Claiming Valeria by Rebecca Rivard Page B

hair and brown skin touched with gold—but he was a lieutenant because
of his cool head.
    “Well?” Adric asked. “Is it worth a shot?”
    Zuri lifted a finger. “One—we know the boundary of their territory.
The spell concealing the base’s actual location is functional again, but we can
work around that. We already knew its approximate location even before the sun fae
neutralized the spell. They may have wiped our memories of the exact location, but
those are recent memories. An older, more-entrenched memory may still exist.”
    Adric narrowed his eyes. “You’re right. I can still picture the
area we’d narrowed it down to. We can start from there, use scent to locate the
entrance.”
    Zuri inclined his head and raised another finger. “Two, their
alpha is with the sun fae. They have to be upset, off-balance. They may even be
challenging each other for leadership.” A third finger. “Three, we’re young, hungry.
It’s their home ground, but our people want this. A year ago I wouldn’t have
thought it was possible, but you’ve got the whole clan behind you, Ric. If we can
just find a way in, this may be our best chance in a long time to take them.”
    Adric smiled. “My thoughts exactly.”
    “I don’t know why the hell we’re wasting our time talking,” Luc
inserted. “We need to strike now, before they recover from the loss of their alpha.”
    Jace and Zuri nodded agreement. Only Marjani abstained, her face
carefully blank. But he scented her dismay.
    Adric came to his feet. He didn’t like upsetting his sister,
but this time she was wrong. They might never have a chance like this. His animal,
coldly ruthless, was in full agreement. It was time. He was opening his mouth to
give the order to invade when a white mist formed in the palm of his hand.
    He jerked even as he smelled the silver that was the mark of
a fae spell. Words in a formal script formed in the mist, one elegant black letter
at a time.
    Queen Cleia requests the pleasure of your company and that
of a guest at a Summer Ball to be held at Rising Sun on Midsummer Day at two in
the afternoon .
    His jaw went slack. “Well, hell.” He looked at his lieutenants.
“I’ve been invited to a fucking ball. The sun fae.”
    There was a stunned silence. No member of the Baltimore clan
had been invited to a sun fae celebration. Ever.
    Luc recovered first. He snorted. “Probably a trick.”
    Adric shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He read the invitation
aloud to the others; a fae message was only for the recipient’s eyes. Already the
invitation was dissolving, leaving behind only the faint, metallic odor of silver.
    He stared down at the fading invitation in disbelief. Wasn’t
that just like the fae? “They wipe our minds and our crystals of data and then they
invite me to an effing ball?”
    “You’ll go,” said Marjani.
    He scraped his fingers through his spiky hair. “Will I?”
    “You don’t refuse a fae invite without a good reason,” Zuri pointed
out. “Not unless you want to piss them off. And you’ll be safe enough. Hospitality
is sacred to the fae. They’d be shunned if they treated a guest dishonorably.”
    Another message appeared.
    Lord Dion and the Rock Run Clan will be in attendance as our
special guests.
    “Fuck,” Adric said. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He could almost hear
the crack as his plans collapsed around him like a castle built on a fault line.
He stared at the words as the message slowly dissolved.
    “What?” asked Marjani.
    “They invited Lord Dion and his clan. Damn him anyway. I knew that sun fae bitch had the hots for him.”
    Zuri was the first to catch on. “She’s saying he’s an ally.”
    Luc looked from Zuri to Adric, baffled. “Even though he held
her hostage?”
    “Yes, damn her.” Adric turned and slammed the side of his fist
against the cavern wall.
    It was Zuri who explained. “The word is that Dion took Cleia
as retaliation for all those Rock Run men she took as lovers. I’m