We lost it then. I collapsed on Finn as the laughter shook through my tired, sore body.
“We look homeless,” Calista said between chuckles.
“We are homeless,” I spluttered out as tears ran down my cheeks.
It wasn’t funny. None of this was funny, but sometimes grief manifests in odd ways. And after we managed to pull ourselves together and cross the last of the Island to reach Kade’s mansion, I realized that I felt just a little better. I might have lost my crown, I might be a failed queen, but I had Calista and Kade. Together we would get Violet back. For the first time ever I was not an heir or a queen. I was just Arianna of the red house. It was a scary thought, but an exciting one too.
Unlike when I sneaked into the bear king’s manor during the Summit trials, this time I used the front entrance. Calista, Finn, and I walked right up to the guards on the gate. The bears eyed me, but weren’t aggressive in their approach.
“Queen Arianna, we weren’t expecting you,” the slightly smaller guard – though still giant sized – said. He was eyeing my clothes, no doubt wondering why I was dressed in my PJ’s.
“I need to speak with King Kade. Is he here?”
Please be here.
The other one whipped out his phone and hit a few buttons before lifting it to his ear. He turned away, speaking low, but my shifter hearing picked up the affirmative from the other side. It was Gerald.
“Go right on into the house.” The guards stepped back and the huge gates opened for us.
Calista let out a huff of air and I swiveled to see her better, my eyebrows raised. A smirk of sorts crossed her lips. “It’s kind of ironic that our people threw us out without a goodbye, banished us to never return, and here we are, welcomed into the bear’s territory. Never thought I’d see the day.”
I was about to answer when I caught sight of Kade. We were only halfway down the long drive, but he was clearly waiting on his huge porch, one arm resting against the wall. My body moved by instinct then. I dropped the suitcase and barreled down the path at a million miles an hour. I’d never been less dignified, less queen-like in my life, running toward him like my life depended on it.
Concern creased his features and he started moving toward me. As I ran I had to keep reminding myself not to touch him, not to throw myself into his warmth and comfort. The last thing I needed was his people to dethrone him too. Not before we sorted out this mecca and fae problem.
The distance closed and I could feel the energy that was always between us. I’d always thought the mecca was what made that pulse of energy so strong, but I’d just lost a lot of mecca and the connection was as strong as ever. A few feet from him I forced myself to stop. My heart was beating fast, breath coming out in short puffs – it wasn’t the run which had me winded, it was Kade.
He didn’t stop though, he scooped me into his arms and wrapped me up so tight that some of the leaking of my fissured heart seemed to ease. “Your people will see,” I murmured into his chest. I was trying to find the strength to push him away, but instead my hands were tangled in his shirt, pulling him closer.
“Let them see. I already told my council this morning, and they have broken away to debate it. Last I heard, half of the council was in favor of us joining together. We defeated the fae together last night, and this division between our boroughs and packs is making us weaker.” His lips brushed mine and everything was okay in that moment. As he pulled back he said: “Who better to join our worlds than the king and queen.”
My eyes welled up then, the reality of what had happened hitting me hard. Kade’s expression hardened as he took in my distraught features and my pajamas. He glanced behind me, where I knew Calista and Finn were waiting with my suitcase.
“What happened, Ari?” he asked as he turned back, still holding me close but allowing some distance so he could see my face. “What did those bastards on your council do?”
Chapter Twelve
A silver lining is sometimes black.
“I will kill them,” Kade said for the fiftieth time, his voice a bear rumble by now. We were inside his house and I’d just finished telling him everything that went down after the battle. He was one annoyed bear.
“They never healed you! They just left you in that room while they plotted against you? After you saved everyone and almost killed yourself in the process. If Nix and Finn hadn’t intervened and used their connection to the mecca, it would have destroyed everyone. Once you lost control of it, it would have ripped through everyone in its path.”
I hadn’t known that. Information to consider next time I decided to jump in the car with no brakes.
Kade wasn’t done trying to kill the council yet. “I trusted them,” he said, his hands clenched. “I left you with your people to heal only after they assured me you would receive the best care. With Violet gone, I knew you were limited on magic born, but I didn’t want to make things hard for you by insisting you come to my home.”
Calista spoke up: “I never left her side, but I did think it was odd that no magic born was sent to us. Luckily, Ari healed quickly. Her natural shifter abilities and connection to the mecca helped immensely.”
Kade finally sat beside me on the huge white couch; his body was like a rock, hard and unyielding. We were in that front sitting room with the huge windows and gauzy white curtains. It felt like a lifetime ago I’d climbed the cliff and made my way to try and steal his mecca necklace, a lifetime ago he had kissed me and sealed both of our fates. He reached for me, his hand brushing up my arms to cup my face. He did this a lot, and it was kind of perfect.
“What do you want to do now, Ari? You have the bear shifters on your side. We are forever grateful to you for saving us last night.”
See, perfect. “We have to save Violet, and we have to fix the mecca. If we don’t, the fae will keep coming until we’re all destroyed.”
Calista cleared her throat. “Except that we are banished from Manhattan, which is the only place you can open a portal into the Otherworld.”
Dammit, Calista was right.
“We’ll fight our way in, Selene can’t stop me,” Kade said, his lazy confidence back in full force.
I placed a hand on his chest. “Whoa there. I’m hoping to convince my people that a side by side existence with the bears is possible. That’s going to be a touch harder if you attack them.”
He grumbled, and I could see that he just wanted Selene’s head on a stick, but acting on our base emotions would get us nowhere.
Calista raised her hand as if she was in school. “I have an idea…”
We stared at her, waiting for her to speak, but despite her hand-in-the-air-enthusiasm, she now seemed to be wrestling with some internal emotions.
“King Kade, do you swear to never harm Baladar based on the knowledge I am about to share?”
Kade’s eyebrows furrowed as he assessed Calista. “Why?”
Calista set her best poker face. “Do you swear it?”
Just what the hell was my advisor up to?