Page 49 of Secrets and Ruin

“You don’t want to say it, do you? I know how I could have stopped this. Pa and I could have interrogated Fenris years ago. We could have tortured him for his entire story if we thought it was necessary. We could have, but wedidn’t. There are untrustworthy people in the world, and we both fucking know that. There have always been and always will be. Do you punish everyone, trying to weed them out, or do you give everyone a chance? My Pa and I, we give people a chance, like you. It’s why you fit so well with us. You give people a chance.

“Your family would have stopped this, sure. They would have done it by punishing everyone, by being jaded assholes who look at the world as if it’s against them.” Landon leaned down close to my face, his intense wolf eyes holding mine in the night. “For a long time, I followed Pa’s example, even when I didn’t always want to. Now, I want to because it separates me from people like your family. Not all of them, but enough of them.Him. It’s hard for me, but hard isn’t impossible. It’s just hard.”

Landon turned to keep walking. As the distance grew, I realized he hadn’t just ranted at me because he thought I was being stupid. He was absolving me of guilt. He and Heath could have done exactly what I’d been thinking. They didn’t, but Landon wasn’t going to live with guilt over it. Even though Dirk was most certainly in danger.

Catching up, I felt a little piece of forgiveness and strength settle into place. Landon wasn’t going to hold this against me. I didn’t know how much I needed to hear that until this moment.

“Thank you,” I finally whispered as we trudged down the path.

He only shrugged and continued to lead us with his nose deeper and deeper into the Black Forest. We eventually walked out of Niko’s territory and left the last layer of safety we might have had.

20

CHAPTER TWENTY

Iwasn’t sure how long we walked before I thought to check the time. I brought my phone, not expecting service, but it had other uses. Trying several times to get it to wake up, a black screen stared at me until it summoned the power to tell me it had no power. Fear and panic raced through me as I considered what that could mean.

“Landon, check your phone,” I ordered, stopping on the path. As much as I wanted not to care and press on without paying it any mind, I knew better. “Mine is dead.”

“Okay…” He gave me a questioning look, stopping as well, and pulled out his phone. As the expected emotions ran over Landon from frustration to anger, I knew we had a problem. “How the fuck?”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding as I swung my bag down and went to a knee with it. “Our phones are dead, but neither of us has touched them since we landed. In fact, I had mine charging in my bag for some time.” I opened the bag and started looking for all the electronics, pulling out everything that used a battery.

“I have a spare charger.” He didn’t go to a knee like me, but he started shuffling through his as well. “Fuck,” he snarled. I looked up to see how he plugged his phone into the portable charging battery. “It’s dead, too.”

I tried a flashlight, and nothing happened. I tried the spares from his bag. Landon tested his satellite phone, which I hadn’t known about, and shook his head when it failed.

“It must be something about this place or something in it.” I said, believing it was the only answer.

“You’re probably right. It’s the place, a space in two planes of existence simultaneously. It probably does all sorts of weird stuff to everything that stays too long. Our electronics are just a victim of this place.” Landon paused for a second, so I waited for him to finish the thought, figuring I could guess what it would be. “Or something in this place. I don’t know what sort of magic every fae can do. I don’t think anyone does.”

“You’re not wrong, but we would have smelled something doing any more magic. We would have caught the presence of a nearby creature.”

“Did you hear anything?”

“Nothing close enough to put me on edge. Didn’t hear any sort of whispered spell, just rustling and moving about, but that could have been small animals. If something was closer than twenty or thirty feet, I would have said something.”

“I didn’t smell any increase in magic, like a release for a spell cast or something,” Landon said, helping me put everything away. “I refuse to think every witch or fae in the world knows that trick, whatever the hell Emma’s family in Dallas did.”

“Agreed, especially out here. This place feels… isolated from the rest of the world. Their disregard for King Brion makes me wonder if fae royalty even come out here or know about it. Either they don’t know, or it’s a problem they never wanted to solve.”

“I bet it’s the first. You could ask when we can use our phones again. You know another fae,” Landon pointed out as we kept walking. “Maybe he could help.” Landon trailed off, clearly thinking about this potential plan to get fae help here.

My thoughts elsewhere, it took me a moment to catch his meaning.

“Oh, his son Cassius,” I said softly, nodding. I didn’t think I was a friend of Prince Cassius, the son of King Brion. We’d met under bad circumstances. He hated his father. His wife had died during the short time we were both tied up in the king’s fight to get back into power. “I mean…”

“If you’re not comfortable with it, so be it. He’s fae.”

“I don’t ever think about reaching out to him because we weren’t close and I don’t want to remind him of when he lost his wife,” I admitted. “But it’s good to remember because if we need fae help with the fae, he’s definitely the only one I would ever consider.” I snorted, annoyed at myself. “I didn’t think to call him about what happened to Teagan, Carlos, and Jenny. I could have mentioned it as an option, even if we didn’t go with it.”

“Pa and I can handle the pack. No reason for you to make yourself owe the man a favor for that,” Landon said, once again giving me a dismissive shrug. “Without our phones or anything electronic working, he can’t help us here. The only reason I would consider giving him a chance to help us is because of how you and Pa have talked about him. You respected him.”

“I do respect him. It’s not a bad suggestion. Didn’t matter in the end because I owe someone else a favor now,” I reminded him.

“Yeah,” he mumbled, sighing. “Hopefully, it’s nothing bad when it comes back around. If it is, you got us. We’ll back you up.”

“A bridge we’ll cross when we come to it. He didn’t seem like a bad guy. He could lose his job for helping us, so it was only fair he asked for a favor in return.” I looked around the dark forest, my eyes having fully adjusted now. It was still dark, the night weighing in on Landon and me like an oppressive wall, but I could make out more now than when we entered. I saw nothing, but still, my eyes scanned the trees, hoping for a sign of my family and hoping for no signs of any fae.

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