Page 71 of Magic Betrayed

“And you know I don’t care,” Seamus said mildly. “So. Who’s in charge of the next part of the plan?”

“I am,” I told him firmly. “This is my family, so I will be taking the biggest risks. And I don’t want any more people involved than necessary.” It was bad enough that Callum had nearly been injured while helping me. If anyone else got hurt, I would struggle to forgive myself.

“Nice tryyyyyy,” Kira sang out, sidling closer to give me a hug. “How about we come up with a plan first, and then decide who has the best chance of carrying it out? You know my dragon is super tiny, right? So I am absolutely the best at getting in through upstairs windows and sneaking around indoors.”

I pulled away from her hug and fixed her with my most convincing glare. “No.”

“What do you mean, no?” She was almost pouting now. “Have I mentioned I’m almost indestructible in dragon form?”

“You aregetting married,” I said firmly. “In how many days now?”

Her chin dropped. “Ten,” she muttered.

“We’re facing a group of people with no magic, so whatever traps they’ve set are probably going to require more stealth than strong-arming. I won’t risk your safety when there are plenty of others who can help.”

To my surprise, I heard a growl echo from her chest. A wisp of smoke curled from her mouth, and a hint of fangs suddenly glinted from between her parted lips.

“Uh…” Granted, I hadn’t spent a lot of time around shapeshifters, but this didn’t seem normal at all.

“Okay, enough showing off.” Callum put his sister in a very careful headlock until she elbowed him in the ribs—a lot less carefully. “Raine is right. There’s no need to risk yourself right now. We’ve got this.”

We?

I looked up at Callum, opened my mouth to declare we would be fine without him, and promptly closed it again. The dragon was a giant hypocrite, but I didn’t think I had it in me to tell him no. Plus, I was almost positive he wouldn’t listen.

“I believe we have an agreement,” Rath reminded me, and I shot him a nod.

“Yes. You can come. And you.” I shifted my attention to Shane. “But both of you have to agree—no killing anyone if we can help it. And”—I turned to Faris—“I don’t think anyone should tell Talia. Too much chance she’ll hurt someone in the process.”

My fear wasn’t just theoretical. The first time I met her, the elemental queen had attacked and nearly killed Oliver in an attempt to force Faris to answer her questions. Once her daughter was within reach, I had no idea how far Talia would go in pursuit of answers—or vengeance.

“So that’s Rath, Shane, Seamus, Callum, and me.”

It should be more than enough to handle whatever the kidnappers could throw at us. So why did it feel like my hunch magic was still trying to tell me something?

Oh, right. Ari.

I whirled to Kira. “If you still want to help, someone will need to watch Ari. She loves being at the bookstore with Hugh and Chicken, so maybe that would keep her…” I didn’t finish, because I was positive her tiny ears were tuned in to every second of this conversation and I didn’t want to give her ideas.

Ideas like teleporting back to Kes and Logan in an earnest but terrifying attempt to help.

“On it,” Kira said cheerfully, striding over to Ari and taking her hand with a grin. “We’ll go pick up Waffles, make some scones, and have a tea party at the bookstore. How does that sound?”

“Tea!” My sprite was almost as fond of tea as Kira herself, and she adored Hugh. “Party!”

Perfect.

We had our team. All pets and children were accounted for.

Now all we needed was an actualplan.

Well, crap.

* * *

Ari had gottena good look at the outside of the house, but she had a less than perfect grasp on the inside. Because she got around by teleporting, she wasn’t totally sure which room she’d been kept in, nor could she identify which floor Kes and Logan were on.

So we were going in almost entirely blind.

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