Lori’s eyes widened. “What? How could you possibly know?”
“Raxx showed me. We’ve been tracking you for days. I saw the place where the demons fought with father’s men.” Faye’s voice was low, barely above a whisper.
“How could you ever expect me to go back now?” Lori asked, her eyes wavering with tears.
“What else can we do?” Faye asked. “Our only hope is to return home and beg for father’s forgiveness.”
“Actually, there is another option.” The princess gazed over Faye’s shoulder in Raxx’s direction. Faye followed her eye line, turning to look at him as well.
“The demons?”
“There’s something else you should know.” A small smile crept onto Lori’s face. “But not right now, somewhere private.”
When both princesses looked over at him again, Raxx held his palms up and turned his back once more. He strode further away into the forest, ducking behind a dense pine and quickly sliding away into the shadows. He rounded back to the camp, keen to eavesdrop on the faerie’s conversation. Lori had her hand cupped beside her sister’s ear, whispering something. Raxx stalked closer still, straining to listen in.
“…So, I need to get back to Lephas, as soon as possible.”
Faye took a step backwards, looking at her sister with an incredulous expression. “I don’t know what to say.”
Lori giggled. “He’s out there, back in the woods where your friend picked me up. He’s going to be worried sick when he wakes up and I’m not there.”
“Raxx is not my friend,” Faye snapped, crossing her arms under her bust.
Raxx felt an all too familiar frown crease his forehead. He and Faye were not friends, that much was true, but it wasn’t easy to hear out loud. The shadow demon bristled, fighting the urge to become corporeal and defend himself. It didn’t matter what Lori thought of him, and it shouldn’t matter what Faye thought either.
“Wait, Raxx?” Lori’s eyes lit up with recognition. “I know of him. He’s one of Lephas’s men. How did you come to be with him?”
“It’s a long story,” Faye sighed.
Raxx silently urged the princess to divulge more information to her sister. Maybe if Lori heard the full story, not just Faye’s side of things, she would feel differently. Raxx could sense how uneasy Lori was around him already – in fact, the elder sister’s reaction was much more in keeping with how he expected Faye to have behaved around him. He wondered if Faye had been harbouring an attraction to him, like the one he shamefully had for her, right from the beginning.
“Do you think we can persuade Raxx to take me back to Lephas?”
The shadow demon felt like a bucket of ice water was dumped over him. In all the drama of capturing Lori, Raxx hadn’t spared much thought for the fate of his commander until that moment. He was curious as to why Lori was so keen to be returned to her captor, but an urgency drove Raxx to reappear beside the faeries before they could continue their conversation.
“Lephas is alive?”
Lori and Faye jerked away in surprise.
“Raxx!” Faye snapped angrily.
“How long have you been listening to us?” Lori huffed, shooting him a filthy look.
“I wasn’t until I heard Lephas’s name,” Raxx lied. “The commander, where is he?”
“And why should I tell you?” Lori countered.
“Because that’s the whole reason I’m out here. Where is he? Is he safe?”
Lori paused, narrowing her eyes before eventually speaking. “Yes, he’s safe. He and I were camped not far from where you snatched me away. He’s going to be worried if I’m not there when he wakes.”
Raxx ran a palm over his mouth thoughtfully. If Lori was telling the truth and Lephas really was out there, he needed to return the princess as soon as possible. As much as he and the commander were friends, Lephas was still Raxx’s superior. It would not go down well for the shadow demon to have taken his commander’s charge from beneath his nose. Lephas was going to be pissed.
“We need to go,” Raxx stated simply.
“Now?” Faye spluttered, “In the middle of the night?”
“Dawn is on the horizon and the sooner we get to the commander, the better. You stay here and I will take Lori back to Lephas.”
