I hadn’t even thought of that. The fey were hard to kill. Extremely hard. They only dealt out a true death in the most extreme circumstances, and if one of their kind was killed out of turn by a non-fey, they were not above seeking revenge. It was almost as if they all expected to live forever. Death wasn’t in their daily vocabulary. So, when they were reminded of it, they reacted in the worst possible way.

The queen gave us a barely noticeable dip of her chin, and I relaxed a little. At least if we found this thing and somehow managed to kill it before it killed us, we wouldn’t have to worry about the fey courts retaliating.

“If that’s all?” the queen said.

“It is.”

Donovan’s voice was cold. All the friendliness and warmth from a few minutes ago had drained away. I got that he was pissed she wasn’t going to do more, but I also understood where she was coming from. Was the creature hers? Yes. Was it meant to stay locked up? Yes. Was it her fault it had gotten loose? Apparently not.

It was officially our mess.

The queen frowned. It was the first hint of real emotion I’d seen on her. “I hope our next chat will be more pleasant.”

“That’s my wish as well, Helen.”

She waved her hand in an arc and the mirror shimmered until we were left staring at our own reflections. I collapsed on the couch, suddenly exhausted.

That was intense. It wasn’t every day we got so close to an epic battle among supernatural races. I still couldn’t believe that Donovan had risked threatening her.

I went over the conversation in my head before speaking. “So, if I’m understanding it correctly, Bhrunyz is something bad. Bad enough that the fey would keep it locked up. The fact that he’s out is an embarrassment to her. She can’t help us catch him because she’s in too much trouble with the other courts. Which kind of makes me wonder what would happen if they found out about this mess…” That was a whole other can of worms. “But since someone in your pack was involved in releasing Bhrunyz, they’re not going to help at all.”

“Our pack.”

It was going to be my pack soon enough, but not yet. I had to start thinking of it as my pack, though. And fast. Especially if I was going to find the traitor.

“It doesn’t seem possible.” Donovan sat down hard next to me. “Shite. This is a nightmare.”

I leaned onto his shoulder. “Agreed, but we have more now than we did an hour ago. We know his name.”

Donovan huffed. “That’s not exactly a lot of information. She didn’t give us a clue how to stop the thing or who might be guiding it.”