Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) by Gwen Rivers (latest ebook reader .TXT) 📕

Aiden feels the weight of Liam’s burden as their wellbeing is transferred to him.

There are other details as well. Since most of the pack have been living as wolves, many have no clothing. Harmony and a few of the females venture into town to procure at least enough clothing so that the wolves won’t be discovered and Owen leaves to arrange for the flight.

“Will you at least come as far as Washington with us?” Aiden pulls Liam aside to ask. “To help me find a giant? It’s territory you know better than I.”

Liam nods. “I suppose I can do that. How do you know a giant from a mortal though?”

“By scent. You know the difference between a wolf and a mortal by scent, right?”

At Liam’s nod, he continues. “So, giants smell like magic. The fey do as well, but only if they have worked magic recently.”

“But if I’ve never smelled magic how do I know what it is?” Liam frowns.

“Take Harmony’s scent.” Aiden tries to verbalize the olfactory patterns that he associates with his sister. “She can wield fire magic. When she does, one can smell the spice, the char of burning. Do you remember how Nic smells?”

Liam nods and Aiden’s wolf doesn’t like the way the other’s eyes alight. “Like winter apples.”

“That crisp whiff of ozone, like a first frost, that is her magic. A giant will smell even more potently of the same sort of things. Many times they smell like freshly churned earth or a dousing of spring rain. In the past, they blended in better, but those sorts of scents often stand out in a city.”

Liam frowns for a moment. “There was an old man who lived down the street from my parents. He always smelled of sawdust and pinesap. I always assumed he worked with wood, like in construction or something.”

“A loner? Kept to himself?”

“How did you know?”

“Giants tend to like their privacy.”

Harmony approaches, bags of clothing in each hand. “Owen says the plane is ready to depart in one hour.”

“That doesn’t give us much time.” Liam looks around at the wolves shifting into human form, some for the first time in years.

Harmony pulls Aiden aside. “Are you sure this is the best course of action?”

He frowns down at her. “You’re the seer. You tell me.”

She stares out into the trees. “I can’t see anything right now. That’s what scares me.”

She’d comforted him so well at that cabin and he wishes to return the favor. “Harmony, you don’t have to come. If you’d like to stay here, or even go back to Freya….”

She holds his gaze. “You’ll let me go?”

Aiden swallows. “If Liam can let his pack make the decision to leave even if they are safer here, I can’t justify keeping you against your will.”

She tilts her head. “Tell me why you dislike Freya as much as you do.”

His jaw clenches. This isn’t a topic he wants to discuss with his sister, but she deserves the truth. “Before father’s punishment, before the wolf, we were…involved for a time. When she brought me to her temple in Asgard, she made it clear that she wanted that involvement to continue.”

Harmony stares at him. “You mean sexually involved? You were still a boy.”

“Age is just a number.” How many times had Freya said that to him as she groped and fondled him? Hollow words to stop his protests when things had moved too quickly.

Anger graces his sister’s face. “Bullshit. She lured you to her bed. What would you have thought if some god had done the same to me?”

The snarl slips past his lips before he can call it in.

“That’s what I thought.” Her gray eyes fill with sympathy. “I will stay with you, brother. While I will always appreciate what the goddess did to save me, I can’t stomach the thought of going back to her now. In fact, if I did go back, I might kill her.”

He lets out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. “We’ll find Nic. And we’ll take back Underhill. Together.”

Salt of the Earth

I’ve fallen into a pattern of sorts. A holding pattern. Get up, breakfast with the crew. Skulk back to my room. Sophie and Garret go check on their properties while I entertain Tate and Jedda. Although usually, they’re the ones entertaining me. Tate is quick and Jedda has a sneaky sense of humor.

Chloe and Angrboda often leave to keep tabs on Hanson and see if they can get any information from beyond the Veil. When they return, we congregate back in the house and pretend like this is a normal way of going on until Chloe or the giantess can catch me up.

I want to scream, to explode. To freaking do something.

I haven’t spied Nightweaver. Is the former Valkyrie hunting for me even now?

Is Underhill?

I have to take her place. To be a prisoner beyond the Veil. The same punishment that has driven her mad and filled her with hate and bile the likes of which the worlds have never seen. What the fuck is wrong with the gods and the Fates, punishing Loki and Pharaildis the way they do? Why not just kill them and be done with it? Did they really think that torturing them for eons would end well?

“Nic? Is everything all right?” Sophie raps lightly on the cracked paint of the wood doorframe.

I look up from the book I wasn’t reading. “Yeah.”

“I’m going to bake some cookies.”

“Okay,” I say slowly, wondering where she is going with this. “Not like you need my permission.”

Her teeth sink into her lower lip. She’s nervous, I realize. “I was wondering if…you want to help.”

I blink in surprise at her suggestion. Usually, when I offer to help, she turns me down, tells me to rest up. “Okay, sure.”

“Good.” She flashes me a quick grin. “Garret took Tate and Jedda out for the afternoon. I figured since we’re the only ones here we could talk.”

Talk. Now, I get her nervousness. Like some serious talk about how long