“Have fun, Brothers,” Fallon said. He was in charge of the group I was leaving behind to guard Pride Palace and, more importantly, the children.
“You have fun babysitting,” Aidan shot back.
“Hey!” I pointed at Aidan, then at the twenty men who were staying behind. “Their job is more important than yours. What is Pride Palace?” I called to the Intare.
“Home!” the Intare called back.
“And the children?”
“Tima's tima!”
Their heart's heart.
“That's right,” I said. “If they are hurt, we are all hurt. Protect our home and hearts.”
“Tima!” the Intare roared my title. Then they surprised me by adding, “Death!”
I blinked, looked back at them, then saw Kirill inclining his head. They'd been showing their god respect, not calling for death to our enemy, as I thought they might have been. The Pride now had a connection to Death and Winter through Kirill. I guess it sounded more badass to shout death rather than winter. We weren't the Starks, after all.
I looked from Kirill to Odin, then to Az—my holy trinity of death gods. Katila wouldn't escape us as easily as he had the Void.
Chapter Forty-Two
My husbands and I traced to the Golden Citadel. We were trying to make as much of a spectacle of our arrival at the hotel as possible without being obvious. We didn't rent limos or anything like that since we had never done so before, but we had an impressive parade, nonetheless. A line of five black SUVs rolled out of the citadel gates, some of our ex-Wild Fey employees driving while the two cars behind and in front of us held citadel knights.
Everyone was on guard, waiting for Katila to show himself, even those we were leaving behind at the citadel. It would be harder for him to sneak up on us while we were moving, even with his ghost magic. A vehicle driving on its own would be pretty noticeable. But no one lowered their guard, and we made it to the Feyview Hotel without incident.
Before we got out of our car, the knights got out of their vehicles and did a sweep of the area outside the hotel and the lobby. The hotel manager came out to meet us, but one of the knights stopped him from getting too close.
“It's all right,” Az said as he climbed out, his wings drawing in to exit, then expanding. “You can let him through.”
Pedestrians stopped and stared. Phones popped up. The knights formed a wall between the excited humans and us, their stares continuously scanning the crowd. I was hoping that if Katila hadn't seen any of the advertising we'd been doing online and on television, he'd at least see something on social media. But who knows how modern he was? Our little get-to-know-each-other conversation had been cut short.
Azrael reached into the car and helped me out, then the others climbed out after me. The crowd got even more excited. People started shouting Azrael's name. Well, not his name, his title in that body. Cameras flashed—professional ones. The paparazzi were there. For the first time, I was thrilled to have them. I almost waved.
But we couldn't look eager. And truly, my delight to see all the cameras was outweighed by the fact that Katila could be standing among the paparazzi, watching us.
“Welcome to the Feyview Hotel, Sir. I'm Daniel Clark, the hotel manager.” The man who approached us was slim, in his forties, and of average height.
I didn't look any closer than that since I'd smelled him as he was walking up, and he was pure human. I just let Az handle him and went back to searching the area with every sense I had. A non-scent amid all those people would stand out to me. As it would in a packed ballroom. I just had to keep breathing deeply.
Azrael spoke to the manager while we went into the hotel, but again, I didn't catch everything said. It was the standard stuff—if there's anything I can do for you, we're so glad to have you here, yada yada. We went through a lobby with a ceiling tall enough for me to shift into my dragon form. I stared up at the magnificent chandeliers hanging from gilded beams.Hand-blown glass, shaped to resemble sprays of purple flowers glittered from the lights set inside them. Beautiful. I'd have to remember the design and try to recreate it at home with territory magic.
Being a goddess has its perks.
Beneath those glass flower chandeliers, a nature theme became evident. Chairs were upholstered in green fabric, a forest's worth of plant life was strewn about in giant porcelain pots, and statues of faeries posed beside the greenery. Real faeries. They even had an accurate likeness of a Red Cap.
We followed the manager to the back of the hotel, past reception, the elevators, and then the casino. The chaotic clang, whistles, bells, and dings of slot machines and pop music were definitely loud enough to drown out most other sounds. Not the sound of a battle, but that was all right. There was more than one reason we were arriving early.
“Are you certain you don't need any of our servers to help with the buffet?” the manager asked.
“No, thank you. We prefer to keep this as private as possible.”
“Our staff is very—”
Azrael lifted a hand, and the man shut up. “The arrangements have been made by the staff, not by me, Mr. Clark. If you will recall, I'm only a guest at this event. I've brought my security team, but that is all.”
“Oh. Yes, Sir. One of my staff is speaking to Mr. Webb in the ballroom. I wanted to be the one to welcome you.”
