would do whatever it took to get her back.
“We don’t leave people behind.” Jacque growled, standing tall next to her mate. At some point in all this Slate had been handed off to her, and she held her son on her hip. She looked no less fierce with a baby in her arms. Her chin was lifted in defiance, and her own alpha power radiated off her. “We won’t decline any help you will give, but if you stand in the way of us saving Myanin, then you are no longer considered an ally.”
“Bloody hell,”Peri reached out to Lucian.“So much for deescalating things.”
“We will get her back,” Lucian spoke up. “I think you’ve seen that we have a pretty good track record of retrieving those who we have claimed as pack.”
“Damn straight.” Jen nodded sharply in agreement.
“Hell yeah.” Thia clapped, her little voice breaking up some of the tension that had filled the space.
