Page 21 of Vibing Unity

“Can we talk?” Neldor asked when I was heading to bed and he caught me alone.

“After tomorrow,” I answered after a moment. “I saw what happened in a dream, and I know Xavier talked to you, but—I just need to get through tomorrow.”

“Okay, whatever you need, baby doll,” he agreed, his voice pained.

Yeah, well, he’d had a while to figure out what was going on and not brush me off. I’d tried to talk to him about this.

And he hadn’t been—he’d been dismissive. That was what I’d been worried about when we’d agreed to be together even just sexually.

The next morning, I woke and fought against the need to roll over and just go back to bed. I saw Neldor sitting up from the couch and looking as wrecked as I felt. He was focused on nothing and scrubbed his neck enough that it was red and looked like he was missing a layer of skin.

“You both have got this,” Darby comforted as he came out of the bathroom freshly showered. “You’ve taken on councils, dirty supes all over, Alpha dragons—this is nothing.”

“Which is normally when shit goes wrong,” I grumbled as I rolled to my feet to get ready.

Unfortunately, I was right. Clearly, Neldor and I knew something was going to happen with our magic. It was the only way to explain both of us acting as we were when the day should have been simple.

The public trial of the first general of the Underground was beginning. We had invited one elder or royal from every species to sit in on the trials, and we were allowing all of the news networks there. We had nothing to hide, and while we would protect the names of victims and private information the publicdidn’t need to know, people were entitled to see the truth on the rest.

Instead, one of the news networks that hated me aired an interview with my relative at the same time.

I refused to refer to him as my uncle simply off his word.

The questioning had just started when notifications and more started blowing up everyone’s phones and portals opened. When I learned what was going on and how it was trying to upstage all our hard work, I blew my lid.

And teleported right to the man interviewing my relative.

The “live” interview everyone was—rightfully—freaking out about was delayed. The moment I showed up, he opened a portal and escaped.

Well, most of him.

I chuckled darkly as his pinky and part of another finger fell to the ground. I’d been ready for him to try that and immediately called the magic of the portal to me and shut everything down. I hadn’t been fast enough to get all of him.

But he didn’t leave with all of him either.

Bastard.

No pun intended.

I opened a portal to Shael and she came in with a team. “Arrest them all.”

“You have no jurisdiction to do that,” the media personality blasted me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I do actually. That man is an enemy of Faerie, and we made that clear with all of your leaders. Also, if any of their people gave him shelter or aid, we would punish them just like it’s illegal to aid a criminal under human law.”

“You cannot just declare him an enemy of Faerie and a criminal because—”

I was on the guy before anyone could stop me, fisting the front of his suit. “He almost killed one of my people, asshole. Yeah, that makes him an enemy of all Faerie. Commander Stefanie could have died. He knocked out my people. He made it clear he killed a queen of the light realm. Are you like fucking stupid?”

I shoved him to the ground before I did something I might regret and with witnesses.

It also wasn’t lost on me that this was the network that we’d embarrassed by arresting their five “news” personalities before and then started our own network with that scoop.

Everything was handled and I went back to the trial and made a statement to the press already there.

“That man, no matter who he was born to or under what circumstancesorcrimes committed against him, is an enemy of Faerie. The people of Faerie understand the depths of what he’s done and why. Others do not need to, but they simply need tolistenwhen the leader of Faerie says he’s a threat.

“Anyone who associates with him, is involved with him, or gives him aid will be arrested. He is aterroristto our world for trying to arrange a massive prison break and more. He has repeatedly tried to kill the only heir of Faerie and cripple the defenses of our world because I am the strongest as thegodswant.”

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