Beneath the Dust (Force of Nature #4) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,25

right, I don’t. But I do know what that bitch is willing to do to any one of us, given the opportunity, and I’m sure as fuck in no hurry to make that job easier for her by walking right into this little trap.”

“What if she’s bluffing?” Brunton argued. He stalked toward Kat, stopping just shy of her. “What if she offered that option knowing that we’d all rather choose the devil we know over the one we don’t?”

“Then the joke’s on us,” Kat replied, never flinching.

“There is a third option,” Merc said, garnering everyone’s attention, including mine. If he thought there was a way out of the other two, I was all ears.

“What?” I asked, my heart in my throat.

“You don’t honor your bargain with the queen.”

Again, a hush fell upon the room, and the silence made me want to run from it screaming.

“Yeah…that can’t end well, Merc.”

“The queen will not come for you—she learned the hard way how that ends,” he said, a faint smile punctuating his sentence. “Nor will the fey king. He has lost his best weapon against us. He will not come for you on his own, either.”

“So we just do nothing?” I asked. He nodded.

“The queen will find a way to force our hand, and you know it,” Knox snarled at Merc. “She will find a way to punish Piper. I know a thing or two about not honoring your promise to the fey queen. Angering her isn’t going to make this situation better.”

“Let her be angry from her side of the veil. Unless she is willing to cross the divide, she is no threat.” Merc’s tone was strong and haughty. He sounded every bit the vampire king he’d become.

“But she threatened me—told me that she could find multiple ways to torture me. She’s not talking about hurting me. She’s talking about hurting you guys. She’s seen firsthand the lengths I’ll go to for you. She knows that hurting you is more effective leverage than anything else. I have to give her an answer, and I have to do it soon!”

Grizz let out a huff and stormed toward me, pulling me out from under Dean’s arm and throwing me over his shoulder. He was halfway to my bedroom before I could protest.

“Hiding me in my room is not going to work either, Grizz.”

The man-bear seemed to disagree.

“You know what? Fuck it,” Kat said, jumping in front of Grizz to block the way, “I change my vote to the unknown because fuck that fairy bitch. If Piper says she can’t take out the king, then we do her highness’ dirty deed and pray like hell it doesn’t backfire.”

Grizz reluctantly set me down while his stare shot daggers at Kat.

“We’re with you either way, Piper,” Jagger said from down the hall. He forced a smile, and I did my best to return it, but all I could see in my mind was the queen torturing him to get to me, and my face fell.

I turned my gaze to Merc and Knox standing beside one another, a semi-united front.

“I’ve guaranteed that she’s not going after someone I love,” I said, swallowing back my emotions. “At least we know that much.”

“The feys’ words are never to be trusted,” Merc said carefully.

“They can’t lie outright, but they sure as fuck can twist things into something pretty close,” Knox added. “Are you sure about this?”

I choked on a nervous laugh. “Of course I’m not sure, but I don’t know what else to do.”

“And what if the object she desires is in the king’s realm?” Brunton asked, his irritation with the situation plain.

“Then we’re just as fucked as we would have been going there to kill him, so the point is kind of moot.”

He gave me a grim nod.

“So it is decided?” Merc asked.

“I think it is. Kat’s right. We take our chances with the unknown.”

“This is shaping up to be an epic shitshow,” Kat said, heading back to the media room. “I’m so down it’s not even funny.” Grizz shot her a nasty side-eye, and she laughed. “Come on, big guy. It can’t be worse than anything else we’ve faced.” He snorted and shook his head in disbelief, then stormed off. Kat, in all her sarcastic glory, actually looked worried that she’d pushed him too far. That her dark humor had driven her friend away—one of the only beings she’d let close to her since Jensen died.

I tried to give her a reassuring look, but she merely disappeared down the