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“Princess!” A voice pierced the wall of silence. “You live! The Prophecy speaks true!”

I whirled around to see Delgarias hurrying towards me so fast that he became a blur. His velvet robe nearly tripped him.

“Oh, Revered One,” I whispered and collapsed in his arms, not caring how he came to be here. Even though I hadn’t seen him in nearly two millennia, right now, he was the brother he was supposed to be.

His tall form supported me. He took in the aching sight my bruised body and torn wings. I wonder if he knew the gown I was wearing—now covered in dirt and blood—was supposed to be for my wedding.

Delgarias’s voice silenced the internal screaming over my wedding that was no longer to be. “We must leave now, Kerainne. The Prophecy has spoken. Your unborn daughter must be safe and hidden from Mephistopheles.”

“I’m going to have a baby?” I gasped and looked down at the blood slithering down my ankles.

Unbidden, my hands crept down to my belly.

What he was saying was too awful to comprehend.

As was custom, Lucian and I hadn’t made love in a whole year.

It had been torture, and now was agony. Because that meant—”

“Yes,” Del answered my unspoken question. “And Mephistopheles will know if we don’t hurry. She will be the savior of this world and others. So the Prophecy has told me. You must go to the only place where there is no magic. Mephistopheles cannot find you there. ”

My lower lip trembled. This was all too much, too fast. “The Earth realm?”

Del nodded. “This world is not safe for her now. On Earth she’ll remain undetected until the time comes for her to return. There she will gather allies for a future conflict. We must delay no longer.”

He pulled me forward, and used a transport crystal to teleport us out of the boundaries of Medicia. I hugged his slim waist and pressed my face into his robes, feeling the warmth of his chest against my icy cheek and listening to his heartbeat, slower than a luminite’s, but not by much.

When the scent of beeswax, herbs, and other things that weren’t death reached my nose, I lifted my head and released Del.

“Where are we?”

“My tower,” he answered in a voice that told me he wouldn’t elaborate on where it was. “I’m going to run you a bath, tend to your wounds, and then we have to go. I have clothes for you in the bathroom.”

“Do you have a de-seeding potion?” I never thought I’d ask such a thing, but the thought of bearing Mephistopheles’s offspring horrified me.

“No!” Del roared and his eyes glowed white fire. “Did you hear what I said back there? You have to keep the seedling, nurture it, and let it grow into a baby.”

“But—”

The furious glow dimmed and he took my hands and squeezed them gently, softening his tone.

“Listen to me, Kerainne. This child, your daughter, is the key to destroying Mephistopheles for good. She will raise an army against him and she will win. Your land and people may be lost, but think of all the others that could be saved. If you terminate this pregnancy, Aisthanesthai could become as barren as Earth.”

“I don’t know if I can do it,” I stammered as shivers broke out in my body. “What if she turns out evil, like him?”

“She won’t,” he said so confidently that it could only be the truth. “Not with you as her mother.”

The bath warmed the chill on the outside, but it couldn’t touch the ice that had frozen around my heart.

I washed myself in a daze, barely noticing the stings of all my various cuts.

When I clambered out of the tub, the cooling water was brown with dirt and blood.

I put on the black dress Del had provided—wondering if the color was for my mood or my mage ranking.

The scratch of a tag on the back of my neck startled me until I saw the tag in the underwear he’d also left in here.

The clothes were from Earth, and so were the shoes, reminding me that I’d be going there soon for several years.

When I finished dressing and emerged, Del—now dressed in black jeans and a t-shirt—put healing salves and bandages on my arms and legs.

He then mixed a potion from various materials he had set on the counter.

The last ingredient made me blink in astonishment.

He bit the tip of one of his long faelin fingers so delicately that it was a shock that he drew blood, which he then dripped into the potion before handing it to me.

Blood magic was forbidden for the faelin. Was that why he was banished from his homeland?

“What’s this?” I asked.

“A healing draft with some painkiller. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt the seedling.”

I drank, tasting the bitterness of opium, some herbs, honey for healing and a bit of sweetness, and magic of a kind that I’d never felt before. It zinged through the roof of my mouth and sent a little electric spark through my body.

Del gave me no time to ask about that magic.

He led me outside into a courtyard full of overgrown plants and opened a portal.

We stepped through and walked out into a dark, human-made tunnel.

I’d been here once before. Unlike Aisthanesthai, Earth’s portals were stationary.

I’d discovered how awful that could be when I visited the area in the ’80s, and instead of a beautiful clearing near the lake, I’d stepped into a musty unused tunnel under a courthouse.

“Coeur d’Alene?” My shoulders sank in disappointment. “I’d hoped for somewhere warmer.”

“I’m sorry.” Del pulled out his transport crystal. “It has to be here. Everything begins here.”

He transported us to a light blue Victorian house with a covered porch and handed me a set of keys. “Welcome home, Kerainne.”

Not only did he buy me a house, filled with furniture, the beginnings of a wardrobe in the master bedroom closet, and the cupboards and fridge stocked with food, Del also bought me a car, a darling silver Toyota, and had procured all the Earth documentation I needed.

He handed me a stack of cash and a checkbook. “This should carry you for a few months, but it’s best if you find a job. You’ll need to integrate with society as much as possible. Not only to stay hidden, but also so you’ll have people to help you when I can’t be here.”

“You can’t stay with me?”

He shook his head sadly. “Aside from having other responsibilities, it’s too dangerous. I don’t know if he still keeps track of me.”

Del didn’t need to specify who “he” was. I shuddered at the idea of seeing him again.

He stayed true to his word, sitting by me on the plush couch, watching movies on the big TV. He’d even gotten me cable.

I awoke in my new bedroom, so much smaller than the one in my parents’ palace. It was supposed to be my wedding day. But instead, I was all alone on Earth. My family was gone, my people were gone, my home was gone, and the one who’d done it had impregnated me.

And Lucian—oh, fates, Lucian! How had he reacted when everyone from Medicia had ascended to Luminista and told everyone what happened? And how long would it take him to find me? Did I want him to find me? How would he react when I told him I was pregnant?

This was supposed to be our wedding day. I buried my head in my knees and cried until the down comforter Del had provided was soaked.

I remained in a daze for nearly a week. Del came back every night for the first five nights, making sure I ate and bathed, talking to me in soothing tones, watching movies and TV with me, and telling me about all I needed to know about Earth.

He knew this place better than I did, which shocked me.

He’d never accompanied Nik and me on rescue missions.

I didn’t dwell on that question long. I was in too much pain and too grateful for his presence.

But my days were empty. I spent those curled up in bed, crying until I couldn’t any longer, then wandering around my new house like a ghost.

The first thing to pull me out of my daze was the realization that this pregnancy was guaranteed to be successful.

I didn’t have to worry about another miscarriage.

I would have a daughter. A child of my own at last. And I would have my revenge on Mephistopheles.

Like Del, said, I was her mother, so I must do everything I could to help her towards that goal.

I started by opening the cupboard and preparing a beef stew. While that was simmering, I made a lunchmeat sandwich. I would eat all the meat I could. A carnivorous child would be more capable of killing.

And when Delgarias arrived, the movies I selected were the most violent I could find in the shelves full of discs and videotapes.

Tomorrow, I would drive to the music store and buy the most violent, angry music I could find.

But I would also counter the anger and violence with happy thoughts and stories, honorable things too.

Her name would come from the most complex tribe I knew, capable of brutal violence, but also great honor, beautiful creativity, and strong magics.

Xochitl. The word meant “flower,” but was also the time of the month when Xochiquetzal, goddess of beauty, love, and happiness, looked over artists and singers, and all creatives.

The second thing that gave me strength was hope that Lucian would find me. Once he did, I’d no longer be alone. And when I eventually died from Earth’s lack of magic. He could be there and watch over her until she was ready to return to Aisthanesthai and fulfill the Prophecy.