Page 41 of Hidden

Her mother gave a sympathetic smile. “I know you’re not fond of him, but he is an important ally.”

“So you said.”

“We’re an old house, and the power proves it. The king has no heirs. With houses like ours supporting Farras, he has a legitimate claim to succession.”

Lila froze where she stood, wary of the direction this was taking. “We are more than the magic in our veins.”

Galeeta didn’t reply for a moment, but strolled between the tables, her hands clasped before her. “I think you may need a few more tables. I understand Lord Farras is bringing two hundred with him, although half of those will be servants and guards. I suppose we’ll have to make one of the glades into a parking lot, although I can’t be sure how they’re traveling.”

Lila heaved a heavy sigh. “Please don’t change the subject.”

Galeeta frowned, the expression there and gone like a thunderclap. “We want Lord Farras to owe us favors. Think of your father.”

“Of course.” Lila felt a conversational trap opening wide. “And I am quite willing to put on a meal and air his bedchamber, but that is all. I have no interest in getting to know him. Remember that.”

Galeeta raised her hands in a gesture of exasperation. “Must you be so difficult?”

“Whatever you think of the city, I have a life there. One I like.”

“Fae need their people around them.”

“I can live well enough on my own. But I’m not alone. I’m surrounded by co-workers, neighbors, people of all kinds.”

“Humans,” Galeeta said darkly.

“And others. I’ve made friends. Think about it, even Sala lives in the city, and she was the ultimate fae princess.”

Her mother put a gentle hand on Lila’s shoulder. “Sala never forgets who she is. She asked you to come here at my request.”

Lila drew back, confused. “She said Ademar was in trouble and needed me to find him.”

Galeeta smiled.

“Are you saying that was a trick? What about the vampires who knocked on her door?”

Her mother’s smile faded. “I did not invent the vampires. But I need you here for this visit, and so we found a way to nudge you. And it turned out Ademar did need you here, so we weren’t wrong.”

“We? Who is we?”

Her mother reached out to touch Lila’s shoulder again but drew back at Lila’s flinch. Galeeta clasped her hands together instead. “I rarely ask you for anything. I really need you to cooperate now.”

Lila studied her mother, seeing strain in the line of her shoulders and the set of her jaw. With a kind of amazement, she realized her mother was afraid.

Galeeta had never balked at anything, ever. She was as cool as glacial snow. What had changed that?

What would happen if Lila refused?

CHAPTER 14

Well, that leaves us with a whole new and squirmy bag of questions. Whether we’re talking humans, non-humans, or the undecided, is it wrong to slip the leash of sobriety from time to time? And if we choose to nope out of reality for a while, what if we can’t come back?

This has long been a human-only issue—until recent developments, the supernatural set hasn’t had access to drugs or intoxicants that stayed in the system long enough to matter. Bacchante has changed all that, and even in the short time since its existence has come to light, speculation has run wild about its origins. Some claim it emerged from deep in the Castle, one more mystery from the prison dimension we can’t readily explain. Is this unfounded rumor, or a chance to finally understand the possible dangers of a drug whose use is bound to spread? Or are the mysterious deaths that stretch beyond East Bay’s border evidence that widespread distribution of bacchante has already occurred?

That’s the focus of our next installment of this special podcast series. Good night for now, darklings.

Izetta stabbed the screen of her freshly-purchased phone, silencing Errata’s husky voice. The hotel room fell quiet except for the rush of traffic on the street below. Seated on the edge of the bed—the room was too small to hold much furniture—Izetta scrolled through the list of episodes on her phone only to find she’d listened to the last in the series. Another one was scheduled to drop in a week.

There was a comment button on the podcast’s web page, and for an instant, she was tempted to leave a response. C’mon folks, if this really came from the Castle, the true mystery is why we’d put something from a demon dimension in our mouths. Isn’t that kind of stupidity how we ended up dead and fangy in the first place?

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