Page 14 of A Fate of Blood and Magic (Fated #2)

Chapter

Six

ELIAS

An endless frozen ocean spread out behind us, like fragile glass that teetered on a broken edge. The rest of North Carolina sat on the same icy grave. Months of neglect and continuous snowfall had destroyed what once might’ve been a pretty coastal town.

There was beauty in the destruction and the undisturbed snow.

As the sun rose, a faint glow radiated from the compound Sebastian had described. We were close enough to make out the distant murmurs of the humans who lived there, but still, I couldn’t sense the fae.

It was hard not to act. Not to storm through the walls the humans had built and shatter any sense of security they had created for themselves while I rescued my own people.

But I needed a plan. Needed my friends’ and Teddy’s input. I needed Finley to kill those who’d harmed my own. While I’d try not to kill the civilians, their death couldn’t matter to me.

Not when I had a kingdom in mourning .

“Do you trust him?” Alastor asked, sidling up to me so quietly I hadn’t heard him.

Trust, I’d come to learn, was a pathetic and fickle thing. While I trusted those closest to me, I didn’t trust anyone else. How could I when my own parents and the Elders I’d once prayed to had fed us lies we’d swallowed without question?

I trusted people’s selfishness, though. Trusted them to look out for themselves, trusted that Sebastian wanted his family safe enough to betray his own people.

“I trust his desperation to take care of his family,” I replied.

“I believe he’s hiding something. I know he said he didn’t want his people’s death on his hands, but I wonder if there’s another reason he didn’t want to take us to the compounds,” Alastor added, scanning the trees with quiet assessment.

I wasn’t sure if I agreed. Taking us to the compounds and watching us slaughter his people, knowing he had a direct hand in leading us, would give anyone pause. Still, I trusted Alastor and his instincts.

“Do you think one of the lirio can watch him without his notice?” When he nodded, I continued. “He has a phone in his pocket. I’d like to know if he uses it to call anyone before we make it to Niev.”

“Consider it done.” Alastor turned to where the lirio had blended in with the trees.

Although he didn’t speak, they seemed to understand each other.

The lirio I recognized as Koa stepped forward before he dashed through the woods in the same direction Sebastian had gone.

“Koa will shadow him once he and his family reach the tree line, but unless you put his family in the woods, he won’t be able to trail them once we step back into Niev. ”

I nodded in understanding. “I appreciate it. Why is it you use Koa the most?”

“He likes Teddy,” Alastor said simply. “The other lirio are skeptical of you, but Koa steps up and would protect you if needed because my cousin has shown him and his family a basic kindness those who live outside your borders haven’t experienced.”

Unsure what to say, I simply nodded, but I wondered how much of Koa’s willingness had to do with Alastor’s hold on him.

Leonora had once been able to control the fae and creatures that lived outside of Niev’s borders, but that control had transferred to Alastor when his sister died.

That was why our realm now experienced a peace we’d never had.

“The orb you keep in your inner pocket of magic,” Alastor said.

It was the same orb Leanora had used to siphon magic from fae to store so she could absorb it as she needed.

“My sister stored all manner of magic in there,” he said, his fingers grazing his chin. “Perhaps it has something that could tip this war in our favor.”

I only considered it because Alastor was the one to bring it up, but I loathed the idea of using someone else’s magic. The idea was made worse when I considered whether Leanora had killed the fae after depleting them of their magic.

“Are you able to absorb specific magic from the orb?” I asked.

“Leanora was able to pick and take from the magic she needed, but I don’t know how,” he said. “I would have to question the living book.”

The magical book the mages left behind for Alastor and his siblings to teach the triplet younglings the way of mages so they could one day right the wrongs of my parents .

“It’s something to consider,” I said after a few beats.

I considered George, but although he was a seer, his magic only gave him small, oftentimes vital glimpses of the future for those he was closest to. I didn’t want his attention on something that wouldn’t prove fruitful when I needed him concentrating on Niev.

“You didn’t make the unbreakable bargain with him.” He paused to search my face. “Why?”

I almost let my exhaustion show before I thinned my lips and forced my expression to something I hoped resembled neutrality. “We’ll have his family in our realm. He must know that if he betrays us, they’re the ones who’ll suffer.”

“Would you really harm his family?”

I hesitated and was saved from answering when I heard footfalls and heavy breathing near us.

A female who appeared to be the same age as Teddy walked toward us with two young boys on either side of her.

I raised my head, taking in quick breaths through my nose so I could better scent them to see if they carried iron on their bodies.

Alastor nodded, seeming to draw the same conclusion as me.

Where Sebastian came to us wearing iron, his family had none.

When they stopped in front of us, Sebastian carried two small bags while the boys huddled behind their mother. It reminded me of the first time I’d seen Victoria and the way she’d clung to her mother’s legs, not knowing her mother would soon abandon her.

I crouched in front of the children and smiled when one of them peeked from behind his mother. Their mother angled her body in front of the youngest, whose curiosity had him stepping from behind her protection .

I bit back a sigh at the scent of her fear, and when I spoke, I made sure to keep my voice low and calm. “I have three little girls back home. They’re a couple of years older than you, but maybe you can be friends with them.”

The little boy looked up at his mother in question, and she ran a hand through his messy hair while he squeezed his gloved hands together.

“That would be great,” she answered, and I stood as she chewed on the side of her chapped lips. “Thank you for taking us in, and I want you to know I’m sorry about . . .”

I shook my head before she continued. “We’re not talking about that right now,” I said with a brittle snap.

Not when I was leaving my people behind to help someone whose husband had aided in abducting them. I didn’t know their living conditions or if they were getting enough food or rest, but I did know the longer I left them exposed to iron, the sooner each of them would meet their death.

And I was walking away from them.

It was wrong.

As if he’d heard my thoughts, Alastor said, “I’ll leave Koa and Agthor to watch the compound. What would you have them do if the humans move your people?”

Kill them , I wanted to say. Take out any human responsible for harm or discomfort done to the fae and rescue my people.

But . . . “If the lirio act without us, it’ll alert the soldiers that we know where they are.

” I bit the inside of my cheek, hating the words I had to say.

“Right now, we have the element of surprise. The lirio can’t do anything except watch, but if the soldiers move them and the lirio follow them, at least we’ll know where they go. ”

Working with the lirio was strange. While I’d originally been reluctant to rely on them, they could go undetected and gather intel, both of which we desperately needed.

If Nalari were here . . .

She wasn’t, so it didn’t matter. I tried not to think about my Guardian.

It was foolish of me to reach out to her, knowing her half of our connection would be empty. Even expecting it didn’t lighten the agony that pierced through my soul when the emptiness met me.

She’d been my Guardian for eight years, and she’d left me, proving what she’d always told me. We weren’t friends. She’d been my Guardian, and I her ward, and she’d left me because her duty to me had vanished once we learned the truth about the dragons.

I wanted to hate her for it, but there wasn’t any room among all the pain that festered and grew inside me.

When Sebastian’s wife turned to talk to her sons, I saw the bump that rounded her stomach. I sniffed the air to confirm the obvious and almost laughed at myself for not hearing the extra heartbeat.

“You’re pregnant.” It came out gentle with a reverent tone I couldn’t hide.

But children were rare in Niev, and few couples were able to conceive. And too many of those awarded such a special gift never made it to full-term.

She peered down at her belly and gave it a gentle rub. “I am.”

My throat bobbed when I focused on the unborn babe’s strong heartbeat.

“We’ll make sure you see a healer in Niev,” I told her. “They’ll monitor you and your babe’s health. ”

When the youngest of the two boys started shivering, I ushered the family closer to me.

“I need each of you, including the young males, to hold on to me so I can take us to the tear in the veil,” I told them.

It wasn’t the same tear I’d created at the food bank Teddy had worked at in Colina Verde, but one in the surrounding woods of my old region, where we could travel unnoticed by the military who still guarded the area.

Creating tears in the veil was a rare form of magic that only the dragons possessed, but as a royal, my parents, uncle, and I had been gifted the ability after reaching maturity at the age of 119.

Any one of us could create a tear with a slash of our hand joined with our magic.

I simply needed a beacon of sorts to focus on, and I could go to any realm I chose.

While Alastor and the two lirio going back with us touched my shoulders and arms, Sebastian and his wife hung back. They wore similar cautious expressions.