“Is this a common ability in your realm?”
“I haven’t met anyone else who can, but I’m sure I’m not the only one.”
Mal had never met anyone from their realm who could, but he had met a fae traveler who had been able to do what Clayton could.
How long should I wait before I tell him these are probably his parents?Mal wondered silently.
It was as plain as day to Mal, but Clayton was taking his sweet time figuring it out. His parents seemed to be equally clueless as well. Even without all of the clues smacking Mal in the face, one after another, the fact that Clayton shared a face with Naerith and had the same striking green eyes as Elena drove the point home.
Normally, Mal would happily sit back and watch the awkwardness of such a misunderstanding unfold, but somehow, it didn’t seem as funny as it should.
Well, there was no time like the present to rip off the Band-Aid.
“You said that the children could be scattered through time as well as space, right?” Mal barely waited for Elena to nod before continuing. “How much time are we talking about here? If Merry and Tommy are some of your missing children, they’ve been in the Real for months, possibly longer.”
“Eira told me they showed up in Boston Below about six months ago, so it had to have been at least that long,” Clayton confirmed.
Naerith shrugged. “I’m better at using magic to kill things than anything else. The finer details of spellwork are lost on me.”
“I’m more of an artist,” Elena began, and when Naerith gave an amused snort, she glared at him. “Crafting weapons is an artform, and you know it. While time and space magic aren’t something I’m overly familiar with, I’m used to working with deeper foundations of magic, which means I can at least make an educated guess. If I’m not mistaken and the spell I used did as I asked, it would have been bound to the letter of my request and not taken anything else into consideration. If it breached realms, then it could have easily sent the children years into the past or future.”
Mal nodded, suspicion confirmed. He tapped his foot as he waited for everyone else to put the pieces together as well.
“Then it’s possible that Merry and Tommy are from your world,” Clayton said, completely missing the truth staring him in the face. “But I think we should sort it out after we retrieve them. Mal, Astraea told me that she pulled you away from your original destination, and that’s why you used up so much of your essence to get us here. Can you try again? Or do you need to be where the boat originally was to locate where it is now?”
Mal deflated, disappointed at how obtuse his lover was being. His parents were no better. How could no one see such an obvious truth other than Mal?
Mal responded with a scowl. “After getting a lock on a location once, I can go there at any time. I do think we need to?—”
“Can you take us with you?” Naerith interrupted. “There’s a chance the people who took your children are the same ones who took ours, but even if they aren’t, we’ll still help you get yours back. I promise you won’t regret it. We’re good in a fight.”The man’s eyes flashed with an inner glow of purple fire as he spoke.
In the Real, purple essence was one of the stronger forms of personal magic and was often used for martial skills. If it was the same in the fae realm, the man would be an asset. Mal’s magic was purple, but mostly because he liked the color purple. If he started liking blue more, it would probably become blue.
“You I’ll take, but what can she do?” Mal asked.
“Shecan speak for herself,” Elena snapped. She positioned her hands before her, one palm facing down, one facing up. Between them, a green glow formed.
Green usually signified healing or crafting magic in the Real. A healer could be helpful, though she would still be more of a liability than anything else.
Elena pinched the thumb and middle finger of each hand together and pulled her hands apart, drawing the magic out into a shape. She let out a strong, melodious trill, and her essence formed into a bow. When she cut off the sound, the bow solidified.
It was curved like it had been strung, but there was no string. Mal could see magic as easily as norms saw solid matter, and the space between both ends of the bow shimmered with it. With practiced ease, she mimed pulling a loaded bowstring back, pointed the bow to the sky, and released. The resulting explosion overhead was so bright that it made the glade seem dark in comparison.
Mal’s eyes, being a magical construct, were unaffected, but Clayton rubbed his eyes, muttering, “Why did I look? Why do Ialwayslook?”
Mal patted Clayton’s back and said to the couple, “Fine, you can both come, but before we do?—”
“No, no more waiting. Let’s go get our kids. The gods only know what’s been happening to them this whole time.” Claytonpulled on Mal’s arm like he could drag him to their kids by sheer will alone.
Mal ground his teeth together. “Fine.” The big family reunion could wait until the whole family was together. It wasn’t like waiting a little longer was going to affect anything. “You two said you’d been poisoned. Are you sure you want to go?”
“We saw the healers before we came here. We’re more than ready for this fight.” Naerith had a gleam of violence in his eyes that Mal could appreciate. Vengeance was a powerful motivator and would make his new in-laws useful allies.
“Suit yourself.” Mal closed his eyes and connected to the place in reality where the boat existed. Doing it a second time was much easier and would use less magic than before now that he had a previous connection, so when he opened the portal, he barely felt the drain on his resources.
“Stay behind me,” Mal ordered Clayton and entered the portal.
Chapter
