The Rebel Queen (Outlaw #1) - Lexi Blake Page 0,145
contact him?”
“He has a cell phone when he’s on the Earth plane, but I don’t think he and Trent have talked much lately. I know it’s hurt Trent, though he tries not to show it. It’s been a hard twelve years on that wolf. I worry about how Kelsey’s going to handle it,” Lee replied and then stopped. “There’s the entrance. I’m going to put the cloak on and do recon. I want you to stay here until I make sure the room’s clear.”
It was right there on the tip of my tongue to tell him that he was the son and I was the mom and I would go in, but the truth of the matter was Lee had more experience at this than I did. He was a soldier. He might have some skills when it came to thievery, but over the course of this war, he’d become a soldier and I had to honor that. “All right. Be careful.”
I didn’t want to send him in there. I’d been calm to this point, but as Lee put the cloak on and disappeared in front of me, it hit me that we were walking into the place where I’d lost him before. This was the last place I’d seen him as a child. I’d pulled the covers up around him and promised I would see him in the morning. I’d smoothed back his hair and told him good night.
And then I’d disappeared.
The hood came off and my son looked at me. “Momma, it’s going to be all right. I promise.”
“You’re a floating head. That is never all right.” I reached up and ruffled his hair the way I used to when he was a kid. “I’m sorry. I’m always going to worry about you. Now let’s get this done. I want to get back to your dads. The less time we take the less they have to spend with Myrddin.”
“Got it. Be back in a flash,” Lee promised.
He flipped the hood down and disappeared. I watched as the door opened and then closed again.
There was a pit in my stomach that told me this was a bad idea. A very bad idea.
I took a deep breath and thought seriously about calling the whole thing off. This was why my father never worked with family. He worked with other professionals, and while he might have enjoyed their company, he’d had no real feelings for the people on his crew. Emotion is a dangerous thing to a thief.
I wanted to follow that instinct and take Lee back to Frelsi where he would be safe.
And what if Sarah’s wards fell? I would be handing Myrddin the keys to a kingdom that would suddenly be filled with demons. If they were allowed on the Earth plane, everything changed. A war unlike anything we’d ever seen would break out with humans on one side and demons on the other, and I wasn’t sure they wouldn’t view most of my family as demons. Humans aren’t known for being able to discern who the real enemy is. They would come for all supernaturals. Myrddin was simply thinking he could enslave the humans, could overcome them with his skill and the Hell plane’s armies.
He was underestimating the humans. They would put up a fight, and their sheer numbers would give them the advantage.
I didn’t want to fight at all. I wanted us to live in harmony, even if that meant we kept our world a secret.
The door opened again. “We’re good. And there’s so much C-4. What was Papa planning?”
“You know your dads like to be prepared.” I stepped through the door and into the basement. “He probably had a coupon or something.”
It was dark but Lee had his flashlight out, giving us some illumination. “Are we sure there’s not a guard on the door?”
“Not according to our spies,” Lee replied quietly. “According to the message Christine got out an hour ago, the building is very quiet today. There are only forty witches who live here full time. Some of them went with Liv on a top secret mission. She wasn’t sure where, but it means we shouldn’t have to worry about too many being around today. The basement is locked, but the witches don’t seem to care about what’s down here. Like I said, they don’t use human weapons at all. I’m surprised he hasn’t sold any of this. That’s what I would have done if I wasn’t going to use them.”