“Would he ever think of adding more guys to the Six?” I asked, shifting from foot to foot. The waiting was killing me. I wanted to know if I was right. I wanted to know that if worst came to worst, I could still save Kieran’s mom.

“Then he’d have to change the name.” Bria frowned at me.

The seconds trickled by, turning into minutes, then handfuls of minutes. Mordecai walked up the beach toward the cliff, then back down. Bria and I stared out at the waters.

“That area couldn’t kill him, right?” I asked in a hush, my words drifting into the thick fog and disappearing.

“No. He might come back a little battered, but he won’t let himself get into a situation where it’ll kill him.”

“Is this why he’s the one who will be walking me through the change?” Mordecai asked, coming to stop next to us again. His voice quavered just a little, full of excitement and fear.

“Obviously.” Bria shook her head. “Wow, you two are about as magically dense as can be. How have you made it this far in life?”

“By not getting involved with magical people,” I replied.

“And look where that got you. You’re involved with the worst of the bunch.” Bria rolled back on her heels before checking the watch on her phone. “What’s taking him so long?”

“How will he show me, if…” Mordecai’s voice drifted away.

“Don’t know, kid. That’s not my area of expertise. Finally!” She pointed out at the water. Through the swirling fog I could just see Jack riding the top of a wave, his body as flat as a board and his arm held out. Body surfing. The wave crashed down, bringing him with it, and he disappeared under the churning foam. A moment later, he rose gracefully from hip-high water and jogged in our direction.

I jerked my head away, having caught sight of dangling bits I had no business noticing.

“What’d you see?” Bria asked, bending to gather his clothes.

He breathed deeply as he neared, catching his breath. “You hit the nail on the head.”

Excitement surged through me. I couldn’t help smiling and turning to him. “It’s there?”

He ran a hand over his short hair, flinging water. “It’s definitely there. It’s at the base of the cliff. It really is a washing machine in there. It’s fucking nuts. The current rips and tears you every which way, the rocks are extremely jagged, and more than a few spots could catch you and keep you. A human or normal magical creature wouldn’t have stood a chance. Not a chance. I barely made it in and out.”

I belatedly noticed the gashes along his arms and across his broad chest. Blood oozed down his skin, but he didn’t seem troubled by it.

“You’re sure it’s what we’re looking for?” Bria jerked her head back to the car and started walking.

“Oh yeah.” Jack nodded emphatically, a huge grin on his face. His energy sizzled, potent and infectious. The water had clearly revived him. “I got right up on it. It’s a sort of trunk—really classy—with her fucking name on it, man. And engravings of her in both forms. It’s her skin. It is her fucking skin. That prick made a shrine out of the box.”

“Sick fucker,” Bria said.

I pushed away the uncomfortable sinking of my heart. Kieran’s mother had been attached to the worst kind of man. He’d kept her in a living hell without her skin, and the bastard hadn’t even freed her from his honeyed trap after death. Yet he still clearly loved her. He had to have with the fountain and the picture. His mind must’ve been bent toward insanity when it came to her. Regardless, there was one thing I knew, it was that I could set her free.

“Tell Kieran,” I said, barely able to breathe. “We’ll have to do this on his timetable, but tell him. Whatever else happens, at least he can save his mom from a life in Demigod-made purgatory.”

“Freeing her is going to start the war,” Jack said.

Bria slapped her hands together and started rubbing. “Let’s hope so. I’m so ready to take that fucker down.”

26

Alexis

Later that evening I sat at the kitchen table with wet hair, wrapped up in the coziest bathrobe in existence. Clouds in the shape of slippers adorned my feet, and my skin smelled of lilac. Until today, I hadn’t even known what lilac smelled like, but it was the fragrance of the silky lotion I’d shoplifted from my shelf in Kieran’s medicine cabinet. The guy had been very prepared for me to sleep over, which was a little surprising given it was his dad’s house and that was a no-go. He clearly hadn’t been using the ol’ noggin, which was good justification for snatching all of it and running. They weren’t pity purchases, but I was fine with treating them like they were.

Momma got some brand-new treats.

I took a deep breath and glanced at the phone sitting next to me on the dining table. I’d left Kieran a voice message earlier, giving him a summary of the impromptu visit Bria and I had made to Valens’s room, and what I’d concluded after seeing the photo. Then Jack had taken over and given a first-hand account of the trunk he’d found at the cliff-base.

I hadn’t heard a word since. The anticipation was absolutely killing me.

“Hey.” Daisy yawned and scratched the rat’s nest on her head as she crossed to the fridge, just up from her nap.

“Hey.” I leaned harder on the table. “How’d it go earlier? Did you have a good time?”

She pulled open the fridge door and stared into it. “It was fine.”

“Fine? Well…what’d you do? You left in your pajamas for crap’s sake.”

She shrugged. “Not much. We hung out in shadowy areas and watched people.”

“Like a creeper?”

She pushed the door shut. “Yeah, kinda. It was weird—women glanced our way the most. Only one picked us out, but quite a few looked around.”

“Women are used to creepers hanging in the shadows and staring. It’s sad but it’s true. So…you’re cool with it so far?”

She scratched her butt and slouched against the kitchen counter. “Yeah. When are the guys going to get here with dinner? I’m starving.”

Mordecai trudged in a moment later, his eyes puffy and dark bruises covering his arms from another bout of hard training with Jack after our jaunt to the beach. He’d also taken a nap.

“You’d think it was eight in the morning with the way you two look,” I said, a strange uncertainty filling me. I felt like I’d been pushed out of the loop. Like their lives had taken a turn, and they no longer needed me. It made me want to rush them and clutch on for dear life.

As always, I handled it badly. “Did you get any school work done? Because you can’t spend all your time fighting and gallivanting around the city like creepers. You need to work your minds as well as your bodies.”

Daisy rolled her eyes at me, and that was so much better than fine or one of her shrugs that I breathed a sigh of relief. Attitude I could handle. Indifference made me edgy.

“Yes, we did our homework,” she said, glancing at the clock on the stove. “But seriously, where’s dinner? It’s seven o’clock. They’re usually here making it by now.”

Mordecai opened the fridge and stared into it.

“You’re wasting electricity,” I barked. I could only last for so long. “And I get paid soon. We’re going to have to get used to making our own meals again.”

Mordecai turned toward me as Daisy’s eyes widened.

She pushed forward off of the counter, suddenly alert. “Why would you do that to us?” she demanded.

“Who are we to turn down free services?” Mordecai asked. “Usually we’re all for people giving us things.”

I stared at them incredulously. “I thought you guys would agree with me.”

“Agree with you, after all the hell they’ve been putting us through?” Daisy glowered at me. “No way. They owe us dinner.”

“Besides,” Mordecai said, “I think they like it. Even when they show up in a bad mood, they’re smiling by the end.”

I dropped my head into my hands. “Except we’re giving them one more toehold in our lives. Kieran is my boss, his guys are training you—we need an off-switch. We need to get back to our family.”

“We’re still a family. We’re just inviting in more family for a limited time, provided they buy groceries and make us nutritious, delicious meals from scratch.” Daisy blinked those giant blue eyes at me, utterly serious.

“Besides, you kind of gave Kieran a bigger toehold earlier, so I doubt a dinner or two will matter,” Mordecai murmured.

“Why?” Daisy asked, turning to Mordecai. “What’d she do?”

Mordecai looked at the ground.

Suspicion crossed Daisy’s face as she turned back slowly. “Lexi, what did you do?”

My phone rattled against the wood of the table, giving me a more than welcome distraction. A text message flashed across the screen.

Thane: You don’t have a BBQ, right?

I snatched the phone as Frank’s muffled voice drifted through the door. He’d come back, apparently. I paused to listen, but couldn’t make out any words.

No, I typed, my fingers flying across the screen. Have you heard from Kieran? Did he say anything about his mom?

Dinner is on the way.

“Why would he ignore my question?” I muttered, staring.

“What’d he say—”

A knock cut Mordecai off. I stood and handed over the phone, ready to badger the Six until they told me something. “No one’s told me anything since I left that message for Kieran this afternoon.” I crossed to the door. “I have no idea what’s going—”

The air left my lungs as I pulled the door open. Butterflies swarmed through my ribcage.

Kieran stood on my porch, surrounded by thick, swirling fog. A dark blue T-shirt, matching his eyes, clung to his impossibly muscular body. Damp hair hung limply across his forehead, giving him a wet look that sent heat blasting through my core. The smell of the ocean flooded my senses as I gaped at the large trunk suspended between his strong hands.