I was pretty sure the councils were shit out of luck. Larky had lost me, his prize, he was going to be very angry and totally come out with guns blazing. Jonathon had a legit reason to worry that this was all going to spill out into the human world.
“So both twins died, and you still had no idea where I was. What did you do then?” Our pace had increased, and something was glimmering on the horizon.
Braxton’s voice was monotone again. “No one knew anything. Larkspur literally appeared on this plane, snatched you up and disappeared to Faerie. There was no time for even his closest followers to be aware of his actions.”
Jacob snorted. “Yep, Brax learned the hard way that no matter how hard you beat someone, they cannot give you information they don’t possess.”
My mate chuckled, some of his old humor returning. “It was kind of therapeutic, hunting down and questioning those who had ties to the king. Gave me a distraction from my need to kill every single member of our councils. Useless assholes were far too slow in their reactions.”
He stated this as fact, and none of us doubted that it had been a fine line of control which stopped him going on a mass killing spree which would have made the time of the dragon king seem like Sunday brunch in the park.
“Well, we’re all back together now, and I for one am not letting anyone else get their scaly claws on me.” I could reach my dragon now, and we would fight those fuckers all the way to our death.
Jacob spoke up then, he must have been following the same train of thought. “Has Jess mentioned that she saved our asses in the maze by learning how to call on her dragon?” He was all proud of me and shit.
The rumble in Braxton’s chest increased. “You figured out how to shift on command?” It was sort of a question, but mostly he sounded proud too.
“Yep, we broke down the wall. Now there’s no more barrier.”
Tyson reached across his brother to drop a large hand on my shoulder, which was quite the dexterous feat with our current pace. “Never doubted that you could do it, Jessa babe. Damn, I missed you. I don’t think any of us realized the true depth of our pack bond until you were gone. We were fucking lost … a mess … a bunch of idiot males wandering around beating the shit out of people. We’re nothing without you, Jess, so don’t disappear on us again. I’m not sure any of us would survive.”
I had to swallow a few times. There was this stupid huge lump in my throat. Maybe it was the fierce and loving looks the boys were bestowing on me, or the emotion rocking their voices, but I was feeling every single way they had suffered without me. As much as I had hurt, it had been much longer and worse for the quads. They had not known if I was being tortured or other horrible shit. Larky was the big-scary in our world, and I’d been his captive.
I reached up and squeezed Tyson’s hand. “I felt the same pain, like I was missing an essential part of my soul, and for me it was only a few days that we were all separated.”
“It was a month for us,” Braxton said. “The longest damned month of my life. How do you feel about handcuffs?”
I snorted. “As long as it involves whips and chains, then I’m down, but if you’re talking about leashing me to you for life, not a chance, buddy. I can fight plenty fine on my own. Larky took me by surprise in that first meeting, but I’ve been fighting him ever since.”
Maximus skipped back to our previous conversation. “Tell us more about this Rose.”
“She’s the first marked, and apparently Larky’s wife. Like I said before, she’s human, but there’s something important about her blood. It’s tied to the marked curse. The fact that her family line is descended from the shining ones allowed him to use it to bond the supes to him.”
The boys were silent for a beat before Jacob said, “If we kill her, will it break the curse?”
I scrunched up my forehead, trying not to think too hard about that. “I doubt it. Firstly, there’s no way to truly know, and I’d hate to think she’d die for nothing. And secondly, Larky is very protective of her. We’d never get close enough to hurt her. She’s a victim in all of this. Killing her should be the absolute last resort.”
No one answered straight away and I knew what they were all thinking. If it came down to me or her, Rose was fucked. They would not hesitate for even a second before ripping her head off. I had to make sure that didn’t happen. We had to find something on the Isle of the Gods.
I changed the subject from the killing of Rose to Faerie gods. “Do you think we’re getting close to the … the destination now? What dangers are we facing there?”
Surprisingly enough, Jacob answered, and with none of his usual reticence of sharing about Faerie. “A long time ago Faerie used to be ruled by two powerful groups: the shining ones and the shadow spawn, two factions who lived on opposite sides of our world. The Isle of the Gods was home to the shining ones, and the Land of the Dying was where the shadow spawn existed. The shadows are a dark spirit, they care very little for anything other than power and feeding. The shining ones were pure of spirit … or so they would have you believe, but like all powerful beings, were never to be trusted. They always have their own agenda.”
“So what happened?” I asked. “You said used to be ruled.”
“I wasn’t born of course, so this is a folk tale passed down through the generations of fey. There was a war. The shadow spawn rose up against the shining ones, they wanted the Isle of the Gods, for it was there that the most abundant of magic existed, the Gold. You know the essence they teach us about in magic classes. The base of all supernatural creatures. If they had gained control of this wild and ancient power … shit, it would have been bad. End of world bad.”