The Wolf Crown (The Wolf Kings #2) (MLM)

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

                "I feel this is a pointless question really," Everett said, "after everything we've been through together, but . . . is there any chance I can persuade you to leave this alone for now?"

Jack didn't even humor that question with a response as he sat against the wall next to his lit fireplace, scouring his notes and books. He had a thought, a stray one that he was trying to cling to with the tips of his fingers, but first he needed a particular chapter.

Wyatt was throwing the baseball he'd snuck out of Jack's satchel against the wall, tossing it higher each time and leaping with delight every time he caught it. The steady thump thump thump gave Jack the illusion of being in The Pearl District Journal with its typewriters and Elliot throwing his pencil at the ceiling as he struggled through writer's block. It definitely helped him focus better than the dining room.

"Your wedding is in a few weeks!" Everett tried again. "Much as I appreciate your tenacity for problem solving, you're getting married soon. Can we please set aside the death defying acts until at least after your honeymoon? That's all I ask!"

Quartz's words rung in his ears and he clenched his jaw. "This Shadow Wolf is supposed to be part of my destiny, you want me to sit it out?"

"Not sit it out," he amended, "but just . . . take a break—"

"I think I've taken a long enough break," he snapped, and Everett, startled, sat back. Jack sighed and he tossed his notepad aside. "I'm sorry," he said more softly. "I'm sorry, Everett. I just . . . I've been away from all of this for too long."

Everett tilted his head and came to sit next to Jack against the brick wall. Wyatt sat on his other side, now throwing the baseball up towards the ceiling and catching it again.

"This?"

"Yeah, you know," he gestured vaguely at himself. "This, mysteries, puzzles, investigating. Ever since the whole thing with Isaac—"

"Almost dying, you mean."

"—I've just been . . . here, you know?"

"Not almost dying?"

"Would you stop fixating on that?" he snapped.

"I worry you don't fixate enough on it, honestly."

"This is supposed to be what I know how to do best," he blurted, frustration mounting in his chest. "And it just feels like I'm not doing it anymore. I told myself that when I became the Wolf King, I wouldn't stop being . . . me. And now, after that stupid Seer, I feel like I'm on the verge of losing the man I love and I can't even do my fucking job!"

Wyatt stopped throwing his baseball. Jack pressed the base of his palms to his eyes and hoarsely said, "Please don't stop doing that, I really don't like the quiet."

Wyatt smirked and threw the baseball along the far wall where it very nearly knocked over a vase full of tulips that Everett had freshly picked yesterday. Everett winced and turned to Jack.

"Do you think you're the only one afraid for his mate?" he asked quietly, and Jack met his eyes. There was a fierceness there that Jack had rarely seen before. "Do you think we didn't see the silver fangs? Do you think we don't know the stakes in this?"

Jack swallowed thickly, and Everett put a hand on his shoulder.

"We know, mate, and we're scared, too. But you can't let this take over your life." He sighed. "You may have gotten better at working with people, Jack, but you've not learned a damn thing about balance. Just because you overworked yourself as a journalist in Portia—"

"—Portland—"

"—Doesn't mean that that will help you here. Your life is going to be filled with challenges, but everyone's life is! You can't punish yourself for sneaking in the good moments whenever you can!"

Jack shook his head, his eyes burning as they drifted down to his notes, unseeing. "I've never felt this useless in my life," he confessed. "But I can't let anything happen to any of you. What kind of king would I be if I didn't fight this hard?"

Wyatt huffed a faint, amused giggled. "Heavy is the head that wears the crown, I guess."

Jack's lips quirked wearily and he hummed. "Heavy is the . . . wait." He frowned, his brows pinched. "Wait, that's it! Wyatt, I could kiss you!"

"Really?" Wyatt perked up.

"I'm not gonna," he warned as he shot to his feet and ran to door. Everett and Wyatt, surprised, followed.

"W-Where are we going?"

"Crowswood."

"Did Wyatt throw that baseball at your head while I wasn't looking?" Everett demanded.

"Hey!"

"We're in Crowswood!"

"I mean the town," Jack said.

"What?"

"Specifically," he grinned, "The Siren Song."

"Oh!" Wyatt skipped. "I know that bar!"

"Th-The human town?" Everett gaped. "Are you mad?"

Jack raised a brow. "I am human. Why would going to a bar for humans be crazy?"

"Because it's not just a bar for humans!" Everett ran ahead with his arms outstretched to intercept him. "Jack, the man that runs that place is not what he appears—"

"I know," Jack smiled. "He's, like, a merman or something, right?"

Everett faltered. "H-How'd you know?"

Jack sidestepped him. "The first time I ever met them, his daughter wanted me to swim with her. I didn't think much of it then, but after Crescent Castle?" he scoffed. "Merpeople are hardly a stretch for the imagination."

"They're more than that," Everett warned at his heels. "I've seen the human world's version of the merpeople, and I promise you, they are not nice or helpful creatures. Especially the sirens. Lawrence Gills is a merman, yes, but his daughter is not some delicate little mermaid."

"I figured," Jack said, not mentioning the unease he'd felt that first moment meeting Poppy, when her voice had gotten to his head and he'd seen the hunger in her eyes. His friend looked like he was about to pop a vein as it was. "But Lawrence warned me away from the forest all those months ago, he was looking out for me. I have to believe he'll help us now."

"But why?" Everett demanded, helpless. "Why do we need his help?"

"Violet said she'd sent word to the Siren Queen, but that she was impossible to reach. But the witches and werewolves and fairies—we're all land people. If we want to get a sea creature's attention, who do we ask?"

"Oh, oh, I know, I know!" Wyatt leapt, his arm raised high. "Another sea creature!"

"Okay, but—but," Everett tried, "we should at least tell King Tiberius, yes? In case anything happens—"

"Tiberius knows I'm doing my own investigating and trusts me to handle this," Jack said, uncertain if any of that was completely true. Then he said something that he knew for a fact was a lie, but also knew that it was something Everett needed to hear. "He's not going to worry because there's nothing to worry about."

"But, Jack—"

"I have to do this, Everett," Jack cut him off, determined. I have to do something.

Everett whimpered, then straightened his shoulders and said in an odd wobbly voice, "Fine. But in that case, I'm bringing Mira."

"Why?"

"Sirens prefer women," he said, "it's a universal fact."

"Now that's just sexist," Wyatt complained, tossing the baseball. "Who wouldn't trust this face?"

Jack snatched the ball from him, and told Everett, "Yeah, better bring Mira."