Blood & Wine

39 | Iris

I watched the van with the five witches and four long werewolves take off. At least Irene is safe, I thought.

Fynley have given me one command: get them out of there.

I had.

Mama Helen had helped secure the spell to keep all eyes off the van. The Queen of the Werewolves would bring them to a safe house six hours away. The witches with her were young, all under eighteen, but they were strong enough to keep them protected. No one wanted anything to do with them anyway. The three most important people were in the same city.

Magus was about to burn, and the only thing we could do was light the fire.

Calla crossed her eyes, those bags under her eyes deep, dark, and ugly. "One thing taken care of," she said. "I can't believe they thought we would double-cross each other."

Because that had been the motive behind the dead witch and werewolf, we assumed. It was the only thing that make sense. They had to think there was no loyalty to us if a dead body would make Eden give up Fynley and Dasher or Dasher and Fynley give up Eden. Or maybe they thought love would prevail, and one of them would give up themselves for the greater good.

None of them understood Mates. The King had one—Fynley's mom was his Mate, but it was a loveless, near-abusive bond. She didn't love him, and he didn't love her. It changed things. When you truly felt in love, and you cared for your Mate, you found a way out of the horse shit we were in.

I shook my head. "They don't have loyalty to each other, that's why."

She yawned, glancing at Eden who was walking towards us. The Coven House had been in action since I arrived seven hours ago. At the head of it was Eden, their Coven Mother. She moved with ease and grace throughout the calamity, adding in her magic and strength when she could. She helped me gather the witches, told her mom what she needed her to do, and she went and got the cans of gas for one of the witches to siphon into the tank without them stopping. Her smile to those who needed it never wavered, and that confident, that steadiness she currently possessed was the only thing helping people get by at the moment.

With her, it seemed winning was a strong possibility.

"Dasher texted me an idea," I started, a little nervous. "To run by you and Eden."

Eden looked at me with interest. "I'm not Fynley, Iris. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with me—Goddess knows we need them."

Technically, it wasn't mine. Her words calmed me down a little, though. "He said, instead of a tracking spell, what if you or Calla—or whoever—did a spell to bring the Queen Mother, the Leader, and the King to us?"

Calla's eyes widened. "That is genius."

Eden, however, took a deep breath. "It would work. It's definitely a possibility—but where do we bring them? There are other supernatural hanging around that will suffer—the Fae, the vampires. We can't fight in Magus, can we?"

It didn't seem possible—but, then again, what other option did we have? "We fight where we have to. The King is already in Magus, and, presumably, so is the Leader of the Rogues."

Calla laughed. "Not presumably—Alice arrived last night. She's invested in this for whatever reason, the little Italian ass. Anyway, she tracked the Leader of the Rogues here. He's in the next town over somewhere, guarded by magic stronger than Alice."

Shit. "Who is Alice?"

"The witch who discovered Dasher's true father," Calla explained. "You technically weren't around for that yet. I don't think anyway."