He thought of Merry and her burgeoning magic, which was often more destructive than useful. She had little control over it, but it was something that delighted her whenever it rouseditself. Clayton celebrated every small moment as a victory for her. He couldn’t imagine not being there as she grew into a powerful witch.
Nor could he imagine either of their lives being cut short. He literally couldn’t, or he would shatter. Then he would drag himself back together and tear every inch of the world apart. He would have no choice. It was simply what would happen.
“We’ll find them, I promise,” Mal interrupted Clayton’s small mental breakdown. He took Clayton’s face in both hands and touched their foreheads together. Clayton didn’t know how Mal knew what he was upset about since he couldn’t hear half the conversation Clayton was having, but it was Mal, so obviously, he knew.
“We have to, Mal. I can’t lose them. I know I complain, but…” Of course Clayton complained. It was his love language.
“You won’t lose them. I’m here, I want them back, and I always get what I want.” Mal’s eyes told Clayton he meant so much more than wanting to rescue their kids.
“How old are your children?” the woman asked.
“Merry is six, and Tommy is four,” Clayton said.
“Merry and Tommy?” The woman exchanged glances with the man. “Have you always had them? Are they your birth children?” She gestured between Mal and Clayton.
Clayton pushed Mal away harder than he intended. He knew nightmares didn’t reproduce the usual way, but nothing about Mal was normal, so he didn’t put it past him to defy reality and knock Clayton up if he wanted. “No, absolutely not. They’re our kids because we found them and take care of them, but I didn’t give birth to them, nor will I give birth to any other children.Ever.”
Mal held up his hands in surrender. “I don’t know what she just said, but I’ve got no plans to get you pregnant, I swear.”
“And you keep it that way,” Clayton hissed.
The woman raised her hand in a soothing gesture. “I’m sorry if I said something to upset you. I only asked because we lost two other children in our care to kidnappers during the same battle we lost our Carwyn. Their names are Merribell and Tomanthus. They’re forty and sixty, though, and were only lost a few hours ago, along with our son.”
“We did have to rescue our children from some shady people, but we’ve had Tommy and Merry for around six weeks now, so they couldn’t be the same.”
The woman’s eyes lit up. “It’s still possible. The spell that took the children away was unstable. They could have been scattered through time as well as through dimensions.”
“Care to translate?” Marshall asked. It seemed as though he was finally coming out of his existential crisis. He’d stopped pacing and had fixed his hair. Maybe now, he’d start doing his job.
Clayton relayed everything he’d learned so far to both Mal and Marshall, happy to not be the only mind sorting through the situation.
Thank Vis. It was unnerving to see such a strong man like Marshall acting so powerless. Though Clayton was beginning to think it was possible he and the rest of the Other had put Marshall on an impossible pedestal.
Clayton had never seen Marshall work in the field. He’d only seen the before and after parts. Seeing Marshall now, stripped of his power and his teammates… It was almost like he was a normal man, much like Clayton. A normal, stressed-out, fallible man.
Having caught his team up, Clayton dove back into the conversation with the strangers and asked, “Can you tell me what happened?” He seriously doubted Merry and Tommy were fae children decades older than he was, but there still seemed tobe the possibility of a connection, considering both parties were missing children.
“In our realm, it’s against our goddess’s wishes for us to travel between dimensions, but it still happens. On occasion, children come from such trespasses, and while travelers are normally frowned on by society, children are more important than anything to our people, so we treasure these families.”
Clayton was a sucker for a good story, so while he was in a hurry, he couldn’t bring himself to urge the woman to get to the point. Instead, he had a powerful desire for popcorn and a comfy chair to settle into.
The woman continued. “Recently, we were made aware that children of these unions were being stolen, specifically the ones with parents from the Real. Our queen and king ordered everyone with mixed heritage to come to the castle for protection, but as my husband, Naerith, and I were on our way, our convoy was attacked.
“There was a terrible battle. Our people were falling faster than any of us could have imagined. The child traffickers had clearly been planning for the attack for a long time, because they knew exactly when to strike and where to do the most damage. Our strongest guards were taken out first while we rested. Naerith and I were pulled from reverie only moments before we had to fight to keep them from taking our son. There was a drug in the air… We couldn’t fight. You have to understand, we were horribly outnumbered. I thought we were going to die. I never would have cast the spell as incoherent as I was if I’d had another choice.”
“It’s okay,” Clayton soothed. “No one here is going to judge you. It sounds like you were in an impossible situation. We’re just gathering all the facts right now.”
The woman took a deep breath to calm herself and continued, “When we realized we could no longer protect thechildren, we circled the last of us, and while our remaining forces held off the traffickers, I cast a spell to send the children away. I didn’t have time to do more than gather power and make a wish. I told the magic to send them somewhere safe. I couldn’t have known the king and queen had sent reinforcements that would arrive moments later.”
“Even if you had waited, we still would have lost them, Elena,” the man Clayton assumed was Naerith soothed. “We’d already lost so many, and your spell distracted our attackers long enough to hold them off til help arrived. The traffickers have portal magic and were snatching the children away right under our noses,” Naerith explained to Clayton. “It’s not something commonly used among our people, so we don’t know how to counter it. They would have taken all the children, Elena. You gave our child a chance. You gave all of them a chance.”
“You said Merribelle and Tomathus are sixty and forty, but my Merry and Tommy are only six and four…” Clayton tapped his chin in thought and continued to think aloud. “But neither Tommy nor Merry remembers their lives before several months ago. The people of Boston Below just assumed their ages… I’m guessing that fae children age slowly?” Clayton directed the question at Elena because she seemed to be the one in charge.
“Some do, and some don’t. If they are mixed with another race, they can take on those traits. Both Naerith and I are part human. It isn’t much, so we present as full fae, but there is a chance our son won’t. He didn’t have our ears when he was born.” Elena touched a delicately pointed ear tip.
Clayton, remembering to be a good translator, filled his team in on what he knew so far.
“I might be able to help with finding their son,” Marshall said, but then he winced. “I mean, I could have. My magic doesn’t work properly here for some reason. I still have it insideme, but it won’t do anything. Can you ask our new friends here if they know why?”
