Daniel explained.
We’d needed that ambassador because the former one had been Gray’s dad, and Kelsey had made sure that asshole had gotten fired. It’s never good when Hell fires you, by the way. They tend to have severe penalties.
“I’m not talking about his recent foray,” Gray corrected, never taking his eyes off Myrddin. “According to my sources, you spent quite a bit of time on the Hell plane before you came back to the Council headquarters.”
That was news to me. “He went to Hell? I thought he spent the last decade learning the Earth plane.”
“I spent the last ten years learning how the worlds have changed while I slept,” Myrddin explained.
“Even Hell changes, as Mr. Sloane should know.” Nimue, the Lady of the Lake, strode in the door and she was dressed much as Myrddin. There was a cool confidence about the woman that seemed new. When I’d spent time with Nim, she’d been funny and girly about everything but her magic. It seemed as though that Nim was gone and all that was left was the Lady of the Lake. “After all, didn’t his father recently get demoted? No one thought a legacy contract like his could be voided, and yet the dark prophet no longer fears his descent.”
“Because he won’t descend at all,” Trent said, standing next to his partner.
A wisp of a smile came over Myrddin’s face. “Never say never, Mr. Wilcox.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Trent’s canines suddenly seemed longer than they’d been before, and I could feel the testosterone level in the room pumping up by the second.
Gray stepped in front of him. “It means he knows how to get to you, Trent. Don’t let him.”
“I apologize,” Myrddin said, putting a hand over his heart as though it hurt him to be so accused. “I only meant that everyone I spoke with on the Hell plane is impressed with their dark prophet. If I’m not wrong, you have to spend a bit of time down there to recharge yourself. That was all I meant. Did I not understand how it works?”
Myrddin tended to know how everything works.
“What does he mean?” Trent asked, turning his gaze to Gray.
“Nothing we have to worry about now,” Gray insisted.
“Oh, you hadn’t told him about that?” Myrddin sighed. “Again, apologies. I assumed you would have told your partner everything about your new status. I’m far too used to the way Daniel and Devinshea work. They share everything. Perhaps your…partnership doesn’t work in the same manner.”
This was definitely how Myrddin worked. He sowed dissent. He somehow always found the weak spot and shoved the knife in, then managed to make the person he’d stabbed believe they’d walked into the blade. It was his true supertalent.
Gray’s hand went to the back of Trent’s neck and he looked him right in the eyes. “Hey, don’t let him do this to us. You know what he is. My power has to be recharged from time to time, and when I say that I’m not talking about going to Hell once a week. We’re talking once every twenty-five years, and I won’t be going as my father’s son. I’ll be going as someone no demon will fuck with. I haven’t told you because it’s not a problem, and honestly, I’m going to see if there’s a way around it.”
“There isn’t,” Myrddin supplied helpfully.
“Then we will go together,” Gray said. “You and me and our wife.”
“You promise?” Trent asked.
“I do. I won’t allow us to be apart. I know I insisted on it in the beginning, but I’m a different man now. Going to the Hell plane won’t be like descending,” Gray insisted. “I will do anything I have to in order to keep our family strong and together.”
“We have to get her back first.” Trent was calm again and it was clear Gray knew how to handle Myrddin’s ratfink poking better than Daniel.
Did Gray see Myrddin for who he truly was?
“I hope to be able to help with that.” Myrddin held a hand out and Nimue stepped forward to take it. “Along with my lady.”
Nim bowed her head slightly, as though acknowledging his claim.
What the hell had happened between those two? The last time I’d seen them, Nimue had been missing her lover, Arawn, the Welsh god of the dead. I’d kind of expected her to forgive him at some point. I certainly hadn’t expected her to become her old nemesis’s lover. After all, she’d been the one to trap Myrddin in