“Obviously they didn’t buy that argument twenty years ago.”
“Maybe not, but look what happened to them. Eric, you know that if those women aren’t accepted into a clan or pride or pack soon, they might go feral. Two of them pretty much are already. You didn’t do this to them. Miguel did.”
Eric clenched his fists on the table, hardening the muscles on his arms. “It’s a hell of a thing, Cassidy, to be leader. I hope you never have to do it.”
“Stay healthy, brother, and I won’t. Besides, if you go, I might have to battle it out with Nell to take over, and even then Shifters might not accept a female leader.”
“They’d accept you.”
Cassidy warmed at Eric’s certainty, but she was skeptical. Shifters were pretty old-fashioned at heart. Females sometimes did take over prides in the wild, but only when necessary, and only until she could find another male to protect her and give her more cubs.
Diego, on the other hand, was good for so much more than protection. He made her laugh, true laughter. He’d made Cassidy think and feel, had torn her out of the numb state in which she’d existed since the night Donovan had slammed out of the house, never to return.
Cassidy left Eric still staring at the Collars and went next door. One of the females, Peigi, was in the backyard, staring listlessly across the green. Peigi turned when she heard Cassidy.
“Stuart told me about the ritual he needs to do to return to Faerie,” Peigi said without greeting. “For it, he needs the lifeblood of a Shifter. I told him he could have mine.”
No one could talk Peigi out of her decision. Not Cassidy, not Eric—who in theory had authority over her—not Reid himself, and not Diego.
Diego arrived with Xavier that evening to find Peigi and Reid at Eric’s, Eric and Cassidy trying to dissuade Peigi from offering her life. Diego took one look at Peigi and realized that their arguments weren’t penetrating. Peigi’s eyes were lifeless.
He knew that look. He’d seen it often enough on junkies so hooked they knew only death would release them. On men and women stuck in terrible situations who had given up hope.
But he realized Peigi’s choices weren’t great. She’d had to struggle to remain alive with Miguel, and now that she was free of him, she was told she had to put on a Collar and live in captivity the rest of her life.
The other Shifter women seemed resigned, used to doing what they were told. Peigi had a little more spirit. She wanted to act, and she’d decided this would be her act.
“I’ll stop you,” Reid said, staring her down. “By not doing it. The spell only works at the spring equinox anyway.”
“Around the equinox, you told me,” Peigi said. “It’s only a few days past. If you don’t try it, you’ll be stuck here.”
Cassidy broke in. “Not necessarily. Maybe we can find a way to send Reid back without the blood spell. That can’t be the only one that will work.”
Reid shook his head. “I’ve searched for nearly fifty years, Cassidy. I’ve never found another. The hoch alfar have locked me out.”
“I’ve been talking to a Fae,” Eric said. “Or at least Marlo flew Jace out after breakfast to talk to him, and Jace is keeping me informed.”
Diego looked at him in surprise, but Cassidy didn’t seem startled. Eric liked to play things close to his chest.
Reid’s reaction was electric. “A hoch alfar? You’ve betrayed me to a hoch alfar?” He went for where his gun would be if he were wearing it.
“Stand down,” Diego said sternly to him. “Eric, what are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about a Fae warrior called Fionn Cillian. I met him a few weeks ago, when he came through a ley line in Austin. He visits there sometimes. I sent Jace to talk to him.” Eric looked at Reid. “Have you heard of him?”
“There are many clans of hoch alfar. Dokk alfar pay them no mind. Why is he visiting Shifters?”
Eric didn’t answer the question. “Jace tells me that Cillian says that ley lines don’t always work for dokk alfar because it’s high Fae magic, which is completely different from dokk alfar magic. Like the difference between electricity and water. Both have force, but in very different ways, and it’s tricky to put them together.”
“Can’t this Fae open a door for Stuart?” Cassidy asked. “If he’s a friend?”
“I wouldn’t say he was a friend. Cillian’s kind of a pain in the ass, and he doesn’t have much good to say about the dokk alfar. But he did say that a strong enough spell on our side near a gate weak enough might work.”
Cassidy leaned forward, interested. “Did you ask him about the teleportation? Why it works here but won’t get him back?”
“Jace did, but Cillian didn’t know,” Eric said. “He said that sometimes weaker Fae have latent talent but for various reasons those talents might not manifest inside Faerie. Magic is thinner in the human world, he says, so it’s easier for weak Fae to be stronger here. Or something like that.”
“Weak Fae?” Reid said with derision.
“His words, not mine,” Eric said.
Reid’s face was pinched. “Small help he is.”
“What was so special about that rock cave?” Diego asked him. “You kept going back there.”
“It’s on a ley line, and I think there’s a gate there.”
“Then we should start there,” Diego said, getting up. “Maybe we’ll find something that you missed.”
* * *
Cassidy and Diego rode alone up to the mountain roads that would take them to Reid’s rock cave. Cassidy was unusually silent—no laughter, no teasing. Was she that worried about Reid?
The red lights of Xavier’s pickup glided solidly in front of Diego’s car. Eric’s car, containing Peigi and Reid with Eric, rode in front of his. Xavier’s front seat was taken up with the bulk of Shane.
“Eric needs to be careful,” Diego said. “If he gets caught having Marlo fly your family around everywhere, life will get bad for all of you.”
“Eric knows what he’s doing.”
Cassidy sounded distracted, almost uninterested.
“What’s up, mi ja? Something worrying you?”
Cassidy turned from the window and looked at him. “Diego Escobar, I reject your mate-claim.”
Diego’s hands jerked on the steering wheel, then he quickly righted the car. “What?”