The flames were no true threat me.
I stepped forward, through the wall of fire, and it vanished before I felt any burn.
“Brother,” Shadow said gruffly, crossing his arms as he stared me down. He was alone. “Leaving so soon?”
Bastard always knew what was happening in his library. He’d have felt my barely contained rage the second I entered his dominion. “I can’t ask this of you, Shadow,” I said with a shake of my head. “In my fury, I forgot that you have young to protect. Just as I do now.”
As Shadow moved closer, more of his energy rose to surround us both. “Len, need I remind you that your problems are my problems. Samantha is pack too. A part of my Sunshine’s family.” He looked behind me, as if double checking I was alone. “And since she’s not with you, and I have felt a similar rage to yours before, I can only assume she’s the reason you need help.”
Some days his intelligence was a huge advantage, and other days… fucking annoying.
He wouldn’t let me leave though. I knew that as well as I knew myself.
“Len…” One final warning, from a beast about to lose his shit.
“They severed the Great Line,” I rumbled, my fury pushing up once more. “Samantha is somehow connected to the Great Queen, and when we attempted to lift the Faerie glamour on us both, Fredrick felt her energy.” Rumbles spilled from my chest. “He was monitoring the energy, pushing to get the line severed, and when he felt her, he decided to just go right the fuck ahead without any permission.”
“Samantha is born of the Great Queen’s line?” Shadow said, brow furrowing as he attempted to piece it all together.
“Yes.” I knew this for sure, even with all the information I was still missing. “When the line was severed, both Sam and Tabby collapsed with a death blow. My mother and I managed to put them into stasis, to halt the pull of the next life, but we’ve only delayed the inevitable.”
Mera, who’d reached us now, popped out from behind Shadow, her face ashen as she swallowed hard. “Are you kidding me, Len? A death blow? Where the fuck are Sam and Tabby now?”
Looking away from Shadow, I somehow managed to soften my tone: “They’re in Faerie with my mother. The Silver Queen. She’s keeping them safe while I try and figure out a plan to save them.”
“You need our help?” Mera said again, anger spiking her tone. “Whatever you need, you fucking have it. You, Sam, and Tabby are pack, and we will destroy whatever and whomever we need to get them back.”
Shadow nodded as he finally uncrossed his arms. “Always, brother. What’s the plan?”
Before he even finished speaking, I shook my head and backed away. “It’s too much risk for you and your family. Too much risk for Aurora. I won’t ask it of you.”
Shadow attempted to wrap his energy around me, to keep me from moving, but I was too strong for him to hold. “Tell us the risk,” he said when I extricated myself easily. “We’re not children. Allow us the right to choose.”
A long breath escaped me. My family always chose to fight together. The moment I told them, they’d be in. “The only chance we have is to venture into the deepest parts of Faerie, where the original power exists. The origin of our world. This is where we’ll attempt to repair the line that was severed.”
“Fuck,” Shadow growled.
I nodded once.Fuckwas accurate.
“What is in the Origin?” Mera asked.
Shadow was the one to reply. “Pure power,” he said, “and a series of obstacles that are said to be unpassable for any not from the Great Queen’s line.” He paused and looked at me. “I never knew she had children.”
I shrugged. “No one knows shit about her, but it was likely to have happened once she disappeared from Faerie. Sam could be the last of a long line of her descendants, or maybe there’s more out there.”
All of whom were now dead if they hadn’t had someone powerful enough to hold them to their world.
“I have original power,” Mera said suddenly. “Shadow does as well. Along with Angel and Reece. Fuck, most of us have an origin power of some description. We’re the perfect ones to attempt to go down there.”
She had just expressed the exact reason I’d been racing here in the first place.
“It’s not Faerie origin power, though,” I reminded her. “There’s a more than fair chance we will all be destroyed the second we descend into the Deep. It’s too much to ask when you have your own children to protect.”
That gave Mera a moment’s pause. “I wouldn’t take Aurora down there, not when she’s so young, but if we find someone we trust to watch her, we could go with you.”
“No,” Shadow snapped. “I will go with him, and you will stay with our daughter. She needs her mother.”
Mera’s return growl rocked some of the shelves nearby. “We’re stronger together, Shadow. You know we are. But I accept that one of us must stay with Aurora.”
