“I’m their prisoner,” he says, sounding perfectly cheerful. “Any chance you lot object to the unlawful capture and imprisonment of innocent men?”
“Innocent,” Jett scoffs. “Sure.”
Kai shakes his head, as if deciding that this is too much for him. He looks at Fox again, and I can tell they’re communicating silently before Kai abruptly switches back to normal speech. “Right. Well, I’ll go try and smooth things over. You all should probably wait before you follow me, give us half an hour if you can. A full hour would be better.”
Fox nods in silent agreement, as Kai’s fingers work at the buckles of his armor, the metal clasps clicking open one by one. He strips off his breastplate, leaving it in the snow next to Fox, then yanks off his tunic as well.
“Whoa there,” Connell says, raising his eyebrows. “Didn’t realize we were getting dinner and a show.”
Kai ignores him, dropping his armor piece by piece onto the snow. In one fluid motion that still makes my breath catch, his body contorts and shifts, fur sprouting where skin had been seconds before. The sandy-brown wolf that was Kai shakes once, then bounds away through the trees, leaving nothing but paw prints in the fresh snow.
As soon as Kai leaves, Jett raises an eyebrow at us. “So…you’re soul-bonded, are you?”
Simultaneously, Fox and I raise a hand to quiet him. I glance over my shoulder toward where Kai disappeared, listening as hard as I can for the distant sound of his footsteps. I’m all too aware by now of how good the wolves’ hearing is, and I know we have to wait at least a minute before we can speak.
“Alright, go ahead,” I say, lowering my hand even as I glance quickly at Fox to make sure he agrees we’ve waited long enough. He gives a single nod, and lowers his hand as well.
Jett watches us with a strange expression on his face. His eyes flick to the bite mark on my neck, then over to Fox. “I’m not sure if I should say congratulations or ask what the fuck you’re thinking.”
“We’re not really bonded,” I explain.
Fox grumbles beside me, his shoulder tense against mine. He merely nods in agreement. “They would have killed her if she weren’t my mate. They saw her using magic.”
“Alright…” Jett narrows his eyes at us. “Yet you’re living with them. Why?”
“Because it’s the best way to get into the palace,” I explain, pulling my cloak tighter against the cold. “The wolves report to the queen every month.”
Fox shakes his head beside me. “They report to her emissary,” he corrects, his breath visible in the frigid air. “No one even knows the queen’s name.”
“Whatever,” I wave him off. “But wait, what did Kai mean about you helping him?”
“Yeah, what exactly have you volunteered me for?” Jett asks, grinning. “Not that I mind, I just want to know if I’m going to have to pretend to be your mate too.”
Fox growls and tosses Jett an exasperated look. “We’re traveling to the palace tonight at midnight. Kai wants me to kill the queen of Thermia.”
I wait a beat for it to sink in, but all I can think of to say is, “Oh.”
Immediately a million thoughts start racing through my brain. Why? How? How long has Fox known that? Just because Kai asked, is he willing to do it? Was he ever planning to tell me? And, what if the queen turns out to be my mother? Will it matter to him what I want?
“That’s a bit dramatic,” Connell comments conversationally. “You lot certainly get involved with a lot of royalty. I went my whole life not bothered by any of this rubbish, and now there’s a new plot every other month.”
“When I met you, you were an assassin for the king of Hydratta,” Jett says, sounding exasperated.
“Barely,” Connells scoffs, waving him off. “That was just a small assassination plot. More of a kidnapping, really, and it’s not as if you can hold that against me, can you? You kidnap people all the time. Me, for example.”
“Can’t you control him?” Fox demands.
“If only,” Jett grumbles, looking momentarily irritated before his usual smile returns. “So fine. Your wolf friend wants you to kill the queen. Not exactly what I had in mind, but I suppose we could make that happen. I still don’t understand what the two of you are doing here at all, though.”
I take a deep breath, feeling the cold air fill my lungs. “We’re here because of me. Because according to Beatrix, it’s possible that I have living family here in Thermia.”
Jett looks startled. “Really? Your mother is still alive, then?”
I nod. “It seems that way, but if she is…” I suck in another breath to steady myself. “It’s very likely that she’s the queen that you’re all talking about killing.”
Fox shifts uncomfortably, his eyes boring holes in the side of my head.
It doesn’t take long to bring Jett up to speed on the rest of the story about my mother, the sister I have never met, and how one or both of them might still be in Thermia.
