Page 84 of Iron Unicorn

“I’ll register the scenario. Give us twenty minutes. What’s your target? Eddie does not do stuff like this without a target.”

“We’re going to get tacos before checking out a slaughter auction near Austin,” I confessed.

Carl heaved a sigh. “The king’s empathy must be rippling to him again. Damn it. Yeah, if he’s itching to go to Austin, they’ve got a shipment in that barn that hasn’t hit the RPS network yet. I’ll call them and find out what’s going on. If there are damaged horses at auction in Texas, Eddie can find them. Good catch.”

“I wasn’t even using my empathy.” I showed Carl my wrist, which had my suppressor on with enough of an empathy block to give me a break without putting me—or Olivia—at risk. “Can you have our horses redirected to Austin if there’s a ranch there?”

“There’s a ranch. If there’s a horse in need, we’re not getting Eddie to go on a ride,” Carl warned. “He’s just like the king on that front. Black Sand was a dire rescue, and Eddie can’t help himself. We think he got infected with empathy in earnest when he got his horse—but neither of them are actually showing as horse empaths despite us being confident they’re bonded.”

“It could be a new branch of empathy,” I stated, and I shrugged. “My queen fails most empathy tests, too, but she has the symptoms. Whatever King Patrick is doing isn’t in the way we think magic works. But Alaska’s queen has already found proof there are multiple types of magic. Eddie has an empathy talent. Nobody knows how it works is all.”

“And you probably have it, too.”

I shrugged. “Probably. At least we can figure out how Olivia and the royals from Montana would have gotten infected with it. King Patrick would have adopted the entire lot of them if he could have. The first time they visited Texas once he became Queen Jessica’s consort would have cinched their infection.”

Carl nodded. “I’ll ping North Dakota and see if we can get any leads on how the talent works. We’ll get Dr. Stanton to check you over once you head back to New York. Your empathy is well documented, so you might be what we need to figure out what the king is doing to everyone. We suspect Eddie and his princess have gotten the heaviest dose of the talent.”

Exposure and motivation on their father’s part would take responsibility for it. “I’ll keep an eye on him when we go to look at the horses. Don’t make dropping you easy. Eddie wants to see what I can do, and if I can get him more interested in evasive driving, that’ll work well for him in the future.”

“Having seen your record, you’ll drop us in a hurry. We know we can’t beat a metalweaver in a car. If you see anything suspicious, take off the suppressor and get to work. But in reality? It’s been a while since anyone has tried anything to the royal family. The politicians know better—and Texas’s enemies know better. We deal with terrorism threats, but for the most part, even the terrorists aren’t willing to try our monarchs. It would cause too much of an uprising.”

Texas had a great deal of support—and if anyone took a shot at Texas, Montana and New York would become involved without hesitation. California would follow New York’s lead, which would bring the rest of the Royal States into the situation with limited exception.

Then Spain would act, as would England, and every kingdom with the exception of Sweden and Switzerland would join the fray.

I expected a certain prince from Switzerland would create a scandal or make an attempt on Eddie or Deidre.

History had a tendency of repeating itself, but I doubted Switzerland’s prince would be walking away from the attempt. King Patrick would not tolerate such a threat to his children. To himself? He could handle that.

But not to his beloved children.

“Switzerland?” I asked.

“We are expecting trouble. He’s smart enough to hire, but he’s not smart enough to realize he shouldn’t hire. We suspect a live capture, but Eddie is at risk.” Carl glanced at the SUV waiting for me. “That’s part of why we’re routing him to California for a while. On the outside, it will look like he’s simply not a risk to whatever the prince may have planned. But an attempt on the princess’s life is not out of the question. While the monarchs of Switzerland are welcome in Texas, the prince is not. Switzerland has been cordial about the situation. Germany saw to that, and we provided the medical records from the attempt on the king’s life. Should the prince step out of line, the child will be raised to be the next monarch, and the child’s mother will be treated with respect and dignity.”

I foresaw tragedy, and I wished I could prevent it.

Greed would lead the prince down a dark road, and his choice of target would bring his journey to an unfortunately permanent conclusion. “Is the princess aware of the lethality risk?”

“She understands he values his reputation far more than he does her. It wouldn’t surprise her if he tried to have her assassinated. She has not comprehended that he is at higher risk of death than she is. Switzerland has a history of executing those in the succession for attempted regicide, and her rightful severance makes her the future queen of Texas. As she’s the eldest of the royal children, she will be considered the primary reigning monarch despite the planned quartet. With luck, things will go over peacefully.”

What a mess. “We can move Eddie to New York if needed.”

“We may inquire about taking our princess as well. New York would be a safe place. Your queen is ready, willing, and able to do what is necessary to protect Deidre.”

I agreed with Carl. In some ways, my queen could be as meek as a mouse, but when it came to protecting someone she valued, she would unleash the fiery beast within her without hesitation or regret. In that regard, she was a true New Yorker. Prince Ian would as well.

Between the two of them, I ran a high risk of developing silver hair in a hurry.

My next suggestion would create trouble, but I’d deal with the fallout without regret. “Tip Montana off. Once they learn about the severity of the situation, the world will remember there are multiple monsters in that kingdom—and they do not take kindly to this sort of thing.”

“Which monsters are you talking about?”

“If I tried to count them all, we’d be here all day. I would also have to confess I’m counting myself as one of the monsters.” I liked Eddie, and I liked Deidre as well. As far as I was concerned, Texas would be in good hands with the sister and brother team and their consorts helping to handle the load. “Just count everyone in Montana, really.”

“That’s concerning.”

“I’d be more concerned if all the New Yorkers get pointed in the same direction.”

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