“Is he really bad, Mama?”
I nodded. “But I will never let him get to you, my love. You have nothing to fear.”
Adeuto looked at the carved nismus in his little hands. We’d been reliving the time that the nismus followed us home from the hunt. “Will you always come home, Mama?”
I wrapped my arms around him. “There is little that can stop me, Adeuto, especially when it comes to you. If there is ever a time when I cannot return, what do you do?”
“Wait here with Grandy.”
I nodded. “I’ll return when I can.”If I can.
“If you can,” Adeuto said, his voice wobbling.
“If I can, my love, yes.” I gripped his chin. “But you should never doubt all the things I am capable of doing for you, Adeuto. Never. A mother can move the world for her child. She can do the impossible. What I’m doing is for you, Adeuto, and for me—for Grandy too. This had to happen, darling, whether now or in three more years. Nothing that is happening is your fault. Nothing that might come to be is your fault. Sometimes, we just need to do hard things. I can tell you one thing, though. Want to hear it?”
I wiped his face as he nodded.
“I love you more than anything in all the realms in the world.”
“Even the fairy one?”
“Even the fairy one,” I said, squeezing him tight.
16
I took my time washing. Then dressing. I’d need to restock clothing soon, but that was the last thought on my mind.
Mother be,I was not looking forward to this. The evening’s festivities should have started two hours ago.
Taking a deep breath, I readied my magic, then opened a portal, snapped it shut, then spun as the room exploded.
His room this time. I might as well keep my room intact.
Carmine blurred forward and roared in my face.
“Something came up, Carmine,” I said with a calm that I absolutely did not feel.
That earned me another icy roar, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
“You defied my orders,” he said in a voice of ice.
I repeated, “Something came up.”
He slammed his hands on the wall either side of my head. His teeth hovered a bare inch from my exposed neck. I had fewer scales on that side, and my chest rose and fell as his snarled breaths warmed my skin.
I chose my words with care. “It’s handled.”
Until the next supply run.
Carmine inhaled my neck, and then my clothing. I had washed thoroughly and several times. He wouldn’t smell a speck of Adeuto. “I had thought we understood each other when I mentioned chaining you to my side.”
“I understood?—”
He roared in my face again, and I bit back the rest of my reply.
He whispered against my neck, and rage lent a hiss to the sound, “Be late again, and there will be steep consequences. I hope you understandthatbecause you will certainly understand the aftermath if you choose to defy me again.”
Chains, I imagined.I really hoped that Grandfather had bought all he needed and more. We had to figure out something better for the next supply run.
