Page 76 of Obsidian Prince

“You offer me your home when your people’s ancestors took mine.” The cypress Fae huffed a small chuckle that didn’t seem like he thought anything was funny. “The world has greatly changed while I slept.”

Liliana smiled, admiring Agasga’s resilience to so quickly accept the changes in the world. Not to mention his rather magnificent, lithe build and the firm squares in his healed belly. Sharp cheekbones and a prominent nose might have made him look severe, but his eyes were large with thick lashes that almost looked feminine.

Even this ancient wounded warrior would live in the modern peace Alexander offered. Pride swelled in her chest as she looked up at her obsidian prince.

Alexander accepted pledges of fealty and obedience to a rule of law and all around her, the many kinds of people calmed. Some even smiled. There was a feeling of hope for a better future. Alexander was going to be a great king.

If she could keep him from being murdered.

Chapter20

Losing Time

Liliana spentthe rest of the week in a frazzle, searching and searching, but nothing changed. When she got up on the morning he would die, she sniffed the rose Alexander gave her and her eyes burned. It had bloomed wide, almost completely open. The petals were more than half red. The rich scent reminded her of how much she would lose if she couldn’t find a path where Alexander lived.

She fought to claim Alexander’s heart as hers, but it was a two-edged sword. Her heart already ached to be close to him always. The thought of failing him ripped at her soul.

And that was to say nothing of the land. She still didn’t know what would happen to the land that had bonded so strongly with the prince if he died. The Green kept getting stronger in Fayetteville. Alexander clearly caused that. If he died, would the land grieve? Would the Green fade and die with him?

Would I?

She met Pete and Siobhan at the Starbucks down the street from her house each morning to see if they had learned anything new that might help. Detective Shonda Jackson had been recruited to try to find information about the assassin that would come for Alexander.

Siobhan and Pete were also worried about Ben. The teacher was becoming suspicious of Pete's nature. The more hints that Ben Harper got that Pete was somehow different, combined with his glimpses of the peculiar nature of some of the children he taught, the more disturbed he became. Pete's beloved wasn't sleeping due to nightmares.

Liliana could relate.

She asked Janice Willoughby the day before to talk to Ben now that his eyes had begun to open. Give him a friendly face to answer his questions. Help him past the point where he questioned his own sanity.

In all her searching, she had seen another, unexpected danger. A woman would threaten not Pete's life, but his heart. She wouldn't kill Pete, but he might kill her, and he would regret it. She would make him cry either way.

In any other situation, the spider seer would have spent time exploring the woman's past and future to learn who she was, and why she would so deeply affect her favorite red wolf. But, for now, she had other things on her mind. Pete's heart was endangered, but her prince’s life was endangered.

She went to the coffee house. She sipped a chai tea latte and wished her head would stop pounding while she waited for Pete and Siobhan.

Siobhan came in the door with Pete on her heels. Her bright red hair was spiked more than usual on top, giving her a startled look. Pete wore his carrot-red hair spiked a little on top as well. The sprite's eyes in human form were bright blue, as were Pete's. It occurred to Liliana that the diminutive woman and the average-sized man gave the impression they might be related. Red hair and blue eyes was an unusual color combination.

Liliana remembered an image of a lock of red hair slipping out from under a black baseball cap. In all the frantic searching her fourth eyes had done over the last few days, she didn't remember where she’d seen that flash of vision.

"Hey, Lilly. How ya doing?" Siobhan said.

"I have not slept in two days," she answered the sprite. "My left arm aches and someone I care about, maybe more than one, will get murdered today. I can't figure out how to save them."

The sprite snorted. "Remind me never to ask you anything until after I've had coffee."

Pete paused to hold the door for a woman and her two children. When he finally came in, he looked at Liliana and whistled softly. "You don't look so good, Lilly. Is everything okay?"

Liliana burst into tears. "Everything is not okay."

Pete sat in the chair next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders.

The spider-kin buried her face in his chest and got his shirt wet while he patted her back.

After a few moments, she sniffled. Siobhan handed her a bunch of napkins. Liliana blew her nose and fought to get control of herself. "Do not kill the next person who points a gun at you," she told Pete, in between sniffles. “You will deeply regret it if you kill her.” She did not know who the woman was, but she had seen Pete weeping heartbroken sobs over the woman’s body. With that warning, she could at least spare one person dear to her some pain.

"Okay, Lilly. I promise."

The day had come when her prince would be tortured and murdered.. She had searched all night and all the previous day the various paths of probability, seeking some option, any option that would save Alexander. She found nothing new, but she couldn't stop searching.

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