Page 83 of Fae Unleashed

The dream crept up on me again. Before it swallowed me whole, I used the in-between to take us home and ripped myself out of Morgan’s clutches so I could go to the only person I needed right now.

33

CERRI

They told me, in the following days, that the brilliance of my light illuminated the sky as if it were day. Down in the dungeon, I couldn’t see anything. I had one chance to save myself and a fraction of an idea that might or might not work.

A familiar form appeared beside me. His dark fur nearly blended in with the shadows of the dungeon around me. I saw his eyes, first. They were the eyes of the beast. One glimpse, and I knew that the curse had taken him.

Yet, he was somehow here with me.

I didn’t question it. Instead, I asked the seed in the ground to grow a tree like the one made of all the other Cerridwens in the central foyer. This time, I needed the tree to grow into the splitting crack in the castle. I needed the branches to grab ahold of the stone walls and hold them together with all its might.

Addie told me of how she’d seen the world tree, Yggdrasil. I imagined a tree as powerful as that rising from the floor and hugging the two halves of our domain together.

The force of my will made my head spin. The world went dark…darker than usual.

When I woke, I blinked at the popcorn ceiling of my mortal bedroom. Panic shot me upright. Heart thumping, I threw off my blankets and stumbled out of bed—and directly into the chimera sleeping on my floor.

I fell face first onto the rug.

The sound of my fall alerted everyone in a half-mile radius, apparently, as they all came rushing into my room to help me up. Dryads grabbed my arms. Tal fussed over me. Feri scurried between my feet.

I held my breath. If they were all here in the mortal realm, that meant…that meant the worst had happened.

“Back the fuck up!” A familiar voice barked.

The crowd around me separated like the red sea. Ness stood in the middle with her hands on her hips. She pointed an accusing finger at me.

“No one told me that you all went to save a world without me!”

My knees trembled. Rhoan backed up behind me to give me a solid form to lean against as the fight bled out of me.

“I…I lost?” My lower lip gave away my despair.

Everyone shared confused looks. Their attention went to Rhoan, trapped in his chimera form. Still, they seemed uncertain.

Tal stepped forward. He snuck a quick glance back at Ness before giving me his full attention. “Everything back at the castle is fine. If you want, we can go together. Lady Ostara and her retinue are cleaning up the mess as we speak. You’re here because—”

Ness cut him off. “Because you all went without me! So, I demanded that they bring you here, where we can keep you safe.”

Pain filled my friend’s eyes. She must have hated standing on the sidelines, unable to protect me. We’d been in this position before. Ness hadn’t been able to keep Alvin from hurting me. But now that she was pregnant, I couldn’t bear to let her into the dangerous fae realm that Beryl kept shaking with the force of her rage.

I sank to the floor and breathed a quick sigh of relief. My castle was safe. I’d managed to keep it from crumbling. The others informed me that no one was hurt that night, either. I needed to go back and erase Beryl’s seed of power once and for all, but it should be weak. I had time.

Behind me, Rhoan nuzzled me with his big muzzle. He set his head on the floor at my hip and seemed content to be by my side. I knew that a simple flying ointment wouldn’t help me get him back this time. It wasn’t the beast holding him back. It was the power of a fae contract.

One that I would figure out how to break.

“Can…can you all give me a moment?” I didn’t think they would acquiesce, so I was surprised when the room cleared out.

Ness was the last to leave. She watched Rhoan and me with pity. I tried to ignore the emotion and how greasy it felt. Ness didn’t mean to hurt me. Her gaze tried to tell me that this was the end of my happily ever after and that she grieved on my behalf. But I wasn’t ready to give up on it.

My room hadn’t changed. The same plush blankets filled my bed. Stuffed rabbits spilled onto the floor like hunting victims. I wanted to grab one and pull it close to comfort the churning sea in the pit of my stomach.

Instead, I lifted Rhoan’s head and forced the beast to look me in the eye. He blinked once, like a cat slow-blinking as a silentI love you.

“I love you, too.” It felt too good to say now that we didn’t have to hide from it.

I could have asked how he’d escaped Faust’s clutches. I could have yelled at him for leaving me on my own.

Those things didn’t seem important right now. There was only one thing on my mind, everyone else be damned.

“I will do everything in my power to save you,” I promised him. “You and I will get our happily ever after. No matter what.”

The beast gave me a dubious look. The feathers mixed with the fur at his cheeks ruffled, but he said nothing in return. Perhaps he didn’t like the unspoken sacrifices in my statement. That mattered little. I was going to get him back if it was the last thing I did.

Nothing else would ever be taken from me.

Especially not Rhoan, the love of my life.