Page 9 of Within the Veil

I take one last sorrowful glance around the dwelling and as I feel the shield around the home fall, Siomha's life force no longer feeding its power, I grab Serath'ae's case and turn to stride out of her home.

With a wave of my hand, I ignite the house and bow my head briefly, "Spiritus, in aeternum libera," I murmur quietly and watch the flames consume the house in a smoky whirlwind of ash and embers. As I step away, several Unseelie materialize from the shadows, halting mid-step when their eyes meet mine. Instead of covering my face, I offer them a mocking smile--a warning and a promise as I etch the imprint of their souls to memory, marking them for death. For now, they will report that King Oberon killed the seer, before setting her home aflame, and with him was the last part of the prophecy left unheard.

As they move forward, I breathe in deeply, savoring the feeling of their fear. And while the world seems to hold its breath, I wrap myself in darkness and surrender myself to the familiar shadows.

ChapterTwo

Death does not take a bribe.

Death is the master of the world.

Death puts its own appearance on everyone.

-Irish Proverb-

* * *

Five Weeks After The Battle

* * *

Zane-

I struck the sparring mitts Grayson was holding, each hit harder than the one before. My knuckles were bleeding freely at this point, despite my healing abilities. I liked it that way. Sweat poured down my brow, my white again hair plastered to my forehead. Grunting, he threw the mitts at me as we switched off again, over and over until we were exhausted, ensuring that we could actually fall asleep that night.

* * *

"Her belly looks morerounded today. Finleiegh still doesn't have the answers for that yet, though. The babies are getting bigger every second it seems," Ryder informs me, shaking his head, and striding into the gym with a wide grin on his face--the same grin he wore when Ella confirmed the safety of the babies. It was then that we discovered the King, as the sentinel, possessed a peculiar ability to heal both Hudson and the babies. We racked our memories as much as possible, but while there are tales of small healing abilities, there had never been a recorded instance of healing the fetus while a Queen was pregnant.

* * *

"Yeah,I'm sure Xena will help with anything to ensure Hudson's well-being. She misses her as much as we do," I grunt in response as Grayson throws another punch. "Fuck, if the children are anything like this savage," I nod toward Grayson, "they're going to be born as big as boulders." Grimacing, I brace myself as Grayson hits me harder, now incorporating kicks as I attempt to block his onslaught with the mitts. Grayson chuckles softly, pulling back and strolling over to grab a towel. I toss the mitts aside and sit on the floor, reaching for my water bottle and downing its contents in one long gulp.

"It's either train and prepare or sit and wallow. So I'll take the savage comment as a compliment that thegreat protectoris getting his ass handed to him," Grayson teased, snatching the water from my hand and finishing it off.Fucker.

I scowled at him, "you fucking wish. Just because you look like you ate a fucking tractor trailer since Hudson has been in a coma doesn't mean shit."

"Gentlefae, if you want to compare dick sizes at least let me get the camera so Hudson has some spank bank material when she wakes up," Ryder laughed, unfurling his wings and stretching his back.

* * *

"Like you would rememberto film anything with all the fucking shopping you've been doing," I scoff.

* * *

This guy had developed an even biggerobsession with shopping than he ever did as a 'human.' We teased him back then, but now? He was shoving all his sadness into obsessive online shopping.

* * *

"Ryder what the fuck!Wheredid you get all this stuff and when did you have time to go shopping? I growled, trying to get around boxes of designer combat boots and..."are those Armani knife sheaths," I said incredulously.

* * *

"When I'm stressedI shop and to answer your question I'm a fucking magical woodland creature who finally got his fucking powers back. So if you think I'm not going to be flying around singing Disney songs while I jump through the veil and make it my bitch, you got another thing coming," Ryder huffed, admiring himself in the mirror. I know he was vain as a human, well as a nonhuman, but clearly his addiction to expensive things went beyond magical memory charms.

* * *

"You're worsethan a fucking leprechaun and their gold," I muttered, giving up on walking through the room and making myself 'fae-de' to the bed instead, making the air shimmer slightly. Think apparition from Harry Potter, only with a lot more shine, pomp and circumstance. As memory serves me, the Fae did always do shit big, can't just pop in and out, no. They always had to fucking glitter and shine.

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