I sighed. “He’s never going to try and get to me if he sees a member of thefae guardhanging around. Especially one who told him he’d like to slit his throat.”
Dathal’s grin held no humour. “I meant it.”
“I know you did, and so did he. If he catches sight of you anywhere near here, then he won’t show.”
“You live in shifter territory, Axel. If he sees anyone near your house, he’s going to assume that they’re pack. He’d be stupid not to.” As if realising he’d answered his own question, he shook his head quickly. “No. You’re not a fighter, Cousin. Zh’alek could kill you before you get chance to call for help.”
He made a good point, but he—well, Nick—had already provided me with the solution. “Firstly, I don’t think he wants to kill me. But more importantly, I’ll have advanced warning of anyone approaching the house. I can call for help in time for Rys’s pack to get here. They’re fast.”
Rys grunted in agreement. “Exactly how fast do we need to be?”
Dathal narrowed his eyes, but his lips curled into a wry smile. “You mean to use the stone that Nick gave you?”
“I do.”
I quickly explained to the others what it did.
“What range did you say it had again?”
“Forty feet.” Dathal rubbed his jaw. “I’ll confirm with Nick.” He pulled out his phone and fired off a text. The reply was immediate. “Yes. Forty. But he can tweak it to give it a range of a hundred. Is that enough time for you to get here before Zh’alek reaches the house?”
Rys snarled. “It’ll have to be.”
Lady Sarhin had been suspiciously quiet throughout all of this. I would’ve expected her to have thoughts on this, at least. I wasn’t sure if I needed high court approval or not, but I wanted her opinion.
“Lady Sarhin?” I turned to face her. “What do you think?”
Her expression was hard to read, but I thought I saw a resigned sadness in her eyes. “As much as I hate the idea of putting you in such a vulnerable position, I agree that we are stuck in a stalemate. Zh’alek isn’t stupid enough to try anything with you surrounded by a whole shifter pack, not to mention a witch and fae guard. He might grow tired of waiting, decide to leave you alone. But then, is that any better? Will you ever be able to truly relax knowing that he’s out there somewhere?”
“You don’t think we’ll catch him?” Dathal sounded affronted, but Lady Sarhin shrugged.
“He has evaded us thus far. I believe someone is helping him, but we cannot find out who. In truth, we have no idea where he is, we only suspect he’s here because of what we found in his cell. If the person your pack feels watching them is indeed Vai Zh’alek, then I agree we need to do everything we can to draw him out because we might not get another chance.”
“When are we doing this?” Gabriel held up his phone. “We need to coordinate with Max. He wants a shifter member of the paranormal police to be at the main pack house to accompany you when you go after Zh’alek.”
It made sense.
Gabriel would never be able to keep up.
Lady Sarhin huffed. “If Zh’alek is apprehended, then he will be returning to the Fae Realm.”
“Agreed.” Gabriel tapped his phone. “But as it’s happening here, the police need to be present. Especially in case anything… um—” He glanced between me and Dathal. “—goes wrong.”
Dathal’s hands curled into fists, and I knew it wouldn’t take much to make him hate this whole idea all over again. Not that he liked anything about it, but at least he wasn’t vehemently protesting.
“We do it tomorrow,” I said quickly. “Maybe we could spread the word both here and at the station that we believe Zh’alek is through the gateway or down south somewhere. Anything to explain the sudden withdrawal of Rys’s pack from guard duty.”
“I think that’s a good idea.” Gabriel tapped his phone again. “We need to be prepared for this to take a few days, maybe longer, for Zh’alek to show, if he’s here.”
“He’s here,” Dathal muttered, rubbing his chest.
Fear trickled down my spine, and I shivered as what I’d suggested started to sink in. Dathal’s sharp gaze snapped to mine, and I did my utmost to appear unaffected. If he thought for one second I didn’t really want to do this, then he’d do his best to put a stop to it.
I was scared. How could I not be?
But this had to end. I couldn’t live like this any longer.
“If I was him,” Gabriel continued, “I’d want to watch the forest and the house for at least a few days to make sure Axel was really on his own. That might mean you going out on your bike, or—”
