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Chapter twenty-nine

Roisin

“ H e’s not in the castle,” the Demon King said.

“Then where is he?” Father asked, having joined us.

“I’ve sent a search party outside,” the Demon King said.

“I’m going too.”

“We’ll all go,” Father said. “The Fellowship member is all of our responsibility.”

“Agreed,” the Demon King said. “Secrets no longer need to be kept. I won’t have the young man die here. I’ll return him to Earth myself as soon as we find him.”

He glanced at Tay, who scowled but nodded. There was more they weren’t telling us, but I didn’t care about anything else except finding Brandon. We strode out the doors of the castle and immediately two guards flew to the King, landing in front of him.

“Your Majesty, we believe he’s in the Forest of Forgetting. ”

“No,” the Demon King said. His wings snapped out, and he launched into the sky, leaving us staring after him.

“Where’s the forest?” I asked.

The guard shook his head. “You can’t go into the forest.”

“Why not?” Father asked.

“You don’t want to go into the forest,” the other guard said.

“At least take us near the forest,” Father said. “We’ll wait on the outskirts for the King to return with the man.”

Mother slid her arm through Father’s and gave him her concerned look, but I agreed with Father that the closer we were to the forest the better, so we’d see if the King brought Brandon out and returned him home. The icy air whipped around us as we walked away from the castle. Brandon was human, and he’d almost died from exposure to the cold in the Winter Court. How long had he been outside? It was so hard to tell the time in this place. It was so different to the Summer Court and Earth.

The walk was a long one, and every step was crucial to getting Brandon inside and out of the cold. Tay would heal him again if he’d suffered frostbite, I was sure of that, so I didn’t worry about him losing limbs. He had to be all right. My heart ached if I thought he wouldn’t be all right .

There was no other choice. I loved the man. I wanted more time with him than these fleeting moments we’d shared.

We arrived at the edge of the forest where quite an array of demons had converged. In the center of them stood a hunched-over old man. Another human? I thought they didn’t like humans in the Winter Court.

“Who is the old man?” I asked the guard.

The guard looked at me but didn’t answer. The old man was crying and blabbering incoherently. A woman demon had her arms wrapped around him, comforting him, which was a strange sight to see, because demons appeared to despise humans, or perhaps they only looked down on them?

A howl of wolves rang out from the forest.

“Shit,” the guard said.

All the other demons froze and stared into the forest.

“Now what?”

“There are guardian demon wolves in the forest. That’s why no one goes in there.”

“What about the Demon King?”

“He’s the ruler, of course, he goes anywhere in his realm.”

“So, if he finds Brandon before the wolves, then he’ll be fine,” I said, trying to convince myself more than the demon.

The demon’s lips firmed into a tight line. Huge leathery wings and a set of golden feathered wings circled the forest overhead. The Beast and Queen Thea had joined the search. I was suddenly thankful for the extra family members. The Beast growled high in the sky, but an answering growl came from the forest. Then the Beast and Queen Thea flew to us and dropped from the sky.

“He has him,” the Beast said, as he stood in front of me, a giant of a demon, blocking my view of the forest.

I bounced left, then right, trying to look behind him.

The Beast placed his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye. “It’s not good.”

“No.” I gasped, my power surged, and shot ice into him, breaking his hold on me. I ducked under his arm and ran toward the forest.

My parents called out my name, and the demons yelled, but no one would stop me. I threw up a blockade of ice behind me. I heard it crumble a second later, whether at the hands of my father, or the Beast, I wasn’t sure, but I kept running toward the forest. A dark shadow appeared. The tall form of the Demon King stepped from the last of the trees in the forest. He carried something in his arms.

Brandon.

I ran even faster.

The Demon King paused outside the edge of the forest and placed Brandon on the ground.

“No, no, no.” I skidded to a stop by his side and dropped to the ground. “Brandon.”

His skin was blue from his lips to his cheeks. Ice covered his eyelashes. He appeared to be a sleeping ice sculpture. My hands landed on his chest hoping against hope that his heart still beat, that he wasn’t dead yet .

There.

A tiny faint flicker of a heartbeat.

“He’s not dead.”

“Not yet.” The Demon King grimaced.

A hand landed on my shoulder, then the old man fell across Brandon’s body.

“My son, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just wanted you to see the truth.”

“Son?” I shoved the old man from Brandon. “You did this to him and he’s your son!”

My power flared. I wanted to kill him for hurting Brandon. Make him suffer for the death that Brandon was about to experience.

“Dad?” Brandon’s voice croaked.

I jolted to a stop. The old man crawled back to Brandon’s side.

“Son, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Dad.” Brandon shivered.

The old man touched Brandon’s frozen cheek.

“At least I understand you didn’t leave me on purpose,” Brandon struggled to get out as though each word was painful. His blue lips cracked and bled with each movement of his lips.

“Brandon, I love you, son.”

“I love you too.” Brandon’s eyes fluttered closed.

“I didn’t mean for you to run into the forest.” He sobbed. “I only wanted you to see I didn’t want to leave you.”

I couldn’t lose Brandon like this. He was mortal, but he deserved a full mortal life, not the few years he’d enjoyed. My power built and built until I wasn’t able to contain it any longer. The Veil heeded my call and swirled into existence.

“Roisin, stop,” Father said.

“No, I promised I’d take him home and I will.”

Father’s eyes glittered with pride, but he shook his head. “The Veil might kill him.”

Tears fell from my eyes and instantly turned to icicles.

“He’s dying, anyway.”

Snow swept around Brandon’s body, lifting him into the air. I drew on my power to walk with him into the Veil, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t be the one to end his suffering. My hand snapped into my pocket where I’d kept Tay’s stone. If Tay imbued it with her demon magic, then it was a demon portal, and it might work as a gateway to wherever I wanted. I yanked it out and said the words she’d told me to say.

The Veil vanished, and a portal took its place. Placing my hand into the swirling snow of my powers hovering Brandon’s body in the air, I stepped into the portal. The trip was instantaneous. One second, I was in the Winter Court, the next I was in the secluded garden of the Fellowship beside the spring. I lowered Brandon to the ground and drew my power back until no speck of snow covered him, but he was still. Silent. Blue and bloody.

A scream rent the air, and then his mother was shaking him and crying. Brandon’s body flopped with each heart-wrenching movement.

“Please, do something.” She lifted her tear-streaked face to mine .

My tears had fallen silent and unheeded until the moment devastation stared back at me.

“I’m not sure what to do. I’m not a healer. My power is over ice, not fire. The cold of the Winter Court did this to him. I’d unfreeze him if I could.” I held out my hands. “Tell me what to do, please.”

“He’s my boy. I love him,” she sobbed.

“I love him too.”

“Then save him. Do anything.”

Behind me, the water trickled down the fountain, kicking my frozen brain into gear.

“If we were in the Summer Court, I’d try the water from the Spring of Life… your fountain has the same water…” I walked closer to the fountain. “What if?”

“No,” she said. “The water corrupts humans. He’d rather be dead than like a Trapper.”

I put my hand in the water. Power thrummed over my skin. This was the answer. The only answer to saving Brandon.

“It’s the only way to save him.”

“I said no.” She stood and marched over to me.

My power lashed out from my palms in an instant, wrapping her legs in ice so she couldn’t stop me.

“You wanted me to do anything to save him,” I reminded her. “This is it.”

I scooped the water into my hand and carried it back to Brandon. He was so lifeless, but tiny droplets of blood still spilled from his lips and his bloodied hands, whatever had happened to them. I lifted the back of his head and gently tipped the handful of water into his mouth. He didn’t swallow at first, but then he did. I gathered his head into my lap and stroked his hair, watching and waiting to see if the water from the spring would heal a human.

Time ticked. His mother cursed me the entire time. Other Fellowship members came to investigate the noise, but I froze their legs too. No one would get near Brandon while I was here.

Father and Mother stepped through the Veil and kneeled beside me.

“Roisin, sweetheart,” Mother said.

“No,” I said, placing my hand on his chest.

I couldn’t lose him. My heart ached. Every inch of my body howled in pain. There would be nothing for me if I didn’t have Brandon. I understood that deep in my core.

Ice covered my hands. It flowed onto Brandon and the ground, and soon my magical ice encased everyone in the garden and held them in a state of stasis. Alive but not moving. It wasn’t enough. My power screamed at me to fix Brandon. To bring him back to me and if it couldn’t, then to freeze it all until I figured out how to do so. On and on it poured, freezing anything and everything in its path.

Brandon was mine.

Death wouldn’t take him from me.