Page 52
Story: 40 Ways to Watch Me Die
I turned to Jessing and grinned. I no longer even thought of Jack and Rasmus as serving the same purpose in my life. Jack had been a candle warming my bed. Rasmus had set me and my sheets on fire. And he still did. I had felt no lessening of passion from him in all the time we’d known each other. His self-control and caring during my injuries made me love him, but once I physically recovered, my clothes were always at risk of being torn off.
I didn’t mind telling others how greatly my life had changed. “Things were over between Jack and me the moment I went to prison. Ya havenoidea how well I traded up,” I told the owl shifter, glancing at the tall, elegant male now flipping to a blank page in his drawing pad.
We both watched with delight as the guardian’s long fingers drew lines across the page with efficient ease.
Hart leaned down to my ear. “Power rolls off him but not off of her. Is that normal?”
Jessing leaned on the other side. “She is beautiful, Hart. Beauty is its own power.”
They spoke about them like Rasmus’s drawing prevented the discussion from being heard.
Their expressions remained stoic, but I knew both guardians heard every word being said. I appreciated their tolerance and would thank them for it later.
Hart and Jessing weren’t being subtle, but enforcers never were.
I answered Hart’s observation because it was in all our best interests. “Zara suffered a trauma not long ago and is still healing. Her magick is equal to his. It merely sleeps until she is well enough to use it.”
“Ah...” Hart said, leaning upright again.
My gaze remained on Rasmus until he quietly pulled the sheet from the tablet. “Who gets this?”
“Me,” I said, holding up my hand.
Rasmus smiled as he walked to me and handed it over. “Is that all you needed?”
“For now,” I said. “Thank ya for taking the time. I don’t want to keep ya from yer organizing.”
“I’d be interested to see who she is. Are you planning to check now?” Zara asked.
Hart and Jessing both had been leaning over my shoulders to look at the penciled image. “Sure. Let’s check now,” Hart said, slipping the paper gently from my hand.
Jessing just as gently took it from his fingers and held it out for him to take a photo of it.
“Did it work?” I asked.
Hart nodded. “I’m uploading it to the Shadow Breakers database. It’s running her likeness now. I had it already preset to search Ezra’s relatives before extending outside his family.”
It took over a full minute for Hart to get an answer from the search. We all held our breaths during the wait. Rasmus caught my eyes, and in his gaze, I saw our shared memory of doing something similar to find Zara. Except back then, he had drawn her from my description, which had come from a vision.
I smiled and nodded to him. It was like we were a true team these days. I loved this feeling. I also liked not constantly mistrusting his intentions. Contentment urged me to sigh in relief, but I didn’t want to explain my emotional reaction to Hart and Jessing, who were watching me too closely.
“She’s in the database. Princess Lulutha of Airing Dale. Daughter of King Alamos and Queen Meatha of Airing Dale. Older sister of Prince Ezra, Prince Lionel, and Princess Dreama. Princess Lulutha carries the title of Arbitrator. She is the executor of her father’s kingdom. There are no images of the younger two siblings.”
“So she’s their version of an enforcer,” I said, rubbing my forehead. This was the worst thing that could have happened. “And I froze her.”
“I thought you said your Wu Shaman froze her.”
I waved a hand. “Her family won’t care about semantics or who helped me. All they will care about is that she failed to kill me. Not destroying a threat weakens their rule and makes them susceptible to takeovers. Some fairies do not recognize The Dagda’s god-state. They barely see my ancestor as their equal, and they judge me as less powerful than him because of my diluted heritage.”
“Their kingdom falling will not happen in this realm. We will not know if or when it falls, and if it does, it will be because of their children. Weak offspring who cannot stand up for what isright are doomed to fail. One of my sons learned that the hard way. He nearly lost a wing,” Jessing said.
“The lack of harmony will ripple across the agreement humans have with fairies visiting our realm. They bring us fairy magick and take a conglomeration of human power home with them. Even Conn cautioned me not to mess with that status quo. Now I’ve taken out the one fairy who was tasked with maintaining harmony.”
Jessing huffed. “But she tried to stab you without a rightful challenge. She carried out an unprovoked attack by the laws of the fairies and our own. You have every right to kill her, Aran. She wanted you dead. It is a lucky thing your guardian kept it from happening. This whole situation is without doubt Ezra’s fault for lying to his family. His lies grow like weeds in a field and sprout more lies that choke out the flowers of truth. The fault is not yours.”
Princess Lulutha had more than just wanted to murder me. She’d given it her all and briefly succeeded. The fairy princess had mortally wounded me and nearly caused my death. The problem for the fairies was that I refused to stay dead.
They didn’t realize yet that they were battling the mages in the Dagda stone, my guardian, and Conn, who were all experts at keeping me alive.
Table of Contents
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