The shine of the metal flashes in the dim lighting and his grin broadens.
“Our mission can now be completed,” he says.
“What mission?” I ask. “You plan to…”
Dracul puts his finger to his lips and I shut up. “Do not worry, ValamAtrux, soon you will be free. Tell no one of this.”
He Astrals off, leaving me and CK gaping at where he was standing.
“What the fuck are we supposed to do now?” CK says loudly.
“Let my brother handle it,” I say. “Rather him than you.”
“Excuse me?” he asks, insulted.
“I mean,” I say, giving him a little kiss on the lips. “Is that I would rather you not be put in any danger. It, too, would break my heart if I could not spend eternity with you and our child.”
He gathers me to him, and I squeal as he squashes my burnt hand. “I wonder how Dracul knew to find the sword here,” he muses.
“He must have done a locator spell. Once you broke the wards, it would have pinged,” I say.
“Hm,” CK says. “I hope it does what it is supposed to do.”
“He wouldn’t have wanted it if it didn’t,” I say confidently. “Now, you are going to have to take us back to the Faerie Ring. I am going to need to draw on the magick there to get us home.”
“You can’t transport us?” CK asks, concerned.
“I don’t think I can,” I say. “I am too weak.”
“We need to fix this,” he says vehemently, and I couldn’t agree more.
But one thing is for sure, now that Dracul has shown up, I feel myself relax a bit. Whatever his intentions are, I know they are in line with mine, and I am happy to let him unleash his own wrath upon our mother.
Once we are back home, I leave CK to go off and tell everyone about what just happened. Normally I would insist on passing along the details, but I am tired, in pain, and I desperately need to see my daughter.
Delinda is getting ready for bed when I enter her room. Tabetha is bustling about as Delinda jumps up and down, delighting in her new nightgown.
“Princess,” Tabetha says with a bob of her head.
“Can you leave us, please?” I ask. I want to put Delinda to bed and hear about what she got up to with Sebastian earlier. Tabetha gives us a smile and then she disappears.
“So?” I ask as Delinda pounces on me, almost knocking me off my feet. “Did you find any unicorns?”
“Yes!” she shrieks. “We saw two!”
And for the next half an hour, she tells me all about her adventure with KK (King Kalen, she explains) in the forest. I am almost glad that she hasn’t accepted him fully as her father yet, enough to call him “Dad.” It is going to be hard to hear that.
Very hard.
Chapter 13
The Dark Fae Kingdom, September 2014 - Devon
He has hidden himself away. He has found a room on the bottom floor that no one is residing in. It has been gutted completely, so he is fairly sure that no one will come in here. He just can’t face the outside of these four walls at the moment. Admitting to Lizzie his secret was the hardest thing he has done in a really long time. He has no expectations for her to see her threat through. She needs that bitch and she won’t do anything to harm her. Maybe after she gets what she wants.
Maybe then.
In the meantime, he will put on a brave face so that she knows he is a man that is worthy of her. He closes his eyes and sinks to the floor, sliding down the wall slowly. He needs to see Cole. He needs to see that he is okay. He has no idea if he can do this, but he must try.