He nodded and gave me a small smile. Then he turned to the others without getting up. “I don’t disagree with you, Malik, yet I fear it is going to get much, much worse before we make our escape.”

Saber stared at the wall with a stone-cold expression on her face. “What do you need from us?”

Everest scratched his jaw. “Normally I make these plans myself, but we’re beyond that stage so I am entrusting you all in our planning. The Unseelies are here, and earlier than I had hoped, so we need a plan for how to handle this from the inside and then we need about five back-up plans for when things go wrong.”

A soft knock on the door echoed around the somewhat empty room.

Everest flicked his hand and the door opened to reveal that purple-haired vampire named Katelin. Wait, Everest said she was one I could trust. Remember her face.

Katelin stepped inside and grimaced. “Sorry, Sweyn sent me to retrieve you. She requests your company immediately.”

“Thanks.” Everest stood and marched to the door. “Let’s go, everyone.”

Katelin fell in line behind him with Saber, Libby, and the boys on her heels. I stumbled ahead after them. My emotions were a tangled, jumbled mess. Part of me was desperately awaiting the night I could escape this hellhole. The other part of me felt obligated to stick around to help The Coven in the future.

I was a little lost in my own thoughts as we walked, so it wasn’t until Everest stepped up beside me with his hand on the small of my back that I noticed where we were. He guided me to Sweyn’s throne, then slid his hand over to my hip.

“Sweyn.”

She smiled and those solid red eyes were nightmare fuel in this expression. I peeled my eyes off of her for a break and instead my gaze landed on rows and rows of Unseelie Knights. They just stood there in lines with their silver armor, helmets with fake hair attached, and that alien behavior.

Sweyn licked her lips and crossed one leg over the other, no doubt to try and seduce Everest. “Sorry to bother you after such an exhausting night, but I’d like you to meet my elder brother, the Prince.”

A man stepped up beside her throne and crossed toned arms over his black leathery armor type thing. Those solid black eyes landed on me in an instant. I recognized him immediately. He was the one I crashed into out front. The one who smelled my hair and growled about it. If it wasn’t for Everest’s hand on my waist, I wouldn’t have been able to resist the urge to take a few steps back.

Especially as he just stared at me.

Sweyn purred like a spoiled house cat. “Don’t be rude. Tell them your name, Brother.”