“When I purchased it that was exactly what I had in mind, but every time I tried to enchant it, I could never get the spell to stick. It was most frustrating. In the end, I decided it was more important to give you the rock unsullied than even I had realised. I hadn’t given it a second thought until a few nights ago, when I felt a disturbance.”
“What kind of disturbance?” Raxx asked.
“I’m not sure. I woke in the middle of the night with the feeling something monumental was occurring.” Tabitha shrugged.
Raxx laughed and shook his head. “Tell me, do you often get these monumental feelings?”
“When you’re as significant to the balance of all power as I am, you get used to it.” The witch grinned. “Care to fill me in?”
“In a nutshell – the king sent me to recover Lephas and his team and I found her on the way. That bloody crystal lights up around her and gets so hot I can’t touch the fucking thing.”
Tabitha hummed thoughtfully. “It did that before, didn’t it?”
“Exactly the same.” Raxx paused. Tabitha had a way of finding out whatever she wanted to know, he supposed there wasn’t much point in keeping anything from her. “That’s not the least of it either. Do you know who she is?”
“I’m waiting with baited breath to find out.” Tabitha replied.
“Her name is Faye—” Raxx continued.
“Pretty, I like it.”
“She’s a faerie, but not just any – she’s the youngest daughter of King Lazuli.”
Tabitha stared at him for a long moment, simply blinking her yellow eyes.
“Oh, and if that weren’t enough, like the gem stone; I can’t touchhereither.” Raxx shrugged, leaning back heavily into the chair and crossing his arms over his chest.
“Well, well, well. No wonder I couldn’t enchant the gem – you say I’m a master of misery, but even I couldn’t have engineered something so…”
“Shit?”
“That’s one word for it. Goodness, disappointment in droves…” Tabitha muttered, pressing her lips together and staring off across the room thoughtfully. “Where is she now?”
“In a cell, as is Lephas and Lazuli’s middle daughter, Lori.” Raxx laughed as Tabitha’s brows knitted in confusion. “A lot has happened since I saw you last.”
“I’m sitting comfortably, Raxx. Start at the beginning.”
Chapter Fourteen
“You took your time,” Faye grumbled as Raxx’s formidable shadow finally emerged from the darkest corner of her cell.
The princess’s day had been one of the worst in living memory. She had sat, imprisoned inside her stone box, whilst streams of guards came to curiously gawp at her through the iron bars, like she was some sort of freak in a carnival attraction.
Faye had spent her day alternating between pacing back and forth and cowering in a corner, impatiently awaiting Raxx’s return.
After the shadow demon had left her the night before, she had eventually fallen asleep; too exhausted to fight it any longer, her anxiety alleviated by the warm glow of the majick flames. Faye hadn’t slept for long, but what little sleep she did have was deep and dreamless. She was grateful for that small mercy.
“Apologies, princess. There have been many things to set straight after our return, as I’m sure you can appreciate,” Raxx replied.
“How is my sister?”
“Lori is as you’d expect, given the circumstances. I’m more interested in how you’re holding up.”
Faye shrugged. There wasn’t much to tell, but the shadow demon continued to look at her expectantly.
“I’m cold, hungry and frightened – about the same as yesterday, except possibly too dehydrated to cry now, which I suppose is a blessing in disguise,” Faye muttered.
“Have you been adequately fed and watered?” Raxx asked.
