Dean’s eyes went wide. “You want to store all of them?”
“Well, I wasn’t going to leave them here to bake in the sun,” Dev replied. “They might not have much meat on their bones, but I assure you something will try to eat them. According to everything we’ve learned they are necessary to keeping the balance of the outer planes. We have to solve the problem anyway. We might as well get some allies out of it.”
“Yes,” Daniel agreed. “I would like to have any ally on the Hell plane since now I have to wonder if Myrddin hasn’t been looking out for his own interests while he was there. He spent a good amount of the last decade on the Hell plane. I’m sure he’s made his own allies. And we have to consider that he knew something like this was going to happen and he wants the outer planes lost for some reason. I do not like being the fool.”
Dev stood and moved into Danny’s space. “You were not a fool, my king.”
Danny’s lips kicked up in an affectionate grin, and he reached to grip the back of Dev’s neck the way I’d seen him do a thousand times right before he brought their bodies together. “You only say that because you were the fool standing beside me.”
Dev’s head rested against Danny’s, his eyes closing and his whole body relaxing. “I would rather be a fool and be beside you than be wise and not with you.”
I watched as Danny kissed Dev, a brief brushing of lips that even in the midst of all our stress got my heart racing.
“Well, I wasn’t a fool and I was all alone, so yay for me,” I said because it hadn’t been a blast. It had been several months of wondering if my husbands had lost their damn minds.
Or if they were really choosing someone else over me.
“Come here, Z.” Danny held out a hand and I was pulled in between them.
It was my favorite place to be.
“You did good. You can do this without superpowers,” I whispered. “We can save our daughter.”
“We can and we will,” he whispered back before straightening up. “Devinshea, let’s protect our new friends and go join Kelsey. We need to move out soon. Dean, I’m going to ask you to stay quiet and calm around Erna. I’ll explain when we’re on the road.”
Dean’s jaw had tightened. “I had a stone in my head, didn’t I? It came out when she took yours. It’s why I always obeyed her. I am not known for my obedient nature. Ask my parents. Why? Why would she do that to me? I asked them to help me.”
“I don’t know.” Daniel sent Dean the same earnest look he gave our kids when he wasn’t sure what to tell them. “But I promise you I will find out and I will ensure that she cannot do it again. We will come up with a plan of action while we make our way to the door, but it’s imperative that you do nothing to tip her off.”
“So I can’t drill into her head the way she did mine?” The question came out of Dean’s mouth with pure bitterness.
“Absolutely not,” Dev replied. “As someone who’s been probed by you before, you do not know the meaning of the word gentle. And before anyone makes a joke, both of you know that I indeed understand the meaning of a gentle probing. It’s an art.”
Even Dean snorted at that one. “All right. I’ll keep my cool. But seriously it’s going to take forever to get all these guys in the barn. They’re heavier than they look, and I still have a headache.”
“Well, I’m not going to carry them,” Dev explained. “And I have a better idea than the barn.” His eyes turned emerald green as Bris returned. “I need help, my friends.”
Dean sighed. “I knew I would have to lug something around.”
“He’s not talking to you.” Daniel’s hand slid into mine and he stepped back.
“Oh,” I said, following him as the trees around us reached out their branches like mighty, gentle arms that began to scoop up the demons.
Dean was suddenly behind us, proving there was still a boy inside his almost-grown body. “That’s freaky. I knew he could make things grow, but not that he could make the trees do manual labor for him.”
“Devinshea can do anything with plants. They love him,” Daniel said, watching his partner. “We’re