“Nay,” Kellan said. “I’d walk through that place every day for eternity for my woman.”
Shara bowed her head. “Thorn, you need to be prepared for what you find. If you find her.”
“I’m going to find her.” He had no other choice.
Kellan squeezed the bridge of his nose with this thumb and forefinger. “This is what the Dark wanted. We’re divided. Scattered.”
“The best thing Con can do is bring everyone back to Dreagan.”
Kellan’s head snapped up. “And leave the cities?”
“Darius and I were there for weeks. Do you have any idea how many Dark we killed daily? It didna matter. The Dark kept coming. There’s only one way to fight them to make an impact, and if we can no’ do that, then why spread us so thin?”
Kellan stared at him for a long silent moment. “And you?”
“I’m going after Lexi.”
Kellan’s forehead puckered in a frown. “Alone?”
“Alone,” Thorn said with a nod.
Shara gaped at him. “You can’t be serious. First, you don’t know where to go.”
“That’s where you come in,” he told the Fae. “Tell me where Taraeth would take her.”
Kellan shook his head. “I understand wanting to go after Lexi, but you can no’ go alone. I was there with Rhi and Phelan as we got Denae out, and it still wasna enough.”
“I go in alone,” Thorn repeated. He looked at Shara then. “You can help by telling me where to go. If you doona want to, it willna change my mind about going.”
Shara sank back down in the chair and numbly nodded. “All right.”
Thorn glanced at Jane who was still staring at the floor while Cassie watched him. He gave a nod to Kellan and turned around.
He drew up short when he saw Con. Thorn had no idea how long the King of Kings had been standing there, and it didn’t matter.
“We have a mess,” Con said.
Thorn looked into his black eyes trying to figure out what Con was thinking, but as usual, Thorn came up empty. “On several levels.”
“Your thoughts?”
Since when did Con care what he thought was going on? Thorn eyed Con warily. “It was all a setup for something. The weapon, perhaps.”
Con shook his head. “They didna cross any of our borders except at the distillery. It’s our weakest point to allow the tourists to visit.”
“Why just the distillery?” Kellan asked. “They didna take anything. I think they would’ve left empty-handed except they found Lexi.”
A burning need to kill Dark filled Thorn every time someone mentioned Lexi being taken. He was in control now, but once he found the Dark, Thorn was going to rain down hell upon them.
“And the cities,” Thorn said. “They wanted us away from Dreagan.”
Con nodded as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Why take us away if they were no’ going to try to get on Dreagan again?”
“I think I know the answer to that,” Ryder said as he walked down the stairs and came to stand in the foyer. His face was grim. “It’s bad.”
Con raised a blond brow. “Well? What is it?”
Ryder looked at each of them and ran a hand down his face. “You’re right. It was all staged. Every last minute of it. It’s a good thing I got in from Glasgow last night so I could contain this now.”
“Just tell us,” Thorn said in a low voice.
Ryder looked like he was about to be sick. “There was someone on the hill above the distillery. They filmed it all.”
There was utter silence for a full minute as each of them took in what this meant for Dreagan and their way of life.
“How much did it show?” Con asked in a soft voice.
Ryder scrunched up his face in regret. “All of it. It shows Kellan and Arian flying as well as both shifting to human form. It also shows Thorn arriving and all the way to the Dark hitting Thorn with magic so that he shifted to human form and fell from the sky. It shows the Warriors, as well as Malcolm’s use of lightning.”
“Oh my God,” Cassie murmured.
“The video has gone viral, Con,” Ryder said with a shake of his head. “It’s everywhere.”
Thorn couldn’t believe millions of years of secrets had gone up in smoke in one night. The last time Thorn felt this powerless was when they had to send their dragons away.
Con turned on his heel and walked upstairs without a word.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT
Balladyn walked through the Fae doorway with Taraeth back to the palace. The night had gone exactly as they had planned. Why then did he have a feeling something was about to go awry?
“The Kings have thwarted us for so long,” Taraeth said with a smile as they walked to his chamber. “It feels good to have a win.”
“Shara got away.”
Taraeth shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Soon, she’ll be on her knees before me begging for forgiveness. I won’t give it to her, but I’ll enjoy allowing her to think that I will.”
“Nothing kills quite so deeply as smashing someone’s hope,” Balladyn said with a grin.
Taraeth entered the king’s chamber and faced Balladyn. “The Kings won’t know which way is up by the time it all comes crashing down around them.”
“We still haven’t found the weapon.”
“All in due time,” Taraeth said. “Mikkel is confident he can get Ulrik to hand it over.”
Balladyn wasn’t so sure. “It’s a dangerous game to work with both of them, sire.”
“I’ve been doing it for centuries.” Taraeth reclined on his throne. “Ulrik knows what I’m doing. Mikkel does not.”
“You trust Ulrik more?”
Taraeth laughed. “Absolutely not. Ulrik is smarter, though. He sees things Mikkel does not. Whoever wins between those two will give me the weapon.”
“To use against them?”
Taraeth’s red eyes hardened. “You don’t think I can make them hand it over?”
Balladyn bowed his head in a show of meekness that wouldn’t last much longer. “I think they’ll say whatever they need to in order to have the Dark army aid them.”
“Ulrik hasn’t asked for my army.”
Now that Balladyn hadn’t known. “Why not?”
“Ulrik intends to take Con down himself. Mikkel thinks he can do it without Ulrik, but that won’t be possible. The only one who can take down Con is Ulrik.”
Balladyn clasped his hands behind his back. “The odds of Ulrik beating Con and handing everything over to Mikkel are nonexistent.”
“Exactly.” Taraeth grinned. “Mikkel has made some brash moves that might get him the seat of power, but Ulrik is a wild card. He has a need for revenge that goes even deeper than mine. A man with that kind of demand is rarely foiled.”
“Ulrik won’t give you the sole weapon that is able to destroy the Dragon Kings,” Balladyn said.
Taraeth shrugged. “Ulrik hates the humans. They’re the ones who betrayed him and made him lose everything. Do you really think we’re going to need to destroy the Kings with Ulrik in charge?”
“You believe he’ll let us have the humans?”
“I know,” Taraeth said as he leaned forward. “He wants the humans gone so he can bring back the dragons. We’ll be able to gorge ourselves on the mortals.”
Balladyn smiled and nodded. “A fine plan indeed. You surprised me, though. Why leave the mortal with Mikkel? If she is a mate, her King will come looking for her.”
“He can try.” Taraeth leaned back. “The Kings don’t know of Mikkel. They still think it’s all Ulrik. I’ll have them chasing their tails on so many levels that they won’t know who to trust or what step to take next. And if they do find her, it’ll be Mikkel’s problem. Now, go. I wish to be alone.”
Balladyn turned and walked out of the chamber. As soon as the doors closed behind him, he found a Fae doorway and went to the desert.
“Rhi,” he called.
A moment later, she stepped through the doorway with sword in hand. Rhi was always beautiful, but she never looked more magnificent or fierce than when she was in the middle of battle.
Even dirty and wounded like she was now, he wanted to rip off her clothes and sink within her.