no one met my eyes.
“There has to be some way to deal with it, some way to fix it. And we’ll figure it out. All of us, together. Right?” I smiled at Ethan, feeling suddenly—weirdly—like a Cadogan House cheerleader, sans pleated skirt and bloomers. “I mean, you did ask your transition team to come all this way. At least now you’ll get your money’s worth.”
Ethan looked back at me, and I saw that familiar spark light in his eyes. He sat up, and looked at each of us in turn. “She’s right. We work this problem like any other, and we find a solution. Is that understood?”
We all nodded.
Ethan looked at Malik. “Start a timer. I want it in my office within the hour, counting down the hours we purportedly have to fix this situation. Thank God it’s winter, and we’ll actually be awake for a good portion of that time.”
“Liege,” Malik said, a little smile at the corner of his mouth at Ethan’s sudden sense of action.
Ethan stood up and ran his fingers through his hair, then put his hands on his hips.
“I say this one time, and you may spread the word to the House as you like. We are not leaving this House. Peter bade me captain his ship, and as long as I am alive on this earth and Master of this domain, I will captain it. They will take this House over my dead body. Call Paige, the librarian, and Michael Donovan. I want them in my office within the hour.”
Ethan could be frustrating at times. Infuriating at others. But there was no doubt he was a Master among men.
* * *
The troops inspired, I waited while Luc, Lacey, and Malik left the apartments to begin the process of beginning the process, then looked at Ethan. “You’re all right?”
He walked toward me and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “I’ve survived world wars, Sentinel. This is a drop in the bucket.”
We both knew he was exaggerating, but I forgave him the boast.
I turned toward the door and held out a hand. “Then let’s go downstairs and take care of this real quick.”
He smiled a little, which was the point. “Real quick?”
I shrugged. “You know, since it’s a drop in the bucket.”
He put his hand in mine and we walked toward the door, pretending we had a solution. Pretending we had a fix.
And hoping to God we could find one.
* * *
We found Lacey in the doorway of his office, her eyes narrowing at the sight of Ethan and me together. I knew I had to tell him the truth about the RG—if nothing else to beat her to the punch—but this was not the time to add to his burdens. Hopefully she was mature enough to see that, too.
We walked inside to find Michael Donovan, Paige, the librarian, Luc, and Malik already in the room. On the wall was the timer Ethan had requested. It was large, with a black screen and squarish white numbers that ticked the seconds, minutes, and hours that we had left until the fairies tried to forcibly remove us from our home. Unless we figured out a way to stop them.
Luc had scrounged up another whiteboard and set it up near the conference table.
“This looks like a party.”
We glanced back at the door. Gabriel Keene, head of the North American Central Pack, stood there with a black motorcycle helmet in hand. Memphis was his home base, but Chicago was, for all intents and purposes, his city. With sun-burnished hair and amber eyes, he looked like a force to be reckoned with. And was.
He took a step inside. “I hear you’ve got a problem. Thought perhaps you could use some assistance.”
Word traveled fast among supernaturals—or in this case from my message to my grandfather, probably to Jeff, and then to Gabriel. The look on Ethan’s face was priceless: Hope and joy blossomed, and perhaps for the first time, he believed there might actually be a way out of this.
He skipped the greeting, walked toward Gabriel, and offered a bear-sized hug. Gabriel slapped him on the back.
“All right, old man. Let’s not make Kitten jealous.” He glanced around Ethan and smiled at me. “Hello, Kitten.”
Gabriel had taken to calling me that, mostly as a comic insult, kittens being among the least powerful of the animals shifters could change into. “Gabe. Welcome to the party.”
“It means a lot to the House that you’re here,” Ethan said, as they moved toward the conference