Page 4 of Royal Ransom

I understood exactly how it felt to wait at the window, wondering if your partner would come home alive. I had been stuck in that particular hell for a week while I sorted out the humanitarian crisis that had arrived unexpectedly on my doorstep. It had at least distracted me from Maverick’s disappearance. If I had time to worry, I’d end up blanketing the town in an unseasonable snowstorm. And that wouldn’t be good for anyone.

“Get him back for us, please,” Charlie whispered. “Fox trusted you. He said… well, he said you’d help us.”

And there he went again, volunteering me for things I had no desire to sign up for. Before, I’d managed to put off this decision. Janara had been busy consolidating her power, purging anyone who might be loyal to my family from her guard so that the monsters who descended on our Hollow would have no qualms about killing my entire family. Now, she had her enemies exactlywhere she wanted them. It meant we had to find an answer to her ransom demand soon.

I’d never done well with ultimatums. I was going to make Janara pay for this. The question was, how?

“I will,” I said, unable to keep the bite of winter out of my voice. Charlie reacted as if it were a physical blow, flinching away from the cold in the air and my tone. “But I can’t just run in. It’s suicide. I’ll talk tactics with you all tonight. Right now, I have a job to do and mundanes to protect.”

“Mundanes?” Charlie repeated.

I nodded. “After I clock off, I have two little human boys who need food, baths, and a bedtime routine.”

Marina’s face softened, which surprised me. She had definitely seemed to be the hardass of the pair, so I had to wonder: did she have kids? I’d only seen a handful of children from Misty Hollow while I’d busily placed them into their new homes. I couldn’t recall if Marina had had someone clinging to her leg.

“Little boys,” she repeated. “What are their names?”

“Sean and Charlie,” I said, smiling for the first time since the package had arrived for me this morning.

“That’s a good name,” Charlie said, smiling at me.

A little laugh escaped me, and soon I was explaining more. “I adopted them from foster care. I was also adopted, so it was a pay-it-forward gesture. Everyone deserves a family.”

Marina finally cracked a smile. It transformed her already pretty face into something truly lovely. “Yes, they do. I think we got the answers we came for, Chief Morgan. Thank you for seeing us on such short notice.”

“Not a problem,” I replied automatically. Anything to get them out of the office and away from the bone. “I’ll see you tonight?”

“Tonight,” Charlie agreed. “We’ll make a plan and then we’regoing to kick Janara’s ass. And… well, we’re going to get him back.”

She said the words more to herself than to me, as though they were crucial. If she was as in love with Fox as I thought, I almost felt sorry for her. At least I knew Maverick was alive, even if he wasn’t right here with me.

“Yes, we will.”

Chapter Three

Taliyah

Astrid was waiting for me when I got off work, as usual.

These days, I was tempted to put her in cuffs for an hour for loitering. It seemed like everyone needed me for something. Every witch in Scapegrace was keeping in contact, distressed by their missing member. They all seemed to think I’d find answers where they couldn’t, as though I could conjure a miracle from my sparky, faerie ass just for them.

Then again, I managed to get the boys settled down in a timely fashion, despite the schoolyard virus they’d brought home. Maybe Iwascapable of miracles after all.

The young red-haired vampire wasn’t alone. Her new friend, Meredith Boline, had perched on the edge of my couch, idly stroking the spine of her oversized rat familiar. She’d been unfailingly polite throughout dinner and even spelled the rat to be quiet when he got rambunctious at bedtime.

Despite feeling under the weather, the boys seemed to enjoy the company. The magical sleep we’d been put into had given me a hangover, but both of them appeared well-rested. On the mend, even. I wasn’t sure if I should have shoved an icicle up Morgana’s ass for doing what she had to us or send her a thank-you card for saving me another week of playing nursemaid. If their temperatures stayed down, I’d be able to send them back to school in just a few days.

I didn’t realize how much tension I’d been holding in my shoulders until Astrid spoke. I twitched so violently that I swore I pulled something. My nerves were as taut as harp strings, and it felt like anything could send me pinging off the walls. I had to force myself to take deep breaths and ask her to repeat the question. I hadn’t really been listening, too lost in thought about the carved bone in my pocket.

“I asked if you’re feeling okay,” Astrid said, frowning at me over the lip of her mug. I didn’t have blood to feed her, but she’d sipped tea throughout dinner to avoid raising any awkward questions with the boys. They knew monsters were real, but I didn’t want them to grasp justhowreal they were. “You look really pale. More so than usual, I mean.”

A tiny, cowardly part of me wanted to flee from where this conversation might lead. If I lied, she’d know. Astrid might have looked like a bubbly teen, but she could be downright perceptive at times, a trait she shared with her annoying older brother. Unlike Maverick, she could be pushy, tripping over herself to fix a problem, even when there were no easy solutions. I didn’t want to bring this particular problem to her door, though. If Fox died while in captivity, she was the heir apparent to the court. She had enough to deal with without adding this ultimatum to her list of ongoing problems. And as Fox was her uncle, she and Fox were close.

But in the end, Ihadto tell her. If I didn’t respond to Wren’s message, I might be signing Fox’s death warrant. If he died, Astrid would be the de facto leader of Autumn. I’d been furious when I learned about my destiny. If you were going to carry the weight of an entire nation, you better damn well be warned about it first.

I sighed and reached into my pocket, withdrawing the bones. They looked small and almost unreal, with all the scrimshaw on the surface. Wren had painstakingly etched every letter onto the small surface with magic or a tool. Either way, she’d handled the bones long enough to leave a cold, unpleasant residue of her magic on them, even though they didn’t appear to be cursed.

Meredith set her rat, Yew, on Charlie’s empty chair and leaned over the bones, giving them a speculative once-over. If it disgusted her to lean over the amputated portion of a limb, it didn’t show. Then again, she’d probably seen worse. Her motherwas one of, if notthestrongest, dark witch on the continent. She had to have seen things.

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