Braxton shook his head, stepping even closer to me, my hand squashed between us. “It wasn’t that you had to catch up, you had to let go of your fears. And since you’re one hell of a brave supernatural, I knew it couldn’t take you long.”
It had been fear holding me back, and I was still afraid. I whispered the terror I held deep in my soul. “What if we lose this? Why the hell do I have a second mate?”
He cupped my chin, gently dragging my gaze back up to meet his. “Never going to happen. This is just another trial for us, but we will slay it as we always do.”
Our cliché romance book moment was ended by the appearance of a bunch of gray haired cloaked fey dudes. Obviously women’s liberation never reached the dragon mystics. They were a penis-heavy bunch.
“Are you ready?” asked Quale, stepping forward, no qualms about interrupting my moment.
From what I could see, below the cowl of his cloak, his expression was serious. “We do not share the secrets of the dragon lightly. Many argued against allowing any who are closely associated with the quads into the inner circle. But I will not permit us to take sides in this war. We are the council to the king, yes, but we are also part of the supernatural community.”
Most of the mystics looked unhappy by his words. But they didn’t voice any objections today. For some reason they seemed to both admire and fear Quale.
He turned to Braxton. “Where are your brothers? We need you to join together so we know what we are dealing with.”
“They’re on their way,” Braxton said.
I was guessing the mystics wanted to determine if they had to eliminate their enemies today, which is why we had the full showing of cloaked grays. I was sure this “forced joining” would have been demanded a lot earlier if not for all the disappearing into Faerie and such. Seems they had decided now was the time.
This thought had my insides turning. I didn’t like that the mystics were so unknown. Quale spoke as if they were just fey who acted as council to the king. But what if the hidden powers they supposedly possessed were enough to take out my boys? I seriously doubted it, but that didn’t completely alleviate my concerns.
Not to mention I could sense other supernaturals inside the building. Quite a few actually. The mystic’s plan wasn’t completely terrible. They knew it was better to try and take the Compasses out before they got too strong. They did not want another set of Four to contend with. My boys were still young in the supernatural world, and had never joined powers before.
What the mystics failed to understand was that even without their powers joined, the Compasses were beyond anything they’d dealt with before. I never knew the Four when they were young of course, but in my head, they hadn’t been on the level of my quads. Sure, I was biased – probably the most biased supernatural you’d ever meet. Maybe their parents, Jo and Jack were as bad, but us three definitely formed the basis for the quads’ fan club. The other members consisted of the simpering fools in Stratford, females who thought they could tame a Compass.
Oh shit, I was one of them now, one of those females I’d always pitied. Gone all soft for a male. Love did a real number on you. I barely recognized the hardass I used to be. I was all soft and fluffy … my wolf was like a goddamn kitty cat.
Quale waved us forward. “Since our time is limited we’ll start with the twins, the quads will be last.”
We joined my parents and Mischa. All of us followed the grays through the double glass doors. The sanctuary was so weird. On one hand it was all natural, with its forest and ice-land and desert and ocean, and on the other they had all of this advanced tech stuff everywhere. Such a mix of old and new, natural and manufactured. Magic laced through all of it, though. Ancient power had created this place and something told me it would stand through any war.
Once inside the pale yellow, shiny, glassed building, we moved through what looked like a foyer of sorts and then … of course … into an elevator. I closed my eyes, though I felt I was dealing a little better with the caging. Thankfully, it was a short trip, and with a ding the metal doors slid across and I opened my eyes in time to exit with everyone.
The room was massive, a single expanse without any pillars to break the space. The black rubber floors had a spongy feel, and I envisaged that this was a training ground of sorts, perfect for fighting. Standing along the far wall, which was about a hundred yards across, were two dozen supernaturals. As we closed the gap between them and us, I could sense there was a mix of the five races. A few vampires, three shifters – no wolves – wizards, fey, and two demi-fey: a centaur and a pixie.
“Do you think the reason we never knew if demi-fey were marked was because they were either in prison or in the sanctuary?” I murmured to Braxton, thinking back to our conversation in Vanguard.