Morgana raised an eyebrow, looking intrigued. “A hair from the king of the Greywolves?” She grinned and Brayden stepped closer to her.
“Ifyou vow, on your magic, toneveruse it against me,” he said.
She sighed. “Done. But when she comes back in a month, I want a hair fromherhead. She has more power than you at this moment.”
Brayden frowned at that and I wanted to smack this lady. Being a former king of the Greywolves, I couldn’t imagine how powerful Brayden used to be. And now that he was basically magically castrated she was rubbing it in his face.
His gaze flicked to Leah and then back to Morgana. “We’ll deal with that next month. I need to get through this fight,” Brayden told her.
She nodded. It seemed everyone in the magical community knew about Brayden’s yearly fight against Silas.
“Very well.” She pursed her lips. “It will take me about an hour to brew the potion in my lab. Go get some ice cream and then come back.”
Her lab! I immediately envisioned her bent over beakers and vials of colored liquid with chemistry glasses on. Brayden’s hand hit the small of my back and he guided us out, but Morgana wouldn’t take her eyes off of me.
When we reached the door, I looked over my shoulder at her and she was grinning. “You smell of the Elder Fae. Whatever he did to you, it left a mark the Fae Lords will pick up on.”
I swallowed hard and peered up at Brayden, who looked nervous.
“Can you hide that too?” he asked her, but she shook her head and then shooed us out.
Lovely.
ELEVEN
We exited the shop quickly, and when we were all back out on the street, Maddy read our downtrodden faces. “Good trip?” she asked dryly.
Leah turned to Brayden. “You didn’t have to offer to pay for me.”
Brayden nodded. “It’s okay.”
Leah smiled at him. “It was really sweet.”
Girl, I will cut you.I needed to call dibs with my bestie ASAP. This was getting awkward.
Brayden looked between Leah and I. “The way I see it, one of you is my wife and the other is my sister-in-law. That makes the both of you family and I’d do anything for family.”
Oh man, could this guy be any more swoon-worthy? My ovaries were aching.
“Ice cream?” I changed the subject and everyone nodded.
Brayden stepped next door to the place I’d used the bathroom at before. After buying us ice cream, Brayden sat down next to Leah at a booth and pulled out the note that Morgana had deciphered.
Brayden set his cup of mango vanilla ice cream down and unfolded the note, reading it quietly. Leah read over his shoulder and when they were done, they both looked at me.
Maddy reached out and snatched it. “Our turn.”
She held the note between the two of us and I glanced at the short few sentences.
Novus has awoken and started the hunt. He’s coming for me now but I will be powerless to stop him in this prison. This is your chance, Brayden. Use him to kill the Fae Lords and reclaim your kingdom. When you need to uncap Averly’s power, take her to the Briar Woods. My brother, Artemis, will help you.
P.S. Do an old man a favor and have what’s left of my remains burned.
The Elder Fae
I looked at Brayden and his mouth was settled into a firm line. I opened my lips to speak and he shook his head. “Let’s walk.” He flicked his gaze to the adjoining wall that touched the witch’s shop and I nodded. They might be listening, especially since they’d told us to go here to kill time.
When we all stepped outside, Brayden took a left and headed for the lake. The entire downtown of CDA was nestled right against the shoreline of lake Coeur d’Alene. When we were a few blocks away from the apothecary shop, I stared from Brayden to Maddy. They were both silent and pensive.
