“Let’s eat and then maybe we can talk about that trip to Atlantis I promised you,” he said.
I sat up straighter. “I’d love that.”
He poured the coffee and I loaded up my plate with eggs, bacon, hash browns, and beans. We got stuck in, munching away in silence for several moments before Tate broke it.
“I’d love to learn more about Atlantis and your people.”
Dillon looked up from his plate with a smile. “I’d be happy to answer any questions you have.”
“Tate’s a scholar.” I didn’t bother to keep the pride out of my tone. “He knows pretty much everything about everything.”
“Not everything,” Tate said.
“Pretty much everything. And if you don’t know, you find out.” I wasn’t letting him hide his light.
The corner of Tate’s mouth tipped up and he took a sip of his coffee to hide it. Yeah, he was pleased with the compliment.
My phone rang, vibrating in my cardigan pocket. I pulled it free and stared in confusion at the caller ID.
“Who is it?” Tate asked.
“Um…Ward.”
“You want me to speak to him?”
“No. I’ve got this.”
Things between Ward and I were resolved. He’d been my fated mate, but he’d rejected me for what he’d believed was the good of the pack. I’d been broken by his rejection, but time heals, and in hindsight, his actions had set me free. We were over. There was no relationship between us, so why was he calling me? There could only be one reason. Only one tie I had left to Swiftwood.
I answered the call. “Ward?”
“Thank God you answered,” Ward said. “I didn’t think you would, but I had to try.”
“What is it? What’s happened?”
“It’s your dad, Quinn.”
My pulse quickened. “What’s happened to him?”
“The High Pack has him. He’s been sentenced to be executed tomorrow night.”
3
This couldn’t be happening. I must have misheard Ward. “Did you say executed?”
“Yes,” Ward said. “We just got the news.”
“I don’t understand. How is this happening? Why?”
“Okay, okay, this is what I’ve learned. Ronuld owes Raventhorn Pack a lot of money. He was in debt, and he couldn’t pay it. I think that’s why he wanted the relic so badly—to protect him from Henrik, the Raventhorn alpha. Apparently, there was a time limit on the debt being paid. That time is up.”
“I don’t get it, what has any of this got to do with my father.”
“An alpha’s debt is passed on to the next alpha. You killed Ronuld so you should have become the next alpha. The debt would have been yours, so when Henrik’s guards came to collect and found Ronuld dead, they wanted to know who was responsible. Your dad took the blame, and the alphahood, and…the debt. A debt we can’t pay, which means…”
“Execution. Oh, God. How much? How much did he owe?”
“Too much, Quinn. Trust me, we’ve tried to raise the cash, but we’re not even a quarter of the way there.”
“How much!”
“Half a million.”
“Oh, God…I don’t understand. What did he spend it on?”
“The house. The main pack house.”
I recalled it being built, remembered how I’d wondered at the extravagance. “Then we sell the house.”
“To who? Outsiders? This is our pack land, Quinn.” His tone was hard and unyielding. “That is not an option.”
“But letting my dad die is?”
“I’m sorry,” Ward said. “I just…I thought you should know. If you want to see him one last time, then—”
I hung up and resisted the urge to throw my phone across the room. I took a couple of breaths to calm the churning storm inside me. My relationship with my father was complicated, filled with misunderstandings and unfinished business, and now…Now someone was trying to take him away from me, to strip us of a chance of making amends and having the relationship we should have always had.
He was a hard man I’d thought to be cruel, when he’d been a broken man, trying to protect his daughter the only way he knew how.
He didn’t deserve this.
I couldn’t let him take the blame for something I’d done. “I have to go to Raventhorn. I need to speak to Henrik and explain the truth.”
“Quinn, you can’t do that,” Tate said.
“I might be able to get past the boundary. I’m not full fae, remember.”
“It’s not that,” Tate said. “If you tell Henrik you killed Ronuld, then it’ll be your head on the executioner’s block.”
A few days ago, that wouldn’t have mattered because dying wasn’t an option for me outside of the faewilds, but with the relic fractured, that was no longer the case. I could die. All the Faoladh could.
“I can’t sit back and do nothing, Tate. Maybe if I speak to Henrik I can get an extension on the loan.”
“Or you could pay it.” Dillon smiled. “I have money.”
“What?”
“We’ll go together and clear the debt.”
“I want to be the person who can say I can’t ask you to do that for me, but I’d be lying. Thank you. I will pay you back even if it takes a lifetime.”
“No need. You’re my mate, and what’s mine is yours.”
I blinked back tears. “Thank you.”
“If the boundary holds you, we can leave via the sea,” Dillon said.
“I wish I could come with you,” Tate said.
His onyx mage status meant it was dangerous for him to be seen outside of Hawthorn. Raventhorn was renowned for working with the Mageri, and if he was seen, then they might see past whatever tincture he was taking to hide his true nature.
“I’ll keep her safe,” Dillon said.
Tate gave him a curt nod. “I’ll let the Faoladh know what’s happened.”
We took my car, but Dillon asked to drive. One of the many human things he liked to do.
If the boundary wouldn’t let me pass, then we’d take a boat along the coast. The relic’s boundary didn’t extend to the sea, something the taint had discovered decades ago. She’d tried to escape via that route but was beaten back by the sea folk and held at bay by a magical coral reef infused with Dillon’s sea god persona’s power. Pontus kept the taint at bay in the ocean and…Oh, God…Wait a moment.
“Dillon?”
“Hmmm?”
“If you become mortal and die, doesn’t that mean the coral wall loses its power?”
He smiled. “No. It means all my power, all Pontus’s power, will go to my brethren. The seven, the oldest of our kind. The responsibility for the coral wall will pass to them.”
We hit the main road out of town and my stomach flipped with nerves.
“It will be okay,” Dillon said. “We’ll make it out of Hawthorne either way.”
I nodded, mouth dry as the town boundary grew closer. Breathe, Quinn. You’ve got this.