Through the Ether (Force of Nature Book 5) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,74
stood right in front of Knox. She stared at him quietly for a moment, her blue eyes roaming his face. Then she open-hand slapped him so hard that my palms stung at the sound.
“If that didn’t knock some fucking sense into you, let me know. I’d be happy to do it again.”
Again, the room went silent. Knox’s eyes blazed, but he didn’t move. Grizz and Merc edged forward to flank her, clearly not sure how her action would be received. But then Knox’s wolf receded, and he took a deep breath before his hand reached for her and cupped the back of her neck.
“I won’t die, Kat—”
“You can’t say—”
“Not if you do everything you can to nail that fey bitch’s ass to the wall.”
Kat’s mouth snapped shut for a moment. “If you die, I’ll hunt you down and kill you again.”
He smiled at her threat. “I’d expect nothing less—even if you aren’t pack.” His playful wink was the perfect punctuation to his jab, and even Kat couldn’t help but take the bait.
“I fucking hate you, you know that?”
His fingers flexed around her neck. “I fucking hate you, too.”
Reinhardt cleared his throat. “I don’t see how you can draw Larken out without her knowing you’re doing it. Therefore, I don’t see how any plan revolving around this could succeed.”
“Simple,” Knox said, releasing Kat to walk over to the warlock lord, “she won’t care. She’ll know, but she’ll think it’s worth the risk. You saw her meltdown when he died and the power didn’t go to her. It fucked up her plan.”
“Meaning?” Merc said.
“Meaning she’s off-kilter and, with any luck, not thinking as clearly as she normally would. She must need his power for something—I’d bet my life on it.”
“You are betting your life on it,” Foust said, his words a grim reminder.
“Not necessarily.” Liam, who’d been so quiet I hadn’t even noticed him, slipped from the group to join Knox. “If all it would have taken was Phineas’ death for the power to switch to her, then she’d have killed him before they ever arrived here.” His remark was both sobering and confusing, because while he was likely right, it left another huge question mark. Another missing piece of the puzzle.
“She seemed expectant when he died,” Reinhardt mused, “as though she thought the power would pass to her. If she needed to do something other than kill Phineas, then she certainly didn’t capitalize on the opportunity.”
“Exactly,” Liam replied, as though that were explanation enough on its own. When it became clear to him that it wasn’t, he continued. “Which then begs the question: what does she have to do to get that power? And what can she not do?”
Apparently, everyone else was as lost as I was, because nobody said a damn thing while we all stared at Liam, the enigmatic oracle from Faerie who was really just confusing the fuck out of me.
Could no one from Faerie just get to the point?
“You don’t think she could have killed him,” Knox finally said. “You think her killing him would have negated the power transfer.” Liam nodded. A smile stretched across Knox’s face. “So you don’t think she can kill me to get it.”
“I don’t believe she can—but she could send someone else to do it.”
“Etherian,” I said softly, as Merc, Foust, and Reinhardt did the same. “She’s going to use him to get it.”
“He’s disposable, but powerful,” Knox said, working through the problem out loud, “and more than happy to do it if he thinks it will get him the prize.”
“Which, if Liam is right, he wouldn’t get once the deed was done—but he wouldn’t know that. He’d find out the hard way afterward,” I added.
Liam smiled. “Precisely.”
“God, your mother is a manipulative bitch,” Kat muttered. “If I didn’t hate her so much, I’d be impressed. Envious, even—”
“But how do we get her to come?” Jagger asked, the hesitation plain in his hazel eyes.
“I think that will be easier than you suspect,” Liam replied. “I have no doubt that she has spies lurking in the shadows, weaving their way through this new, combined world. All it would take is the slightest hint of opportunity and she will strike.”
“So, separate me from the group enough that Etherian has a chance to attack?” Knox asked.
“I believe so, yes.”
“Then let’s fucking do it—”
“Not until I am satisfied that you cannot be beaten,” Merc said, cutting off the alpha. “We need to have reinforcements waiting nearby, but not in a way that Larken will notice.”