of the artist. And I know every fairy alive right now.”
Okay. Good point. “So there’s a fairy you might not know? Maybe one from eons ago who’s still on earth.” Ivar started jogging again.
“Maybe. I got to thinking and called the president,” Mercy said, running around the puddle.
“Of the US?” he asked.
She snorted. “No. Of the Fae. Our president. Turns out she wasn’t shocked by my revelation. Well, not completely, anyway.”
He stopped cold, his boots sending muddy water in every direction. Sweat rolled down his back. “So you’re saying that some fairy has been painting different dimensions. So what.”
She shook her head and halted, her breathing even. “No. All of the Fae are accounted for. I mean, I know them all, and nobody has been painting anything like that.”
“Obviously that isn’t true if the paintings you saw were of actual places.” What was he missing?
She was quiet for a minute. “All of the full-bred Fae have been with me on other worlds until recently. None of them painted what I saw earlier on that screen.”
Full-bred Fae. The words hung heavily in the air. “What are you talking about?” She could not be saying what he thought she was.
She turned and started running back the way they’d come.
He easily caught up to her. “Talk to me. Now.”
“It’s probably treason,” she muttered.
Who the hell cared? “Mercy,” he warned.
She sighed, running faster, her small legs just a blur. “Fine.” Her breath remained easy. “The president confirmed my suspicions. When the elders created my generation with leftover genetic samples, they might have experimented a little bit. Most of the experiments didn’t make it.”
“But?” His ears burned.
She winced, running smoothly again. “They combined Fae and demon DNA—and apparently found success.”
They reached the campground, and he stopped, grasping her arm to halt her motions. Shock dropped a series of hard rocks into his gut. “Say that again.”
She shuffled her now dirty tennis shoes. “The Fae elders apparently created a demon-Fae hybrid.” She winced and tried to kick off the mud, spraying his calves. “Female too. You know how rare female demons are.”
They were rare but existed. Energy ricocheted through him. “Where is she?” They had to get her on board. Now.
Mercy grimaced. “Well, that’s the thing. They couldn’t take her to the other world with us. A hybrid like that would be too volatile. Probably. They left her here on earth.”
“Where?” He released her before he bruised her arm.
She paled. “The president wouldn’t confirm, and truth be told, I don’t believe she knows. I think they left her with humans.”
His head jerked. “Humans? A hybrid like that?”
Mercy kicked a rock, and it rolled toward a tree. “Yes. I mean, teleporting is a learned skill, so if she was raised human, she might have no idea what she’s able to do. If she survived childhood. Who knows. The images she creates—could be from dreams. Or…maybe she has traveled dimensions and knows how to commit a demon mind attack. It guess it’s possible. Somehow.”
The Fae were fucking nuts. He’d love to get his hands on those elders right now and squeeze until their heads popped off.
The doors to the cabins burst open, and his friends poured out. Logan reached them first, his jaw set in battle mode. “We have to get to demon headquarters. There has been a breach. A huge one.”
Ronan brought Faith and Promise out of the research room, a gun already in his hand.
“Stop.” Ivar held up a hand toward Promise. “Stay there for a minute.” He didn’t want her brain shutting down if she stood too close to Mercy. She’d had enough training for the day.
Ronan and Faith kept coming, while Promise hesitated on the cabin steps.
Garrett jogged out right behind Logan. “They want Promise there since she just talked to Dayne the other day. Thinks that might calm the guy down since the meeting was cordial.”
“Dayne?” Ivar asked, his body going hot and then ice cold. “What the hell does he have to do with a breach?”
Garrett reached him at the same time as Logan. “Long story, but his kid is at demon headquarters. Might’ve run away to meet up with our niece, but who knows? Could be a setup.”
Ivar growled, and his fangs itched to lower. “Promise is not getting involved in this shit.”
“She already is,” Logan said, wrapping an arm around Mercy’s waist and drawing her near. “There are kids involved here, Ivar. We have to avoid a full-out war.”
Faith clutched her mate’s hand. “Let’s all go. There’s a medical facility