He gave me a kiss on the cheek as he passed, and then was gone from the room. The energy in the hall lessened without him. There was always one thing you could be sure of with Louis, his power was second to none. The supes started to move around, congregating in their race groups. My father and other leaders stepped up to guide those around them.
The Four wandered our way and I forced myself not to snarl. I’d seen them the moment we’d entered the room. I had Four radar now, helped in part by my animals, who considered them to be the enemy and were pretty unhappy about their “still-breathing” status. The four of them moved as a single unit up to the front of the hall, close to the dais.
The room quietened, faces turning toward the identical quads. Some were wary, others pissed – okay the quads and myself were the main ones who looked pissed – but everyone was waiting to see what they would say.
One of them spoke – no point trying to figure out which one, since they were identical and all wearing the same black fatigues. “We’ll be joining our power together shortly,” he said. “The marked are closing in. We can feel their energy. They’ll be here within an hour.”
Another one of them said, “When we’re joined, we’ll have the energy to hold the marked at bay, to almost freeze them to the spot and prevent them from accessing their borrowed dragon energy. However, this will be a far greater number than we’ve ever faced at one time, and there’s no way for us to know if we’ll have enough power.”
The next one picked up the conversation and I had to laugh. They were like some sort of sideshow, each one continuing the conversation from the last. Maybe they shared one brain or something.
“Louis believes that some of his sorcerer friends can add their power to ours, and as a collective we’ll have the strength to contain the marked, thereby giving the rest of you a chance to finish the king.”
His eyes found me in the hall. “Jessa must get close enough to break the bonds. She was gifted the necklace from Faerie, and we all know she’s strong enough for this task.”
I forced myself not to flip him off. He spoke truth; that was how magic worked. If you were worthy, it came to you, and therefore it was my responsibility. Even if it hadn’t been my responsibility, I was more than happy to take the job.
“We’ll stick by, Jessa,” Maximus said from where he sat on my left, Cardia at his side. “We’ve never properly tested our quad power against the king, but we did use it more than once when Jessa went missing, and know how to manipulate the strengths of our bond. I’m confident we can hold the king long enough for Jess to bring the hurt on him.”
Jonathon moved away from the shifters then, climbing up to the dais. I looked around for Lienda, surprised to not see her at his side.
Ah. She stepped out of the side door where Mischa was staying. She scanned the room, spotted my pack, and crossed over to sit with us. She leaned across Braxton and gave me a hug before settling back into her seat. Lienda looked beautiful as always, but sort of frazzled, like she had not been sleeping well. Dark circles hung low under those stunning sea-colored eyes. I was sure she was worried about Mischa too. It would be good for everyone when that secret was out.
“The king is calling the marked,” my father said, drawing all of our attention to the front. “The call is faint. Mischa is fighting against his compulsion and is still coherent. We expect that he’s limiting his control while they’re traveling, but that he’ll kick it right up once the battle begins.”
Weird that I hadn’t felt any sort of call or connection. I mean, I still had the on and off ache in my lower back, and the hair on my arms had been standing since I woke. I had figured it was just magic floating through the air or something, but maybe it was the presence of the king as he closed in on us.
“I know that the Craiz and Compass quads have given us a game plan, a place to start. They all have very important roles, along with my daughter, so for the rest of us, we just need to be backup. We need to make sure that our people are not so overwhelmed with energy or magic that they cannot complete their tasks. It’s time to take back our town, our world, and the very vital supernatural communities which keep the criminals off the streets.”
There were shouts and noisy agreeance. We were starting to fire up, Jonathon’s power whipping us all into a frenzy. The crowd began to move out into the city center. I let the room clear out, not prepared to leave until I checked in with my father and Mischa. Braxton and Lienda stayed behind as well.
Jonathon reached me in moments. “Are you okay, Jess? No urges to run off and joined the king’s band of merry marked.”
I snorted. “Uh, no, I haven’t had any strange urges or voices in my head. How’s Mischa?”
I couldn’t shake my worry about her. Pregnant, fragile, and at the mercy of a dickbag king who could get in her head. I really wanted to protect her from what was coming.
Jonathon rubbed at his temples, signs of stress wrinkling his forehead and adding a few fine lines beside his eyes. “She says she’s fine. I’m proud of the way she fights the king’s command, but there’s so much sadness in her. She’s fading away, Jess, and I can’t let her go rogue wolf. There’s no coming back from that.”
Rogues were shifters who let the human side of them fade out to the animal. It happened when they were without pack or hope. And they were dangerous. I knew Mischa wasn’t going rogue, she was just a scared, pregnant, wolf shifter who had been raised by humans. She did not know how to handle this world. She needed time to adjust.