“Are you okay, Lizzie?” Jessa asked, her voice low, sounding like she was hovering just above my head.
“I’m fine,” I said, voice muffled. “Just communing with nature.”
“She’s filling her energy,” Tyson and Grace said at the same time.
As more of my power returned, some of the hopelessness I’d been feeling faded away. I wasn’t exactly optimistic as I got to my feet, but I also wasn’t ready to just give up.
“What do we do now?” Braxton stared at me, his eyes shimmering with yellow. “Our borders have not been touched since we left, which means Louis is still inside. Somewhere.”
I sent out my own senses, giving the town a quick once-over. “There’s a congregation of supes in the main hall,” I told them. “Louis is on the other side of Stratford though … near a waterfall. But I can sense no death and destruction, so he’s containing himself.”
“He’s at his house,” Jessa said, turning to her mate. “What could he be doing there?”
“He might be contained now, but it’ll only take one issue, right?” Grace interrupted.
I nodded. He was a bomb waiting to go off right now.
Grace turned to her jeweled sisters. “I think we should go back to Faerie. If anyone knows how to combat darkness, it’s our people there. Maybe they’ll have some insights that will help us save Louis?”
I personally thought that was a great idea. Not all darkness was the same, and the shadows were not what had Louis in their grasp, but the basic concept of the energy he was now possessed by was the same as that of the demons.
“I’ll go with you,” Tyson said to Grace.
She shook her head, reaching up and placing both of her palms against his face. “I want you with me more than anything, but the danger is here. You need to stay and keep our family safe. You need to keep Stratford safe.” She stood on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips. “We need to save Louis, one way or another. He deserves to be saved. We can’t turn our backs on him now.”
Worry was written across every line of Tyson’s face, but he didn’t argue with his mate; he just kissed her, and the emotions between them were strong enough that it was a tangible thing. “I love you,” she murmured against his lips, and then they pulled apart.
Tyson’s eyes never left the face of his redheaded witch. He watched her as she opened a step-through to Faerie. He watched her usher the other princesses through. He almost followed, but somehow managed to stop himself.
“Wait,” Jacob called out just before Justice was about to disappear. She spun around, her expression blank even though there was definitely something simmering in her eyes. “Be careful,” the fey Compass said. “Faerie might be the land of your birth, but it’s filled with many dangers. You seem to have a natural predisposition toward trouble, and … we might need your help back here. So … don’t die.”
Justice blinked, some of the blankness fading out as stronger emotions took over. “Thank you for that heartwarming concern,” she drawled. “I’m just filled with all the softer feelings.”
She then turned to step through the doorway again, but spun around at the last minute and flipped him off. When she disappeared, I noticed Jacob had the slightest smile tipping up the corner of his lips. Having met the other females in his pack, I knew the Compasses were not afraid of strong women. If anything, they seemed to embrace the strongest of supes. Justice might not realize it, but she’d just intrigued him even more with her attitude.
The doorway disappeared, and I could feel new tension in Tyson. Grace hadn’t even been gone a minute and he was not doing so well.
The four Compasses and Jessa and Mischa gathered closer to me.
“Tell us what we need to do.” Jessa was all business, her eyes locked on me like a laser. “I refuse to let Louis turn into something evil. There must be a way to bring him back.”
I racked my brain trying to figure out what I knew that might help. “First we need to consult with the chiefs and elders. If anyone has the knowledge of how to bring him back, it will be one of them.”
To my knowledge, any mages in the past who went really dark ended up dead in a battle. Most of those mages were weaker to start with, which was why they turned to the darkness, looking for power. Most of them also pushed it one step further and ended up demon touched. I wasn’t sure there were any cases like Louis’s. It was unique, just like the sorcerer himself.
“We can send a mass message to the other leaders,” Maximus said. “We’re all linked into the same global network.”
I thought on this for a moment. “Can you word it so they don’t all immediately storm into Stratford guns blazing to take Louis down?”
If word reached anyone that he had gone dark, there would be panic. He was already feared. Dark Louis was their worst nightmare.
“We’ll be circumspect,” Braxton promised. “Unless there’s no other option.”
I could hear the warning in his words. If we didn’t figure out how to contain Louis, they would not hesitate in taking him down.
Jessa glared at her mate. “I know you’re going to tryveryhard to save Louis before you try to kill him. Or we’re going to have some serious problems.”
Braxton chuckled and leaned over to kiss her forehead. “Jessa babe, you know I consider Louis pack. I don’t give up on pack. Not ever. We will save him, but it doesn’t hurt to have a backup plan.”
