A Battle of Blood and Stone (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 4)

“That’s a whole lot of maybes that could get your ass killed,” Maddox mutters.

I shrug. “If you have better ones, I’m all for it. But right now, I’m the only one coming up with ideas. I say we bring Boral fully on board and tell him everything, let me reach out to Zora, and put me in the ring with Kymaris.”

Zaid and Maddox both look a little abashed because I am the only one coming up with ideas. It was my idea to test Boral too. I feel like I’m actually a leader in Carrick’s absence, although I’m not really leading us anywhere.

“Let’s put aside all those things for a moment,” Zaid says, leaning his forearms against the counter. He’s dressed in his typical black from head to toe, and I have the insane urge to buy him a funky, bright colored sweater. “Let’s say we can find the demi-god who wrote about the chalice and the Blood Stone and we can make it into the realm where it’s being held—what would we be facing?”

I’ve actually given a lot of thought to this because we must get that chalice and the Blood Stone at all costs. “Carrick read that Micah drank his own tears from the chalice, and it transformed him into a monster. And we don’t know when this occurred, only the most recent translation was in the common era. He could have been doing that for thousands of years. I’m not sure I want to think about what we could be facing.”

“We need a show of force going in,” Zaid says with a grim expression.

“Me, Carrick, Lucien,” Maddox says, raising fingers on his hands as he counts names, “Finley, Zaid, and we’d want Titus, too. That’s six.”

“Not enough.” I shake my head. “We need more. I say we bring Boral.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Zaid says in an uncharacteristic burst of foul language. “Will you let it be with my father?”

“What about Pyke?” Maddox suggests. “He has powers, and he’s always fought alongside Carrick through the ages.”

“But can we trust him?” I ask. I’m rewarded with Maddox and Zaid roaring with laughter at my expense.

Zaid’s laughing so hard, tears start leaking out of his sunken eyes. He wipes at them, still snickering. “You trust my father, but you ask if we can trust Pyke?”

“I’d trust Pyke a million times over Boral,” Maddox adds, still chuckling.

Being the butt of their jokes pisses me off, so I’m growling when I say, “Look… we’re getting down to the wire. A month until this ritual, and we’ve got to start making some risky moves. We need more help. So, unless you two boneheads have better ideas, I say we bring both Pyke and Boral onto the team.”

Maddox opens his mouth as if to say something, but Zaid’s phone rings. He answers it, listens, and says, “You can send him up.”

That was obviously the concierge in the lobby letting us know Boral is here. He doesn’t have the passcode to get up the private elevator, nor will he ever be given it. I know they think I trust Boral, but I don’t. I merely trust he wants to help his son right now, and there’s great loyalty there. I intend to use it.

We lapse into silence, not willing to discuss our consortium of prophecy busters with Boral on the way up. Until otherwise said, he’s still more enemy than friend.

The elevator doors slide open, and I call out, “We’re in the kitchen.”

Boral appears and gives a tight smile to Maddox, a warmer smile to his son, and, to me, a genial nod as he murmurs my name, “Finley.”

“Anything good to report?” I ask as I tap the stool beside me.

It’s weird to think that I’m actually inviting a Dark Fae—who has probably killed thousands of people for no more reason than it was fun—to sit beside me so we can chat.

God, my life has changed so drastically these past three months.

Boral takes the stool offered, then swivels it to face me. Over the last few weeks, it’s clear I’m the only one who truly tolerates him, and his attention always comes to me to report.

“Kymaris has eleven original fallen Dark Fae collected now,” he says succinctly. “I’ve heard she’s in southeast Asia with a lead on one that will give her twelve.”

My eyes cut to Maddox, then to Zaid, as if to say, See… if Boral were feeding her info, she would have gone to the address we slipped him rather than traipse off to Asia.

“Any more information on what purpose the twelve serve?” I ask, although I know they will supposedly be a conduit according to what Boral told us before.

He shakes his head. “I only know Kaesar has said she’s promised the twelve that they will become her highest-ranking nobles when it’s all over.”