Midnight Truth (Shifter Island #4) - Leia Stone Page 0,78

blood mages arriving on it. Is that clear? We need to protect everyone, which means we can’t risk renegade attacks on Shifter Island. Make sure those in Mageville know the danger.”

Steele tucked his chin to his chest. “Yes, My Liege.”

It had been a long day, what with the blood mage attack happening in the middle of the night.

“Thank you,” Rage said to King Ozark.

The selkie king waved his hand dismissively once more. “For most of my people, our day is just beginning. Yours are exhausted. If they don’t get rest, your force will become a liability instead of an asset.”

King Ozark was spot on.

Everyone dispersed, and shortly thereafter, Rage came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist.

“You’re amazing,” he said, nuzzling my neck. “Amazing and beautiful.”

I smiled, but the smile fell when I remembered the conversation I’d overheard the blood mages have. Seeing Kian die, hearing them talk so casually about us as if we were food. It unhinged me.

How had this happened so fast? One minute, everything was fine, and the next…

Grandpa.

My heart panged as grief squeezed it like a vise. I thought of how he’d sacrificed himself … to save me. I didn’t even get to say goodbye … not really. I wanted more time. I … I don’t think I had even told him I loved him.

At some point, I started to weep, and without a word, Rage gathered me into his arms and walked me back to our tent. Once inside, Rage held me, letting me grieve as I mourned all of the death from today. He must’ve known I needed this. Because come tomorrow, I had to be done with the sadness stage of grief. Tomorrow was time for anger and revenge. Those were the final stages, right? They were in my book.

I woke up to all the Harvest alpha heirs standing outside my tent, shushing one another. Kaja and her sisters were here—probably with coffee and breakfast. As soon as I opened the tent flap, everyone fell silent.

“I thought you might want breakfast,” Kaja said, holding out a steel plate brimming with fresh fruit, muffins, and boiled eggs, along with a mug of coffee with steam rolling off the top. “Your aunt and Annette took over the kitchen in King Ozark’s castle for breakfast.”

“Thankfully,” Fiona muttered.

The scent of the blueberry muffin wafted up from the plate, and my stomach rumbled.

Reyna was with her sisters but hung back as they swarmed me. I looked over her and noticed her eyes were red-rimmed like she’d been crying.

Rage had left the tent an hour ago, after telling me that all the leaders had slept on our plan and agreed to move forward together. So today we’d strategize. And tonight, we’d attack.

I was worried about the haste of the plan, but if we left them alone for any length of time, we risked them leading an offensive on us. Their plan of three days might’ve been moved up after my spirit walk yesterday. So we needed to use our biggest advantage: the element of surprise. Besides that, I had lots of little plans swirling in my head. The most important involved a familiar mage who I needed to track down.

“So what’s your pack’s plan?” I asked Kaja and her sisters as I ate my breakfast. “Does your father have you going in Team A or Team B?” Rage and I had agreed in the late hours of last night that the leaders of each pack should split his or her people into two groups. Team A and Team B. One would go to Alpha Island and flush out the blood mages there, and the other would go to High Mage Island. We’d leave no stone unturned.

Reyna shot Kaja a narrow-eyed look, and Kaja nodded, glancing at Fiona and Nell. Mele didn’t look up from her book, but she cleared her throat.

Suddenly, I felt an ambush coming.

“Now that you mention it, Nai, we wanted to talk to you about something.” Kaja twirled a curl nervously between her fingers.

I steeled myself, wary of what it could be. “Don’t ask me to step between you and your alpha, okay? Whatever team he put you on—”

Especially not if he was going to keep them safe.

“No,” Kaja said, offering me a tentative smile. “Nothing like that.”

She looked at Reyna, but my bestie tilted her head toward me as she widened her eyes at her sister.

Reyna took a deep breath and then spoke in a rush. “I don’t know how to be