Chapter 56: Whatever the Cost

I try to reason with him. “Erik, we’re running around in circles. I can do all the ground research possible, but we also need to know why it was so easy to kidnap all these shifters without leaving any trace of them.”

“You expect me to trust a human to cut open one of our kind? Do you understand what sort of territory you’re asking me to step into? For centuries, we have made sure that humans don’t find out our secrets, and here you are, offering to have a human study our anatomy!”

His words are harsh, but I refuse to flinch. “What if our enemy is human? What if they have come up with something that can render us helpless before them? We need to know, Erik.”

I see the struggle on his face, but he shakes his head again. “There is no human I trust enough to even try something like this.”

“There is someone I trust,” I say quietly. “Dr. Maya Sorin. “I feel Jerry glance at me, but I keep my eyes on Erik.

“No. She’s a human. You may trust her, but I won’t take the risk of endangering my people. If she sells information, even the hint of—”

“Maya has had plenty of opportunities to sell my secrets, Erik. She has had access to Finn and me, around the clock, for eight years. I’ve trusted her to be alone with my child. She’s our best bet. She—” I hesitate—”has also created medicines for me that have worked. She already has a working knowledge of how our bodies function. On top of that, she was employed as a medical examiner after she graduated. She had earned a degree in forensic pathology before she went back to school for veterinary medicine. Nobody is as qualified as her in this matter.”

“Her being human disqualifies her,” Erik says grimly. “Your friendship with Maya has made me expend a lot of resources to keep an eye on her. I admit that she has safeguarded your secrets, but all it would take for her to betray us is one moment of greed.”

I know Maya would never do anything like what he is implying, but clearly Erik has made up his mind.

“We could bring her over to our world,” Jerry interjects. “She is skilled, Your Majesty. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve taken in a human.”

“Yes, you’re right,” Erik agrees, “but only with the expectation that they cut all their ties to the human world. Relationships, friendships, family—they have to disappear from the human world. And the humans who have done this were old, near the end of their lives, and they had no one, but their knowledge was valuable to us. This woman is young. You expect her to give up everything to join us?”

I deflate, crestfallen. Maya has a mother with dementia who lives in assisted care. She would never walk away from her.

Erik sees the reluctance in my eyes. “Exactly. Even you can’t ask her to abandon her world.”

“What if she teaches Jerry?” I suddenly say. “What if she doesn’t have to be the one to conduct the autopsy?”

“I haven’t even given permission for the autopsy to be conducted. There will be an uproar in the kingdom if I allow such a thing.”

Frustrated, I turn to Locke, who has been silent. Finally, when I gesture with my head, he speaks. “It is something to be considered, Erik.”

“Don’t tell me how to run my kingdom, Locke. I don’t tell you how to run yours.” Erik scowls. “And this is not a subject I will budge on. The decision is final.”

I open my mouth to argue, but Locke touches my shoulder, shaking his head discreetly. I follow him out of Erik’s office, and after Jerry leaves us, disappointed, Locke murmurs, “If you want, I can take Harold’s body and that loud-mouthed human friend of yours to the North.”

For some reason, the idea of Locke sneaking off with Maya and a corpse in the middle of the night is morbidly amusing, and I chuckle despite the circumstances. “Thanks, but I’ll figure something else out. I just wish they had done more than only take a few photographs of Harold after he died. I still think this could be the work of humans.”

“The people who attacked you were shifters, though,” Locke points out. “Unless you’re implying a collaboration?”

I shake my head and shrug my shoulders. “I don’t know what I’m implying. I don’t even know what I’m working with right now. We have nothing. We need that autopsy. Humans have a lot of information that we don’t have. Maybe they have access to a drug that was able to tranquilize him. Human tranquilizers don’t work on us, but what if they have been able to come up with a formula that does? We have no way of knowing because our kind hasn’t tested on ourselves any new formulas or drugs that are on the market. We need a human on board, someone who has access to such things and is aware of our unique anatomy. Maya works with a biological pharmaceutical company that focuses on veterinary medicine. She has the knowledge we need. If only Erik would understand.”

“His reasoning is understandable, though, Corrine.” Locke walks alongside me as we head to the palace gardens. “He has to keep his people under control. After Erik took the throne, there was a lot of unrest and conspiracy theories that he was the one behind Griffin’s disappearance. He has managed to run the kingdom efficiently, but there are still those who doubt him. If he does anything to unsettle the waters, he risks a potential internal war.”

I sigh. “I know. I get it. But it feels like I’m groping in the dark here.”

“My offer still stands.” Locke shrugs. “No one will be the wiser.”

I give him the side-eye. “Yeah, that’s a great way to kickstart a war between the two kingdoms. Steal a dead body.”

He gives me a quick grin that instantly has my face heating up and my pulse quickening. These past few years have done nothing to diminish his good looks.

“Let’s just go home,” I say to take my mind off him. “We’ll get a pizza on the way. I don’t feel like cooking.”

“What’s a pizza?” Locke asks as he follows me outside.

It’s my turn to look amused. “Oh, you sad, sad man.” When he bristles, I laugh. “Come on. Let me show you what you’ve been missing your whole life.”

As I pull him along, I catch him watching me with a strange emotion in his eyes.

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