Dante smiled at him. “I knew your love of books would have some use at some point.”

  I looked between them.

  “Were you just nice to each other?” I asked.

  Dante laughed and Kane blushed.

  “If I’d have known you just needed to screw each other, I’d have locked you in a room together weeks ago,” Gideon said grumpily.

  We all laughed, and I kissed Gideon’s cheek.

  The hound leaned against me and smiled. “I’m glad our pack is finally acting like a pack.”

  The drive back home was peaceful. We stopped in at a pub to get a big lunch and try to figure out what we were doing next. We had found the source of the tampering with that stone, but that hadn’t given us anything we could actually use, as the magic was buried too deep within the stone. We were back to step one and looking through the archives to find something. And we still didn’t know who had shattered the other stone.

  “I’ll speak to my sister Carys and see if we can get into the physical archives,” Kane said.

  “It’d be worth chasing Rowan and getting into the fae archives, too. I’ll pressure the Council and try to get into their large library,” Dante said.

  I fell asleep for the last leg of the journey and woke up when the car jerked to a halt. Dante’s bloodsong pounded and crashed against me. I looked through the windscreen to try and see what had raised his demon side.

  A trio of infernals were standing in front of the castle sneering at us. Each stood at some seven feet tall with pale grey skin that had the texture of old stone. Their moss-green eyes flickered with flame orange as Dante got out of the car and marched up to them. The rest of us were hot on his heels. My magic surged forward, and I found myself looking for their life essence while trying to get a hold of their blood.

  My magic slipped off both their blood and their life essence. I couldn’t clearly see their essence. Where it was clear threads in the guys, it was a blurry mist that I couldn’t hold onto in the infernals.

  “Your father is summoning you to his side. If you do not comply, then everyone will be told about the nature of your blood witch whore,” the middle infernal said.

  His voice sounded like stones rubbing over stones. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end.

  Dante set his shoulders back and growled.

  “Do not dare to speak about my life bond like that,” Dante growled.

  His bloodsong raged. Kane’s sword was back in his hand and Gideon had fire flickering over his hands.

  The infernal on the left looked down at Gideon and said, “What are you going to do, puppy?” before he laughed.

  Gideon leapt on him and sank his teeth into the infernal’s throat. The infernal tried to get a grip on Gideon’s shirt to pull him off, but Gideon thrust his hand into the infernal’s stomach cavity. The infernal gurgled and gasped as he slowly dropped to his knees before Gideon stepped back with the infernal’s heart in his hand. The other two infernals looked at each other and then Dante, who was snarling.

  “The only way I will return to the infernal realm is to kill Bael and take his place as king,” Dante roared.

  The infernals looked once more at Gideon with the large heart dripping deep purple blood in his hand. They turned and ran into the woods.

  I put my hand over Dante’s heart and felt his bloodsong calm as he gently wrapped his arms around me.

  “I will not give you up,” he said softly.

  Gideon dropped the heart on the floor before the infernal went up in flames.

  “Bael is recalling what is his,” Dante said with an eye roll.

  “He’s showing off,” Kane said as he patted Dante’s shoulder.

  Dante stroked Gideon’s hair with a smile.

  “Thank you, hound,” he said affectionately.

  “I really hate being called ‘puppy,’” Gideon said with a shrug and a smile.

  Kane returned his sword to whatever pocket dimension he usually kept it hidden in, and we went inside to try and get something new out of the archives. I looked back at the place where the infernals had stood and frowned. This was my life now. This was my new normal.

  THIRTY-ONE

  Rowan showed up at our back door at eleven pm with a bag of the most wonderful-smelling brownies and cookies. The bag was still warm when I took it from him. Gideon appeared behind me, no doubt drawn by the smell of the cookies. He stopped dead some ten feet behind me and looked from the brown paper box to Rowan and back again.

  The elf gave Gideon a brilliant smile before he pulled a smaller brown paper bag out of his pocket and the scent of fresh mint hit me. Gideon narrowed his eyes and took a few steps closer.

  “You said that you enjoyed fresh mint, so I had my chef make some of his famous mint chocolate for you,” Rowan said as he held out the bag for Gideon.

  The hound grinned, having been completely won over before he’d even taken a bite.

  “I’ll be staying here tonight,” Rowan said as he handed Gideon the chocolate.

  He bent over to take off his shoes and gave me a very nice view of his backside, which given the smirk he gave me when he stood up again had been his plan.

  He walked through to living room, leaving Gideon and me to follow him. The hound offered me the first square of the chocolate, which I took and sniffed. It was a rich dark chocolate that looked almost black under the light, the fresh scent of mint strong and clean. Gideon dropped a square in his mouth and closed his eyes with an expression of absolute pleasure on his face.

  “So, no offense, but why are you here?” I asked Rowan before I put the chocolate in my mouth.

  He’d made himself comfortable in the armchair, but I didn’t notice as the rich decadent taste of fine chocolate mingled with fresh mint coated my tongue. It was perfectly balanced and absolutely heavenly. Gideon politely offered a piece to Kane and Dante while I waited for Rowan to answer. He’d taken the remote and was flipping through the tv channels. Kane was reading, and Dante was looking at his laptop. Both had paused what they were doing to enjoy the chocolate.

  “That stuff is crack,” Kane said.

  “He means it’s so good it’s very addictive,” Dante said to Gideon’s confused expression.

  “I’m here to discuss the progress with the veil and the ward stone,” he said with a frown.

  Kane looked at him with a crease between his brows. “Did you misunderstand my text? I asked if we could look through your archives to see if there’s anything about the ward stones there.”

  Rowan pulled out his phone and looked. “Ah, so you did.”

  We all looked at him. Gideon had sat down between Kane and Dante and pulled me into his lap. The chocolate had been hidden away somewhere I didn’t catch.

  “You’re not fae,” Rowan said.

  “We had noticed,” Dante said drily.

  “And my archives are on the fae plane.”

  We waited. He was supposed to be helping us; was he really going to be an elitist prick?

  Rowan sighed. “Fine, we’ll go in the morning.”

  “So why were you going to stay here if you-”

  Rowan cut Kane off. “I felt like staying here. It looks comfortable, and I was in the area.”

  Elves.

  Rowan took us to the middle of nowhere, where we traipsed through some dense heather before he stopped dead and frowned at us. He’d explained that there was a portal there which had been carved and maintained for him personally. Kane had explained that portals were very complex magic and to have one just for him was a mark of great status and power.

  “Are you sure you all need to come?” he asked.

  “Yes. We can cover more ground if we’re all looking,” Dante said firmly.

  “Well, stay close and take a deep breath before you step forward,” he said with his mouth in a thin line.

  He stepped forward and vanished with a soft shimmer of air.

  Kane walked forward as though he were continuing through the heather, and I wasn’t going to allow Dante to see my nervousness. It was only a little plane hopping, no big deal. Gideon took my hand at the last second and we passed through the portal together.

  It felt like walking through clingfilm that suddenly snapped and vanished, leaving me in a brightly lit hallway. Warm yellow light bathed the generously proportioned space, giving it a comfortable, homey feel. I didn’t expect that from an elf prince.

  Rowan grinned at us all as he stood near the broad twisting staircase that would allow him to have a grand entrance should he choose to strut down it, and he very much came across as the strutting type.

  “Welcome to my humble abode,” he said with a low bow.

  “We’re here for the archive,” Dante said as he crossed his arms.

  Rowan sighed melodramatically.

  “Well, come along, then,” he said as he turned on his heel and marched down the hallway.

  The floors were a reddish hardwood with more wood panelling on the walls. Watercolour landscapes were dotted at what seemed like random intervals along the wall, and the lights followed us. They were small orbs the size of a golf ball. They followed us in an uneven line. Gideon reached up and tried to bat at one, but it dodged away, much to his irritation.

  “If you break that light, you will pay for it,” Rowan called out.

  Gideon curled his lip and said nothing.

  Dante walked with his back straight and his head forward. Kane, on the other hand, had a huge grin on his face and marvelled at everything. Gideon remained close to me and glared at the shadows as though something were going to leap out and eat him.

  It felt like Rowan took us the long route to show off his home. We walked through not one but two living areas, a large kitchen, a conservatory, a small library, and finally we came to the double doors that made him pause. Sweeping curls of vines and tall broad trees were carved into the doors that stretched far above the elf’s head. He opened them with a flourish and revealed the archives.

  The room must have been two stories high. It had more books than the Beast’s library. In that moment, Kane was Belle. He walked into the space and looked at the long rows of pale wooden bookshelves packed to the brim with books. There were four rows down the centre of the room, and every wall was covered in more shelves. There must have been thousands of books in there.

  “I assume there is a sorting system?” Dante asked.

  “No, I thought I’d just throw them up wherever they looked prettiest,” Rowan said with a sickly-sweet smile.

  “You are an elf…” Dante said drily.

  “You people have some very peculiar ideas about elves,” Rowan said with a small frown.

  Kane had started wandering down one of the aisles. His mouth hung slightly open, and his eyes were huge. He was in Heaven.

  “Wrong place!” Rowan called after him.

  Kane turned and faced him. He put his hands in the pockets of his jeans and tried to look nonchalant. He failed.

  “You want the west corner over there, the third shelf from the floor,” Rowan said, gesturing to the corner in question.

  “I’ll return in two hours,” Rowan said.

  And with that, we were left alone with far more books than we could ever read.

  Gideon sighed softly. “No one told me I’d have to look through books when I became a war hound.”

  “Would that have stopped you?” Kane asked as we walked down towards the corner.

  “I didn’t really get a choice,” Gideon said.

  Dante laughed at them, and I had to join in.

  “Where are the other fae?” Gideon asked as we began looking down the shelf Rowan had directed us to.

  We’d split it into four sections and were looking down the old leather and what appeared to be leaf spines for any title that could be of some relevance or use.

  “Outside, I assume. This is the prince’s home,” Dante said distractedly.

  I pulled out a slender blue book with a soft satin covering. It was simply titled, ‘the history of the veil,’ which seemed like a good starting point to me.

  “Should this all be in elvish?” Gideon asked as he peered at a large red book.

  “It is. He put a very complicated spell on the doorway that allows us to read everything in here,” Kane said as he heaped books into his arms.

  We all made ourselves comfortable on the floor, leaning back against the shelves, and started reading.

  Gideon glared at the books he’d picked out as though they were personally to blame for everything that had gone wrong in his life. Kane, on the other hand, looked fascinated as he speed-read a leaf-bound book with small script on its pages. To my dismay, the book I’d picked out didn’t have a table of contents. I flipped through it, looking for chapter headers or something to help me figure out if there was anything useful in there.

  Nothing. It was just a wall of text, leaving me to skim it looking for keywords.

  Rowan returned after our allotted two hours, and I was ready to give in. My head was starting to hurt, and there were many more books to look through yet. Gideon looked ready to start setting fire to things. The furrow in his brow grew slightly deeper with every page turn. Dante moved efficiently and Kane was rapt as he gathered a small mountain of books around him.

  “Wren, if you’d come with me, I have something I think you’d like to see,” Rowan said.

  Gideon’s head shot up, and he glared at the elf.

  “Don’t worry, she won’t come to any harm,” Rowan said.

  THIRTY-TWO

  Dante had firmly told Gideon to stay put before he handed him three more books to look through.

  “You have ten minutes before we come and find you,” Dante said casually.

  Rowan flashed his teeth at Dante before he smiled politely at me.

  “If you’ll come with me, we are apparently short of time,” Rowan said stiffly.

  I followed him out into the hallway and three doors down to a small comfortable study. A large desk sat in the far corner with vines and leaves carved into the edges of the dark wood. A comfortable high-backed chair sat behind it with well-worn blue leather. Rowan walked past the fireplace that was almost as tall as him and picked up a thick book with blood-red leather binding and handed it to me. It was as long as my forearm and almost as thick as the palm of my hand. It weighed a good deal, too; I frowned at it. The title was in a swirling silver script that kept moving. I had no idea what it was related to.

  “It’s for you, not your men; you,” Rowan said firmly.

  “I don’t understand…”

  He smiled gently. “You will need to break the bindings on it, then you’ll understand.”

  I ran my fingers over the soft leather and felt a soft hum there, a familiarity and soothing.

  “Come, we should return before your pet demon hunts me down,” Rowan said as he gestured to the door.

  I raised an eyebrow at him.

  “I’m aware he’s not a demon, but he will hunt me down,” he said with a small stiff smile.

  I hugged the book to my chest and wrapped my arms around it, holding it close. Dante was standing up waiting for us when we returned. He eyed the book and raised an eyebrow. Kane looked up from the three books in his lap and his face lit up when he saw the book in my arms.

  “If you knew the book we were looking for-”

  Rowan held his hand up to stop Dante.

  “That is a gift to Wren, it does not relate to the veil that I am aware of,” Rowan said.

  Gideon got up and stretched. He narrowed his eyes at the book.

  “What is it about?” The hound asked.

  “It’s time for you to go. I have meetings to attend,” Rowan said as he put his hands behind his back.

  “But, there are so many more books to check,” Kane protested.

  Rowan gave him a small genuine smile.

  “I’m sorry, but the politics are fragile, and I cannot afford to leave them unattended,” Rowan said with sadness.

  Dante crossed his arms and stood a little taller.

  “There are two factions pushing to take this chance to pull the veil down entirely. As I mentioned previously, they are very loud, and their support is growing. I need to deal with them.”

  “You mean silence them,” Kane said casually as he put his mountain of books back.

  “Not quite. While I hold a great deal of power, I do not have quite enough to remove them entirely.”

  “Yet,” Dante added.

  Rowan gave him a sharp smile. “All things in due time.”

  “What are we supposed to do now?” Gideon asked.

  “I’m afraid that’s up to you. If you’ll kindly leave so I can stop Tuano and her ilk from tearing down the veil, that would be appreciated,” Rowan said.

  “Isn’t Tauno your mother’s friend?” I asked Kane.

  He sighed. “She is.”

  Rowan’s expression darkened.

  “We’re not close,” Kane said.

  “That’s for the best,” Rowan said before he ushered us out into the hallway.

  A young elf with long caramel-coloured hair was waiting for us in the hallway. She was dressed in a smart pant suit with an emerald green blouse that brought out the gold in her eyes. She turned and walked down the hallway.

  Rowan shooed us after her, and we were sent back through the portal into the pouring rain in the middle of the heather. I gasped in shock at the cold wet air. The rain dripped from my eyelashes and ran down the back of my neck. Gideon ran for the car, and the rest of us were soon running after him. We looked like drowned rats by the time we piled into Kane’s car.

  I ran my hands over the book and was surprised to find it bone dry and slightly warm.

  “Did he say what the book’s for?” Kane asked as he turned the heat up to full.

  “No, he just said I had to break the bindings on it before I could read it.”

  “May I?” Dante asked as he held out his hand.

  I gave him the book and watched as he frowned at it.

  “It has old magic, and the bindings are complex. I can’t see them clearly; I’ll help you with them once we’ve gotten home.”