Chapter Ten
Skylar
“You have to be kidding me,” Madison said. “You realize how insane that plan is. There’s no guarantee she won’t kill you on the spot.”
“She might not,” I insisted. “She could have killed me before but she let me live.”
“We can’t risk it,” Elias said.
“It’s suicide,” Xander added. “I won’t allow it.”
I turned to look at my shifter mate, my eyebrow raised. “You won’t allow it?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he clarified.
I pursed my lips. This whole thing was getting worse by the minute. We couldn’t risk waiting. If I wasn’t their mate, nobody would be arguing with me. It was a tactical plan, it made sense. Besides, it was our only shot to get inside the palace before the weekend.
“There’s too much damage that could be done. We can’t wait,” I said. “And we can’t risk having you go in there. We don’t know exactly how the stone works. We can’t rely on any shifters.”
“You’re part shifter, what if she uses it on you?” Xander asked.
“I have to hope it won’t work on me,” I said. “I’m the one she wants. It has to be me.”
“I think it’s insane,” Elias said. “It’s too risky. There’s nothing to stop the queen from using the stone on you or from compelling Madison again. We could send you two in there and never see you again.”
“We don’t have a choice.” It wasn’t like I wanted to be marched in as a fake prisoner, but it was the only way we could guarantee getting inside.
“Skylar is right,” David said.
The whole room went silent, everyone turning to look at the incubus. My jaw dropped open. He was agreeing with me? The others were far too protective. David could see the limited options.
“See?” I said, trying to swallow my surprise. “David gets it. We don’t have another choice.”
“We might,” Xander said. “We haven’t exhausted all our options with magic yet.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” David asked. “Magic is what is causing this issue in the first place. The queen clearly has a demon working for her, or she somehow got Clara to aid her. Seems magic is what got us into this mess.”
“The keepers,” Xander said. “They specialize in protecting our world from demonic magic.”
“They didn’t know how to destroy the stone,” I reminded him. “They just translated the page for us.”
“We never asked them what they knew about the stone,” Xander said. “Besides, we needed two demons for that. They’re not demons. Even if they knew how, they couldn’t do anything about it. But maybe there’s something they could do.”
“That’s a nice idea and all, but their line ended during the war,” Elias said.
“No, they passed on their knowledge,” Xander said. “And they started studying the bigger threat.”
“What bigger threat?” David asked.
“Vampires,” Xander said. “They might have some idea that can help us.”
I frowned. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of bringing in anyone else. We were in it deep enough already. It was clear we couldn’t risk shifters. “You really think they could do something?”
“Why not?” Xander asked. “It’s worth trying. We need help getting into the Palace.”
I looked over at Shelly, who had been silent during our entire conversation. “What do you think?”
“There is power we haven’t tried, but all magic comes with a price,” she said.