Sounds traveled up. I heard Warren’s voice. Then Mary Jo’s. She sounded agitated, but she wasn’t dead, so that was a win. Jesse came upstairs, walked past her room, and paused in front of our door.
She tapped lightly on the door. “Headed to bed, Mercy. Hope you feel better soon.”
“I’m good,” I croaked.
“Okay,” she said wryly. “As long as you’re good.”
“Yes,” I told her. And then more truthfully, “I’ll be good in the morning.”
She tapped the door twice and then I heard her bedroom door shut, leaving me to the unhappy task of making my breathing even out.
Interlude
The house looked empty, but Adam knew better. His wolf knew there was someone dangerous inside.
He knocked on the door.
When it opened, Zee scowled at him. “What do you want?”
It didn’t sound friendly, but Zee was only friendly around Mercy.
“We need to speak,” Adam told him. “I’d prefer not to do it where we could be overheard.”
The old fae opened the door and stepped back in invitation.
“Kitchen,” Zee said, leading the way, though Adam had been here before and didn’t need guidance.
He took the seat Zee indicated and waited in silence while Zee brewed a fresh pot of coffee. Adam had dealt with old creatures before. He knew it didn’t do to try to hurry them.
Eventually Zee set a cup of black sludge in front of Adam and sat down opposite him with his own cup. Adam drank the rich bitter stuff without grimacing. He was an Alpha werewolf; he knew a challenge when he saw one.
Zee’s face softened in brief amusement, and he sipped from his own cup.
“Two things,” Adam said.
Zee nodded.
“Mercy isn’t as bad off now that you’ve destroyed the Soul Taker,” he said. “But—”
“She stares into space for up to three minutes at a time,” Zee said. “And she doesn’t notice she’s doing it.”
“Twice today,” said Adam.
“Three times at the garage.”
“She has a constant headache, but she won’t tell you that,” Adam told Zee.
“She doesn’t like to admit there is something wrong,” Zee groused. “Stupid child. She doesn’t think we know?”
Adam gave him a grim smile.
“I do not know how to help her,” Zee said. “I have tried. I can do a little with body hurts, but this…this is damage to her soul and to her magic. I have asked for help—but Baba Yaga is unreliable. And…”
“And?”
“And she is a healer of rare ability; she can bring back the dead as long as they aren’t very dead. But I don’t know if she can fix what’s wrong with Mercy.”
“I called Bran,” Adam said. “But he told me that if Sherwood can’t fix her, he has no chance.”
“And Sherwood?” asked Zee.
Adam shook his head. Then to this being who loved Mercy, too, he asked the question that had been haunting him. “If she can’t be fixed?”
“It is early days yet,” Zee said.
“If she can’t be fixed?” Adam asked again, his throat dry. “What then?”
Silence spoke louder than Adam had been hoping for. Silence was not optimistic. But if he’d wanted optimism, he wouldn’t have come here. The fae cannot lie.
“You said two things,” Zee said eventually, his voice brisk.
“Bonarata is going to come for her,” Adam said.
“Yes,” agreed the fae.
“I don’t have to ask if you’ll help her,” Adam said.
Zee nodded at him, and said, “Nor I you.”
Adam leaned forward. “I was not strong enough, not skilled enough, to defeat him.”
Zee nodded—that was no secret.
“Would you teach me?”
5
AdamAdam watched Mercy scramble up the stairs, listened to her ragged breathing until she shut their bedroom door. His wolf wanted to go after her, and so did he. But he had a job to do—and Mercy didn’t enjoy an audience. Not until she had matters under better control.
She wasn’t in danger. She wasn’t in danger. No matter how their bond felt, she wasn’t in danger. His wolf was reluctant to believe that, no matter how many times Adam rebuked him.
“I thought she was done with those,” growled a voice that set the beast, the one not his wolf, into high alert.
That had the benefit of making his wolf quiet. The two monsters who lived under his skin did not come out at the same time.
Adam turned cautiously to face Siebold Adelbertsmiter. The walking stick was gone to wherever it went, but Zee didn’t look one bit less dangerous without it. Adam suspected Zee had used the walking stick to make Ymir and Adam back down so that he didn’t have to do something more lethal.
Adam wasn’t intimidated by Zee—which might or might not be foolish—but he was wary around him when Mercy wasn’t in the room. Despite the tone he’d used, the tightness around Zee’s mouth made Adam think he was hurt rather than angry.
“It’s been a while,” Adam said carefully. He didn’t say it had been since last October, when the vampire who had his own ties to Adam’s mate had commanded her to stop panicking. None of that was anything Mercy would want Zee to know.
Adam knew that Mercy was afraid that one of her beloved monsters would kill one of her others. It was why Adam hadn’t killed Stefan already—that, and the knowledge that having the vampire on call helped keep Mercy safe, sometimes when Adam couldn’t. There was also the distinct possibility that Stefan’s death would not free Mercy but kill her, too. He didn’t know why Zee hadn’t killed the vampire, but assumed the old fae’s decision tree had followed the same path as his own.
“A while?” Zee asked suspiciously.
Adam nodded. “She thought she was done with them, too.” That felt true enough to appease Zee without betraying anything that Mercy hadn’t told him. Mercy didn’t like people to worry about her, so she didn’t tell them things. Like the way she hadn’t told him about Bonarata’s call—even after Ben had warned her that they all knew.
The back door opened, and Tad, Honey, and Jesse spilled in, followed by Warren. Adam had known his draw on the pack bonds would result in a mass invasion by the pack, but he’d expected it to take longer. Warren must have been in the neighborhood.
Honey glanced at him, and he tipped his head to Mary Jo and her unexpected guardian, who were still on the floor where Mercy had left them. Mary Jo was stable, so Adam had kept his attention on the biggest threat in the room, but having pack here to take care of Mary Jo was good.
Warren gave Zee a hard look, but Adam caught his eye and directed him to Mary Jo and Gary as well. Mary Jo would need all the pack support she could get for a while.
“What happened?” Jesse demanded.
“I will go,” Zee said, pointedly not looking at his son. “I will talk to the people I know who might have information on this brother of Ymir’s.”
“That would be useful,” Adam said.
Zee made a sour noise and left through the front door.
“Dad?” Jesse asked again.
The whole pack would have felt his power draw to free Mary Jo. “Wait just a second. If I don’t let the pack know they can stand down, we’ll have everyone here.”
After he sent a text to the pack, he took the opportunity to text Darryl, Auriele, and Sherwood separately. Those three he needed.
That done, he evaluated his audience—while he’d been texting, Mary Jo had recovered enough to listen. Good. He gave them all a brief synopsis on how Gary got here and why they’d called Ymir in. Then he took them through a play-by-play from the moment he realized that Ymir had caught Mary Jo.