The silence hung over the table, ominous and heavy.
Hugh frowned.
She tensed. The shapeshifters leaned forward slightly.
“Where is the bacon?”
She exhaled, got up, lifted the lid off a platter, and set the huge plate of cooked bacon and sausage in front of him.
Hugh filled his plate, took a gulp of coffee, and paused for a moment, savoring it. “Makes me feel almost human.”
“Are we going to talk about it?” Raphael asked.
Hugh set the mug down and faced him. “I’m sorry my soldiers killed your mother.”
There it is. Elara held her breath.
“I respected your mother,” Hugh said. “She was a leader and she led from the front. She died because she wanted to buy you time. I didn’t dislike her, and I didn’t specifically want her to die. Daniels was the target. But your mother and I were on opposite sides, and anything that weakened the Pack was judged to be good for Roland’s cause. She was dangerous, powerful, and popular and she exercised a great deal of influence over Lennart and Daniels and the Pack in general. Her death left a big gap in your power lineup. So I would be lying if I said that killing her wasn’t a victory at the time. However, I no longer support Roland’s causes. I deeply regret her death and the pain I caused you and your family.”
Andrea exhaled quietly.
“I understand why you attacked me,” Hugh said, cutting a pancake with his fork. “I get it. It was fair. It’s done now. Each of us has a wife and people we are responsible for and our business interests intersect. We can continue to work together, we can look for alternative business partners, or we can kill each other. Figure out what do you want to do.”
Raphael leaned back, his face calm. “By my count, I killed you four times during that fight. How are you still alive?”
“I’m difficult to kill,” Hugh said.
“Where do you stand on the Roland issue?” Andrea asked.
“He wants us dead,” Hugh said. “We are not the highest priority target at the moment, so he likely told Nez to take care of us at his discretion.”
“What happens if Roland attacks Atlanta?” Andrea asked. “Who will you help, d’Ambray? Elara told us you weren’t the same person. Is it all lip service or not? Where do you stand?”
They pushed him too far and too fast. She had to step in. “My husband’s first priority is the survival of our people.”
Hugh chewed his bacon and took another gulp of coffee. “Right now, Daniels is the best chance of stopping Roland. If he takes Atlanta, he will roll over us. We can hold out for a while, but it won’t be long. So if there is a coalition forming in Atlanta, we will aid it.”
She almost fell off her chair.
Raphael leaned forward. “Do we have your word?”
“Yes. The more relevant question for you is where will the Pack stand?” Hugh chewed a bit more. “Shrapshire, your new Beast Lord, is a paranoid perfectionist driven by the fear of not living up to his responsibilities. He is naturally a loner and he can’t believe he found a woman who loves him. Dali Harimau is his sole pillar of support.”
“He has a family,” Andrea said.
“Yes, all of whom are typical werejaguars: solitary. They come together for family occasions, but aside from that, they lead separate lives. Shrapshire cares about two things: his mate and doing the absolute best job he can in whatever position within the Pack he assumes. His father failed to put a child who went loup to death. It was his responsibility as the medic for the pack. He was tried and imprisoned for this failure of duty. Shrapshire’s never gotten over that.”
He was delivering all of this with clinical precision, while eating. No trace of Hugh from that night had lingered, Elara realized. Only the Preceptor of the Iron Dogs remained. It made her want to grab him and shake him until the ice broke.
“Right now Shrapshire is in a position of ultimate responsibility as the Beast Lord. If you knock him off his stride with the right catastrophe – like injuring Dali or killing some Pack children – he will respond with overwhelming force and, once that assault fails, become progressively more irrational as he retaliates.”
The two shapeshifters were staring at him as if he had sprouted a second head.
“Back when I worked for Roland, he called on me to come up with a comprehensive plan to dismantle the Pack. He doesn’t have me anymore, but if he works from my playbook, he will likely target Dali. It’s easier and cleaner than other targets. Once Shrapshire is convinced he can’t even keep his mate safe, he will spin out of control and there is no telling where he will land. He abandoned both Lennart and Daniels before. If you hit him the right way, he may pull everyone into the Keep and forbid anyone from leaving. Andrea, Daniels is your best friend. So what are the two of you going to do when she is out there, Roland is coming, and Shrapshire has you holed up in your fort?”
The two shapeshifters gaped at him. Elara felt a small twinge of satisfaction.
“This is the side of him he doesn’t usually show to anyone,” she said. “Sounds like your best bet is to keep the Beast Lord’s family safe.”
“I’ll give you an answer.” Andrea bared her teeth. “If Shrapshire tries to keep Clan Bouda from that fight, we will split from the Pack. Clan Heavy and Clan Wolf will as well. We stand with our friends.”
Cedric raised his head and barked at her. Hugh held a piece of bacon out and the big dog wolfed it down. She’d have to talk to him about feeding the dog from the table.
“You’re right,” Raphael said. “We have intersecting business interests. We don’t have to be friends, but it’s mutually beneficial to cooperate. I miss my mother every day. I’d like nothing better than to put you in the ground, but that would benefit nobody at this point, least of all our clan. If my mother was alive, she would point it out to me. We’re not in the habit of wasting resources. You’re useful, d’Ambray. We’re going to use you. You owe us that much.”
“Fair enough. What do you need from us?” Hugh asked.
“Same thing you are doing now,” Raphael said. “We need a safe harbor for the shapeshifters in Kentucky. In return, we will aggressively push the Pack to purchase your herbals over competition.”
“Works for me,” Hugh said.
“Thank you for the lovely breakfast.” Andrea rose to her feet. “And your hospitality. We will be on our way now.”
“You’re always welcome,” Elara said.
Raphael got up and the two shapeshifters walked out.
For a couple of minutes, they sat in silence.
“Where is Ascanio?” Hugh asked.
“Exploring the castle.”
“You let him run around unsupervised?”
“Sam is with him,” she answered.
Hugh sighed. “By now he likely knows the complete layout of our defenses. No matter. I’ll handle it.”
He got up and picked up his plate.
“Don’t bother,” she told him. “I’ll clear it.”
Hugh set his plate on the floor. Cedric nearly lost his mind with joy. Hugh set the plate on the table after Cedric was done and tilted his head to catch her gaze.
His voice was quiet. “The next time you interfere in one of my fights, I’ll serve you with divorce papers. Are we clear?”
Right. The asshole was back. “The next time I have a chance to save your life, I’ll give it a thought.”
He walked out, his hound at his heels.
She wanted to pick up his plate and shatter it against the floor. But he would hear, and she refused to give him the satisfaction.
13
Hugh leaned on the parapet walk of the keep. Below, the concrete stretch of the moat rolled out, waiting for the water. Six pump rigs waited, ready to dump water from the lake into the moat through large pipes. The magic had flooded thirty minutes ago, setting them back, and now three teams chanted, moving from pump to pump, coaxing the water engines to life.
Every Iron Dog not on duty lined up along the shore of
the moat. Most of the village was here as well, mingling. Kids ran back and forth, laughing. A pirogi seller showed up and was doing brisk business, carrying trays of pirogi through the crowd.
Like some damn festival.
Elara was down there too. If he concentrated, he could pick her out of the crowd. He chose to stare at the concrete and the pumps instead.
Stoyan leaned on the parapet next to him. “Do you want to go down there?”
“No.”
The team at the furthest pump on the left waved a rag.
“Pull the trigger,” Hugh said.
Stoyan raised a horn to his mouth and blew a loud angry note.
A spark of magic dashed through the pumps, dancing on the machinery like yellow lightning. The pumps roared.
Nothing happened.
The crowd mulled about, the noise of voices rising.
A minute passed. Another…
Another…
Water gushed out of the right-most pipe. The crowd cheered. The other pipes added their own stream one by one and a foaming current poured into the moat.
Finally.
He looked along the flow of the water and saw Elara in a white dress. Her face was tilted up. She was looking straight at him.
Hugh pushed from the parapet and turned to Stoyan. “Have them check the water level every thirty minutes once it’s filled. We need twenty-four hours of stable water level.”
“The engineers are on it,” Stoyan said. “What do you want to do about the money?”
“How far overbudget are we?”
“Thirteen thousand.”
“Anything left to salvage?”
“The scouts found ruins to the south, about thirty minutes into the woods. Looks like it was a serious distillery operation at some point. Stainless steel storage tanks, copper percolators, heating coils. We got quite a bit we can pull out of there…”
A high-pitched scream rang out below. Hugh spun to the parapet. On the grass by the moat a woman and two men convulsed in the grass. Elara’s people formed a ring around them. He swore and took off at a run.
It took him three minutes to get down to the moat. Hugh shouldered his way into the ring. Elara knelt by the older of the men, holding his head in her lap, while two other cradled the younger man and the woman.
“Let it come,” Elara intoned. “Almost there. Almost.”
There was a rhythm to the convulsions. He studied the bodies, the timing. The tremors pulsed in a distinct pattern, closer and closer to becoming synchronized.
“Here it is,” Elara murmured.
The three people jerked upright in unison, like vampires snapping out of coffins in some old movie. They stared into space, identical blank expressions on their faces, and spoke in a chorus.
“Tonight Aberdine will fall.”
Well, fan-fucking-tastic.
He left the circle. Stoyan followed.
“Double the patrols,” Hugh told him. “Keep the pumps going. I want to see everyone in my quarters in fifteen.”
Elara climbed the staircase. Hugh’d taken one look at the seers and run away to his rooms. That was fine. There was no escape. She would track him down.
She reached the hallway. His door was open. His back was to her. He was looking at something on his desk. He wore his Iron Dog uniform, and from this angle, silhouetted against the light of the window, he looked like pure darkness, cut out in the shape of a man.
Memory conjured up his hands on her shoulders and the phantom touch of his lips on her skin. She shoved the thoughts aside. Not now.
She walked into his room. He didn’t even turn. He had to have heard her.
“Hugh.”
“Busy,” he said.
Ugh. “A moment of your time.”
He turned to her and leaned against the desk, his arms crossed. “Anything for my wife.”
She almost snapped back but bit the words off before they had a chance to escape. She had to make him understand.
“Aberdine will fall tonight. The Heltons are never wrong when all three of them are synchronized.”
He didn’t say anything.
“It has to be a reference to the warriors and the mrogs. They will attack Aberdine tonight.”
“Quite possibly.”
“We have to help them.”
He gave her a long look. “Let me get this straight. You want me to take my soldiers and ride out there to defend people who threw rocks at us because three creepy assholes foamed at the mouth, swooned, and had a vision?”
Ugh. Ugh! “They are not assholes. They are very nice people. They can’t help it.”
“I’m sure they are lovely when they are not announcing imminent doom.”
“How is it that Raphael made more holes in you than in swiss cheese, but your assholeness survived?”
“Raphael doesn’t have a knife big enough to kill my assholeness.”
“There are children in Aberdine. Children didn’t throw rocks at us. Almost twenty-five hundred people live in that settlement and they’re about to be slaughtered. How can you just do nothing?”
“Very easily,” he said.
She stared at him.
“If they are truly trying to take Aberdine, they will come in large numbers,” Hugh said with methodical calm. “You want me to leave a fortified position and ride out against what will likely be a much larger force. There will be casualties. I’ll have to watch my people die.”
“Our people, Hugh. They are our people, and I’ll be sending people from the village as well. You will have support. And if they die, it will be on my head.”
His stare made her want to back away from him.
“No.”
“We can’t just do nothing.”
“Yes, we can. Every Dog who dies on that field is one less soldier to protect this castle.”
“Babies, Hugh. They will murder babies.”
“There are babies here. Do you really want to orphan them for the sake of Aberdine?”
This was a pointless conversation. “I’ll go myself.”
“And do what? Lob herbs at them until allergies bring them down?”
She wanted to punch him in the face. “I want you to be the hero, Hugh. I want you to gather our people, and ride with me to Aberdine to save innocent people. What do I have to do to make this happen?”
He pushed from the desk and took the six steps separating them. Menace rolled off him in waves, so thick, it was almost choking her.
“Are we bargaining now?”
An electric shiver of alarm dashed down her spine. Elara raised her head. “If that’s what it takes.”
He reached out and caught a strand of her hair. “What will you give me if I save Aberdine?”
“What do you want, Hugh?”
“What I want you won’t give me.”
“Try me.”
He leaned toward her, his lips only inches from hers. She felt too hot, as if her clothes had somehow grown too tight on her. Her instincts wailed in alarm.
“I want you…” his voice was intimate, each word precise. “… to stay here and guard my pumps.”
She blinked at him.
“I want that water running and the castle standing when I come back. Do we understand each other?”
Oh, you epic, epic ass. “Yes,” she said.
“Good.”
She heard footsteps in the hallway and turned. Stoyan, Lamar, Bale, and Felix were approaching.
“Run along now,” Hugh said.
She ignored him. “Why are all of you here?”
Nobody said a word.
“Answer her,” Hugh said.
“We’re here to plan the battle of Aberdine,” Stoyan said, clearly wishing to be anywhere but here.
“We have to defend it,” Lamar said. “If we lose Aberdine, we lose access to the ley line. They’ll cut us off from the rest of the state.”
She would kill him.
“Too bad it took you so long,” Hugh said. “You missed a stirring perform
ance, complete with emotional appeals to my better nature. Apparently, my wife wants me to save Aberdine for the babies.”
She pictured him exploding into bloody mist. No. Too quick.
Stoyan looked at his feet. Lamar stared at the ceiling. Bale studied his nails. Felix turned back and checked the hallway behind them. Nobody was looking at her.
“Explaining doesn’t quite do it justice.” Hugh invited her with a sweep of his hand. “Honey, would you mind doing an encore for the guys?”
She spun on her feet and walked out.
Behind her Lamar murmured, “One day that woman will drown you in the moat and I won’t blame her.”
“Honey?” Hugh called.
She kept walking.
“Elara?”
She stopped and turned to look at him.
“Any plans on helping me with any of this? Or is it pouting time? You can walk away to beat your fists prettily on your pillow or you can tell us more about Aberdine.”
The bastard got off on goading her. “Ask nicely,” she said.
“Please join us, my lady.” He bowed with exquisite grace, sweeping his arm to the side with a flourish, as if he were some medieval knight bowing before a queen.
Bastard.
She launched her magic into the room and stepped. The centurions jerked back. One moment she was in the hallway, the next she stood next to Hugh, wisps of her white magic melting into thin air.
He stared at her, his blue eyes amused.
“Dugas,” she called, sending her voice through the castle. “I need you.”
Bale shivered, his eyes wide, looking like a freaked cat. Felix crossed himself.
She walked to Hugh’s chair and sat in it. His lips curved.
Elara rolled her eyes.
They waited.
“How many people are you leaving me?” she asked.
“Lamar and his entire century.”
“That means you’re only taking two hundred and forty people. Aberdine has almost two and a half thousand people in it. You said the mrog handlers would come in large numbers. Is that going to be enough?”
“It will have to be,” Hugh said.