Beneath the Dust (Force of Nature #4) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,2
“it seems far more appealing. I’m in.”
“And we’re also going to bring Liam back,” I added, wincing as I said it. The room went deathly quiet again.
“I’m not asking any of you to go,” Knox said to the pack. “I understand your anger and frustration with this situation, and if I were you, I’d feel the same way. But this is bigger than what Liam did to our family—it’s about what the fey king plans to do to us all, and I can assure you, that outcome will be far worse if he succeeds. He’s coming for Piper. He admitted as much. If he gets her, shit will get ugly.”
“Then why go to him?” one of the wolves asked.
“Because if Liam is alive, we have to save him from his fate in Faerie. The king will never send him here now that he knows he’s been compromised. Liam helped us escape—helped Piper get me out of there. I wouldn’t leave any of you behind. I can’t leave him, either.”
“He was pack before there was a pack,” Foust added. “I won’t leave him there. We did that once. Never again.”
Brunton merely grunted in response.
The discord in the room lessened, but the murmurings of the pack still weren’t all favorable. A rift was growing among them. We couldn’t afford to be divided with a war in the city and two fey royals after us.
“Those of you not coming will be charged with protecting the mansion, as well as aiding the enforcers in whatever capacity they deem necessary,” I said. “The rest of us leave in an hour.”
I got up to exit before the arguing could begin again. Grizz filed out behind me, as did Kat. I headed back to the kitchen, needing some space from the pressure cooker we’d just been in. I splayed my hands across the marble countertop of the island and hung my head.
“They’re right, you know,” I said to no one in particular. “I’m delivering myself right back into the hands of the very being that threatened to come for me.”
“Glad to hear you’re finally making some sense, your highness,” Kat replied.
“About that—”
“Don’t bother. It’s not really important.”
“Not important?” I asked.
She shrugged. “We already knew you were descended from her. How closely descended seems insignificant-ish.” I turned to find her smiling at me wickedly, her blue eyes full of mischief. “Guess it’s a good thing the fey king isn’t your daddy since you made out with him the other night.”
I felt my eyes go wide before I burst out laughing, the tension of everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours finally breaking. I slid to the floor, clutching my stomach as it seized from my hysterics. Kat soon joined me, her hand on my knee.
“For the record, I think this is a shitty idea, but I’m going because I have a bone to pick with Liam,” she said, shooting me a knowing look, “and more importantly, I won’t be left behind like that ever again.” She gave me a squeeze, and I looked over at her tight expression. It lacked any hint of humor. “I’ve lost a lot in my lifetime, Piper. I can’t afford to lose you, too.”
I leaned my head on her shoulder. “You won’t, Kat. We fey royals are a pain in the ass to kill…”
She choked on a laugh. “You really are.”
We sat like that for a minute, sharing a silent moment while Grizz kept watch, as though the fey king or queen might show up to whisk me out of the kitchen. The quiet was so peaceful, a feeling I barely remembered. It was almost foreign. In an hour, we would leave to find the portal back to the fey king’s realm and Liam—and possibly the king as well. I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer that we would be safe. That we would find Liam and get out of there before anything could go wrong.
But I knew my prayer wouldn’t help.
My power didn’t work so well in the fey king’s land.
***
A little over an hour later, Merc and his brothers, three of the four Originals, Kat, and I stood in the same alley where we’d encountered Liam, looking for the portal to Faerie. Jagger and Grizz had been made to stay behind, much to their chagrin. The thought of returning there made me sick to my stomach; nothing good ever came of our journeys there. I looked at Kat, Merc, and Knox, all of whom had lost so