“It’s bloody difficult to admit we need them and they don’t need us, but you wouldn’t have come here if you didn’t think they could help.”
Charon’s eyes lowered to her. She looked into the copper eyes, waiting for his decision. To her amazement, she watched the copper bleed away to reveal the deep chocolate color of his eyes she knew so well.
He took her hand in his, the claws and copper skin gone, before he said, “You’re right. We do need them.”
Laura had seen Charon calmly break apart fights in the pub, effortlessly broker deals with liquor distributors, and methodically woo women. She’d even seen him bravely stand up against Jason Wallace.
And through it all, she had known the loyal, steadfast, honorable man that he was. He made her heart pound and her blood heat. He made her believe in herself, but more importantly, she believed in him.
“Whatever happens, I’ll stand beside you,” she told him. “I don’t know how to work my magic, but I’ll use what I can.”
His lips lifted in a half smile that sent her stomach fluttering. “Thank you. Go back to the room. I’ll return shortly.”
Laura started to walk away when she paused, and then turned back to Charon. She rose up and gave him a quick hard kiss on the lips before she glanced at Con over her shoulder. Then she walked out of the office and softly closed the door behind her.
“What a woman,” Laith said with a whistle.
Charon looked at the door after Laura left. “You’ve no idea.”
He wanted to follow her back to the room and make slow, sweet love to her for days. Instead, he had to smooth over his loss of temper to the one person who could turn the tide of the war.
With his mind full of ways to try to talk Con into helping, Charon turned back to the King of Kings to find Con standing in front of him with a glass of whisky held out.
Charon took it and drained the glass in one swallow. “A twenty-five-year single malt.”
“You know your whisky,” Con said.
He shrugged. “I had no right to say those things to you.”
“Actually, you had every right,” Con said as he leaned his hips back against the desk. “It’s something I’ve told myself for centuries. But it’s also a balance we must keep.”
Banan moved a chair so that he could sit down. “The simple truth is that we can no’ interfere with every war that crops up, no matter how much we might want to.”
“It was a heated debate about whether we should take Deirdre out,” Hal said.
Laith walked over to the sideboard and grabbed the decanter of whisky and four more glasses. He handed Hal, Banan, and Guy each a glass before refilling Charon’s. “In the end, we saw the MacLeods escape. We were counting on them taking a stand.”
“And if they had no’?” Charon asked.
Con shrugged. “We probably would’ve taken Deirdre out ourselves, but then what would’ve happened to all the Warriors? The next question would’ve been, do we kill all of you as well?”
Charon swirled the liquid in his glass. “It’s easy for me to say what you should’ve done, but I think I understand now.”
“Each of you suffered, but look where you are now,” Guy said.
Charon snorted. “Fighting yet another drough. This one is stronger than Deirdre and Declan combined. How is that possible? Deirdre was alive for a thousand years and stole magic from countless Druids. How can Jason Wallace, who has been drough for just a year, be so powerful?”
“A verra good question,” Banan said. “One I’ve been asking myself.”
Con set down his glass and braced his hands on either side of him on the desk. “You are no’ afraid of us, are you?”
“Nay. You could kill me with barely a thought, I know, but I survived having my god unbound, killing my own father, unimaginable torture for decades at Deirdre’s hand, and controlling my god. I’ve been in battles with droughs, wyrran, Warriors, and humans. Twice now I’ve died by drough blood, and twice I was somehow brought back. There isna much I’m afraid of, but you are no’ one of them.”
Con’s smile was huge as he looked at Charon. “Good. Now, tell me your plan on how to get Wallace here.”
“That’s the easy part. He’s following Aiden and Britt. Britt is apparently some genius who studies blood. She’s found something, and Wallace doesna want her to share it with the rest of us.”
“Or learn more,” Hal added.
Charon nodded. “Precisely. He’s done a spell so that Fallon can no’ teleport them somewhere else. Right now they’re north of Oban, hiding in one of Galen’s old cottages he used.”