Page 61 of My Salvation

“Or maybe, maybe he tried to eat himself to death and had to poop so much he died,” Pip added, jumping in on the fun.

Thane palmed his face. “I’m going to kill those idiots.”

Meryn bristled. “My boys aren’t idiots.”

Thane shook his head. “No, they are adorable. I’m talking about my idiots.”

Kendrick blinked. “Ah. Yes. Your brothers. I had forgotten they returned home. So sad to hear about the worker.” He paused for a second. “Anyway.” He turned back to Aiden. “I gave the Vanguard orders to infiltrate the city in pairs, not revealing that two squads had returned. They’ll be checking in with Caiden regularly.” He sighed and looked at Amelia. “Though he and his brothers may be busy wrangling your mother.”

Amelia sniffed. “I regret nothing.”

The queen turned to Kendrick. “Any word regarding Zoe’s situation? I know that the Elder Councils of Lycaonia, Noctem Falls, and Éire Danu have all submitted inquiries. We have had little to no response.” Her expression turned frosty. “Magnus has also run into a dead end, as it were, tracking down who might have been responsible for the Committee nonsense.”

Kendrick snarled. “Dead end, my ass. Literally every lead we had ended up with a corpse or shallow grave. As much as I would love, and I do mean love to find those responsible, I feel any more efforts in that direction would be wasted.”

“Muppets,” Meryn said in a growly voice like Kendrick.

“Exactly,” he snorted. Continuing, he looked back to the queen. “To add to the frustration, the Witches’ Council went into closed-door proceedings a few days ago. Normally, I’d ask Caroline to eavesdrop if she could, but since she helped Zoe escape, she had to go to Noctem Falls to avoid the fallout. I have no idea what they’re up to, but it’s something big.” He brought his hand up to rub his jaw. “Very big. They haven’t left the council chambers in days.”

Meryn exhaled loudly. “And those assholes aren’t tech savvy, which means I have nothing to hack into. They still use crystals to communicate, for goodness sake,” she paused, then eyed Kendrick. “Any luck finding a way to detect forming portals?”

Kendrick slumped back in his chair. “It’s taking longer than I had hoped it would. If it were a normal portal, I would have access to see how they work by bugging Darian to create a few, but theirs are different, darker. There’s an unknown element involved that has proved to be a delightful challenge.”

Anne looked at her mate. “Well, as long as you’re entertained, I guess,” she drawled.

Meryn laughed.

There was a knock at the door, and the queen quickly turned to the table. “Not a word, please.”

Cas understood. If it got out at all that their queen may be fading, especially given what was happening, it would be pure chaos.

Portia stepped in, smiling. “My queen, we have a rather unique visitor.” She sighed, shaking her head before she wrinkled her nose, then pinched the skin between her eyebrows. Despite the obvious frustration, the normally austere woman was still smiling.

“Unique? Portia, I do not think I have ever heard you describe someone that way.”

She dropped her hand and gave a wry grin. “You will see.” She leaned back out the door and nodded.

Moments later, the entire doorway filled.

At first, all Cas saw was fur.

When the person turned to face them, after going through the doorway sideways, she realized that it was fur. A lot of it.

“Holy shit Gilheim, did you bring us a boar?” Meryn said, staring at the newcomer.

There was a loud thump as the man dumped his gift on the floor.

“Oh, gods above,” Cas whispered.

The tall, raven-haired individual was, for lack of a better term, exquisite.

His torso was bare, showing off perfectly sculpted arms and chest, but on his lower half, he wore fur breeches. “Greetings, Daughter of Eamon!” Gilheim smiled, showing off a perfect set of pearly white teeth.

Cas clutched at her chest and noticed every woman at the table was similarly affected.

Meryn hopped out of her chair and ran around the table straight for the gorgeous green male. “I missed you,” she said, hugging him around the waist.

The large man simply lifted her and hugged her close. “And I have missed you as well.” He sat her back down gently. Pointing to the floor, he beamed proudly. “I remember how much you enjoyed the one you had in our village. I could do no less than bring you your own.”

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