Page 128 of Fallen Heirs

“Where is Xavier?” he asked me.

“With Marlowe. He’s being schooled in the responsibilities of commanding an army.”

His eyes lit up. “Wonderful. When there’s a natural break, send him in. Not until then. I don’t want his progress interrupted. This is good for him.”

“We actually don’t need to bother him. I have a test tube of his blood right here,” Vanessa said, reaching into a gray box with her magic emanating from it and pulling out said test tube. “Left over from our earlier experiments.”

Off his incredulous look, I told him, “She had the foresight to ask me to transport your supplies over here the night we brought you here after theExemplarbattle.”

He wrapped his arm around her and kissed her platinum-blonde curls. “You are truly amazing, my darling.”

“I learned from the best,” she said, nuzzling against him.

When they became all lovey dovey a little too much, my father cleared his throat. “Yes, love is certainly in the air, is it not?”

Vanessa blushed and pulled away from Elliot, moving about the long metal table again.

“Speaking of love being in the air, you appear to be engaged? To your Commander, no less?”

“Are you vying for an invitation to our wedding, El?”

“I’m not already invited?”

My father chuckled. “You’re on the list. Now I’ll add a plus-one, however, in light of this most surprising romantic development.”

Elliot grinned out at him. “I’m honored.” He shifted his weight with his cane, taking on a more serious tone as he told my father, “Speaking of important affairs that will change the shape of much, Abigail put something in place before she died concerningyou.”

My father and I exchanged a look and we both tensed.

Please be something positive. Please be something positive.

When Elliot smiled, relief sung through me and I saw my father relax too. “I apologize for the delay, but while we’re in this perpetual state of war and under constant attack, there hasn’t been an opportune moment to see to what she prepared. It’s an official pardon from her andExemplaras a whole, along with a complete retraction of the ill will inflicted upon you and the Dark Fae Realm, including reparations to be made to your kingdom for what transpired during theCataclysm.As soon as Constantine, Lenora, and their acolytes have been defeated, the pardon will take effect. All of it will.”

“I appreciate that.”

“It’s what you deserve. And I sincerely hope your relationship withExemplarcan be mended in the coming months.”

“If you remain at the helm, I believe that can be arranged.”

I smiled out at my father. After all these years, he’d finally been vindicated. And soon it would be known to the entire supernatural world too.

They resumed working on the spell to track his magic, until they had something viable to put to writing it.

“We have to assume that the container is protected by Lenora’s celestial magic,” my father pointed out.

Elliot nodded. “Indeed. We’ll require Alena’s blood to ensure we break it.”

“Yes, it will be easier and more timely to break it as soon as we locate it, as opposed to transporting it here. The moment the container is breached, your magic will flood you. No delays.”

“Start writing it and I’ll bring her here,” I told them.

Instead of heading out of the lab and retrieving her that way, I did something I’d been avoiding for too long now because of my hangups and sensitives about her mind having been breached and abused by that maniac, Constantine. Things had shifted now—in her—and I believed she was ready. More than that, the time for treating her all too carefully was over, she deserved better than that. She’d proven that she could handle a great deal. It was about time I returned to treating her that way too, to challenging her and going toe-to-toe with her like I used to.

So, I reached out with my mind, connecting with hers through the depth of our bond.

I pushed carefully so as not to make the first time uncomfortable, as it could be if it was done too harshly.

Fortunately, despite the anti-mind meddling spell I’d protected her with, merely communicating through a mind-link was a separate sort of thing. It was only the act of trying to interfere or mess with her thought processes that it guarded against.

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