The woman who emerged wore simple village clothes from his kingdom. She looked pale as she wiped at her eyes and searched beyond the alcove.
When she saw Lex suspended in air, she let out a pained cry and ran to the edge, her arms outstretched.
Lex’s body floated to the woman. She cradled Lex in her arms on the cave floor, rocking and running her hands down Lex’s face.
Before Garrin could figure out what was happening, the woman’s head swung in his direction.
He started to fall again, descending to the infinite bottom. Yet all he could think was Lex was in the arms of a stranger, her body near death. “Lexandra!”
Garrin halted midair as though he were on a string, the abruptness knocking the air from his lungs.
He slowly floated up, level with the alcove where Lex and the woman were.
“Who are you?” the woman asked. “And how do you know my daughter?”
Daughter?
10
“I am Garrin Branimir,” he said. “Prince of Dark Kingdom.”
The woman blinked several times as though surprised, and then her nostrils flared in anger. “Why have you brought my daughter here?”
Garrin looked down and jerked at the vertigo that rushed through him. “Can we discuss this on land?”
“No,” the woman said.
Now Garrin saw the resemblance. Only Lex dared to defy him, and it seemed this woman did too.
“I am taking Lex to my kingdom,” he said. No need to tell the woman he’d taken Lex against her will. “She is very ill from our journey and needs help. Are you truly her mother?” It was a strange twist of fate to be saved by Lex’s mother inside the Great Ravine.
“Are you truly the son of Casone?” Bitterness filled the woman’s tone, and it didn’t bode well that she knew his father by name.
But Fae didn’t lie, not even to save themselves. “Yes.”
Garrin’s father wanted what was best for his people, but he could be ruthless in his means. Lex’s mother might have been on the receiving end of his father’s wrath, considering from where she emerged.
“Please release me and let me help your daughter.”
After what felt like a century suspended over the ravine, Garrin slowly floated to the alcove ledge, where he finally touched ground.
He bent over, hands on his knees as he caught his breath. He was still power-starved, and just plain starved, after weeks of giving Lex his rations.
He slowly straightened. “Thank you. We must get Lex to my people, where she can be healed.” He hesitated, glancing around. “How did you come to be here?”
The woman sighed harshly, still holding Lex. “Your father, of course.”
Garrin closed his eyes. It was just as he’d feared. “I am sorry.”
“As am I. ’Twas around the time of your birth… What human year did you say it was?”
He hadn’t, but he rattled off the year the humans went by, and the woman’s eyes enlarged.
“No,” she said. “It can’t be… Time runs differently in our realm, which is why I had the spell slow Lex’s age and make her forget…” She shook her head, looking crestfallen.
Garrin took a chance and moved closer. “What did you say your name was?”
The woman blinked and looked up. “I am Isle Meinrad, but we don’t have time for greetings. We must return to the human realm, where Lex will be safe.”
