“Oh, I know all about you,” she says, and I really don’t like her tone.
“Enough,” CK says to her quietly and she turns back to him with a shrug.
“You don’t care for your big sister to stick up for you?” she asks.
Big sister? I gape between the two of them. He is a middle child? Oh, my gods, that explains a lot! I almost snicker, as does Sebastian when he catches sight of my face and I hastily rearrange it as CK goes menacing.
“I do not need you, or anyone else to ‘stick up for me,’” he snarls. “Aefre is now my wife and you will respect her.”
“Hm,” she says as she taps her chin and I am thinking 'hm,' indeed. What the fuck is going on here? She clearly knows all about me somehow and she is making me sound like I am no good for her baby brother.
“If you say so,” she says lightly, but I catch the undercurrent that this woman seems to dislike me immensely. I kind of feel a bit sorry for myself as I haven’t done anything to her, and I can’t think of anything really terrible I have done to CK to warrant such a reaction.
“And you,” she sneers at Sebastian. “Where do you fit into this?” She waves her hand around CK and me with distaste.
“Nowhere,” CK growls.
“I am here to protest against their request,” Sebastian says. “Do not meddle in the greater picture, Rosalina. You have no idea what is at stake here.”
“Meddle?” she scoffs. “Have I ever?” she adds with such a flirtatious batting of her eyes I actually go a bit green with jealousy. CK on the other hand isn’t looking very well at the thought of his sister and his charge doing the nasty, it makes him go a different shade of green.
“I seem to recall a certain ounce of meddling at a very inconvenient time,” Sebastian answers, flirting just as heavily in return, and now I start to feel a bit ill.
“If the two of you would like to keep your reminiscing to a minimum while we are here, please,” CK says. “Rosa, you know why Aefre and I are here. Ignore Sebastian, he doesn’t know what he is talking about. It is Aefre’s decision and she has chosen me to father her child.”
“Quite in demand, aren’t we dear?” she says to me as she circles me, trailing her finger around my shoulders as she goes. “Shouldn’t be too difficult. You are already close to your time. You on the other hand,” she turns sharply to CK, “will need more preparation.” She claps her hands sharply and what appears to be an Elf walks in. About half the size of me, but with pointy ears and short spikey blonde hair, he is dressed in shimmering silver that takes my breath away. The Elf leads CK away and I am in awe of this place. Could it be that all the supernatural creatures that don’t fall under my rule, or the Faeries’, live here? I wonder where “here” actually is and what other creatures I might find.
“Rosa don’t do this,” Sebastian begs her, and she kisses him deeply to shut him up. She murmurs something to him, and he goes quiet. I dread to think what she just said to him. I am about to ask, when she takes my hand in her stone cold one and leads me away. As we walk, the area where we were standing, which was just a sort of plain white room, transforms into a shining silver palace that is quite blinding in its brightness. Rosalina lets go of my hand and I follow her in silence. A very, very awkward one and we all know how much I love those.
“Do you and CK keep in touch?” I blurt out.
She turns to me slowly and regards me with those familiar eyes. It’s very spooky. “CK?” she asks.
“Uh, Constantine,” I amend, and she snorts in amusement.
“You call him CK? And he lets you?” She giggles uncontrollably and I see the tense set of her shoulders relax somewhat.
“Yes,” I say. “What of it?”
“Hm, he never allowed anyone, not even our beloved mother, to call him anything other than his given name,” she says.
“His given name isn’t what he calls himself now,” I point out. It’s close, but whatever.
“This is true. He lost his way.” She sniffs delicately and I raise my eyebrow at her.
“Can I ask you something?” I ask her, absolutely desperate to know.
“What’s that?” she replies as she indicates a door I should go through.
“Was CK the same as you, before he was turned?” I ask bluntly and clearly, she is not used to that as she frowns at me and pushes me forward to a large bathtub. It is a humongous room, but the only thing in it is this tub. Very strange.
“How do you mean?” she asks as she starts to disrobe me.
“A Druid,” I say.
I wait for her to finish taking my clothes off, which creeps me out in a major way. Not because I am shy, of course, but because this is CK’s sister. His sister for crying out loud. And she looks exactly like him. It’s weird and unnerving.
“No,” she says eventually. “I have a different father.”