Page 93 of Luna Rising

“Liar,” I said, though I wasn’t so certain.

“Ask her when Walter Stolly’s men finally let you see her. Lena is very proud of the work she has done for me.”

I felt sick and dreaded having to explain any of this to Winter. “You mean, the attacks in the cities? Yes, I’ve seen her in action.”

“Three steps behind as always, Zosia. These attacks aren’t my doing. At one time, I had planned a takeover of the human world. Something much more organized than all this. You might want to look closer to home for the culprit. Three guess or should we circle back to the cure?”

I didn’t need three guesses, only three words. Walter. Fucking. Stolly.

“What changed your plan for world domination?” I asked him.

“You. See, until I realized that you and Stavros had been naughty little wolves, I thought Demi and I were another pair of soulmates. Which we are. But not the other pair. You see, what most don’t realize is that many fae are born Gaia-marked, their other halves just aren’t alive so they never know. Demi and I were born several hundred years apart. We should have never met, yet we did.”

I honestly didn’t know if any of that was true. In my head, it made sense, but Mat was drunk and might have been rationalizing. Not sure what it said about me that I followed his logic. What I didn’t understand was how any of this was relevant.

“Okay, so you are soulmates but not the soulmates. That’s Ewan and me, right? How does this change your world domination plans?”

He sighed loudly. “Because if we aren’t the other pair of soulmates, ruling the world isn’t my destiny.”

“Wow. You really gave up on that dream easily,” I said.

“You’re lucky I’ve had enough toad whiskey to find you funny.”

“Is that your plan now, soothe the loss of your life’s purpose with toad whiskey and banshee blood?”

“Only until you arrive.”

“And then what?” I asked.

“Nicasia opens Demi’s cell, and then a portal to the realm of my choosing. You give me the only dose of the cure, and you never see me or Demi again.”

“Why would I do this?” I asked, even though this was sort of my plan already. It worried me that Mat and I had the same plan and I started to doubt myself.

“Can you think of nothing you want from me?”

I considered it for a minute. “No. I mean, I have everything I want, including a dose of the cure.”

“Really? You aren’t, I don’t know, concerned about the bond your mate shares with me? You wouldn’t prefer I reject it? Takes both parties in this case.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

What had Winter said? The protection bond could only be rejected, never severed.

“Think about it. Have your answer tonight when you arrive. Oh, and make sure there are eight of you. I have the other five covered. Until then, Zosia.”

I slowly lowered the phone from my ear and placed it on the edge of the bathtub before I crushed it. On the one hand, this was exactly what I wanted, which was the terrifying part. Mat knew I would make the trade. Why did he want me to, though? Aside from making sure we could never turn him and kill him like was sort of our plan.

As soon as Ewan returned to the house, I told him about the phone call over lunch blood.

“It’s the seer,” he said. “That must be how Mat knows we’re coming.”

“Or we have a mole,” I said.

He shook his head. “Much more likely it’s a seer. He said we needed to bring eight of us?”

“Yeah, and he’s got five covered. Whatever that means.”

“Five and eight is thirteen. I’m guessing he means eternals. That only way Winter opens a portal to another dimension is by channeling power. Without the comets or the fae stones, she’s going to need more than just you. If we can convince Tish and Lucca to come with us, we just need one more.”

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