Page 71 of Storm of Summer (Wild Haven 3)

RHYS

“So, about Anthony hitchhiking a ride when we all bonded.” Lena flops her hand back and forth between Miri and Davis, herself and Archer. “I’ve been doing some research.”

“Did you find out anything about bond stowaways?” Miri interrupts, grabbing hold of Davis’s forearm. “I swear if you want me to smother my dear old dad and…” Miri swipes a finger across her neck with a squelching noise, “then I will happily make it happen. I never thought I’d offer to murder someone, and definitely didn’t think I’d be committing patricide in my life, but I will. I’ll do it.” Miri’s head is nodding, her jaw set with determination.

“Well, that’s…not that different from how I feel about my own dad, so I can’t really say much about that.” Lena looks over at me with a shrug and I give her one in return. Scott Marsten can drown in a pool of his own piss and vomit for all I care.

“Anthony is your father?” Zara asks in surprise. Miri turns to her with wide eyes.

“Um, yes. Did we forget to mention that? I didn’t know until like six or seven months ago. I just thought I had a deadbeat for a father who left my mom. Anyway, that’s not the important part. Anthony’s been trying to get back into Fairy for years. When the first Axis failed to produce enough magic, he shifted his focus. He’s been trying to figure out new ways to accomplish that. Now that we’ve all come into our magic, he wants the next generation to get the band back together.”

Zara’s brows are pulled down, and she’s shaking from side to side slightly. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“That they want to kill their dads? Spend any amount of time with those assholes and you’ll understand,” Ruby pipes in.

Davis sighs loudly. He’s about ten seconds away from telling us to all fuck off and leaving. I can tell by the furrow between his eyebrows and the way his face is getting redder by the second.

“No. Anthony says that he wants to go back to Fairy, but between him, Colton, and that other Fae woman, they should be able to open up the veil, especially if they did it on one of the holidays.”

That stops everyone in their tracks. Metaphorically.

“What’s that now?” Archer leans forward with confusion written all over his face. Over all our faces. Zara starts to shrink in on herself, her shoulders rounding. She doesn’t like to be the center of attention at all.

“You said they killed a man, the night of Ostara?”

“My father,” Davis tacks on dryly.

“I swear we don’t all want to kill our fathers,” Ruby says and then laughs. “That’s only because we don’t know ours at all.”

God we are a messed-up group. “Wow. Okay. Can we all focus? What are you saying Zara?” I rub her shoulder, trying to interject a little sanity back into the conversation.

“I’m saying, if their intention was getting back into Fairy, they could have accomplished it by now. Alone, they might not be able to open the veil, but together, after a sacrifice, that’s a lot of power. They might say they want to get back to Fairy, but what if that’s not their goal?” Zara chews on her bottom lip. I snake my hand around the back of her neck, gently pressing on her tense muscles.

“What are you saying?” Lena asks.

“There’s always talk amongst underlings, and rumors have floated around for years that the Queen wanted to expand her domain. That she isn’t satisfied with just ruling Fairy.”

“You think the Queen of Fairy wants to rule the human realm?” Ezra gapes at her, his face representing what we’re all feeling.

“It’s only rumors, but she’s power hungry. She’s been in power much longer than any other Queen. She’s figured out a way to slow the aging of the High Fae. That makes her a favorite of that group, but she’s not well loved by the Lower Fae.” Zara stops and swallows thickly before continuing. “What if Anthony, Colton, and Seraphina aren’t looking for a way back into Fairy? What if they’re trying to figure out how to prop open the veil from this side.”

“You think they’re trying to come at the veil from both sides to keep it open longer?” Archer asks.

“Or to tear it down permanently.”

“Is that even possible?” Ruby shrieks at a decibel that makes my ears ring.

“I don’t know. This is all…I’m making a lot of assumptions.”

I feel the anxiety radiating off Zara and I give up all pretenses, picking her up and pulling her into my lap. Her body is stiff at first, but she relaxes into me as she exhales, the tension seeping out of her with each breath.

“And Colton said he wants to manipulate us and use our bonds, like he’s some kind of fucking puppet master?” Miri snarls. I think we’re all on the same page there. Not going to fucking happen.

“I found a reference to secondary bonds in one of my books. It’s the only place I’ve seen anything about it so far, and the information is vague at best.” Lena turns to look at Zara, bringing us back to the problem we might be able to solve now. “Can you take a look at it and see if any of it makes sense to you?”

Zara nods, but she’s tucked against me and hardly moves at all. I think the day has done her in.

“If we’re going to break the bond, we should do it on one of the holidays. It will give us the best chance. The veil is always thinner, which means magic will naturally be stronger.”

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