Phelan walked into the cottage he shared with Aisley to find her sitting in the living room sharing a drink with Laura and Charon.
All three heads turned to him when he entered through the door. Charon, a fellow Warrior and a close friend, immediately frowned. Aisley was on her feet and walking to Phelan before the door shut behind him.
He welcomed her loving arms as she wrapped them around him. Phelan held her tightly, burying his head in her neck.
“You’re home now,” Aisley whispered.
They didn’t keep secrets from each other. She knew why he had gone to Dreagan, and he had kept her as up to date on things as he could. What he hadn’t wanted to tell her until he returned home was that Tristan was Duncan.
Such a secret weighed heavily upon him, and Phelan knew that as soon as he shared it with her, things were going to change for all the Warriors and Druids, but most especially those living in and around MacLeod Castle.
Aisley pulled back and ran her hands over his face, her worried gaze searching his. “You look like you could use a drink.”
“Two or three, in fact,” he said. He kissed her, reveling in the fact such a woman was really his.
She wasn’t just a Druid, she was a Phoenix—able to regenerate after death with fire. Phelan had lost her once and thought he’d have to live the rest of his immortal life without her. But when they burned her body, she had returned to him. It was how everyone, including Aisley, learned of the rare heritage passed through her family.
At least when he ended the kiss and she pulled out of his arms, Aisley was smiling. With her in his life he could face anything—even something as awful as what was coming.
“We were getting a bit worried,” Laura said as she greeted him.
Phelan smiled at the wife of his best friend and fellow Warrior, Charon. “I want a shower to scrub the stink of the Dark Fae off me, but not yet. There are things everyone needs to know.”
“That sounds ominous,” Charon said with a frown after they clasped hands and he resumed his seat on the sofa opposite Phelan. “I thought you were just going to Dreagan to chat with Con and the others.”
Phelan looked at Aisley in the kitchen, who gave a shrug.
“I didn’t know how long you would be, or what would happen,” she explained. “Had I told Charon everything, he’d have been at Dreagan himself demanding to be standing alongside you.”
Charon’s frown deepened as he looked from Aisley to Phelan. “I’m getting pissed. What the bloody hell are you two talking about?”
Laura put her hand atop Charon’s. “It looks like Phelan has gotten himself involved in something.”
“I think you’re right,” he answered, continuing his hard stare at Phelan. “And I’ve got a feeling the Kings didna bother to mention how deep the shite was before Phelan stepped in it.”
Aisley sank beside Phelan on the sofa and handed him the opened bottle of ale. He drank down three huge gulps before he set the bottle on the table between the sofas and met Charon’s gaze. “I knew the shite was deep when I agreed. I wasna fooled into helping out.”
Charon took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “How bad is it?”
“Potentially devastating.”
Phelan went on to tell them about Denae, MI5’s involvement with the Dark, Denae and Kellan being taken by the Dark Ones, and Rhi helping to locate the Dragon King and human in Ireland. He described the Fae doorways, how the Dark Fae had taken over an abandoned manor and somehow opened the Fae world beneath with tunnels, and how Phelan and Tristan helped to get Kellan and Denae out of the tunnels.
He drained the last of his ale as he told of the battle and how the Kings, along with Denae, got back to Scotland.
“The Fae opened their world up into ours?” Aisley asked, her voice shaking.
Phelan took her hand in his. “No’ yet. Rhi and the Kings are worried it might come to that. For now, it’s confined to the tunnels beneath the manor.”
“How bad is it?” Charon asked.
“Bad. Verra bad,” Phelan said. “The creatures we encountered are huge and vicious. If the Fae world bleeds into ours, the humans willna know what to do.”
Laura’s intelligent eyes met his. “Are the Light Fae doing anything about the Dark? Or are they joined in this together?”
“This was all the Dark,” Phelan said. “Rhi was right there beside us battling them. There wasn’t much said, but I know the Kings are suspicious of the Dark Fae’s alliance with MI5.”
“And just who put that alliance into motion,” Aisley guessed.
Phelan grinned. His wife had spent enough time in the midst of her evil cousin to know how villains thought. “They suspect it’s Ulrik.”
“That name again,” Laura said with a shake of her head. “I have a feeling he’s the one who came into the bar months ago. He looked lost, haunted. I wouldn’t peg him to be evil.”