we’re on the Earth plane. If there’s any chance we could have…” He lifted his head and turned to Dev. “I love our children.”
Bris released the body and Dev’s eyes stared back. “I would never question that. And I will love this one. I would love to see a child with sandy hair and your eyes, Daniel. We can make it happen. Should we try for twins again? Or triplets? I think I can focus the magic in a way…”
I was so putting a stop to that line of thought. “One, Devinshea. One baby.” But we could have a baby. Danny and I could have a child all of us would love. But first things first. “After you get the thrall stones out.”
Dev frowned. “What is a thrall stone?”
A deep weariness hit me. “Something Myrddin is using to control your ass. Something I’m going to make sure never bothers us again.”
“Why would Myrddin do that?” Dev asked.
I would have answered him, but there were suddenly hands around my throat.
Daniel’s eyes had gone blank and he tightened his hold as the stone took over.
I tried to scream but couldn’t. Tried to breathe, to fight, to live.
But it looked like the stone would win.
* * * *
Kelsey
I stared at the barn door and wondered what I would be letting out if I went through with this.
“You didn’t tell Erna anything?” I asked Dean, who stood beside me looking every bit as reluctant as I was, but we were running out of options.
“I told her I was going out to milk the cow and gather some eggs for breakfast,” Dean said, his lips turned down in a frown.
He had my whole attention. “You have a cow? You do know that’s beef, right?”
That flat expression became coy, and I could see the gorgeous man he would become one day. “Of course, but I agree with Erna on this one. We have to protect Jassie from the hungry wolf. Don’t eat the chickens either. We need them.”
That was a little insulting. “I’m not going to walk over and start in on her flank or anything.”
Although flank steak…
He turned back to the barn, and more importantly what was in the barn. “Maybe it’s dead. Do you eat demon? Not that there’s much meat on his bones.”
“First off, might I give you a hearty ewww. No, I don’t eat demons,” I said. “I don’t eat things that talk back.” Although I will admit that I knew a couple of wolves who did not discriminate against the talkative. I fully intended to teach my Fenrir our family values when it came to diet. “And I don’t think it died. I can still sense it. It’s weird.”
Dean held a hand out. “Like the air is a bit denser. Right about here.”
That was an excellent description. It wasn’t much, but because we were calm and not rushing, I could feel the difference in the air. It must be unique to this particular type of demon because I’d never felt it before. “How many Planeswalkers have you met?”
“Uh, one.” He pointed to the door. “If you’re looking for an expert, you should talk to Erna. She knows way more about them than I do. The witches of Arete keep detailed records of all the demons.”
I would love to read those records, but there was a reason I wanted to keep Erna from this particular experiment. “Maybe I’ll ask her some questions later. I need to keep her focused on getting those thrall stones out of Dan and Dev so we can safely go to the Vampire plane and get Summer back.”
There was so much about this whole thing I still didn’t understand. I couldn’t take the chance that Myrddin had planned this all out and the king and Dev were here to do his bidding. Especially since we’d found Dean and realized he had a part to play. I had to consider the fact that they could harm or kill Dean if they understood who he truly was. The stones had to come out. I trusted Bris to know how much Dev’s body could take. It wasn’t him I worried about, but the king was suddenly vulnerable. The queen and I had decided to take the chance.
“Erna knows what she’s doing.” Dean took a deep breath. “She’ll have the stones out in no time at all. Okay, so I’m going to knock around in this demon’s head. You know I can’t actually read his thoughts, right?”