Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) Gwen Rivers (sneezy the snowman read aloud .TXT) 📖

Dreams were how I’d remembered my past life. And Nahini said those threads could lead to the future as well.

I’d had one every time I’d slept, except when I’d slept in Aiden’s arms.

Aiden. If that dream was real and Nightweaver had really betrayed me, Aiden and the wolves are in danger.

I splash water on my face, then pull on an oversized bathrobe and head out into the main sitting room.

Chloe is curled up on the couch, her gaze locked on the fire. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“More bad dreams,” I tell her.

“You want to talk about it?”

I shake my head. “What good does talking do?”

She looks at me for a long moment, then gets up and moves to the kitchen.

“What are you doing?”

“Making hot cocoa.”

“Why?”

She looks over at me. “Because if I learned one thing from your mother, cooking something is better than doing nothing.”

A fist pounds on the front door so hard it rattles in its frame. I leap up but Chloe is faster.

“Where is he?” I ask when I see Liam standing on the far side of the door, three wolves at his heels and Gretchen slung over one shoulder. “Where’s Aiden?”

Out on the front lawn, his wolves are shifting in that horrible melting way of theirs.

“We got separated,” Liam gasps. He carries an unconscious Gretchen into the room and lays her on the couch. “Did it work?”

Chloe shakes her head. “No way to know until she wakes up.”

“You left him?” Damn it, I knew I should have gone with them.

“He gave her to me and just did that fire thing he does.” Liam swallows. “I have no way to keep up.”

“It wasn’t our fault,” Gray comes through the door, snagging a blanket off the bench seat. Unlike Aiden, most of the werewolves had been human and possess a sense of ingrained modesty. “Underhill changed the in-between. We had to cross through the tear.”

I shudder at the memory of crossing through the rip in the Veil, the angry jagged pieces populated by the souls of the damned. “I’m going after him.”

“Nic, no,” Chloe is on her feet. “Aiden can take care of himself.”

I ignore her, stepping into my boots. “He’s public enemy number one so far as Underhill is concerned.”

“Until she finds out that you are there!”

“Then I’ll have to be sneaky.” I storm into my room searching for my trusty backpack. Without paying too much attention to what I grab, I fill it full and then head for the door.

“Think about this a minute,” Chloe begs. “We can put out a call for help. Freda and the others—”

“There’s no time. You know as well as I do that time moves differently over there. She intends to kill Aiden and free his father.”

“And what about your baby?” Chloe snags my arm on the front porch. “What about little Addison Sophia? You’re not just risking your own life now, Nic. You have her to think about.”

I swallow. “I know that, Chloe. Believe me, I do. And I am thinking about her and how much I want her to be born, not die in the womb like my last child.”

Her eyes fill with tears. “Nic.”

I yank myself free. “Listen to me. Underhill isn’t going to hold Aiden captive. She is going to cut him open and use pieces of him to unbind his father. I’ve seen it, she tried to do it to Addy while she was disguised as Aiden.”

Chloe pales.

When she doesn’t respond I add, “Think, Chloe. If Loki gets free, there will be nowhere safe. The end of the worlds.”

Chloe grumbles something under her breath. “Fine. But you’re not going alone.”

I gape at her. “What?”

She pulls her coat off the hook at the back of the door. “You heard me. You and Addy think you can just leave me here keeping the home fires burning like some 1940s hausfrau? No way. I’m done sitting on the sidelines. And if the universe doesn’t like one fate messing with the timeline, it will hate two.”

I stare at her. “This could mean your life.”

She gives a rueful shrug. “Then that much more chocolate for the rest of you. Come on. Let’s go.”

The truck fishtails on the gravel roads as we race for the tear. My stomach lurches and my dinner threatens to make a comeback.

Chloe murmurs inaudibly under her breath. I don’t know if it’s some sort of spell or incantation, or maybe just a self-directed pep talk. My own thoughts need to settle.

Crossing through the tear is dangerous and not just because of the mental and physical strain. It’s a fixed point, one that is easily monitored from both sides.

Which is why I sent the newbie ghost to keep a lookout.

“So, what’s your plan?” Chloe asks.

I shake my head. “Find Aiden and get to him before my mother guts him like a trout.”

She wrinkles her nose. “Okay one, that’s icky. And also, that doesn’t sound like much of a plan.”

“You’re right.” I glance over at her. “But it’s the best I’ve got.”

We pull into the woods alongside the tear. I shift my vision to the spirit plane. The tear has grown even larger since the last time I saw it. It stretches from five feet above the ground to a mile above the surface of the earth.

“Shit,” Chloe says as we see the magnitude of it.

“It shredded Nahini’s horse,” I say, still hearing the deafening screams as the creature was pulled apart. “But the wolves made it through.”

“It might be less severe over there.” Chloe sounds doubtful.

“Why is it getting worse?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “No idea. But when it reaches the ground level on this side anyone or anything can cross.”

Meaning the Draugar. The dead might walk right on through and start terrorizing the good people of Western North Carolina.

I swallow and secure my backpack over one shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“You must go back!” A voice calls, startling us both.

I turn and behold the two women, side by side. Aiden’s sister, the traitor Harmony.

And the goddess of love and beauty