“Why I was sent here to collect you. Hm, perhaps show instead of tell,” he says cryptically and then Astrals us off back to the castle where all Hell is breaking loose.
“Fuck!” I scream as I dodge a ball of pure white magick that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. “What is this?” I yell at Remiel.
Devon is battling a robed creature in the Entrance Hall and is shortly joined by Lincoln, who has Wolfed out in all the melee.
“I thought you knew?” Remiel says.
“No!” I shriek and then it finally hits me. This is White magick. “Rosalina!”
I head for the stairs, only giving Devon and Lincoln a cursory thought. They will be fine against the two Clerics that they are currently battling with. I skid to a stop in Thia’s room to see Rosalina hovering over her crib with an apoplectic CK hovering on the other side.
“Touch her and you die!” he snarls at her.
“I want recompense for my loss,” Rosalina snarls back. “You killed my heir and now I will take yours!” She lunges for the crib, but CK’s magick holds her back somehow.
“Aefre, take our daughter and leave the building,” he says to me calmly.
“CK, what is going on?” I yell at him.
“GO!” he roars, and I don’t hang around to ask again, or to help fight his sister off. She is clearly intent on taking Thia for Jess and over my dead body will that ever happen, even if it means that I run.
I scoop my daughter up and I do exactly that. The last thing I need is to try and puffport and end up in the Dark Fae Kingdom, or worse, the Light Fae.
I run down the stairs, through the Entrance Hall, past Devon and Lincoln still battling it out with the Clerics and, thankfully, not losing. I glance around for Remiel, but he has disappeared. Great. Just when you need him, he decides this is none of his business. What the Hell am I supposed to do now? Keep running, that’s what.
I yank open the front doors and run helter-skelter for the gates. Then I pause. Should I leave? Should I stay? Which is more dangerous?
I look frantically back at the castle, where I can now see flashes of magick, both red and white and I know that CK and his sister are fighting it out. I know how powerful CK is, but I still say a little prayer to keep him safe. Rosalina was furious. But I have no doubt that CK will protect his daughter, even from his family. Ex-family? I am unclear on what he feels for her, as he never talks about it.
I am still debating on what to do, when a dark-haired figure approaches me from the other side of the gates. I grip Thia tighter to me as I glare at the intruder.
“What do you want?” I ask, having no clue who he is or, where in fact, he has come from.
His brown eyes glisten as he takes us in, and he licks his lips.
“Give her to me and I won’t harm the others,” he says.
“Who are you?” I ask with a sneer. He can’t get past the wards or he would have by now. Arathia is safe.
“Someone who knows a lot about you…Aefre,” he replies.
I give him a narrow-eyed look. How does he know my name?
“You are a Hunter,” I state flatly. He has that same blank look that Cade used to have before he switched sides.
“Indeed,” he replies.
“You are not welcome here. I suggest you leave before my husband finds out you are trespassing.”
“This is public land,” he says, gesturing to the ground at his feet.
“Nope,” I say smugly. “He owns it all as far as the forest.”
The Hunter looks mildly perturbed, but then it vanishes quickly. “All I want is Carlotta. Give her to me and, for now, we will leave you alone.”
I blink in surprise. He is here for Carlotta? I am standing right in front of him with the miracle child in my arms and all he wants is Carlotta?
“She’s dead,” I reply cautiously. “I killed her.”