“Just. Tell. Me,” he says quietly.
“I cast a spell, you do not need to know the details, but it showed a mix of magick. Dark and Light Fae. They were both involved…”
Xanthe waits for his reaction, but he has gone deathly pale and hasn’t moved a muscle, so she continues, “Her father cast the spell, with the help of a powerful Light Fae, and the blood of the Light was used, I assume, to keep the child safe should it have belonged to…”
“Sebastian!” Xane growls furiously. “I will kill him for this! I will kill both of them!”
“Xane, wait,” Xanthe says, but it is fruitless. She knew it would be and that is why she grabs her husband’s hand, who has remained silent through this.
In the next second, her son lets out a vicious roar, edged with pain, and Shifts to his Demonic form in a flash so quick it must have hurt him.
“I WILL DESTROY THEM!” he bellows as he smashes his fist through the desk, shattering the solid wood into a thousand pieces.
Xanthe watches as her son lets loose his anger and rips his way through the books on the shelves and everything else, he can get his hands on. She wants to stay to placate him, but she knows he is a threat right now.
She squeezes Xerxes’s hand and he Astraports them out of the room. “Evacuate the house,” Xanthe says urgently. “I will get Xander.”
Xerxes nods his head once and disappears. Xanthe Astraports upstairs and breaks the wards on Xander’s room. He is tied to the wall with magick chains, once again, but this time he is resolute in his stance.
“Mother,” he starts, but she shushes him.
“Your brother is on the rampage
. We need to get out of here,” she says and unties the binds that are pinning him to the wall. She catches Xander as he falls forward at his sudden freedom.
“Me?” he asks with a steady voice, but she can hear the undercurrent of fear.
“No, I found out who killed his child,” she says shortly and takes his hand to Astraport them outside where the rest of the family is gathering.
The ground is rumbling underneath them, and she clutches at Xander’s hands. Xerxes takes her other hand and they turn back to the house. The foundations are starting to crack and while Xanthe had a pretty good idea this would happen; she had hoped it would not. There is nothing in the house that cannot be recreated out of the ashes, but it will be a long and arduous job.
She takes her youngest daughter in her arms when she feels Xena tug on her skirts and they both stare at the house that has started to burn.
Xerxes ushers them all backwards and into the gardens of Xerxei’s house next door, and not a moment too soon. The entire house bursts into flames so hot and so fierce they could only have been created by the Demon Overlord.
Xanthe holds her hand up to protect her and Xena’s faces from the heat.
The house suddenly collapses in a huge explosion of fire and ash and Xena tucks her head away into Xanthe’s shoulder, as she does the same with her husband. The one good thing about this destruction is that now there is no evidence for anyone to refute that the baby wasn’t Xane’s. The real father will never know.
Xanthe feels in her pocket for the vial that she placed there that has the proof of the spell cast. That is all she needs.
As she feels the ground rumble under her feet yet again, she peers out from the protection of her husband’s large frame to see her son, as she has never seen him before, emerging from the demolished house. He has grown at least another five feet in height and twice as wide. He is the same size as his father easily, and that shouldn’t have happened for another few hundred years. His enormous footfalls shake the earth as he makes his way out of the debris and with clenched fists, he throws his head back and roars at the burnt, orange sky, his pain and rage evident in his cry.
Xanthe hands Xena to Xerxes and takes a step forward.
“No,” Xander says, holding her back. “He is lost.”
“No,” she says, shaking her head and holding her hand up to her mouth. “He is grieving.”
They all watch as Xane bends down and slams his fist into the ground, tearing it apart under their feet. Xanthe stumbles but Xerxes catches her with his free hand.
She is about to turn to her husband to ask him to go to their son. He will be the only one who can protect himself, but then Xane stands back up, his wings fully stretched out behind him, casting an eerie shadow from the flames.
“They. Will. Face. My. Wrath!” he yells into the sky. “All of them!”
Xanthe and Xerxes look at each other and she swallows loudly. “Get Xander out of here now. Tell no one where you go.”
Xerxes nods once and hands Xena back to her. She turns away from her husband as he takes her younger son away from his brother’s wrath. She fears that there will be no one left standing who has opposed Xane and Xerxei. He will do anything he can now to avenge his child’s death and anyone who has gotten in their way.