Ember
Why do you want to meet Kane?
Why did you go through the trouble of using the girl in the white dress to lure me out?
How did you know I would be here tonight?
How did you manage to unhinge the practically emotionless Arius?
What are you?
If I agree to whatever you want will you let us go?
All of these questions were swirling in my head, right on the tip of my tongue.
What came out was, "Kane isn't my husband."
Cue the forehead slapping.
"I want a meeting with Kane Wilder," Light repeated as if he hadn't heard me.
"Why?" I asked.
He raised a finger to his cheek, tracing the dark lines on his mask absently. His fingers were oddly small for a man his height, I noticed. "I want his pack."
I tried not to choke on my own saliva. "The pack? You just became Autumn Lord."
He nodded. "Power must be snatched up when it is most attainable. I've waited years for the right time to get this," he said, tapping the antlers of his crown.
I narrowed my eyes. "And you think now is the right time to take my pack?"
"Your pack is the most vulnerable one that I know of, so indeed. Right now is the right time."
"You think I'll arrange a meeting with Kane while knowing you want to murder him?"
"If you want to stay among the living you will."
Stall. "A challenge to an alpha has to be made in person, you don't need me to arrange a meeting," I said tersely.
"Fae laws prohibit me from entering werewolf territory unless invited by one of its alphas. It was a ridiculous agreement the fae lords agreed upon a long time ago to avoid war between our races. You need to invite me in."
He wanted to challenge Kane for control over the pack. Could Kane win against him? The previous Autumn Lord hadn't lasted a second and he was an ancient being of magic, how was Kane going to do any better? Even stubborn Arius had backed out of challenging Light. If I took him to Kane it would be the same thing as murdering him.
Hadn't Kane gone through enough pain already?
Yet, it was take Light to Kane or...
"If you refuse I will kill all of you, send your alpha your severed head and wait for him to come to me so I can kill him too," Light said simply.
My eyes darted to Ian, frozen as ice. No help there.
I glanced at the sleeping girl, not a twitch from her. No help there.
Arius was looking everywhere but where we sat, sweat gathering at his brow as he breathed heavily. No help there.
We were cornered.
"What will it be?" Light asked, yellow eyes already triumphant.
I stood up, too frustrated to stay seated anymore. "You're not a werewolf, you can't be an alpha."
He pointed at the girl on the couch. "She's not the only Halfling here."
"Halfling?" I echoed.
He nodded. "I'm half werewolf, half fae."
***
Arius- still pale but more composed- took us back to my apartment, standing a ways off from us as I put the unconscious girl down on the porch and shifted my concern to Ian. He'd finally lowered the arrow from his chest and was staring at it, brows twitching at first then furrowing more and more until he let out a horrified curse and flung the arrow into the street, throwing a flaming red ball of fire at it for good measure. "Why was that in my hand?!" Ian asked, pointing at the burning remains of what had almost brought on his untimely demise.
I wanted to get inside my apartment as soon as possible, but he had almost died and I would've wanted an explanation too if I were in his shoes. So I gave him a brief run-down of events, cringing right along with him when I reached the end.
"What?" Ian shook his head. "What did you say you promised the devil?"
I, Ember Yale, alpha female of the Seattle Pack, willingly invite you and yours into my territory. I also promise to arrange a meeting between you and Kane Wilder in two weeks' time at his residence.
"I had no other choice," I said hopelessly. "It was either that or die then and there."
Ian rubbed his cheeks, blowing out a breath. "You're right, better Kane than us."
I bristled, guilt and fear making my heart pound in my ears. "Kane isn't going to get killed," I protested.
"Unless Kane is prepared," Arius said, crouching down to study the pile of ashes that remained of Ian's arrow, "he will die even faster than the previous Autumn Lord."
"Then he'll be prepared," I said tightly. "You have to help me. Tell me what he is and how to kill him."
Arius caught my desperate gaze with a shockingly smug one of his own. "I don't know what he is or how to kill him. Kane is done for."
Fae can't lie. If they did, it's because they believed without a drop of doubt that the lie is the undisputed truth. That meant Arius was either telling the truth or the truth as he thought it was. I was going to lean towards the more hopeful option. "You don't know how, which means we can still find out how if we search," I said, glancing between the two of them. Hoping they wouldn't back out.
"Why are you looking at me like you expect me to abandon you?" Ian asked, walking over and ruffling my braids. "I don't remember what happened but nobody tries to kill me and gets away with it. Plus this mess was partly our fault for kidnapping you to fairyland to begin with. I'm sticking with you, Em."
I smiled, "Thanks."
"Do I get a thank you as well?" Arius asked, "Since I'll be helping you find answers?"
"I thought you said you weren't going to challenge him anymore," I said, ignoring his other question. No way was I giving any more favors to a fae again. "And you seemed quite smug when you mentioned Kane dying, why are you offering to help?"
"Oh, it's highly likely that he'll die whether or not we find answers, I won't be losing out at all in that area," Arius said. "And I never said I wasn't going to challenge him again, just that I had thought it over and didn't need the crown or castle. I've never needed the crown or castle, I wanted them. I still want them. As for his reign, I wished it to be joyous, not lengthy. We make sure it ends shortly and brutally. I suggest torture, then a bloody death will suffice."
Ian whistled. "Here I was thinking you weren't much like Aster at all, but you're as violent as she was."
I disagreed with that, as a person who used violence in the past as a means to relieve emotional stress, I recognized what was behind his sudden bloodlust: revenge.
"What did you see on Light's desk?" I started to ask him, but the rest of my question was drowned out by a high, unpleasantly delighted laugh.
Darius was skipping- yes, skipping over to us. He was also pointing a ringed finger at me while he did so, grinning like a lunatic. "If it isn't the girl who went and vanished for a month, leaving our poor alpha at the altar before he even proposed!"
The heavy scent of alcohol coming off him explained his bizarre behavior. Okay, maybe not his bizarre behavior but it did explain the bizarre skipping. And giggling.
I wondered how much alcohol he had to consume in order to get this drunk. I felt a stab of pity for him, he still wasn't over Helen obviously. What he saw in her was a mystery to me, she was like a well-crafted evil sword, beautiful but viscous. Loveable? Maybe only to the evil villains coveting her for world domination.
Darius squinted at both Arius and me, getting a dreamy look on his flushed face. "You're both wearing white, did you get married while you were gone? This is good, I'll get to watch Kane murder all three of you."
I sighed, any trace of pity for him evaporating as I remembered that he was one of the evil villains.
"Why would Kane be trying to kill me? I didn't do anything," Ian said, going down to the sidewalk where Darius stood.
"Not you, wizard dude," Darius said with a wave that nearly sent him crashing to the ground. He staggered, but clumsily gained his balance. "Kane is going to kill Kevin. They should be on their way here right now."
Kevin?
I gasped.
TMI: I named Ember after one of my favorite books, An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir.