“Let me be there when you call him that, please,” Zeph begs and I roll my eyes.
“Your mate was kidnapped, again,” Oz says, promptly ending the lighthearted portion of our conversation. “You should keep better track of her. Next time I may not be in time to save her.”
“What?!” Belz and Zeph cry together.
“It’s not a big deal.” I glare at Oz. “And it wasn’t either of your fault. Just like the last time. You weren’t there and you definitely weren’t the reason anyone took me.”
“You’re their mate. They’re supposed to protect you. They are clearly doing a shit job of it,” Oz says.
“Stop trying to start shit,” I snip at him. “They had no way of knowing what was happening… Which, now that I think about it,youdid seem like you knew what was happening. How did you find me? How did you know I needed saving?” I question, turning the tables on him.
“I was spying on Bart and Drox. I heard them talking about how they were going to kidnap you. I came to warn lover boys, but they were a tad occupied,” he laughs at the memory and I’m going to have to find out what exactly they were doing when he came to warn them about my imminent kidnapping.
“Bartleby and Droxleykidnappedher?!” Belz snarls.
“Yes. Okay? My family apparently has some vendetta against me. I wonder who’s going to kidnap me next,” I grumble.
“That’s the end of your vengeful family members, Princess,” Oz reassures me. “At least, unless Luc has a secret love child we don’t know about.” He shrugs as if the idea isn’t completely absurd.
“Well, I don’t know who else would kidnap me, but I’m sure something else will happen. Shit always happens in threes ya know.”
“I know something else that can happen in threes,” Oz says suggestively.
Holy shitballs. He isnotinsinuating what I think he is. But if he is… I don’t know if my body can handle that level of hotness at once.
Zephyr and Belz share a look that has me wondering if they would be okay with that. I thought mates were supposed to be super possessive. At least in my books, the guys would kill someone for eventhinkingabout fucking their mate. But something tells me they would enjoy it even more than me.
“We need to find Luc,” Belz says, dragging us back to the important matters at hand. “He needs to know Snowball is back safe and sound. And then, we’re going to pay a little visit to your uncles. I have a few choice words to share with them.”
I love when he’s all snarly and protective like that.
“Yes, dear. Where did you last see him?” I ask Belz.
“In his suite when he sent Zarreth and me to search for Snow.”
“Right. Let’s go.” I flick my hand out and send all five of us, Belz, Zeph, Oz, Snow, and myself, to Luc’s room.
“Doesn’t look like he’s in here,” Zeph says as he walks around the room. “Maybe he’s in his torture room?” he suggests with a shrug.
“Oh shit.” My eyes widen as I look at Oz. “Uhhh, we should go…”
“Why? What’s wrong with Luc being in his torture room?” Belz asks. “That’s where he always goes to cool down.”
“That’s kinda where we left my uncles.” I grimace.
“Fuck,” Belz and Zephyr say as one.
“Get us over there, Princess,” Oz says, looking at me with a sense of urgency.Right. I can do that.
Luc doesn’t notice us when we pop into the room. Probably because he’s in full devil mode as Bartleby tells him a horrifying story. My heart breaks for my grandfather as I hear the horrible details of how my aunt and two uncles planned and executed the murder of my grandmother.
“Marjorkorie stayed in the city to keep you distracted so you wouldn’t notice something was going on with Serafina. Droxley and I followed her caravan through the hellscapes waiting for our chance,” he says in the same forced way Droxley answered my question about the location of the hellhounds.
“The guards were so preoccupied with making sure the trees didn’t touch them, they never saw us coming. Droxley sent the hounds out first and we watched from the cover of the forest as they tore every guard apart. Serafina tried to stop them, but they wouldn’t listen to her. Unfortunately, they also wouldn’t attack her. So I had to step in. I manifested a longbow and an arrow tipped with crofolite. Stepping out from cover, I notched the arrow and readied my shot. Serafina’s eyes connected with mine and widened in shock just as I let the arrow loose and it whizzed through the trees until it struck its mark, right in the center of her heart.”
Oh my God! They really did it. They were responsible for killing my grandmother.
I lean into Oz and whisper, “What’s crofolite?” Knowing that’s what killed her and needing to understand how.