his crystal prison for centuries.
“I am going to use some ancient magics in order to track Devinshea in particular. Your butler was kind enough to get me some of his hair,” Nim explained. “I need to do it at an in-between time. Midnight is best, though I will spend the rest of the evening preparing myself.”
So we had hours to wait until we might be able to find my husband.
“I’m taking Nimue to the temple for her preparations,” Myrddin said. “King Daniel, if we could have your blessing to use it.”
Daniel nodded. “Please use it with my blessings, teacher. I hope the space is to your satisfaction. I appreciate everything you’re doing to help locate my partner.”
“I would not have the three of you be apart for all the worlds, Your Highness,” Myrddin replied.
“I’ll come down and open the temple for you.” Daniel stopped in front of me, leaning over to brush his mouth across mine. “I’ll be back soon.”
“He’s using Dev’s temple?” I didn’t like the thought of Myrddin being in that sacred place.
“No, we’re going to use the dark space, Your Highness,” Nimue explained.
“We have a dark space? I wasn’t aware we had a demonic church here on Council grounds.” No one had bothered to mention that to me. It was a big building, but I’d explored pretty much every inch of it over the years. I would remember a Satanic church.
“It’s new, baby. Myrddin requires a place where he can focus the dark side of his nature.” Daniel frowned as he faced me, as though he knew what was going through my head. “We have a temple for the Fae and a Heavenly shrine. The witches in the building have their own temple. I’m merely accommodating our newest residents.”
“And we are thrilled with it. The king even attended the cursing ceremony.” Myrddin nodded Daniel’s way. “I think relations with the Hell plane will soon be better than ever. You don’t have to come down with us. I have a key. It seems you are needed here. We’ll be ready at midnight.”
They turned and left the office.
I stared at my husband and wondered what else he was keeping from me.
“Trent and I will be back at midnight, too,” Gray said, his voice grave. “I’m going up to speak with Albert now.”
“The boys are out at soccer practice,” I informed them. “You don’t have to worry about Fen seeing you. I’d like to keep my kids in the dark until we can see if Nim’s magic works better than Sarah’s. I don’t want to worry them if I don’t have to.”
They nodded their agreement and left me alone with Daniel.
“I didn’t tell you because I knew you wouldn’t like it.” Daniel got the words out quickly, as if he knew the storm was coming and thought he could hold it off.
“Well, you’re right. I don’t like it. What happened to our official ‘demons are bad’ stance? Now we’re suddenly building cursed spaces for them to hold potlucks in? How many are we inviting in, Danny? Because I kind of thought it would only be the one. And since when is Myrddin a permanent resident?”
“Since we met him.” Daniel moved around to his desk, sinking behind it. The big maple monstrosity put an effective barrier between us. “You’ve always known I intended for him to live here at the Council headquarters and when he was ready, he would take his place as my advisor. It’s his right as long as I carry Excalibur. As for the demons, talk to your friend when we find her. It was Kelsey who convinced me I needed to open discussions with the Hell plane.”
I knew exactly why she’d done that. “I agree with the Nex Apparatus. We can’t shut out the lower plane forever. It was a dangerous path, but I didn’t dream you would open the Earth plane up to the point that they need their own temple in our house. Are we letting them use the daycare services too? Want them to drop off their demonic spawn while they head up to the spa?”
“Are you done berating me?” A huff of a laugh came out of his mouth. “You know he called this, right? He knew you wouldn’t understand.”
A chill went over my skin. “You better be talking about Devinshea.”
Daniel’s jaw went rigid and I knew exactly who he’d been discussing me with. His mentor.
“You always choose me, huh?” I turned because I had better things to do with my time than