words were the meaning was something like—shit, bitch be crazy and she’s going to kill me.
Or something like that. It’s what the bad guys usually say right before I murder them.
But he’d said something before that had scared the crap out of me. He’d called Summer an abomination.
The same word Lupus Solum had used to describe my son.
Abomination. I hated that word.
It was probably why I drew back my leg and kicked up as hard as I could. I figured this dude was probably Fae. He had that look about him. Fae males hate getting kicked in the junk as much as any other male does. On some species, you have to figure out where those suckers are located, but my current opponent was Fae, and sidhe to top it all off. That basically meant he was perfectly humanoid, and his precious ball sack is located between his legs. It’s a good design because it makes it easy for me to kick the fuckers back up into his body cavity.
At least Marcus was here. I’d been smart enough to pick up my gun before I’d gone into Donovan’s office and gotten sucked into the trick and trap Gray had been warning me about forever. He could have been more specific.
“It’s not the queen, Marcus.” I’d only really used the gun because I knew Marcus and Dev were somewhere close. I hadn’t had time to locate them before I’d been forced to run, so I’d hoped the sound of gunfire would be like a beacon to my former trainer. I knew it would be to Dev Quinn. The prince of Faery loved himself some hardware. I tossed the Ruger Marcus’s way because I didn’t need to draw anyone else to us. “The queen is back at Council headquarters. And hold that for me unless you want to do that thing where you make everyone gut themselves.”
“And spoil your fun?” Marcus was still dressed in the suit he’d worn to my wedding the night before. It was slightly wrinkled, and I wondered how much time had passed here. “I would never. Besides, I can feel your anxiety from here and I haven’t felt anything from you in months. You need to blow off steam.”
He was right about the fact that I was anxious. I wasn’t with my husbands. I wasn’t sure I could get back to them. I could feel the distance between us, but it helped to have Marcus close. It helped to know he believed in me.
“What do you mean she’s not the queen?” Ah, there was Dev. A quick glance to my right and I saw he was already busy. He had called upon the forest to aid him, and two of the soldiers who’d been trying to get hold of Summer were wrapped up in vines. I’d seen him do it before. “I think I know the queen when I see her.”
But he hadn’t really looked at her yet. On the surface she certainly seemed to be the clone of the queen. When I got rid of the rest of them, we would all sit down and have a long talk.
I managed to wrest a sword from the soldier who rushed at me from the right. It was easy to skewer him with it. Now that I knew Marcus was here, I could breathe a bit easier, and the rhythms of the fight took over my body. Marcus would look after Summer. I had no doubt even as I squared off against the last man standing that he was making sure the young woman was all right.
“She killed her whole tribe.” Kor held that sword at his side, keeping a careful distance between us. “Why would you aid her?”
“I didn’t get the feeling you were planning on killing her.” It hadn’t escaped me that he’d ordered his soldiers to do the opposite. I rather thought they intended to take her to their leader or something.
Yeah, I had a whole bunch of questions. But luckily I happened to know Dev could keep those soldiers he’d wrapped up alive, and they would be right there waiting to answer so I could kill this dude.
“Devinshea!” Marcus called out. “Stop her.”
I had a bad feeling about the her Dev was going to stop, but I had to deal with Kor.
“You know what she hasn’t done?” I asked as we began to circle one another. “She hasn’t shot me with an arrow. It’s barbaric, you know.”