Find whoever’s sending fey against our pack and kill them.
But if Donovan didn’t know where in the hell to start—and this was his pack—how were we supposed to do that?
Chapter Twelve
The sun had started rising over the horizon by the time we were finally making our way back to the stronghold. We’d stayed to oversee the cleanup, while rest of the pack had gone home. After most of them left, I’d found a first aid kit in the trunk of the car and seen to Donovan’s leg. He was lucky that the cut wasn’t from the beast. The bronze sword that the humans’ statue was brandishing had done the job, so the wound was already mostly healed. In a day, it’d be completely gone. The other four Weres that were hurt had a few broken bones, but they’d be fine in a couple hours.
Besides Thomas, no one had been seriously injured. We’d been lucky on that end. But we still had so much work to do. I was pretty sure we weren’t going to sleep today.
“As I see it, we’ve got two problems,” I told Donovan as we wound down the minuscule streets in his equally tiny car.
“And they are?” Donovan asked, eyebrows raised.
“You’ve got massive pack problems, but they’re going to take a while to fix. But if we deal with the pack first, we could have piles of dead bodies on our hands before we get it solved. So, in my mind, the bigger problem is this fey creature. It’s the more immediate threat. We’ve got to figure out what exactly is killing off Weres, and how we can track it, and keep it from killing again. Because as I see it, I might be next on its list.” Having seen the creature, I was pretty terrified. The thought of going up against it alone and ending up like John or Thomas made me literally shake with fear. I shoved my hands in the pocket of my down vest to hide the shakes.
Around four in the morning I’d realized that losing me would massively destabilize Donovan. If I were trying to take down an Alpha, his mate would be my first target. We had to find a way to fix this or I was going to be diced up Were soon.
Donovan grunted. “I’m worried about the same. I also think it’s too convenient that the pack is in this kind of a state and John and Thomas were specifically picked as targets. One of ours has to be working with the beast. We won’t be able to stop this from happening again until we know what’s really going on.”
That was debatable. “If we kill the creature, then it’s out of the way. Problem solved.”
“It wouldn’t be long before another popped up in its place.”
Maybe. Maybe not. With the fey going into hiding, it might not be that easy to find another fey creature willing to murder on cue. “So what’s our best plan?” I was willing to hear him out, but I still thought going after the fey creature first was the best plan.
“Hmm.” That was all Donovan said, leaving me to my own speculation.
Regardless of what we did first, we were going to need more intel on the fey creature. Specifically, what it was and how to track and kill it. “Don’t you have a regular contact among the fey that you trust? Someone who could tell us what the creature is and why it’s killing Weres?”
“I do. We’ve a method that’s worked for a long while. I hike to the nearest circle and leave a message. By the time I get home, Qusay is there waiting.”
“So, we’re hiking?” Once we contacted the fey and figured out what this thing was, we could take it down. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about someone—probably me—getting turned into minced meat.
I could get behind this plan.
“Thing is, Qusay’s both our local contact and a member of the cross-court council, so he’s still in Canada. Even if he were here, he wouldn’t be able to help. He can only act when the queens allow him to, and with the way they’re feeling right now toward us…”
Crap.
“So, we need a friend in the court. Someone who would risk getting in trouble for us. Someone we can trust.” The tang of vindication was sweet. I’d been right to invite Cosette to the mall. Keeping a relationship with her was good on a lot of levels. “I can see if Cosette will answer my texts.” I was pretty sure she was still in Colorado, but there was a chance that she might be back at her court. Even if she
wasn’t, she could ask someone at court if they’d heard of one of theirs working with the Irish pack.
“I’ve a feeling Cosette’s in as much trouble as she can handle right now, and I have a mirror. I don’t like using it. I had a relationship with the Lunar Queen and…”
A thing? With Cosette’s mom?
Wait. No. I didn’t want to know about that. It’d just mess with my head. So, I picked the much safer topic. “You have an enchanted mirror?” I’d heard they were basically like a mystical version of video chat.
“Yes. I’ve not used it in a while. I’m not sure where it is, to be honest, but I’ll dig it up.”
“To call the Lunar Queen?” And we were back to her.
Donovan nodded. “Me and Helen… She and I… It was a long time ago.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” The whole thing was just… No. I definitely didn’t want him to say anything else about it.
“I’m not keen on using the mirror, but we don’t have a lot of choices. I’d rather not get Cosette in more trouble than she already is.”