Page 18 of Royal Ransom

“I don’t know about you pretending to be one of us,” Tally said to Astrid.

Astrid nodded. “Look, I don’t think I can beat Janara in battle, but Idothink I can stir the pot for a few days until you get back.” Then she looked at me. “Unless you don’t trust me to handle that much?”

That was closer to the truth than I wanted to admit. I didn’t like putting her in dangerous situations. If I had my way, she’d be wrapped in bubble wrap at all times. I never wanted anything to hurt her. But she was an adult now. She’d taken Tally’s burden, shouldering Autumn’s fate in her place. I couldn’t cut her out of this entirely, no matter how much I wanted to.

I jabbed a finger at her. “No hero business. If you get in trouble, hide behind the sasquatch. Got it?”

Astrid’s eyes positivelysparkled.“Got it,Dad.”

Chapter Eleven

Taliyah

“Stop scowling, Mav,” I said, following in his wake.

He was moving quickly enough to alarm the students who were streaming past us in the hall. The look on his face was sure to scare our allies away. Scarlett Velardi had graciously allowed students who wanted to resume summer classes to do so in Newark, renting out one of her gangster husband’s establishments while we figured out how to relocate Blood Rose to Haven Hollow.

The night classes and day classes weren’t gone, but they did mingle nowadays, making schedules more flexible. As I watched, a young werewolf girl scuttled to the opposite side of the hall from Mav, as if repelled by the wrong end of a magnet. It wasn’t even a thought; anyone with survival instinct was getting out of his way.

“I’ll stop when we get your brother back,” he replied tersely. “Until then, I’m going to scare the hell out of anyone who gets in my way.”

I considered handing out my mother’s cliché advice:You’ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar.But I hadn’t lived my life by that mantra. I’d always caught things with a taser and a pair of handcuffs. I was a faerie policewoman, and Mav was a warlock bounty hunter. Normal rules didn’t really apply to us.

Basil Lavant was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of his desk when I arrived in his classroom on the third floor of the mansion. The last of his most recent class was filing out, shooting us odd looks over their shoulders as we stepped past them.

The room was dimly lit, with swaths of fabric covering the windows. I was sure it was gorgeous in the daytime when sunlight turned the room into an autumn-tinged wonderland.Right now, it just made it difficult to see. And it didn’t help that there were only a few candles to navigate by. Basil didn’t look up as we approached. He was resting soundly on the ground, eyes closed, exposed chest rising and falling softly with the rhythm of his breath.

He was meditating so peacefully that I had half a mind to turn around and leave him alone. But the thought of Cain in Wren’s sticky little hands stopped me in my tracks. Basil had been a servitor to the lords of Autumn. That meant he had to know something that could help us. He’d said as much to Astrid.

“Hello, Your Highness,” he said, his eyes still closed. He hadn’t even twitched to acknowledge our approach, and the suddenness of his voice startled me.

“Ah!” I practically jumped out of my skin.

The side of his mouth curled up into a wry smile. He turned his head toward me as he opened his eyes. Then he looked up at me and completed the smile, exposing a row of perfectly white teeth. “My apologies, Your Grace. I forgot that you aren’t in communication with your true nature. It deprives you of certain… powers.”

Hints of his meditative stupor clung to his body and voice, making me vaguely sleepy in a contented sort of way.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He tilted his head, considering me. “Just that you aren’t complete. Only Olwen can take the throne. Only Olwen can accurately read other faeries. You aren’t Olwen.”

I bristled. He said the words with the same maddening tone as Fox, as though not allowing every human memory I had to die a cold, swift death was a moral failing.

Basil shook his head with a sigh. Thick locks of dark hair fell loose from behind his ear, tumbling onto his forehead. He ran his large hand through his hair before letting it fall onto his knee.

“I am not trying to disparage you, Your Highness. Youmisunderstand my intent.”

“Chief,” I said.

“Pardon?” he asked.

“If you’re going to continue to call me by a title, use the one I choose. I’m the Chief of Police in Haven Hollow, not Princess Olwen of the Winter Court.”

“And that’s the problem. Princess Olwen is fated to overthrow Janara, not Chief Taliyah Morgan.”

Bullshit. I wasn’t going to even consider it unless I had no other options. I’d embraced the idea of dying for people who would never know my name. It was a reality that came with the badge. But this... I hadn’t chosen this. It wasn’t right. Wasn’t fair.

“I don’t believe in fate,” I said curtly. “And there’s more than one way to skin a cat. If you brought me here to lecture me about becoming Olwen, you can stuff it. I’ve had enough of that from Prince Reynard. Tell me you have something relevant to add, or this meeting is done before it even started.”

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