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“Fauns are rare enough that most courts would fight over the privilege of raising him.” Her eyes soften, just slightly, just enough to look almost human. “I have a family in mind. Gentle ones. He will be loved there, hellhound. That I can promise you.”
Raze nods slowly. “How soon?”
“Three days. I need that long to prepare the crossing properly, so none of them feel as though they’re being dragged through another door against their will.” Titania’s gaze moves around the table, settling last on Scar. “You have my word, and my word has never once been broken in ten thousand years. Ask anyone foolish enough to have tested it.”
“We’ll hold you to that,” Scar says, and it isn’t a threat so much as a fact, the kind vampires state instead of promise.
“I’d expect nothing less.” Titania inclines her head, robes shifting like they’re made of shadow and moonlight instead of fabric. “Keep them safe until then. I felt what happened in that clearing this morning, all the way from my realm. Whatever you did, the echo of it reached me even through the wards protecting my Court.” Her eyes hold mine a beat too long. “Something is stirring, hellhound. I’d be careful whose attention you’ve drawn.”
Before I can ask what the hell that means, Titania steps backward, and the portal folds around her, green light swallowing her robes before snapping shut.
For a few seconds, nobody says shit.
I keep staring at the space where the fucking Fairy Queen was standing, waiting for someone to explain what the hell just happened.
Nobody volunteers.
“Well,” Ruckus finally mutters from farther down the table. “That was cheerful.”
A couple of low grunts answer him. I drag a hand over my jaw and look toward Raze. “She always shows up, drops a bunch of cryptic shit on the table, and disappears before anyone can ask what the fuck she means?”
Scar leans back in his chair. “Pretty much.”
“Good to know.”
Raze stays quiet, his attention fixed on the tabletop while whatever Titania told us works its way through his head. Eventually, he sits forward and plants both forearms on the table, and that’s enough to kill whatever conversation was trying to start.
“We’ve got enough for tonight,” he says. “Safe house stays locked down. I want two brothers outside at all times, rotations through the night. Nobody goes near those kids unless the girls already with them clear it first.”
Thorn nods. “I’ll take first watch.”
“I’ll go with him,” Wreck adds.
Raze looks between them. “Good. Scar, keep digging into the fuckers from the depot. I want names, money, who they were selling to, who they were buying from. Every-damn-thing.”
Scar gives him a nod.
“Sentinel.” Raze’s attention shifts across the table. “You feel anything like what happened this morning, anything at all, you tell me before you go chasing it.”
Sentinel’s mouth twitches. “You say that like I have a habit of chasing dangerous things.”
I turn my head toward him. “You ride with me.”
“Exactly my point,” Sentinel chimes.
A few of the brothers laugh.
“Asshole.”
Raze’s stare cuts between us. “You two done?”
“Probably not,” I tell him.
Sentinel grins, and Raze exhales through his nose before looking around the table one last time. “Keep your phones on. Nobody wanders off alone until we know what the fuck you two did in the clearing this morning, and if Titania’s warning turns into something more than a warning, I want every brother reachable.”
His knuckles hit the table once. “Church is done.”
Chairs scrape back around me as the room finally breaks apart. I push to my feet and roll my shoulders, working out the stiffness that’s settled there while everyone starts filing toward the door.
