The Rebel Queen (Outlaw 1)

Kelsey was doing so much better than I was, and I had no idea how she was holding it together when she didn’t even know where Gray was.

Or maybe she was doing it for Fen, who was smiling like he’d won the lottery. My kids were treating me like I would break if they touched me. Probably because I’d acted that way. I’d noted they were all laughing with Daniel and Dev as I’d walked in, though Evan was still standoffish. She’d kept close to Fen.

I didn’t belong here. None of us did. But I had to pull it together because if I couldn’t find a way out of this mess, I would be stuck here, and my kids needed me. Devinshea had been right when he’d told me to shove my pain down and be the queen. Or in this case, be the mom.

“Before we get to the heart of the matter, I’d like to know what happened to Faery,” Dev said. Dinner was winding down, and we’d promised to talk business after. “I always assumed if anything happened to all three of us that Declan would come for the children, or Albert would take them to my mother. That was the plan we had in place.”

Devinshea always had a plan, though in this case it was one we’d all agreed on. If something happened to all three of us, the future king of the Seelie Fae, Dev’s brother, Declan, would come for his niece and nephews. If he couldn’t come to Dallas, he would show up to open the door to the sithein for them.

“Eddie was our best way out of the penthouse, and he had never been to Faery. He’d been to Italy and the base Marcus Vorenus kept there.” Rhys was sitting at attention, as though this supposed family meal was a high-level war council. Which in all honesty it was. I noted that Shy had taken the seat across from Rhys. She was back to being herself, though she’d promised if my dad had something to say, he would take over.

“By the time we felt comfortable enough to reach out to Faery, they had closed their borders,” Sasha explained.

“And that’s that.” Rhys had a mug in front of him, and I was almost certain it was filled with the same beer Albert had placed in front of Dev.

Lee snorted and rolled his eyes. “Sure it is. You’ll learn Rhys likes to ignore the stuff he finds distasteful. Papa, Albert tried to follow your orders. When Sasha and Trent decided it was safe enough, they reached out to Faery. The Seelies wouldn’t take in me or Fen.”

“What?” That had me sitting up. “Your grandmother refused you entrance?”

“Yes, though she apologized. She’s had trouble since Papa disappeared. My human ass wasn’t welcome, and Fen was considered too dangerous,” Lee replied. “Apparently the last time werewolves were let in there was a war or something.”

“It was more complicated than that.” Rhys stared down at his mug.

“You mean they thought the human was unlucky, and my disappearance proved it,” Dev said, every word dripping with bitterness. He’d been raised mortal in the world of the Fae. It hadn’t been until he’d ascended that they truly accepted him.

“The Unseelie would have taken us in, but I decided against it.” Sasha’s color was up, proof that he’d fed this evening. The last I’d seen him, he was living off animal blood because the thought of taking a human female was distasteful to him. He’d lost his wife and been forced to send his daughter off to another family. I hoped he had someone who comforted him. “It was too rough a place for a human and a companion. So we sat down, Trent and I, and we decided to walk the planes for a while. It allowed us to stay off the wizard’s radar while the children were young and in training.”

“How did you walk the planes?” Danny asked. “It’s not an easy feat.”

“Albert’s mother is highly placed in the demonic world,” Sasha explained. “Through her we were able to obtain a map of the doors and how to open them. The map was spelled to work for several years, and then we made the choice to come back to the Earth plane and fight. But those years out there on the planes were important.”

“We went to a dinosaur world. Rhys nearly crapped his pants,” Lee said with a snort.

Rhys’s eyes rolled. “And you took that time to say fuck as often as you could.”

“Well, we were allowed to use it in case of a dino attack. Or stepping in a massive pile of dino droppings.” Evan was grinning again as though those terrible, dangerous times had also produced good memories. “Fen had to bathe for a week before we could stand to be around him.”