Team Changes by Erin R Flynn

5

Cerdic

“Huh, you were my vote of who Inez snuck off with,” James said as I walked into the kitchen.

“Second dinner?” I asked the shifter, noting the deep circle under his eyes and how often I’d caught him up at weird hours lately. Then what he’d said sank in. “Snuck off with? She’s spending time with her female knights drinking or whatever ladies do.”

James blinked at me before he jumped to his feet and raced out of the kitchen.

Needless to say, I was right on his heels.

He reached Trisha’s door and banged on it until she opened. “Where is Inez?”

She studied us carefully. “She was sneaking off with one of her nobles for some alone time. She said they needed it.”

“She told us she had a night planned with you guys,” I growled before racing towards the security room we had at the castle. I burst in and scared several of the shifters there. “Where is everyone? I need the locations of all Inez’s nobles.”

James had come up with a smart idea after the wedding and turmoil that had happened. Now we had to log where we were going if we were going to leave the castle. It might be overkill and like we had leashes, but cell phones still didn’t work, and Inez’s coven stretched huge areas. We needed to be smarter if we were going to survive.

And maybe not lose our fucking princess.

“Petre and Vitor are on Inez’s detail,” Simon told me, reaching over and grabbing the clipboard. He quickly told me all the locations, James and Trisha rushing to get the ones at the castle.

But there was no need with our hearing—Jaxon, Sisay, and Tian already there when I stepped out of the office. Kristof showed up seconds later demanding to know why we were all upset.

“Inez is gone,” I explained, filling them in on what we knew.

Which was basically nothing.

We about lost our minds after that, running around to let the others know and look at the places we thought she might be. She wasn’t at her vacation home.

Nor the hot spring in Canada she liked.

Nor anywhere else we could think of.

“Maybe she went off to have some fun with them both,” Darius muttered. “She’s been too stressed, and they like her.”

“We have—” Jaxon started to say, but Kristof cut him off.

“I didn’t give my permission for Vitor.”

“You did,” I argued, nodding when he shot me a look like he might flatten me. “We both said we were fine with any of the nobles here we knew. That includes Vitor.”

He opened his mouth and then closed it, shaking his head and pacing. “We should have killed him. If he took her—if he hurt her—I don’t care how old he is.”

“Vitor’s completely in love with her,” Sisay reminded him. “And hates that Inez is scared of him. He wouldn’t have started anything she didn’t want.”

“We could be overreacting,” I agreed.

James snorted. “She could have slipped out of here and had fun without resorting to lying to both sides where she was. This is more than some fun with super-duper old ancients. Sexy bite is definitely up to something.”

Unfortunately, I was fairly sure he was right.

“I saw her leave after seven,” I told them. “That was four hours ago. We lost her for four fucking hours and were completely clueless.”

“We figured it out two hours ago, so it was pretty fast when she clearly wanted to lose us,” James defended.

“No, you figured it out,” I snapped, feeling like a failure of a husband. It wasn’t James’s fault though. I turned to apologize because none of this was his fault and instead thought I was hallucinating at what I saw.

Namely, Inez walked right through the main doors like nothing was wrong… With Ceawlin.

My feet were moving before I even realized what I was doing, catching my twin by the throat and slamming him into the nearest wall. “What did you do to my princess?”

He gave me a smirk as his eyes danced with mirth. “She’s my princess now too, Brother. I would never hurt her.”

I let go of him like he’d burned me. “What? What madness are you talking about?”

“It’s not like what he’s making it,” Inez defended as she grabbed my arm.

Which I pulled away like she’d burned me as well. I might as well have slapped her across the face. She crumpled into herself. I had only a glimpse of it before Petre and Vitor moved to block her from me.

“Thanks, Ceawlin,” she rasped. “I know you have issues with him, but I’ve not done a damn thing to you besides free you.”

“You did stab me a few times, love,” he snickered.

“Don’t call me that. I wish I had stabbed you more. Asshole.” She growled, and I tried to push past Vitor to see what was going on.

Something that immensely amused Vitor who easily shoved me back a few steps.

“I already ordered you to go speak with Matilda and Hanna and tell them what happened. Go do what I ask!”

“No, because you’ll release me from being yours, and I want to stay a bit,” Ceawlin purred.

“You want to torture Cerdic.”

“I’m enjoying the fact he clearly didn’t know what you were up to.”

“What the fuck is going on here?” Kristof bellowed, interrupting their arguing as more people arrived.

I turned in time to see him about blow his top, wanting to bitch that it wouldn’t help. Especially since I’d already done that.

He froze though, and his anger quickly melted… Because Inez was afraid.

Afraid of him, which she hadn’t been in a while.

Vitor stepped aside and let me see that she was shaking, looking anywhere but at Kristof.

“Maybe we should stay after she releases us so Aether’s champion is protected instead terrified of her own nobles,” one of the new arrivals muttered.

Which did not help the situation. Not at all.

“Can you bring the maps of the covens we know are still around to the dining hall?” she asked Vitor quietly. “We can explain what we’ve done there.”

“You went after Bahati,” Jaxon accused. “That’s the only way Ceawlin would be yours. You went to Africa without us—without even telling us. Didn’t you?”

“Yes, I killed Princess Bahati an hour or so ago,” she muttered. She didn’t give any of us a chance to say anything more, turning on her heel and heading towards the dining hall.

“I can’t imagine why she turned to us instead of you who say you love her,” Petre said at a level Inez and the shifters couldn’t hear.

“We’re pissed because she didn’t tell us,” I replied at the same volume.

Vitor shot me a disappointed look and kept the conversation at that level. “You should be looking at why she didn’t feel she could.”

I was sure I would. In-depth.

Later.

Right then, I couldn’t seem to find my feet or keep up with the turn of events. When I saw people moving to follow Inez, I did as well, not even sure my brain had made the decision. My mind was completely fried.

She waited until we were all gathered, her knights hearing she was back and joining us. I wasn’t sure who everyone was, but I assumed it was the nobles of Bahati’s court that joined all of Inez’s nobles.

She let out a slow breath and focused on the far wall. “The night I outed us to the human settlement in Texas, I had a dream of Bahati. One of those vision dreams I’ve had that make it clear it’s not fantasy dreaming, but reality in my sleep. There was a former member of her coven in the settlement, and like the asshole who was on the shit with you guys and ran to Safie with information, he went to Bahati.”

“You really are Aether’s champion,” someone whispered, pulling out a chair and sitting before he fell over in shock.

She sighed, scrubbing her hand over the back of her neck. “I’d like to say She’s not exactly said that, but She kinda has with rain.” She waved off the memory. “Whatever the proof or theories, this is what happened. She heard I outed us to humans, and there’s some old law against that she could use, but also I would be distracted with that crazy. That was the moment she officially decided to make a move.”

“You’re exactly right,” another noble muttered, several of them taking chairs without even asking permission or the normal niceties.

Shock would have that effect. I remembered well my shock when I met Inez.

“How could you not tell us?” Kristof muttered, keeping his upset in tight.

But not enough from the way she flinched. “So you’re saying I never brought up the topic of the threats against me? Huh, I’m sure I did.”

“You did, but—” he tried, but she kept going.

“And you all told me you were monitoring the situation. There were bugs in those covens and we were getting intel from others. We knew a lot from what was already recorded. You guys had it. I shouldn’t worry because you all were clear on the situation. Right?”

“But you were more worried about Bahati, and we weren’t looking at her because we were so busy with the threats we knew of that had already been here,” Trisha whispered.

“One of whom met with Bahati. I saw it. I saw her almost kill Ceawlin when she realized he wasn’t telling her everything.” She let out a slow breath and met my gaze. “And what would you have done if I had told you I was dreaming of your twin? Ignoring the context, that’s what was happening. You would have lost it. You couldn’t even hear his name after how he crashed our wedding.”

I swallowed loudly. “You’re not wrong. I still had a right to know, love.”

She couldn’t even hide her hurt. “You have a right to my dreams? Well, that one wasn’t in the fucking vows.” She looked away, hugging herself. “I saw him pray to Aether that you not fall into her hands as her goal had always been to have you both, own you both. Something left out of the deal she made with your twin.”

“I’m still stuck on the fact you were lying to our princess, you dog,” a noble seethed, staring at Ceawlin with his death in the man’s eyes.

A look Ceawlin gave right back. “She is Aether’s champion. My vow was to put no princess before Bahati, not our Goddess. I vowed never to betray Bahati and I didn’t. I didn’t slip Inez intel. How was I supposed to fucking know Aether was sending my prayers to Inez in dreams? Bahati was blinded by her jealousy. She was going to die if she went after Inez, and I told her as much.”

I about lost my mind at what came out of Inez’s mouth next… Proving her point she couldn’t have come to me about any of this.

“Plus, she lied to him, to all of you,” Inez cut in. “Their whole agreement and pledging was based on her wanting Ceawlin and leaving Cerdic in the dust. She took what was supposed to be a prank of flirting and picking Ceawlin to something way worse, and without Ceawlin’s agreement. She stated it clearly she lied and played them both and laughed. Fuck her.”

“You’re defending what he did to me? What they did?” I whispered in horror.

The look she gave me broke my heart because clearly what I said shattered hers. “No, not at all, and I can’t believe that’s what you heard. Ceawlin’s a jealous dick and fucked up, is still letting his jealousy eat him up. It’s not what you thought, and you deserved to know that.” Tears filled her eyes before she glanced away. “I’m telling you that you were a huge part of my decision.”

“You couldn’t let him end up in her hands after seeing the truth of how horrible she was and even how deep her evil ran to lie to Ceawlin from the start,” Trisha surmised, helping her when Inez seemed not to know what to say.

She gave a swift nod. “I wasn’t sure how to handle this or what to do, but then I ran out of time to debate or come up with ideas on how to bring this up so people would listen to me and not get the people I loved dead.”

“You saw she was going to sacrifice two children of our coven, didn’t you?” the noble who had jumped on Ceawlin whispered, wiping his hands over his head. “Aether filled you in?”

“Yes. There was no more time to debate then, and I asked Vitor and Petre to help me kill her. I didn’t have a choice when I saw what she would do.”’

“You always have a choice, Inez,” Kristof quietly argued.

She bobbed your head. “You’re right. I made the choice. I own it. I own how I tricked her and used her ego against her so I could kill her. I chose to protect all of you and the coven who believes in me to keep them safe.” A single tear ran down her cheek. “Even if it apparently cost me the three of you. I would do it again, as it was the best choice. That’s what it means to be the princess.”

My heart ached when she opened her mouth but then closed it again, shaking her head and walking towards the door. I longed to go to her and take her in my arms, tell her I wasn’t upset and I supported her.

But I couldn’t seem to make my feet or mouth work.

“It’s done. I handled it as the leader of this coven,” she said as she hurried her steps. “Do what you should as my nobles and handle what comes next.”

“Yeah, how silly of her not to come to you with what was going on and scaring her,” Vitor drawled once Inez reached her tower and couldn’t hear us.

“You shut the fuck up,” Kristof seethed, pointing at the vampire. “I still vote we kill you. You took my wife out of here and into something dangerous that we could have handled and—”

“You couldn’t have,” Petre cut in. “Aether made it clear to her you couldn’t.”

“How?” Darius whispered.

“She couldn’t tell us,” Vitor admitted. “She was too destroyed. She simply said Aether showed her you’d all die if you handled this, and that was how Bahati bested her. Inez said she was a shell and completely checked out in her grief, and Bahati waltzed in and took over, killed her too. That she failed all the shifters who’d put their faith in her and she’d promised to protect.”

“If we’d known that, we could have helped her and done something else,” Kristof argued. “I could have—”

“You couldn’t have,” a noble argued. “We have a few in our coven that are your age, Kristof. Myself included. You know my age.”

So they knew each other. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, but right then, my mind couldn’t seem to process any of it as bickering, and then yelling, broke out all around us.

“Enough!” Trisha bellowed. “Stop comparing dick size and for one second think about all of this from her perspective. Not even a year ago, she didn’t know about any of this, even what she was, and for weeks she had these dreams dumped on her. Do you have any idea how terrified she must have been to deal with all of this on her own and realize we were in deep shit in a way we weren’t seeing?”

“Terrified doesn’t really cover how she was when she came to us,” Petre confessed, shooting Ceawlin a nasty look. “And still, she saved all your asses from your crazy princess, so enough with your shit and twin jealousy. You were here for the wedding and saw the jealousy. You know yourself how much danger she’s in.”

“And you didn’t see the ending where she threatened those who planned to steal everything from her, force her to be adopted, and abuse her,” Vitor added. “They left that day, but you know how many won’t see the reality and understand the position they’re truly in.”

“We’re saying this won’t be the last princess she’ll have to take out because she has a soul and won’t bomb a whole coven of innocents to keep ours safe. Otherwise, you’d all be dead. Do you get it? Will you fucking swallow your shit, or do we have to handle you so you can’t upset her again? I don’t care you’re Cerdic’s twin or Matilda will be upset if I gut you. So enough!”

I wasn’t the only one who stared at the normally calm and always even Petre. He and I were a lot alike in that respect, and I wondered what else I was missing.

But James asked the question I couldn’t. “I’ve never seen you so upset. What else do we need to know?”

Petre let out a slow breath before looking at the shifter. “That she was willing to give everything to keep you all safe. She agreed to give us her if it meant you were safe, and this is how you all behave? I’m tired of people hurting her when all she does is give everything for us and people don’t do the same.”

And then he stormed out of the room, shocking even Vitor, but then he sighed. “You need to know Inez used that power like she did when she killed Safie.”

Sisay put it together first. “She killed corrupted?”

“Yes. She put up a barrier as I can, but if they hit it, they basically disintegrated. The charge in her eases fastest when she destroys things, as that settles her. That’s what she did.”

“That was her?” the noble who said he was Kristof’s age checked, whistling when Vitor confirmed it. “We were all distracted by it. We didn’t understand why corrupted were racing towards the coven when they have completely ignored us, but then they were all dying. I saw it. I ran out to meet them and saw the first hit her energy and becoming nothing.”

“That’s nothing compared to what else our princess can do,” Kristof warned, not to brag but to get a few things out of the way. “She is twenty-three and she bested your princess.”

One of them snorted. “The two nobles that are hers that are so ancient I can’t even read their ages bested Bahati. She took the final bite, but the rest is horseshit.”

“I give you my word it is not,” Vitor argued.

“Tells us what happened then,” I bit out, demanded, even if he could squash me. “What exactly did you do with my wife today?”

Vitor gave me a hard look. “Yes, we both had her. You know what happens to her when she has strong blood.” He gave a disgusted sneer when we started to get upset. “You have been throwing her at Petre for his strength and power. Some of you only told her to do whatever she wanted in regards to me because you never thought she would want me.

“You cannot change your mind and stance this late, and you will lose her if you do. She is so tied in knots on how normal works and what things mean, it’s heartbreaking.” Vitor shook his head when we pressed him. “I will not betray her confidence, but she’s behind on all norms from human to ours, and ours are far from normal.”

“He’s right and she always has been,” Darius muttered. “The way women are treated in the apocalypse is worse than before. Half the time we weren’t saying the same thing and judged her.” He gave us a nasty look. “Don’t even blame me for this. We’ve all been inconsistent.”

“We have,” I agreed. “We’re not perfect either.” I ignored when Ceawlin snorted. I’d never said I was perfect but simply strived to make my family proud. He could choke on his shit.

And learning he didn’t want things to go as far as they had didn’t change my mind about him. I would never have intentionally hurt him at all. That wasn’t what a twin did.

So I was settled in my mind that he was no twin of mine.

“Tell us what happened, Vitor,” I muttered, staring at the painting I’d helped Inez choose for the dining hall, remembering how much fun we’d had. I was so in love with her, and my heart ached that she’d gone to Vitor and Petre for help instead of me.

And they’d tasted her body because of it. I wasn’t even sure that was what she’d wanted—especially with Vitor—and I was the reason she’d done it.

He told us exactly what had happened from the time she came to them, but clearly without a lot of the personal details given who was around. I was impressed with how smart she’d been and completely led Bahati into her trap.

Once I started to deal with my shock Bahati was dead. I couldn’t seem to get my mind around that either. My first love was dead by my wife’s hands.

If that wasn’t a mind fuck, I wasn’t sure what was.

That noble Kristof knew stood when Vitor was done and stared down the others. “You know I have the gift to tell if people are lying. They are not. All of this true, and Aether’s champion saved us from the evil we were tricked into standing next to. I thank her for it.” He glanced between us and nodded. “I am Sundar. Kristof knows me of old. Bahati used everything in her arsenal to trick me into giving my oath.

“I am grateful to your princess for releasing me from it, but I never wish to serve a princess again. I will stay to help settle things and keep the nobles of Bahati’s court in line, inform covens of what happened as your princess wanted, but then I will leave. I say this not as an offense to your princess, as she is a wondrous one, but because I do not wish you to worry about my intentions or courting her.”

“She does not force people to give their oath to stay in her coven, Sundar,” Kristof replied. “There are many here who will never swear it to her nor stand at her side. What she asks of any who want to stay is you stand with her on her morals and are willing to protect the coven, stay neutral when it comes to family covens or other loyalties we have as nobles.”

To say the room was shocked was an understatement. Sundar slowly sat back down and blinked at Kristof like he was growing a third head.

“It’s true,” Ceawlin assured them. “I even told Bahati how well Inez treated her nobles and respected them enough that she had nobles not of her court at her coven.” He gestured over to Vitor. “He was abused for thousands of years at the Darbandi coven. Inez released them and had them sign loyalty agreements instead of forcing them into her court. She wouldn’t hear of doing it the way we’re used to.”

“Princesses don’t do that,” one of the nobles whispered.

“Ours does,” Jaxon promised. “She thinks giving oaths that are forever is stupid, especially so fast.” He flinched, probably remembering exactly how she’d thrown that back in his face.

“Exactly.” Ceawlin slowly grinned as he stretched. “Which is why I plan to make this my coven. They have everything we’ve lost in the apocalypse, and all she asks is you are loyal to the coven and help out. That sounds like heaven after what I’ve been through.”

I launched at him before he finished what he was saying. I landed the first hit, but then he grabbed me and threw me into the wall, slamming his fist in my face before I could react. Blocking the next several blows, I managed a kick, but then he got me with several that took the air from my lungs.

Kristof was there holding Ceawlin, not hiding his shock how the fight had gone, which probably accounted for him not jumping in sooner.

I wouldn’t have thought I’d need it.

Ceawlin held his hands up in surrender. “He came at me.”

“You kept going though,” Kristof grumbled, but released him.

“I’m not the same person you knew, Brother,” Ceawlin warned, narrowing his eyes at me. “You have no idea the hell I’ve been in because I made a stupid mistake when I was young. That’s on me though. No matter what I can validly put on you, regardless of how much you ignored it, swearing myself to Bahati was my choice, and I suffered because of it. Inez freed me of that and—”

“She will never be yours,” I snarled, pushing off the wall and ready to go again.

“No, she won’t be,” Ceawlin said firmly, nodding when I eased down. “I don’t want to share a woman with you. And it would destroy her to be put in the middle of our shit. I wouldn’t ever do that to my savior.” He let out a slow breath and rubbed his hand over his hair. “But I will stay in her coven because it’s the best, and I deserve the best too, not just you.”

“That’s quite the change from what you were saying and the trouble you were starting at the wedding,” Kristof worried.

Ceawlin shrugged. “Things change. People get smarter.” He shook his head when Kristof tried to argue. “I never thought my father would pull what he did either. The woman I was desperately in love with admitted she conned me and is now dead. I’m with Sundar that peace sounds nice and I can find it here. Aether apparently agrees if Inez answered my prayers to Her.”

We both watched as he took several steps back before we could say anything.

If I could even figure out what to say to any of it.

“I will go inform Mother and Hanna as Inez asked me to,” Ceawlin informed us, turning to Kristof. “You are Inez’s oldest noble even if you are all named her Night. If there is an area you wish me to focus on or jobs I can help with, let me know when I return. I can also list the powers I have if it helps the coven. They’re not secret anymore.”

“Do you have the same ones as Cerdic?” Kristof checked.

“No, and I probably have more, because Bahati kept witches in her coven until just the last century when they all committed suicide so she couldn’t keep breeding them like cattle,” Ceawlin answered, his tone disgusted. He dipped his head to Kristof and then was gone.

There was so much to unravel in all of that, but one thing he’d said stood out most to me. I blinked at Kristof before I could get my mouth to work. “What did my father pull that upset Ceawlin?”

“Oh fuck,” Jaxon whispered. “We were so focused on getting through the wedding and all the threats we learned during it, we never told you. I’m so, so sorry, Cerdic.”

“Told me what?” I demanded. “My father bailed on my wedding. I know that.”

Kristof gave me a sympathetic look. “No, Matilda sent him home because he tried to force Inez into having sex. He injured her when she refused him. Matilda was one of the witnesses. So was I.”

“What?” I breathed, my heart thudding in my ears.

“I’m sorry, my friend,” he whispered. “I forgot as well, as she bled moments later and accepted your vow.”

That was the moment I checked out. Everything I thought was… I couldn’t get my mind around any of it.

So I completely checked out and went for the bar.