Page 27 of Defy the Fae

As for the type of meeting, Puck suggests a roundtable involving alcohol. “Booze tends to loosen tongues and fuck with inhibitions,” he says. “Especially if the bottles are curated and spiced by me.”

“Except we host it here,” I specify. “In The Night Aviary.”

Everyone gawks, as if I’ve gone mad.

A rather predictable response follows. “You’re shitting me, right?” Puck points across the range to the glass dome, home to hundreds of birds and the Middle Moon Masquerade. “Bringing them to the aviary is like dropping a fox into a chicken coop.”

“Very much so,” I agree. “We’re the foxes.”

“You sure about that? Because from where I’m standing—”

“If I were you,” I murmur slowly, “I would stop right there, dear brother.”

Question my motives when it comes to the mountain fauna, and no sibling shall be safe from me. I have my stealthy reasons, and since when has this lot ever doubted that?

Realization alights Lark’s gaze. “You’re gonna place a shield on ’em.”

“On all of us,” I say. “The wind won’t let our visitors get near the avians or anyone who matters to me. But we need to see if our enemies are tempted to turn the animals on us, or at least to parse through any hints about how they do it, should they fail to tell us outright.”

Puck’s stance relaxes, and his lips tilt with mischief. “Clever, brother.”

Juniper nods. “It’s a good strategy, with a contingency plan.”

“Won’t they guess what you’re doing?” Cove wonders. “If they know your powers?”

“They will not,” Elixir assures her. “No Fae reveals the extents and drawbacks of their abilities.”

“Not willingly,” Coral expands. “That would cut out the element of surprise.”

“Plus, the opportunity to commit deceit,” Puck adds. “Where’s the fun in that?”

“Be that as it may, you will not need to tempt them,” Cypress predicts. “They will tell you how they influenced the raven.”

“You’ll provoke it out of them,” Moth says with a grin. “You always do.”

My mouth quirks. “Only if the rest of you provoke them with me.”

We expect Moth, Cypress, and Coral to be there. However, they insist that will dilute the impact my brothers and I have as leaders. Lesser numbers will appear more confident. Everyone agrees to that.

We’ll pick through the enemy’s weaknesses and pick apart their strengths. We’ll seek to find the chink in their armor.

Whatever threats our band sets on the table will come from us alone, not from our allies. We can’t speak for them until they’ve learned the details, but we can’t involve them until we have clearer information.

My father will attend the meeting along with The Parliament. Tímien is certain none of the owls have been influenced like the raven. As a former sovereign of the wild and a dweller of the sky, I can detect this as well.

As for the multitude of other fauna across this region—birds, bats, rams, cougars, antelopes, and mountain goats, among others—it’s anyone’s guess. The notion ghosts up my spine.

Moth, Cypress, and Coral disband. The rest of us stay behind and line up along the bridge, where we face a labyrinthine mosaic of suspensions, planks, and ropes, all capped in shawls of dense fog. This far up, the only sources of color are Puck’s inferno of red waves, Juniper’s green tresses, and Cove’s watery locks. Elixir is a cloaked python dominating the shadows, whereas my mate and I blend in with the firmament.

A draft whistles through the maze and disturbs one of the lower-level bridges. A caw shears through the night, and the subtle twitch of a torch glints from The Watch of Nightingales.

None of us second-guesses our decision. What we speak, we cannot unspeak.

“Well,” Juniper states, twisting toward everyone. “Now that we have a plan, we can move on to a recurring problem. What about the Fable?”

“You tell us, missy,” Lark says.

“I haven’t unearthed anything new.” Juniper rolls her shoulders, as if to release a kink. “But I’d like to test a theory.”

---