“We’re going to need all the help we can get,” Ren affirmed. “We need to work together, and then afterward, you can kick us out of the Order. Exile us. Whatever. But right now, we need to get past all of that.”

“I know it’s asking a lot,” I said. “But I’m asking you to believe what we’re telling you.”

Daniel’s mouth tightened and then he exhaled heavily as his gaze met mine. “I’ve known you for years, girl. Known that you’ve made a lot of bad and dumb decisions.”

Um.

“You’re often reckless and impulsive,” he continued, and I really wasn’t sure where this list of my glaring flaws was leading. “But I’ve never known you to be a traitor. I believe you.”

Relief hit me so hard I almost fell over. I looked over at Ren and saw that his shoulders had loosened. “Thank you,” I said, because it was all I could say. “And you?”

“The jury is still out on that,” Miles answered after a heartbeat. “But you two are right. We need everyone we can get to stop the Prince. We need to work together. All of us.”

“Then what’s next?” Ren placed a hand on my lower back.

Daniel stood. “We plan.”

“Now is not the time. Out in the open like this.” Miles crossed his arms. “The San Diego branch has us set up in one of their homes on the harbor. We can meet—all of us. That means whoever you’ve come with.”

“We’ve come with fae,” Ren answered. “Are you sure these Order members are going to be cool with that? The Elite?”

“Cool with seeing me?” I pushed.

“We will make them okay,” Daniel promised. “We all need to set a lot of things aside if we hope to stop the Prince from succeeding.”

I glanced at Ren.

He nodded. “Tell us when and where.”

Chapter 28

The house in Del Mar was quiet when we returned to it. We’d already filled Faye and Kalen in on everything, but we couldn’t find Fabian or Tink. Well, we really didn’t look that hard, figuring they were holed up in one of the many bedrooms.

Ren had stopped me when I headed for the stairs, grabbing ahold of my hand and pulling me toward the back of the house, stopping to grab a soft looking blanket off the back of the couch. He’d led me out onto the veranda surrounding the pool, to one of the comfy looking chaise lounges.

So that’s where we found ourselves after our meeting with Daniel and Miles, our daggers on the table, within reach, and our shoes tucked under the chair. I was lying on my side, between his legs, and nestled against his chest. The blanket was draped over us, and we both were staring up at the stars blanketing the night sky, the low whoosh of moving waves a comforting, lulling sound.

I was glad that he’d brought me out here. There was something so normal about this that I wished I had the ability to slow down time and make the time out here last forever.

“Yeah,” Ren said finally, his fingers idly moving through my hair. “I think I could live here.”

A grin tugged at my lips. “Especially if we had this house and view.”

“True,” he murmured. “But all I’d need is to be able to see the stars and have you right here, like you are right now.”

The grin turned into a smile. “There you go, always saying the right thing.”

His arm tightened around me. “I don’t always say the right thing. I think you know that.”

“But when you do, you make up for the stupid stuff that comes out of your mouth.”

Ren chuckled as he tugged on a curl. A moment passed. “I think tonight went good.”

I closed my eyes. “Yeah.”

“You don’t sound like you really believe that.”

I bit down on my lip as my stomach twisted with nervous energy and something else. The . . . hunger was there, but it was manageable.

He let go of my curl and his fingers drifted over my cheek. “What are you thinking?”

Impulse almost had me saying nothing, but I stopped myself before that bad habit took over. “I . . . I’m wondering if tonight was, you know, too easy. Do you know what I mean? I could just be paranoid—”

“No. You’re not being paranoid. All things considered, it was easy.”

I tilted my head so I could look up at him. “Do you think it’s a trap?”

Silvery moonlight cut across his cheekbones. “It could be, but we’re going to be prepared if so.”

We would be, but I kept replaying Daniel’s reaction to me over and over in my head. Both him and Miles had been shocked, but I’d expected more of a fight to convince them that we hadn’t betrayed them.

But Daniel knew me. He might not know Ren all that well, but he knew who I was at the core. “Thank God Daniel is still here. If he wasn’t, I don’t think we’d be able to convince Miles.”

“I have no idea how to read that guy,” he admitted.

“Don’t feel bad. I’ve known him for years and I still can’t.” Snuggling back down against his chest, I folded my hand against his side. My stomach started to settle, but my mind was nowhere near that. “I’m . . . I’m hungry.”

“I’m sure there’s food. . . .” Ren trailed off. “You’re not talking about food, are you?”

“No,” I whispered, my hand curling around his shirt. Shame burned at the back of my throat.

Ren’s fingers kept moving along my cheek. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

I swallowed down the sudden knot in my throat and closed my eyes again. “I don’t think so. It’s really not that bad. The . . . feeling is fading. I just—I don’t know. I just wanted to say it out loud.”

The arm at my waist somehow got tighter. “I’m glad you did. I just wish there was something I could do to make it easier for you.”

Some of the tension eased out of my muscles as the shame faded off. Ren wasn’t bothered by it. At least not enough to have any measurable reaction to it. I don’t know how I was expecting Ren to respond, but him not freaking out and just being, well, Ren did more than he knew. “You’re doing it right now. Helping me.”

“I’m glad to hear that even though it doesn’t feel like I’m doing much.”

“You’re doing everything.” I squeezed his side, letting out a sigh. I needed to refocus. “So, let’s say that our next meeting isn’t a trap. We find the Halfling before the Prince does, we still need to find the Crystal or we need to figure out how to weaken him enough to kill him. Finding the Halfling before he does is just a small step in the right direction.”

“But it’s a step.” Ren fell quiet and several minutes past before he spoke again. “There’s something none of us have really talked about.”

“What?”

“The ritual.” Tension crept into his body. “I’d asked Tanner and Faye about it. Even Merle. None of them had any details on exactly how we’re supposed to complete the ritual safely.”

“You mean, how I’m supposed to get the Prince’s blood and mine on the Crystal while in the Otherworld?” I placed my hand on his arm.

“Yeah. I don’t like the idea of this ritual, Ivy. No one is talking about it, and you have to be in the Otherworld to complete it?” His hand curled around the back of my head, his fingers tangling in my hair. “I don’t need to know a lot to know that there is a metric shit ton that can go wrong with that.”

A shudder worked its way through me. “Yeah, like . . . getting trapped in the Otherworld.”

“That will not happen.” His voice was hard.

I wanted to believe that. I had to believe that, because if I didn’t, the mere idea of being trapped in the Otherworld with a very pissed off Prince terrified me. But we didn’t have enough information on this ritual, like how much time I’d have between starting it and getting back through the doorway.

There was a tiny part of me, though, that was curious about the possibility of seeing the Otherworld, even if it was only for a handful of seconds.

“I think you’re onto something about finding out a way to weaken the Prince,” Ren said. “Fighting him will be dangerous, but it’s not as big of a risk as the ritual. We just need to find out how.”