Page 3 of Knowing Trust

I bit back a chuckle and nodded, waggling my eyebrows at her. “She’s all hearts and—it’s the real first love she deserves. She could probably use some insight on how to hook a dragon better if you’re looking for an in.”

“I can be of some use there for sure.”

I finished my drink and didn’t really know how to wrap up her visit. I wasn’t going to thank her for stopping by to try and corner me. I did appreciate her caring, but… I shrugged it off.

I threw the bottle in recycling before tapping my chest to focus my magic. Teleporting my outfit to my bedroom, I teleported my Faerie Guardian uniform on at the same time.

“That’s still so fucking cool, and you do so many amazing things,” Mel praised as she tossed her empty bottle too. “I think even RDJ would agree you’re the prettiest Ironman option Marvel could ever have.”

I laughed. She was now and forever such a smartass.

“Be safe, yeah?”

I nodded. “It’s the last general of the Underground.” I winked at her when she couldn’t hide her shock. “Yeah, in a few weeks. I wasn’t kidding that we wanted to get them all. We have every commander and captain. This last general was a slippery fucker. I just want it done, and we can pick up the minions as best as we can.”

“Rats always pop their heads out eventually. You know that.”

“You taught me that and I do. After this, we’re giving the supe police the list of who we have and the clean councils. They can give us known associates, and we’re working it too. I just want all the heads cut off—or in our custody.”

“Happy hunting, Tams.” She flinched when she got shit looks because we were around others. “Your Highness.”

“I’m so used to hearing that now, but it still sounds weird from you.”

“Still sounds weird saying it,” she admitted.

Fair enough.

I teleported ahead to where we were going and froze everyone. That was the compromise we’d all agreed to when we’d started this after Luke died. I would do that to keep people from escaping but not move my butt from that spot away from traps or issues and the rest of my army would come and I would let them do their fucking job.

Which is pretty much how Neldor had said it word for word… And he’d spent a few hours persuading me in the best way to agree.

I was going to from the start, but when he offered stress relief and I was feeling so shit—I wasn’t going to turn that down.

Seriously, who would?

Portals started opening with the commanders coming through. I simply pointed to my feet and smirked to let them know I hadn’t moved a single inch.

“Smartass,” Iolas grumbled as he walked past me. He took in a deep breath and glanced back at me. “Well done, Tamsin. The last general. The Underground is no more.”

“I’ll celebrate when we crack this one open like the others and make sure there aren’t some other hidden secrets,” I said after a moment. They had been really smart and each one held certain information the others didn’t. It hadn’t been the general who had killed Luke and his mate who knew where her body was.

It was the third one we’d captured. Everything was compartmentalized to an annoying extent. I’d thought that it would have been that first guy with the download of the guy’s brain I’d gotten, but when I’d dived in deeper with Onas’s help and interrogations, he hadn’t known. He had a few guesses and images of her dead but no location.

They were that locked down.

Hell, it had to be fucking annoying for them to remember who had what information. I couldn’t keep it straight which commanders had which specialties besides Onas for interrogation and the runes.

And that was only because I’d needed him to do it so often and we’d basically caused him a mental breakdown because of it.

We rounded everyone up once Onas had the general in custody. I blew the guy a kiss as he was escorted to the portal. I’d be seeing him very soon, but honestly it was just fun to fuck with them and make them unsettled.

They should be.

2

“No, I’m not giving you guys burritos,” I told my dogs as they tried to give me cute puppy eyes and begged. I huffed when even Chief tried it. “Do you remember how you all smelled up the garage last time? It was so toxic that I could smell it in the house. That’s how horrible your farts are when you have taco meat and whatever else sets your iron stomachs off.”

As funny as it was that they could eat people and they were fine—supposedly—but burritos without beans made their toots toxic… And I didn’t want to go through that again.

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