The Final Downfall [Inter-Universal Protectors Series: Book 2]

“Who is that?”

Nikki eyed the Fae female lying on a bed in the Palace’s hospital wing. She was alongside several locals who had been hurt in the storm. Some were in much worse shape than the others.

When she had been called, Nikki thought something bad had happened to one of her people. What she hadn’t expected was to find a member of the Terpolite Court in the Palace with what looked like a rather horrible head wound.

“Okay, better question.” She pointed at the female. “What happened?”

Jay rested his hands against the back of his head and leaned back. He kicked his feet onto the white round table in front of him, closing his eyes. “Name’s Ema. Festus whacked her over the head when she was about to let us go, had we handed over the item. Also agreed to help us if we brought her back here.” He opened one eye. “And you know how Kayla is when she sees someone who needs her help.”

“And you agreed because . . .”

The Fae male narrowed his eyes. “Because she might have valuable information. Duh.”

Nikki growled at the challenge in his voice, though backed down when she saw he had a point. If they could get Terpolites on their side, even if it were only a few, they would have more information to go against Tara. Assuming those people co-operated.

Nikki turned to Kayla who was cleaning and bandaging the female. “Will she wake up?”

A nod. “It looks much worse than it is. She should wake up in a few hours.”

Hours? Well, it was better than nothing. “Is there any way to heal her faster?”

Kayla grimaced. “The head is . . . complicated. Delicate. One wrong move could cause lifelong damage.”

Nikki sighed. “All right. Waiting it is.”

Nikki later found herself sitting in her office at the Palace. Well, technically it was Amneris’ office. Since the Queen had gone missing, Nikki had taken up her role as Second and taken on the tasks Amneris usually covered. She’d almost forgotten how much she hated being in charge, and it wasn’t just because of the paperwork. There were certain characters Nikki was far from eager to run into, especially from other worlds. They gave her headaches on the best of days. That was why she preferred it when Amneris’ not so subtle nature handled these problems.

A knock at the door made Nikki look up. She couldn’t hide her relieved smile at the sight of Lvaane. “Am I allowed in?” the Old King asked.

“Like I could stop you,” she said, waving at one of the chairs in front of her. “You wouldn’t happen to have some magic that will do all this paperwork for me, would you?”

“I’m afraid not.”

Nikki continued flipping through some papers as he sat. Letter, letter, letter, notif, letter, notif, notif, household check – She whistled at that one. It was no wonder Amneris gave them a hard time whenever it came in! Nikki tossed the piece of paper to the side and turned her attention back to the Old King. “What brings you here?”

“Has there been news of my daughter?”

She shook her head. “If I had anything, I would have told you straight up.” Nikki cleared her throat as he looked down. “In other news, we’ve managed to find several items. They’re still being brought in but everything that was recovered should be arriving very soon.”

“That’s something.” He agreed.

She forced a smile. “We can only hope for the best right”

Nikki waited until he left before lowering her head to the desk. Her optimism was wearing thin, but she had to keep it up for the sake of the others. Everyone was worried about the MIA case. Considering Nikki was currently in charge for the most part, she knew what would happen if she just gave then and there. She had to keep up the act.

Just keep smiling.