Wolf at the Door (Lorimar Pack) (Gemini Book 5) Read online

  “Shall I escort her to the door?” Bháin offered. “Or perhaps I might suggest a tour of the kitchens? We do have guests, and roast pheasant is always popular.”

  Rilla hissed at the servant, but Rook only sighed. “Now, Bháin. We’ve discussed this. Guests are not food.”

  I got the sense the king was toying with her or Bháin or both. I doubted even the rules of hospitality most fae observed would save her if she ruffled his feathers. As a siren, with plenty of feathers of her own, she must be a pro. But pride in his machinations appeared to make him impervious to the dings Rilla attempted to inflict upon his heart.

  “She is not a guest, my lord.” Bháin sniffed. “Therefore, she is fair game.”

  Fair game. I smothered a laugh. It was kind of funny. I mean, she did shift into a giant golden eagle-looking thing.

  “She may not be a guest, but she does suffer impeccable timing,” the king admitted. “Do invite your spies in for a cup of hot tea, Rilla. They must be frozen from huddling outside Firn Hall on the off chance I do something worth reporting.”

  The siren didn’t dignify his subtle dig with a response.

  “I believe I will attend to the matter we previously discussed,” Bháin intoned. “If you will excuse me?”

  The king murmured a dismissal.

  “On the topic of unexpected visitors,” Rilla segued. “Who are you entertaining?”

  “That is none of your concern.” The king brushed off her question. “What matters now is your guest. How is he enjoying his new accommodations?”

  “He is melancholy over his kitchen maid lover we forced him to leave behind.” She scoffed. “I suppose he is at that age, but I had hoped for better. He’s not terribly ambitious or bloodthirsty. He seems content to mope and scribble bad poetry.”

  “Have you secured the girl? She might prove valuable leverage.”

  “Sadly, that card is off the table. We bargained her safety in return for his cooperation. So far, he has obeyed his agreement to the letter. Until that changes, so must we.”

  The king made a thoughtful sound that tapered into a sharp, fizzing crackle.

  “My lord.” Bháin’s voice broadcasted much louder than it had a minute ago. “I believe we may have a problem.”

  The connection severed with a crunch, and Isaac and I exchanged a frantic glance.

  “This is your op,” he panted, urging me into a run. “How do you want to handle this?”

  “The king’s in bed with the kidnapper. He’s in on the whole scheme. Plus, he wants in my pants. I’m done here.” I quirked an eyebrow. “You?”

  “Agreed. Let’s grab Enzo and go.”

  All I had to do to find our way back to my room was follow my nose. I darted inside then slung my pack on my shoulders and led the charge to the guys’ room. Enzo glanced over at us, his cheeks looking pinker. His herbal remedy must have done the trick. Good. That was one less thing to slow our escape.

  “Let me guess.” Enzo passed Isaac his pack while he shrugged into his own. “This is the part where we run.”

  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

  Chapter 4

  Adrenaline jolted the wolf from her stupor, and I was relieved to feel the brush of her fur along the underside of my skin. She was antsy from weeks of confinement, and I owed her a shift, but I couldn’t afford to stop until we reached safety. Trusting her keen senses to guide us out, we entered the front hall before hitting our first obstacle. A hulking creature formed of packed snow guarded the door, a glaive in his fist. Armored with gleaming chain mail formed of crusted ice, he dripped on the side nearest a torch set into the wall.

  “This is new,” I said to the guys.

  “Most guards are meant to keep people out, not in.” Enzo approached with caution. “Can’t hurt to try.”

  The snowman extended the glaive, which was similar to a dagger mounted on a long stick, to bar Enzo from getting closer.

  “I guess that’s a no.” I cast about for another exit, but the peculiar estate seemed to only go in two directions at any given time. There was the path ahead, and there was the path behind. The king, it seemed, wasn’t fond of deviation. “Ideas?”

  “I’ve got one.” Enzo eyed the torch. “That’s real, right? Not an elemental on a perch?”

  I hadn’t noticed earlier, so I examined the flame and took a sniff. “Smells like steak cooking. The cloth must have been dipped in animal fat as an accelerant.”

  “Stand back. Get ready to make a break for it.” He urged us behind him and started a soft chant under his breath. “Or run for your lives. It could go either way.”

  “That’s comforting,” Isaac griped.

  “Got a better idea?” I elbowed him, but he kept quiet. “That’s what I thought.”

  A tendril of magic sprang from Enzo’s index finger, and his eyes widened. “That’s never happened before.” He didn’t let the strangeness slow him down. He resumed his murmurings, and the thread seeped through the air. When it reached the torch, it burst into flames then narrowed to a filament of red-hot fire. Enzo snapped the thickening cord at the snowman like a whip, and its length coiled around its icy hips.

  At first nothing happened. He was a beefy construct, and the lash of flame was stringy by comparison. Steam rose from the area where the ropelike magic struck, hissing and spitting as it was extinguished.

  “Well,” Isaac said, “that was impressive.”

  I elbowed him again, harder this time, and he winced. “At least he’s trying.”

  “Give it a minute,” Enzo huffed, breathing heavy.

  Footsteps rang out behind us. Bháin must have called in the reinforcements. I rushed the snowman, hoping to catch him in the gut with my shoulder then topple him while he tangled with the magical thread.

  “Dell, no,” Enzo cried. “You’ll get burned.”

  Too late. I was already in motion. Impact with the guard stunned me, and I bounced off him as the force sent the top half of the construct sliding in an opposite direction from the bottom. The whip had cut him through before it fizzled. Powerful magic indeed. As I watched, rubbing my tender shoulder, its head hit the tiles at its own feet. Once decapitated, it crumbled.

  “You are one scary witch, dude.” I shook off the pain, raised the heavy timber barring the door and shoved it open. A winter wasteland greeted us, the temperature outside a slap in the face compared to the tepid indoors. I drew in deep gulps of air, and my nose hairs froze. “I’m picking up traces of Rilla. She must have flown the coop when Bháin discovered us. We’ll have to move fast, or I’ll lose her scent to the winds.”

  Already the feather-and-lilac scent of her grew tattered as Winter roared around us. Nose to the wind, I picked my way over the frigid landscape. The guys stuck close behind and, eventually, were forced to each hook a finger through a belt loop in my pants. The whiteout made it impossible to see one another, and soon ice clogged my nostrils, making tracking impossible.

  With no clear direction, we trudged in the straightest line I could maintain and prayed we hadn’t been blown too far off course. A twinkle on the edge of my vision had me squinting against the flurries. A single flake, delicate and beautiful, whirled into view and drifted at the end of my nose. A silver glow emanated from its points, and it illuminated the darkness.

  “Too late, too late. You won’t escape,” a childlike voice singsonged. “You have angered the master. He comes for you.”

  “Shoo.” I flicked a wrist at her. At least I thought it was a her. The tone was feminine. “Your master can suck it.”

  The snowflake gasped with real affront and flittered away, one speck among millions.

  Doubting the guys had overheard, I plowed onward until my legs went numb. Only the weight tugging my pants lower on my hips confirmed Isaac and Enzo clung to me. I was too afraid to break and check on them. If I stopped moving, I might not start up again.

  Eventually, Enzo faltered, and he almost yanked me off my feet when he fell. His hand was frozen in a
claw where it hooked to me, his skin blue and his lashes frosted. Isaac, afraid I was the one who had given out, gripped me around the waist to keep me upright. I pointed down, and he got the hint. We both knelt to check on Enzo.

  But the witch was nowhere to be found.

  I pawed at snowdrifts and raked through the ice with my fingernails. Isaac clung to my belt loop so we didn’t get separated, which meant he could only spare one hand to assist. I dug until I exhausted myself and dangerous sweat moistened my clothes. Isaac used up his reserves to execute a full shift into the blue-skinned beast from earlier, and he slung me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I struggled, but he was stronger than me in this form, and he was determined.

  Tears leaked from my eyes and froze them shut as we left Enzo to weather the wrath of the king and the hunger of the storm alone.

  I woke in a patch of grass with the sun beating down on my face. Trying to remember if last night had been a full moon, I took my time stretching. The wolf must have run away with me. She was bad about ditching me in pastures to sleep off her overindulgence. I was feeling good about the fact no one was around to witness my walk of shame home. That was until I rolled onto my side and spotted Isaac sitting a yard away, braced against a tree as he watched over me. I studied him through my lashes, absorbing the hard set to his features and wondering at the cause. That’s when it all came rushing back.

  “Enzo.” I lurched upright and gave my previously frostbitten toes a wiggle inside my boots. “We have to go back.”

  “No, we don’t. He’s not there, Dell.” Isaac kept gazing into the distance. “You passed out before I broke through to Summer. I circled back for him. It’s what you would have done. I hid you in a hollow tree and rigged the perimeter with a tripwire mounted to a speaker at your ear. It was the best I could do.” His chin dipped. “He was gone when I got there.”

  “How can you be sure?” Heart pounding against my ribs, I gained my feet and turned a slow circle, absorbing our new surroundings. Blue skies. Fluffy clouds. A swimming hole in the distance. Overgrown grasses, dotted with wildflowers, swayed in a humid breeze. Jewel-toned butterflies burdened with miniature riders flittered from bloom to bloom. And—I peered down at a row of red-and-white-spotted fungi near my boot—line-dancing mushrooms. This must be Summer. “What is that aspect you were using?”

  “A frost giant,” he said flatly when he would have bragged about the obscure aspect he had acquired at any other time. “My senses are keener than yours in that form. I’m telling you, I retraced our steps. I located the area where he fell using a beacon I left in the snow. He wasn’t there.” He finally looked at me. “The instant my foot touched Summer soil, the blizzard died.”

  “The weather could be Winter’s first line of defense.” Considering how it had almost ended us, I added, “Or its last.”

  “The second time I didn’t rate more than flurries, so I don’t think it’s automated.”

  Leave it to a geek to think in terms of automation. “You’re saying we can sneak back without alerting them? That someone has to manually whip up a storm? That can’t be too hard with all the fae here. More than a few breeds are bound to have an affinity for weather.”

  The prince we had been dispatched to recover could influence thunderstorms. For that reason, he had been gifted a thunderbird, a rare beast even on Earth where it originated, as a pet. If you wanted to find Tiberius, you followed the lightning.

  “Sneaking back into Winter shouldn’t be a problem,” Isaac agreed. “The question is—do we go back for him now, or do we complete the mission then return for the witch? We must return to Firn Hall in the end either way. Thierry said it’s the only tether left.”

  “You think the king has taken him prisoner?” The snowflake had warned me. “Do you think he’ll hurt Enzo?”

  “No,” Isaac answered quickly. “He’s too valuable. Not only to us, but to Thierry.” He lifted his arm like he might reach for me but let it fall. “I can’t summon that aspect again. I’m out of juice. I don’t have any other form on tap that will allow me to survive Winter at its harshest. We almost didn’t make it out this time. We can’t mount an offensive without supplies or allies.”

  Heart sinking like a stone, I dropped to the ground beside Isaac. “You’re right. I don’t like it, but I can’t argue with you.” He offered me a bottle of water and an energy bar, and I downed them both. “We move ahead with our plans and save Enzo’s rescue for the return trip. At least then we’ll have Tiberius and Bea for backup.”

  “You think the prince and his pet are going to cooperate with us?” He sounded doubtful.

  “We’re offering him freedom and a chance to see Leandra again.” The boy had already proven himself willing to sacrifice anything to protect the girl he loved. “I doubt he’ll put up much of a fight.”

  His main concern was his dear aunt Rilla taking out her frustrations on his family’s home. Leandra was a bean-tighe, a hearth spirit, and her life force was bound to the fortress. She would live for as long as it stood, and she would die if it fell. Rilla knew this, and she was willing to sack her sister’s home in pursuit of revenge. Of course, she’d also been willing to kidnap her nephew, so it was safe to say Rilla’s family values were skewed.

  Leandra was already a bit of a peculiarity. Through no small feat of magic, Tiberius had managed to relocate her to a cottage on Earth with nothing but a stone from the fortress as an anchor. The girl was strong. That didn’t mean I wanted to draw a bull’s-eye on her back.

  One problem at a time.

  “His parents rallied the troops when Tiberius went missing,” Isaac said, finishing my thought for me. “They’ve had three weeks to mobilize. The fortress will be locked down. That will protect Leandra long enough for us to get the prince to safety. After that, maybe he can bargain with his parents for her return to Faerie.”

  “He loves her with the kind of all-consuming passion reserved for teenagers and romantic tearjerkers.” A wistful sigh escaped me. Theirs was a fairy tale, and it would no doubt end just as grimly. “He won’t offer her the position of his mistress, and that’s all his parents will allow.”

  “Romance isn’t only for teens,” Isaac ventured.

  Maybe not, but what had romance ever done for me, except drop my panties? Apparently, I was highly susceptible to fairy lights, long strolls through the woods and handsome fae men.

  “What I meant was they have this Romeo and Juliet thing happening, where they’re both willing to die for one another, to be together. It’s a grand romantic gesture they’ll both probably regret when they’re adults, if they live that long.”

  The lifespan of royalty was notoriously short, as was the lifespan of kitchen maids who caught future kings’ eyes and hearts.

  “You’re a warg.” Isaac passed me another energy bar. “Aren’t you supposed to believe in soul mates?”

  The jagged pieces of my heart scraped together in an agonizing shift of perspective. This was good news, right? That he thought of me as impervious to the bonding instincts of my inner wolf? That meant he had no idea she was locked on him like a hunter with a ten-point buck in her sights. The woman could resist him. I could move on. The wolf… She loved him with her whole heart, and she was never going to consider him as anything other than hers.

  “I’ve seen too many mated couples split to believe soul mates are a real thing.” I took a bite of my lemon-flavored bar. “Mating heat. That’s real. It’s biological. The rest is a happy fiction cooked up by Hollywood in an effort to one-up vampires.”

  Isaac dropped the artifice and studied me. “Is this my fault?”

  Which part? I wanted to ask. Breaking my heart? Stealing hers? Making love to me and then leaving the next day like it didn’t matter? Running from a nascent bond that would take my lifetime to break, if I got lucky? If I got away from him. Tall order considering he was my alpha’s cousin. He was in my life for good, and he would always dance on the fringes. Just never with me.

  �
��No,” I told him honestly. “It’s mine.”

  I had been warned about Gemini men. I had known asking him to stay in one place, with one woman, was tantamount to asking him to lasso the moon. But I hadn’t cared. The wolf in my soul had deemed him worthy, and it was her I pitied most. That was my story, and I was sticking to it. I certainly didn’t feel sorry for myself.

  “Where in this haystack do we start looking for our needle?” I asked when the silence got too heavy. “Tiberius mentioned the Torquatus lands, but those are his ancestral holdings. Since his elevation to prince, he would have been living at the Halls of Summer, right?”

  “Yes, that’s how it’s supposed to work.” He gathered our trash and tucked it all away. “Would Rilla kidnap him and then return him to his seat of power? A place where his word was law?”

  “Why not?” I considered the idea. “She’s bought his cooperation, and he’s no good to her hidden away. He’ll lose his title if he’s not around to defend it.”

  Isaac paused in his zipping. “You’ve got a point.”

  “Yes, but my hair covers it nicely.”

  He cracked a small grin at the old joke. “Do you want to go investigate?”

  “Can we find it?” It’s not like we had a map. Or did we? “How did Thierry expect us to navigate?”

  “The way she explained made it sound simple, but after Firn Hall, I’m not so sure.” He stood and offered me a hand, which I took, and he pulled me to my feet. “Time passes differently here, but it’s in relation to locations. The more you want to be somewhere, the faster you get there. The less you want to arrive, the slower you travel. Think about it. For that to be true, distances must be manipulated around us all the time. Meaning nowhere is where it should be. Instead it’s where someone else wants it to be.”

  The promise of a headache bloomed in my temples. “You’re saying maps are useless, and we’d have more luck getting around if we clicked our heels three times while saying, ‘There’s no place like the Halls of Summer?’”