Page 36 of A Fate of Blood and Magic (Fated #2)

Chapter

Fifteen

ELIAS

Bed mats from Alastor’s village had been laid across our living room floor with the couch pushed back to our dining room.

I grabbed Victoria midair when she leaped from one mat to the other.

She squealed when I threw her, her arms reaching for my neck once I caught her.

Hoisting her over my shoulder, I spun in quick circles as I made my way to the couch.

Once I reached it, I tossed her gently onto its cushions.

“That’s not how you play,” Jasmine said, a scowl on her face.

“I told you already.” When I hopped toward her, she grinned. “I see no lava on the floor.”

I stomped my bare feet on the wooden floor, and when I reached her, she darted from one mat to the other.

This, sleeping with Teddy in my arms the previous night and a morning playdate with my favorite girls, was exactly what I needed. It was exactly what I didn’t want to leave to return to the human realm.

My soul longed for more simplicity in our lives. More laughter. More moments to pause from the pain and agony of recent times.

And yet, my soul had rejoiced in the torment I’d bled from Teddy’s attacker earlier this morning.

“It’s pretend,” she said with a hand to her waist. “You use your imagination.”

I grabbed her by the waist and tucked her beneath my arm. “This game you want me to play is madness.”

She giggled. To appease her, I jumped from mat to mat, almost falling twice when they slid on the floor. When we were close enough to the couch, I threw her onto it.

“Did I win?” I asked.

Juanita tackled me from behind, her thin arms wrapping around my knees.

I took my time falling dramatically, and with a quick twist of my waist, I took her down with me.

Holding her hands in mine, I lifted her with my feet propped on her stomach.

George came from behind her and tossed her onto the couch beside her sister.

Victoria jumped on my stomach, pushing air out of my lungs in a loud whoosh.

“I win!” Victoria said.

I groaned when Juanita also jumped on me. With her legs on either side of my stomach, she bounced.

“We win,” she sang. “We win. We win.”

“You win,” I grunted. “All you little monstrems win.”

From atop my stomach, Juanita drew her brows together in confusion. “What’s monstrems?”

I gently pushed the side of her head and laughed at the way she plopped herself to the floor. When I stood, I picked her up with me. “It means you’re all monsters.”

She drew her hand up like a claw and roared.

“Oh my God.” The cooking utensil Teddy was using clattered onto the counter by the burners. “You’re going to kill me,” she said to me.

George laughed incredulously. “You didn’t tell him?”

She slitted her eyes at him. “I was a tiny bit preoccupied with . . . everything yesterday.” She waved her hand in the air.

I tickled Juanita’s belly when I scented her sudden fear.

“Is this about—” Javier widened his eyes in question.

“Yes,” Teddy hissed out.

Javier grinned. “He’s definitely going to kill you. You should run.”

“Does anyone want to tell me what’s going on?” I asked.

I didn’t mind not knowing, though. It pleased me to hear the tease in their voices as it did to see the smile Teddy tried to hide.

Jasmine made a motion as if she were zipping her mouth shut. The other two girls did the same.

“Traitor,” I told Juanita as I placed her back on the floor.

She grinned.

I gripped my chest. “Your betrayal wounds me.”

Teddy lifted a finger and looked up at the ceiling. I assumed she was calling someone in her mind when an all-too-familiar roar made the light fixture hanging from the living room tremble.

I gaped back at Teddy. “That’s not?—”

“It most definitely is.” When I didn’t move, she motioned for Javier and Kieren to watch the cooking food.

I followed her with far too much hope in my heart when she led me out our new front door.

It was a harder and thicker door than the one my builders had put on our cottage.

I stumbled over the tiny step of the threshold and grinned at one of the lirio sitting on our front porch steps when he laughed at me .

Before I made it down the steps, Nalari landed on the small clearing where Hee-haw usually slept.

She was here. My Guardian was back. I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t sensed her before when all I felt now was her presence, not only in my mind but also in my soul.

Maybe, just as she was able to block our mental connection, there was a way for her to block me entirely. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

She stretched her thick neck, turning her massive head to pierce me with her golden eyes. The yellow and black scales that made up her body gleamed beneath the sun, her tail swishing through the grass and dirt.

She stared at me, waiting for me to do something. For years, she’d been my Guardian while I had tried to be her friend.

With Teddy’s hand in mine, I walked to her slowly, half expecting her to disappear again.

Her reptilian eyes took on a wary look I’d never seen on her before.

When I reached for her green face, she pushed her head against my chest. A rumble sounded from her throat, and I spread my arms around her huge head to hug her as best as I could.

“I’ve missed you,” I told her.

“I know,” she answered, to my surprise. “I’ve missed you too.”

I patted her between her flaring nostrils.

“Would you like to fly with me?” There was caution in her voice as if she expected me to reject her. “I have much to catch you up on.”

I looked at Teddy, not wanting to leave her or the younglings behind.

“Go.” She gave me an encouraging, almost hopeful smile. “We have more security than we could ever need.”

From behind me, Victoria crashed into my legs. She stood before the fierce dragon she’d never feared and held her tiny hand out toward Nalari’s face.

“I made you an empanada,” Victoria said, offering the food in her hand. “Actually, Mama Teddy made it last night after you went to your cave, but I helped make the dough. Javier said you only eat live animals and raw meat.” She scrunched up her nose. “You can try it if you want to.”

Mama Teddy. I wasn’t certain when Victoria had started calling Teddy that or if the others used it too, but it was who she was to all our younglings.

“Thank you, pequenita,” Nalari said, using Javier’s term for the girls.

She slowly plucked the food from Victoria’s hand, careful not to graze her with her sharp teeth.

I laughed in disbelief. “You’ve gone soft, Nalari. Wait, did you just speak to Tori?”

“Are you questioning me, Elias?”

White smoke flared from her nostrils, and I let out another disbelieving laugh. Teddy kissed my cheek before taking Victoria’s hand and guiding her back home.

“Have fun, mo elma,” she said from over her shoulder.

Heart racing, I climbed Nalari’s scales and onto her back. My body swayed when she shifted her weight. I looked back at Alastor, who stood on my patio with two of his lirio. Quickly, I searched for the other lirio hidden in the forest around our cottage.

Before I had time to grasp Nalari’s neck, she pitched herself into the air. A straight shot upward that made my stomach drop and heart race with excitement. I leaned into her neck, my thighs hugging her sides tighter. Without warning, she rolled several times in sharp circles. I laughed.

She flared her wings out, making us coast, before she looped down toward the ground. She glided us over the cottage with a few beats of her wings. From the distance, I saw Teddy carrying Victoria as she and the other younglings waved at us.

I would’ve waved back, but I wasn’t certain my Guardian was done toying with me.

“I’m no longer your Guardian,” Nalari reminded me.

“Habit.” I forced some cheer and tease into the word.

“But I would like to continue being your friend.”

A mixture of emotions stirred inside me. I was happy she considered me her friend, but I couldn’t quite get past the bite of bitterness that stewed. No doubt she sensed that. It was weird not being fully in sync with Nalari.

When we flew over the busiest street of Reignom, she swooped down low.

The street was empty because I’d declared a state of emergency.

I’d done it early in the morning, waking up the same council who’d refused to meet with George.

I could understand their hesitation in not wanting to cause a kingdom-wide panic, but we needed each citizen accounted for so we could question them.

By the time the citizens of Niev awoke this morning, guards were at their door ordering them to stay indoors until the order was lifted.

I couldn’t imagine the panic my fae had felt, but not a single one of them protested.

The humans were the ones who gave my guards trouble, which was another thing I’d have to contend with.

Only my warriors and guards marched the streets, several positioned in key areas. Soon, fae with truth-teller magic would join them, going house to house and questioning every person, human or fae. Then, we’d know who, if any, had hidden the men who’d crossed into our realm.

“Why have you not told your people the truth about the dragons?” Nalari asked.

I sighed. “With everything going on . . .” No, that wasn’t it. “I’m a coward, Nalari. Telling them the truth exposes my parents as the villains.”

“It exposes the dragons as the villains too.”

“Is that why you left?” I needed to know if I was the cause of her leaving . . . if my failures drove her away.

With the strong beat of her wings, she flew us higher, over the forest my friends and I had explored countless times in our youth.

Teddy had only been there once on the night we honored my father.

I wanted to take her back and show her the cave Brenton and I had carved our names on, and the lake whose color reminded me of her pretty blue eyes.