Page 85 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Five

Bran nods.

“I don’t. Someone clue me in.”

“What was your original plan?” Lethea asks.

“Use magic to cast illusions,” I explain. “So we’d sneak in through a back door looking like someone else.”

“What do you mean by reverse?” She looks over at Arion. Arion’s face is blank, but so is hers. They are both very good at pretending to feel nothing.

Do they have history? Have they ever worked together? I never thought to ask. But there is clearly some tension there.

Lethea’s expression finally changes and it’s one of instant understanding. “Oh. I see.” She gives Arion a tight smile. “You want to use me as the bait.”

“Who better?” he challenges. “You know how to fight when your back is against the wall.”

Should I be offended that he’s indirectly suggesting I don’t?

“Fine.” She huffs out a breath. “I promised my sister I’d do whatever it took to secure peace. If playing the bait is our best option, then I guess I’m the bait.”

We move forward with our plan and Baspin and Bianca perform the magic they had preconceived before crossing over to the fae realm.

Originally, we’d planned to make myself, Bran, and Arion look like someone else so we could enter the Summer Palace undetected and find and locate the Summer Queen so we could put a sword in her back.

Now that she knows we’re here, we have to adjust.

As Baspin and Bianca work their magic with the morning sun at their backs, I close my eyes and let the heat of daylight and the warmth of their magic envelope me.

There’s a tingling along my spine and down across my arms, but it’s not the same as the buzzing I’ve felt whenever I cross over to the fae realm. The buzzing feels wrong. The tingling feels right, like magic working the way it’s supposed to work. And I realize this is one more clue as to how to zero in on my own magic. Look for that easy feeling of rightness. That’s how I’ll know when I’m on the correct path.

Despite having my eyes closed, there’s the sensation of flashing light, then a rush of air.

I stagger back into Bran’s waiting arms.

“I got you, Mouse.” His voice is husky but reassuring at the soft shell of my ear.

“Wow,” Bianca utters. “I wasn’t sure if that would work but…”

I open my eyes and when I look over at Lethea, I see myself. She looks just like me in every way. The dark hair. The smattering of freckles. But her stance is different, her shoulders more rigid.

I glance down to see I’m wearing Lethea’s Autumn Court hooded tunic. My hands are crisscrossed with scars.

“This is so weird.” I look at Bran. “Is it weird for you?”

“Your scent is still the same,” he tells me. “I would know you in total darkness.”

His words catch me off guard and butterflies create a whirlwind in my belly. He gives me a naughty grin.

God he knows how to get to me.

“Everyone know their places?” Arion asks.

The group nods. The six Autumn beasts go into hiding in the woods, waiting for their cue.

Lethea heads to the Summer Palace with several fae and vampire at her back.

My mission is much different and it’s one that Arion and Bran fought me over.

Too risky, they said.

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