“Patience, please,” I told my furry audience. “I’ll be with you in a few minutes.”
Despite the ward, it wasn’t safe to keep two powerful stones in my flat. It was one thing to endanger myself; it was quite another to endanger my animal companions when they couldn’t consent. I was fortunate to have another option—one that no one would guess because no one knew I was capable of such magic.
I set to work. The sooner I took care of this, the better I’d feel. I sat on the floor of my living room in the middle of a chalk circle. A trio of candles burned around me, invoking the power of three. Sandy knew better than to breach the circle. The fennec fox took one look at the setup and left the living room. Big Red scampered onto my lap and I gently set him aside.
“Sorry, buddy. No room at the inn today. I need to keep the space clear.”
In typical fashion, Hera ignored me and vaulted to the bottom landing of the scratching post. I rolled my eyes and lifted her off, setting her outside the circle.
“Keep it up and you’re going to force me to create a ward just so I can get through this task uninterrupted.” I couldn’t imagine how anyone functioned with children running around. No wonder I’d never met a knight with kids, not a female one anyway. It was dangerous enough to have people in this world you cared about, let alone your own offspring. It must’ve been incredibly difficult for my mother to raise me under such stressful conditions, knowing that any moment my identity might be discovered. Rhea Hayes had been tougher than I ever realized.
I glanced at the hideous green scratching post and couldn’t resist a smile at my handiwork. No one would ever guess that two of the world’s most powerful stones were now part of this unattractive structure. They’d fail to notice the markings. It simply looked as though I’d fashioned a scratching post out of whatever scraps I’d found and covered them with hideous green carpet.
“And now for the piece de resistance.”
I made a shallow cut across my palm and sprinkled the blood around the circle. Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply and focused on my mind’s eye. No one knew the weight of the secrets I carried and that was how it had to be. They were my burden to bear.
The metaphorical lock clicked open, creating a doorway to the small realm I generally used as the menagerie’s holiday home. I sent the scratching post through to the other side. Hera meowed in protest. All she saw was her chance for fun being taken away from her.
I ignored her. There were more important matters than a disgruntled cat. If Antonia was right, there were more ancient stones out there awaiting discovery and I wasn’t the only one in search of them. The knowledge itself was dangerous, let alone the fact that I now possessed two of the stones and knew the location of a third. What were the other two and, more importantly, what were they capable of?
I had a lot of work to do.
I closed the doorway between worlds and unfolded my legs. It felt good to use an advanced level of magic. I rubbed away the chalk circle and blew out the candles before returning them to the shelves.
A knock startled me—mainly because it was coming from the window and not the door.
I crossed the room to the balcony and yanked open the curtains. Callan stood outside the window holding a pigeon.
My heart beat rapidly as I opened the window. “You do realize you’re supposed to let the pigeon fly by itself to deliver the message?”
He smiled. “I thought this one belonged to you.” He thrust the bird forward with both hands.
“You know perfectly well I work with a raven.” I pointed to the sky where Barnaby was circling above. Quite frankly, I was a little annoyed the bird didn’t give me a heads up about the prince’s sneaky arrival. What was the point of having a protective raven if he ignored potential threats?
As though reading my thoughts, the raven cawed once and flew away.
Traitor.
“You can come in, but let the pigeon go first.”
Callan released the bird and it flew away. He stooped to crawl through the window and joined me in the living room. My animal companions wisely made themselves scarce.
“Did you grab the first pigeon you saw or did they have to audition for the role of patsy?” I asked archly.
“I’ll have you know Franklin is a royal pigeon. One of Davina’s favorites.”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to have favorites among your carrier pigeons.”
He shrugged. “You know how she is.”
I did, which was why I liked her. “What brings you here, through the proverbial back door no less?” I waved a hand at the window.
“Romeo Rice died in custody. Thought you’d want to know.”
“The Tower?”
He nodded.
“What happened?”
“The report says there was an immediate fight for dominance amongst the prisoners. Mr. Rice lost.”
And with him the secret of the stone. Coincidence? Maybe.
“My brother says you were responsible for apprehending Mr. Rice.”
I nodded. “Another bid for power. He wanted to wrest control of the pack from bureaucrats.”
“Did you find the stone?”
“Wasn’t that information in the report?”
Callan looked down at the cat now threading herself between his feet. “There was no sign of any stone and Mr. Rice denied the possession of one. He said he was investigating certain pack behavior, but that he suspected it was drug-related.”
“Maybe our theory was wrong then,” I lied.
“My brother said he did a sweep of the penthouse but came up empty-handed.” Callan must’ve decided resistance was futile and leaned down to pet the cat. “After everything we learned in Devon, there has to be a stone.”
“Maybe not.” I latched on to the idea. “Remember, the elemental stone didn’t cause witches to lose control of their fire magic and burn down buildings. This could’ve been caused by something else.” And I said a silent prayer of gratitude that it didn’t have that kind of effect on me.
“Something had to cause the wolves here to go berserk and to relieve the condition of those in Devon.”
“We’ll have to keep an eye on any reports of berserkers.” I decided to change the subject. I hated to lie to him, but what choice did I have? I wasn’t about to hand over control of werewolves to a vampire, no matter how good of a kisser he was.
“So why didn’t you come to the front door? Embarrassed to be seen with me?”
“I was being followed and I wanted to ensure no one knew my destination.”
I frowned. “Who’s following you? I thought your brother was only interested in spying on my work for the pack.” And that business was officially closed.
“It isn’t my brother.”
“Then who? Spies for Princess Louise?”
A chuckle escaped him. “Even that would be preferable.”
Now I was truly stumped. “Who’s worse than Louise?”
“I want you safe, London.” The prince strode forward and held my face in his hands. Our lips hovered close together and I was certain he was about to kiss me.
“I am safe,” I whispered.
Bright green eyes burned with regret as he released me. “This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have come here.”