"Is this where you're staying?" I asked in disbelief. T barely looked up.
"Yup."
"Why?" Why not at the headquarters? I wanted to ask, but remained tight-lipped. I trusted my mates to an extent, but they were loyal to the kingdom first and foremost. I didn't know if that loyalty would exceed their loyalty to me.
T met my eyes with understanding.
"Mali visited our house," he murmured. And by house, he meant the compound that housed the resistance. It couldn't be called a building, for it was located deep beneath the ground in a series of tunnels. A part of me missed the dripping gray walls and sparse lighting the further you ventured through the labyrinth.
"Mali?" I whispered hoarsely. I didn't know why saying her name hurt as badly as it did. But damn, that stung like a bitch. I rubbed at my heart as if that could somehow soothe the ache her absence caused me. "What happened?"
"What do you think?" T continued his perusal of the food, voice dry. "B kicked her out. I didn’t know why at the time. I kind of assumed she had wanted to stay with you and B hadn’t allowed her to, so they argued, and B booted her.”
I wasn't surprised, not entirely, but it still hurt to hear. Where would she go? She was considered a traitor to her own kind.
The Vampires would never accept her back, and the humans would love nothing more than to hunt her.
"And then what happened?" I asked.
He sighed heavily, but was saved from explaining by HH returning. He carried a tray with ten teacups and a kettle. Without a word, he placed the tray on the table and began pouring tea into the cute, ceramic cups.
Bash held it up distastefully, lips curling.
"It's not poisoned, is it?" he asked. HH leveled him with a long, impossible to read, look. Almost absently, his hand rested on his dagger's hilt.
The meaning was clear: drink the fucking tea.
"Is the big, bad Mage afraid of a little tea?" I sang mockingly. Bash tossed me an acrimonious glare before downing the drink in one go. HH watched him impassively.
"The poison should take effect in five minutes," he deadpanned, handing the next drink on the tray to Lupe.
The expression on Bash's face as he sputtered, brown tea dripping down his chin? Priceless.
T chortled, and I threw back my own head in laughter. The rest of my mates were glancing at me as if I had lost my mind.
"He's fucking with you," I assured Bash, though a part of me really wanted to see what he would do.
Bash wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "That's not very nice," he muttered, and his petulant attitude only made me laugh harder. He flicked a fireball at me, and I let out a screech as it heated my ass.
HH handed me my own cup before sitting down beside T on the small bedroll.
"Anyway," T murmured, getting back on track. I remained standing, my mates surrounding me. If HH was shocked to see the seven princes with me, he didn't show it. I would not be surprised, however, if Diego had found a way to communicate with him ahead of time about my predicament. "We were attacked. About a week ago."
"Attacked?" I asked, gasping. "What happened?"
"Nightmares. Dozens of them." T's eyes flickered warily to the men behind me, but he continued talking doggedly. "Slaughtered everyone. Women. Children."
I could see the anguish in his eyes, the agony, and I knew my own eyes were a mirror image. I could also see the guilt brewing just below the surface. His next words confirmed as much.
"I was on a mission when I got the message," he said softly. His eyes latched onto something over my shoulder. I could tell he didn't want to meet my eyes, didn't want to see the pity in my gaze. The anger. The pain. "By the time I arrived..."
HH nodded stoutly. He didn't have to say anything for me to know his story would be somewhat similar. In all actuality, he was probably on his way to the Capital to find Diego. Or, at the very least, his body.
"The survivors got separated," T said. "With the numerous safe houses throughout the area, I was lucky I was able to come into contact with HH. We've been visiting each house in the hopes of finding more survivors. He hadn’t told me about Mali and..."
And Diego.
He gave me a knowing stare, and I nodded. That was how he had found me. The house S and I had lived at, the house we had made our own, was now a safe house for the resistance. An unused one, by the look of it.
"Are we going to talk about what happened back there?" Devlin cut in crisply. Even after the fight, he was as impeccably dressed as always in an ironed black suit and white collared shirt. His dark curls were brushed away from his face.
"About this supposed Fae attacking us?" T murmured bitterly.
"Not attacking us," Dair countered. "Attacking Z."
At this turn of conversation, HH dropped his teacup, eyes sparking with interest. It was the first genuine emotion I had seen on his face since I arrived.
"Are you sure that was a Fae?" Bash drawled, and Lupe nodded.
"I would have to do more research, but yes, I'm sure. Nearly positive."
I wasn't surprised. Despite looking like a lumbering giant, Lupe was nothing more than a giant teddy bear. Literally. As in, he was a big ass bear when he shifted.
He also preferred hiding away in his library instead of facing the world head on. It was a shock to see him kill that creature in the first place, to put it mildly. Lupe was a lover, not a fighter.
I knew that a Shifter's protective instincts went into overdrive when their mate was involved, but to see
