Midnight Fae Academy Book Three - Lexi C. Foss Page 0,50

lower back. “Twenty-seven, Zen.”

She waved a hand in the hair over her head, dismissing his comment.

“Next time I need something, you’ll be coming to me,” Zakkai said to Shade as we started walking. “I want that rock when you’re done, Zen,” he added, his voice too soft to carry the distance she’d put between us. I couldn’t even see her through the trees now.

“Yes, yes,” her voice came back to us on the breeze, surprising me.

Fortune Fae, Shade whispered into my mind. Never underestimate them.

I never underestimate anyone, I countered. I’d been burned too many times to easily trust a soul. But I did feel a strange sort of kinship to Zenaida, one I’d picked up on when I met her in the LethaForest. It had me moving a little faster, curious to know what she had to say.

Then we stepped into a clearing surrounded by homes.

Several of the fae poked their heads out to gape at us.

I swallowed. Um, Shade?

It’s okay, Aflora. He linked his fingers through mine, stepping into my side while Zakkai walked on my other side, his palm still against my lower back. Everything’s going to be okay.

You don’t sound very sure about that, I remarked, hearing the hesitation in his tone.

He didn’t reply, just squeezed my hand.

Then he led us to Zenaida’s door.

Let’s get this over with, Zakkai said into my mind, pushing through the threshold. “Twenty-five minutes, Zen.”

“I only need ten,” she replied. “Sit.”

I yawned, already bored by Zenaida’s usual spiel about reformation being the more appropriate path forward. It would save more lives. Create a more inclusive council. Realign the source with all the Midnight Fae factions.

Blah.

Blah.

Blah.

As the former Midnight Fae Queen, she deserved my respect. She was also mated to a Quandary Blood—Kodiak.

Well, technically, Kodiak had turned his back on the source by rejecting it in favor of turning into a Fortune Fae, but his transition had been halted by one of Zenaida’s visions. They’d interfered with fate by trying to stop Constantine’s annihilation of the Quandary Blood race a thousand years ago and had been trying to fix it ever since.

I pretended to check my wrist as though looking for the time, but Zenaida plowed forward without concern.

Her ten minutes turned into fifteen minutes because she’d felt the need to rehash history for some reason.

“So your father was a Quandary Blood?” Aflora asked, engrossed in the story.

“A former one, yes. He fully transitioned into a Fortune Fae Alpha. But I technically have Quandary Blood in me as a result of his origin,” Zenaida replied. “Even though I’m considered a pure Omega. I think they do that to avoid the truth about the Fortune Fae ancestry coming from Midnight Fae.”

“Yes, because all forms of abominations are frowned upon,” I drawled. “So we must excuse any and all crossbreeding as natural, hmm?”

“Exactly,” Zen agreed.

“But that would make Shade part Quandary Blood, right?” Aflora pressed, looking at her Death Blood mate. “And Fortune Fae?”

“We’ve already established that I’m an abomination, little rose,” he replied before popping a cookie into his mouth.

I’d avoided the treat, concerned Zen might try to poison me.

She’d never kill me. But she would do what she could to control me.

We’d been dancing around it for years. There was a time when I’d agreed with her, as did everyone else. Then the Elders had shown me their penchant for death. And I’d realized there was only one way to end this.

Retribution.

“So you think there’s a way to align all the factions?” Aflora was saying beside me. She sat between me and Shade at Zenaida’s dining room table. The Fortune Fae Omega and her two mates were seated across from us.

It was almost like looking into the future to see where we would be in a thousand years, except Aflora would argue that we were missing Zephyrus and Kolstov.

I nearly sighed, but Zenaida was launching into her political plan, bringing us near the twenty-minute mark of this conversation.

Which was when I finally realized that the point of all of this had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the female beside me.

A laugh escaped me as I shook my head and interrupted her midsentence. “Oh, Zen.”

Her gaze sparkled as she glanced at me. “I honestly thought it would take ten. But your arrogance provided me with additional time.”

“I don’t understand,” Aflora murmured, glancing between me and Zenaida.

“She’s recruiting you,” I said, holding Zen’s gaze. “There’s only one thing she’s failed to mention in all of this, and that’s her