“Three,” he rasps hoarsely. “Aefre?”
I ignore him and I call to the others to stand up and come to me. I have never tried to Astral three passengers before and this is going to be interesting. “Put your hands on me,” I tell them as they stumble forward.
“Aefre!” Corinne says from outside the cell. “Don’t do this. You are making a big mistake.”
Crap, somehow, she got past Xane, but I know he is still out there as I can see the flare of his magick getting even closer. It lights up the cell briefly and I see her standing there, coiling her own Witchy magick.
“I have to,” I say and before she can lob the orb at me, I scrunch my eyes closed and yell, “Xane, get out of here!” at him as I Astral me and my three passengers to the Faerie Ring in Buckinghamshire, England.
I collapse, as do they, as our feet hit the ground. That took more out of me than I thought it would, but we cannot stand around here. Corinne will be here any second. I push the closest Faerie to me onto the Ring and he disappears, followed closely by the other two before Corinne lands next to me. She grabs my arm, but I am stronger, and I push her away and stumble into the Ring and disappear from her wrathful sight, much to my relief. Christ, she is beyond pissed at me. I flop to the floor and take in a deep breath. The three Fae, all men, are all lying on the ground, shying away from the light.
“You are safe now,” I tell them. “You are home.”
One of them sits up and says, “Aefre?”
It is the same one that said my name in the cell, and I look at him properly for the first time and then get the shock of my life.
My mouth drops open and I scrabble over the forest floor on my hands and knees to sit in front of him.
“Vito?” I whisper and touch the face of my lover from over five hundred years ago.
He flinches from the contact and I snatch my hand away, but he snatches it back and places it back on his cheek. “Aefre?” he asks me again. “Is that really you?”
I stare into his eyes, an electric blue-and-purple swirl, and nod my head. “Your eyes?” I question him. Last time I saw him I had no idea he was a Dark Fae Vampire and his eyes were pitch black. What the Hell is going on here?
He doesn’t get to answer me as I suddenly stand up and turn to face whoever has snuck up on me. I am getting seriously pissed with that now. The Faerie Ring is on the border of the Dark and Light lands and if we are being greeted by the Light we will be in serious trouble. Thrace was not amused the last time I saw him, and he threatened Sebastian’s life. Out here on my own, I am sure I wouldn’t stand a chance and be taken away to breed little half-Light, half-Dark babies for the rest of my unnatural life.
Lucky for me it is Jerrick, the Head of the Dark Guard. He peers at me curiously and then he recognizes me in my natural state. “Princess Aeval?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say quickly and have the grand idea to Shift. Jerrick looks more comfortable with me now that I am as how I am expected to be, and he smiles at me.
“What are you doing out here with these vagabonds,” he says, indicating the poor Dark Fae blood whores.
“Jerrick, these are the Fae that the Vampires were using for the Silver spell. We must get them back to my father’s palace at once,” I explain.
His face changes instantly and he jumps off his black unicorn to investigate further. He stares into the wan faces of his fellow Fae and with a curse he scoops them up under each arm and throws them over the back of his unicorn. He whistles loudly and another unicorn turns up all of its own accord and he helps Vito to his feet. He purses his lips and looks at me. “This one goes back,” he says with disdain.
“Don’t you dare,” I snap at him. “He is one of you.”
“He is a tainted one,” he says with a sneer and then flushes a deep red as he realizes he is insulting me as well. “Sorry, Princess,” he mutters.
“He comes with us,” I say firmly, not bothering to try and explain to him tha
t I am no longer “a tainted one.”
He nods grimly and throws Vito over the second unicorn. Vito grunts and then, for someone of his immense size, somehow manages to curl up on it and fall asleep.
“I will walk,” I say and Jerrick shrugs and takes to foot as well up the path towards the Dark Palace.
We are silent the whole way and my mind is reeling. How on Earth did Vito end up captured by Corinne? Why did CK not know about this and rescue him? The last I ever heard of Vito was CK telling me he had fallen in love with a Vampire girl and had gone off to live a happy life far away from Italy. It had puzzled me at the time because he was in love with me, but there again I am the proof that we can love more than one. Regardless, I mourned him for weeks after he left. We’d had an illicit affair behind CK’s back and it had ended badly, but I had hoped he would come back to me as we shared more than just our bodies and hearts. We had something special. I see now it must have had something to do with our Dark Fae-ness. An uneasy thought settles into my thoughts. Maybe CK did know about this. We were careful and I don’t think he ever knew about our affair, certainly he never mentioned it to me, but I wouldn’t put it past CK to have known and punished Vito for his crime of loving me.
Before long, we are at the palace and Drake is sweeping me up into a massive bear hug as Jerrick explains how he found me.
“What?” he cries and strides forward to the three men. He spins back around to me and with a look I can’t quite place he asks, “You found them? You rescued them?”
“I said I would,” I say with a shrug, taking full credit for this rescue operation.
He grins at me and then booms at the poor Fae in front of him. “Welcome home, my friends.” He snaps his fingers and the maids come a-runnin’ and bustle them off, presumably to get them bathed and clothed and fed.