The Rebel Queen (Outlaw 1)

Where would my children have fled in those early days? Would they have gone to Venice, hoping it was safe? Was that where they’d found the Russian warrior? I glanced around and discovered whoever ran this office loved to make wanted posters. “Sasha has a poster, too. And Albert and Hugo and Henri.”

“What about Eddie? And Gray?” Kelsey asked, and I could hear the worry in her tone.

Because at least if there was a poster, it meant they were probably still alive. “I don’t see one for them.”

Daniel held up a hand, a sure sign that he wanted me to be quiet. I took a long breath, trying to picture where we were in the building. If it hadn’t changed, we wouldn’t have a ton of choices for how we would escape. There was a stairwell and the elevators. Those were our options, and by options I really meant we would need to take the stairs. If they were guarded, there would be no way out of a fight.

Dev tensed in front of me, and I held my breath.

That was when I noticed Dean. He was standing to the side, his hands up and head down. There was a bluish tint to the air around his hands, a sign of the power he was funneling through them. After a moment, his head came up.

“There was a male coming down the hallway. He’s coming this way. I can easily get in his brain. He’s remembered something he forgot,” Dean explained. “Or rather, he thinks he did. He’s going back to his apartment.” He stared down at his hands. “I’m more powerful here.”

“And I have no power at all,” Dev complained. “Something is blocking me. I can feel the plants beneath the ground, but I can’t call them.”

Dean looked around, moving like he could see something the rest of us couldn’t. “The whole place is warded against certain magic. Fae is one of them, and very likely it is warded against you in particular, Your Grace. There’s also some dampening magic. It’s against death magic.” Dean frowned. “I would bet it dampens the power of vampires.”

Kelsey moved beside her new ward. “How can you tell? I don’t see any wards.”

Dean placed a hand on the wall. “It’s not a simple ward. It’s the building. It’s in the paint, I think. It feels like it’s everywhere.”

“You can use your magic,” Daniel pointed out.

Dean shrugged. “My magic is based on witchcraft. I don’t feel anything that would dampen spellcraft from a witch. If anything, I would bet there’s something in the building that magnifies our power.”

“Myrddin had a dark temple built,” Daniel explained. “It’s a direct portal to the Hell plane, and it does magnify the darker magic. It feeds that side of his nature and anyone practicing black magics. Dean, I’m going to need you to be ready to do whatever it takes to get us out of here.”

That temple had been built shortly before we’d disappeared through the painting. I had known nothing about a portal to Hell being built in my home until it was already completed. It only struck me now how much Myrddin had prepared for his moment. He’d done it behind my back and with my husbands’ help, since Daniel had known exactly what was going on. I would assume Dev had as well. He’d likely helped pick out what curtains went best with the Hellscape and never once mentioned it to me.

I couldn’t even yell at them because now I knew it was the thrall stones that had influenced them. I was sure that under the influence of those stones, Myrddin had convinced them a dark temple would be a lovely surprise for me.

I grabbed the painting. Well, the canvas. It wasn’t a painting now, but I couldn’t leave it behind. It had been a portal once, and perhaps it could be again. Perhaps it could take us where we needed to go because I didn’t intend to lose twelve years with my children.

“Zoey, you can’t take that.” Kelsey was frowning my way. “It’s too big. We’re going to have to try to make our way up to the street level and then over to the eastern wall of the building. There’s a window we can use. That canvas is too wide to fit. I’m honestly afraid the king is too wide.”

Daniel’s brow arched. “You want us to try to make it out of the laundry room? Is that how you got out of the building that first time?”

When Kelsey had first come to live in the Council building, she’d gotten good at evading any attempt at Daniel monitoring her. I’d long thought she’d had help in the form of the only other person who was as good as Kelsey at dodging security.

Lee. My son had a deep connection to Kelsey, and they’d both felt it even before they’d known Lee’s soul was recycled. Lee Owens had been Kelsey’s father. His soul—despite the fact that it was now housed in my son’s body—still reached out for his daughter.