Through the Ether (Force of Nature Book 5) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,36

I will rip your lying tongue from your fucking face, do you hear me? I don’t care what you have to do or who you have to kill, but you will get the man-bear back, or you will die. It’s that simple.”

“Kat,” I said softly, moving to be near her—close enough to see the tears forming in her eyes.

“I will not lose someone else I love…” Her voice shook and a single tear rolled down her cheek. “Not. One. More. Person. I can’t, Piper…I just can’t…”

“I know,” I said, slipping an arm around her shoulders.

“He’s my wingman. That fucking place can’t have him...” And just like that, the glimpse of the soft, vulnerable side of Kat disappeared, replaced with a mask of barely contained rage. “So tell your father to pull his dick out his ass and fix this, or I’ll rip it off.”

I dared a glance at Reinhardt, surrounded by Merc and Knox, and silently told him that if he wanted to make up for every way he’d ever let me down, this was the moment. This was the task.

His furrowed brow suddenly lifted, as though an idea had hit him. I raced over to him and waited for the news I was desperate to hear.

“You said he wants you to kill the fey royals...” he mused.

“Yes...”

He grew silent again, and I nearly climbed out of my skin.

“Perhaps Foust is onto something. If Etherian’s goal is for you to kill the royals and get his body back so that he can rule, then he does not need it before their deaths have been secured—”

“So we tell him that one hinges on the other,” Merc said, interrupting the warlock lord.

“If he is desperate enough to rule, then he should be willing to wait until we have succeeded at that task.”

“That plan could only work if we had a reason why we have to do things in that order,” Knox pointed out.

“Agreed,” Merc said.

Reinhardt thought for a moment. “I don’t have the power to do what you’re asking, Piper. Not without a body powerful enough to withstand that kind of magic.”

“Which we don’t have lying around.”

“But the fey king does,” he said. “If Etherian wants me to give him form, then he’ll have to wait until a suitable body is available.”

“He’s pretty hell-bent on it being his own—”

“His options are this or nothing,” Merc said, “and I imagine nothing is not the decision he will make.”

“But do we really want him to have a body at all?” I asked. “I mean, he’s pretty fucking unstable, from what I can tell, so I’m not sure plopping him into the fey king’s corpse is a solid idea.”

“Which is exactly why we won’t actually do it—he just needs to think we will,” Kat said, stepping forward. “So tell him whatever lies he needs to hear to draw him out of his weird little Faerie pocket so we can free the others and kill the royals. Then do whatever the fuck you want with him.” Her harsh expression fell just long enough to reveal the sadness in her eyes. “All I care about is getting my furry partner in crime back. Period.”

“This idea has merit,” Merc said, silently mulling over the logistics of the proposed game plan.

“And it’s no more dangerous than anything else,” Knox added.

“We need something, though. A show of faith so he doesn’t turn on us,” Reinhardt said.

“Like a talisman?” I replied. “Something we could supposedly use to secure him in the king’s body?”

“Yes. Exactly.”

I let out a sigh and looked at Knox. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Unfortunately.”

“If we go to her, we should see if she can make something for the wolves, too—something that could keep the fey king from using any of you against us,” I said. “I mean, she made us invisible to the fey before. It seems within the realm of possibility.”

Knox nodded, but I could see the strain in his expression; his barely masked irritation at the need for something like that at all. But if the plan was to march into Faerie with his newly-acquired packs, we needed to make sure that the fey king had no power over them—or the Originals.

“What is all this about?” my father asked. “Who did this for you?”

Knox and I answered in unison. “Fucking Sherry.”

“Sherry? Who’s Sherry?”

“We’ll tell you on the way,” Knox said, his distaste at having to reach out to that particular witch clear in his tone.

“Then let’s stop fucking chatting and get moving,” Kat said, heading