“What about the Vampires?” Vada asked.
“Vampires have been known to be secretive. But their quest for power has only ever remained between one another. I don’t remember a time in history where they weren’t squabbling against one another for resources—be that sex or blood,” I said. “Maybe the Cryptids? We know between all of them, there havebeen instances of destruction almost leading to the total decimation of their world.”
“That’s true, but in almost every single instance, they were defending themselves against other factions trying to kidnap them for their own nefarious reasons. I’m sure there are some among them, or maybe now in other realms, who have that mentality. As much as I hate to say it, Adaela, your father was one of the worst culprits among any faction. He would have been who I would have pinned to be the head of this,” Vada replied.
I sighed, “I know. He was my first suspect, too. But he’s dead, and Poe says the murders haven’t stopped.” My body was starting to feel weary. “It’s probably time we head back down. I don’t want to overdo it.”
Vada wrapped her arm around my waist, and we slowly made our way back down the mountain. The walk back down was much easier in some regards, since I wasn’t breathing as heavily, but we still had to scale some spots on the steep trail leading up. My short legs made that even more difficult as I tried not to bump my belly against rocks or random tree limbs. We came across animals on our way down which held a likeness to mountain goats and many species of birds. The walk back down went by much quicker, and we reached the bottom just before nightfall.
We had dinner with Valen and Poe, who had stopped by to check in. Several portals had opened up since our arrival here. There had been no deaths since their last visit, but there were more abductions. Some were caught, while others, we could only assume.
Our only thought was to head to the Cryptid Realm next to see if any of them had any clues. However, that would require that I be at full strength. My father used to send me to their realm as a hostile enemy, and I didn’t expect that my arrivalwould be met without malice. Poe brought Vada’s dagger and many other weapons to choose from. I was reluctant to head to their realm and be the reason for more chaos. Valen and Poe both offered to accompany us, but I wasn’t going to put Poe in a dangerous position with Michael needing his mother.
I was anxious to get back into shape. The murders wouldn’t stop until we figured out who was at the helm, and this setback was helping no one. In the meantime, Aibell had stepped in to take my place while I couldn’t be there. The Unseelie were in good hands with her since she didn’t play around. She would make sure that shit got done.
Vada and I trained harder as my strength began returning. It was another couple of weeks before I was back to full strength. I was lifting every morning for a couple of hours with Vada and a few of the Elves, then off to weapons practice where they helped both of us learn new, cool tricks with the bow. In the afternoons, we would hike various trails in the area.
Since time worked differently between the realms, it was already late fall in St. Louis. I was told that since little progress had been made, many factions were beginning to turn on one another, and I was afraid of what I’d come home to. Tensions were up, and almost one hundred beings had died or disappeared. None of them had any connection to one another, from what we could gather. It didn’t seem as if whomever was taking them had any rhyme or reason. While we were gone,Paxleadership had ruled out potential traitors one by one.
ThePaxhad attempted to figure out how portals weregetting past wards, but no one had yet. Our wards were strong and hadn’t broken. The Witches tested out layering different types of wards, yet the portals kept opening at random intervals—sometimes it would be a month before they had an attack, and other times, it happened a couple times per week. They weren’t just opening at thePaxheadquarters. They were opening in various parts of the city.
I realized I’d remained quiet for some time as Vada gently nudged me. “I’m sorry, what?” I said, a little embarrassed to not be present when the Elves showed us nothing but kindness.
“I asked if you feel ready to leave here,” said one of the Elves, Phirem. They were a bit rough around the edges, but they made some of the best weapons in Alfhame. Their bows and arrows were designed for accuracy, and I was convinced Phirem imbued them with a bit of their magic.
“Ah, yes. As much as I love Alfhame, we’ve stayed long enough. I would hate to impede on your good graces,” I replied.
“Nonsense. You and Vada are always welcome here,” they replied.
“Thank you for your hospitality, and for saving my mate’s life,” Vada said. She grabbed my hand, and as always, my heart fluttered.
While it only seemed like a few weeks to us, our friends were convinced that we would formalize the mating any time now. My feelings for Vada ran deep, but I didn’t want to say anything until after I was able to figure out what was going on with thePaxand the Cryptid Realm. I was starting to really think I might love her, but I wasn’t ready to say anything yet. I still couldn’t get past the belief that I’d already had, and lost, my mate. It didn’t mean I couldn’t love again, just that the special bond between mates wasn’t there for me.
While the circumstances weren’t great, I believed Vada and I needed this time to get to know one another on a deeper levelthan just mind-blowing sex. Vada walked into my dreams every night since that first one, and some sort of kinky fuckery occurred. We hadn’t physically been with each other since I was injured, and I was itching to get my hands on her beautiful body. That wouldn’t happen until we were safe again, so we had only our dreams for now.
We drank well into the night, played Elven games and laughed at the banter between this tight-knit community. I was thankful for this time, because I genuinely believed that after we left Alfhame, our bubble of peace would be broken.
Cryptid Realm
The Cryptid realm was a place made of horrors. It was an amalgamation of differing nightmares from old, rotting homes with decaying graveyards, to rough oceans and climates ranging from the coldest cold to hotter than some parts of Hell that could melt the skin off your bones.
We had landed next to one of the graveyards. There were ghouls and ghosts everywhere, but they were one of the Cryptid classes that could do no harm unless you actively paid attention to them. The four of us whispered amongst one another as we made our way cautiously over exposed tree roots and crumbling grave markers. We were careful to pick our way through the chaos, so we didn’t bring about any squabbles to waste our energy before we were ready.
It took us hours to find a path through the graveyard, though it was likely only a few minutes. It stretched on as far as we could see, and surprisingly, nothing stopped us. I was finally starting to relax a little bit while remaining alert. I figured that we would immediately be bombarded with fight after fight, but that wasn’t the case. We stopped briefly to eat some sandwiches and drink some water, but otherwise kept moving.
We made it to the edge of the graveyard and were met with very tall gates with spikes at the top of them. The gates were made of iron, which meant that Valen and I wouldn’t be able to touch them. Since I just spent weeks working on trying to get rid of the iron in my blood, I wasn’t keen on another round of potentially damaging poisoning.
Vada shrugged and started scaling the fence to see if she could find a way over—maybe a gate we could cross—but she found nothing. Daedalus huffed, “You know, instead of wasting our time, I could just fly the two of you over.”
“I didn’t want to assume,” I replied.
“And I appreciate that, but in this case, it would have prevented us from wasting time.” Daedalus lifted Valen in his arms first, then launched himself into the air, carefully landing him on the other side of the fence and closer to the most ominous forest I’d ever encountered.
As Daedalus lifted me, I couldn’t help but remark, due to my nervousness, about what we were coming up against, “You know you’re giving off big daddy energy right now?”
He laughed. “I don’t think you could handle me, Daela.”
I hummed. “Well, you’re not my type, but I can appreciate a good daddy.”
