Ben pulled Koios closer. He needed the comfort of his mate. “Cosmo…he’s in trouble.”
“He is. But faun are hard to kill, so we’ll need to prepare for both Cosmo and Silenus to be pretty badly hurt.”
Ben held Koios closer as he made a mental list of all the medical supplies he’d need to take with him. “What about the warriors and the hobgoblins? Koios, how could the manticore have gotten through all of them to get to the throne of the Unseelie?”
“He had a hobgoblin of his own,” Koios said. “You know that.”
Ben shuddered. The hobgoblin, Revenant, had tortured Jack at the command of the manticore. He could only imagine what the manticore had ordered done to his friends. But Revenant was dead, so did the manticore have multiple hobgoblins on his payroll?
If he wanted answers about the fae and couldn’t reach Cosmo, he had a brother-in-law who had served as the captain of the queen’s guard. Loch would know what to do. Ben opened his phone again.
“We need to get Loch—” Ben began, but Koios cut him off.
“No, Ben. Loch needs to stay with his mates and their children. He’s the only fae among them, and he’s too close to the Chosen One for us to risk his involvement. Think about it.”
“If Sawyer is involved, even through his mates, it threatens to undo the magical balance again.” Ben shuddered and dropped his head. He rested his forehead against Koios’s hair and breathed in his mate’s scent.
“Which is exactly what Jim is hoping we’ll do. He wants chaos, Ben. He needs it. He’s desperate to keep the magic unbalanced, to keep the human realm sealed.”
“Then we’ll call Uncle?—”
“Ben,stop. The hellhounds are champions of thehumanrealm and work directly for the goddess. If they intervene in the Unseelie realm, it causes the same domino effect. We can’t depend on the gods and their champions for this battle. We are the champions for this cause.”
“But we’re from the human realm. It’s not logical, Koios. If we help, then we’re doing the same thing by intervening. We’re causing the chaos. Except…” Ben paused and thought through the little he knew about chaos magic before continuing “…we’re already chaos impacted by the manticore. We’re part of his chaos, so it won’t disrupt anything else if we’re involved to stop it.”
Koios nodded. “We first discovered the manticore’s dirty deeds and we’ve been dismantling his cause ever since. We have turned his chaos back onto him more than once, and this will be the last time. Chaos always finds a way, Ben. You don’t defeat chaos with calm.”
“You beat it with a different kind of chaos.”
“Exactly. And speaking of chaos, your Papa’s going to kill me,” Koios said. “Why am I more scared of him than the manticore?”
“Because you’re about to take two of his sons into battle in a place he can’t follow. He’s not going to be happy. None of my family are.”
“But you’ll go anyway.”
“I won’t leave your side,” Ben said. He put his hand around Koios’s neck and pulled him close. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not scared.”
Koios’s wings spread, so much stronger than they’d been mere days ago when Ben examined him. How had it only been a few days? It didn’t matter, though. Koios may not be at one hundred percent physically, but Ben would follow him into battle any day of the week.
If anyone was smart enough to save Cosmo, it would be Koios. Now they just needed the plan to do it.
23
KOIOS
Logan aptly described the conference room at the warehouse as a war room. Koios had his computer system set up at one end of the long table. Multiple screens lined the walls. Everyone who’d been to the Unseelie realm had given him hasty notes describing what they remembered.
Some information was better than none. They’d set the planning meeting for two hours after Ben updated them on Tyson’s condition. They would be alerted if he regained consciousness, but Koios believed Ben when he said it wasn’t likely to happen before they needed to head into Unseelie territory.
“How’s this?” Taj placed a sketch by Koios’s hand. He’d been one of the only members of the pack to visit the throne room of the Unseelie Court.
Considering it was the most protected location, they had it set as their likely target. Koios was prepared to shift their plans at a moment’s notice, which was why he had an ancient set of walkie-talkies torn apart in front of him, scavenging for a few more parts to complete their new comms.
“It looks good. Any other entrances that you noticed?”
“No,” Taj said. “There’s the main entrance with the big doors. The exit the king and king consort would use is in the back. And the servants entrance is in the back corner behind the fountain.”
“That’s the best way in,” Phoebe said.
