Page 82 of Samhain

“The king will never stop looking for her,” Lex said.

I couldn’t believe I was hearing this from him, the guy I used to spend my nights planning a family with under the stars. We had wanted lots of children, and he’d never cared if we adopted; he couldn’t be this apathetic about her. She obviously needed our help.

“She’s human,” I said.

“She’s none of our business,” Lex added.

“She became our business when we got here,” I argued.

“And what the fuck are we going to do with her when we get back to reality?” Lex raised his eyebrows, his hands on his hips, big hazel eyes darting between us. “Ivy and I cannot show up with a child out of nowhere. Neither can you, Miri.” He looked at Carter. “Chicago? You think your brand could take an illegitimate daughter?”

“That’s not the fucking point,” Carter snapped. “And you know it.”

“I’m not saying Lex is right,” Ivy said, “but I’m not saying he’s wrong.”

Carter hung his mouth open as he stared at her, half appalled, half shocked. “Weeds?”

“It’s something to think about.” Ivy rubbed at the spot on her neck. “Siobhan knows we have her. Right now, she’s helping us. But that could change. If it does…If he gets loose, he’ll come for us first.”

“He’ll have to get out of this realm,” I said. “You still have the ring. Right?”

Ivy held it up, showing it to us. “But that can’t be the only way for him to get out. Millions of years of history exist in this realm. I’m certain there are other keys.”

“We can’t leave her here to fend for herself,” Carter hissed at the same time I said, “I won’t leave her here alone.”

Silence fell and, for the first time since we were reunited, a canyon widened between us. Now I stood with my hand in Carter’s, staring down the loves of my life.

“I don’t know how to explain that we should care about a child that needs our help. This isn’t up for discussion,” Carter sneered. It was the first time I’d heard him talk to Ivy or Lex like that since Midsummer. “The queen gave her to me to protect. Not either of you.” His jaw hardened, and he shifted focus between the two of them. “And thank God for that. Because if this were my child, I’d sooner trust it to a pack of wolves. At least she might get some scraps before they tore her to pieces.” Carter gripped my hand tighter. “Now, let’s all get the fuck out of here before you both say something that makes me hate you.”

With the little girl that had captured both of our hearts, he led me out of the ruins.

We walked quietly along the trail, following Ivy and Lex ahead of us. The forest looked as barren as it sounded, the previous signs of life silenced by whatever darkness the king had brought upon them.

That voice.

It gave me chills to remember it. I’d known it from somewhere. It unlocked something in my brain, in my heart, some deeply hidden secret I didn’t realize I’d been carrying.

Dark eyes flitted through my mind’s eye. But whose? I’d never seen eyes like that before.

“This way,” Ivy said, pointing to the distance ahead. “We’re almost there.”

Both the times we’d done this, I couldn’t tell when we’d crossed in and out of Faerie. Of course, the first time I’d been hammered on fairy wine, and the second, I’d been chasing my dead parents. Now, a shimmering force field wavered up ahead, almost like the king’s presence had sucked up all the magic that had once kept the barrier invisible. It barely held itself together on whatever energy it could sponge up from the remaining forest.

A galloping sound from behind stopped me as a strange unease bubbled in my chest. Something ancient and powerful gained on us. Old magic. Dark magic. The rotten taste of smoke and despair inched over my tongue and down my throat.

The king.

“Go,” I said. “Run!”

Ivy and Lex took off, Carter quick on their heels. My legs pumped as fast as they could, but even then, my feet were anvils. I couldn’t stop what was about to happen…I shouldn’t. I needed to feel it. I needed to see it, to see…him.

Ivy disappeared behind the force field. Lex next. Carter and the child went after them. But this tightening inside made me stop and turn around. The magic took me, holding me in place, locking my knees until they wouldn’t move even if I wanted them to. A thrum reverberated in my molecules, rushing in my veins like pure adrenaline. I willed the woods around me.

Grow. Grow. Grow. Grow.

Yes, it answered. Yes, yes, yes.

It was exhausted from Alberich’s dark energy, and it needed time to heal, but this, it could do for me, for us, if I helped. And I could. I fed it my energy, willing the lingering vegetation to burst forth. I pushed everything I had left into it, knowing the woods and I could protect my family. We had to. We were the only ones who could.

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