“You could do it, I’ve seen you leave Serenity. There’s some who don’t have a Tether who could escort her.”
Abigail paced around her. “And guard her too? The demon isnottethered to Serenity, onlyus.Your mother, an untetheredfoxenliving alone among humans certainly can’t protect her, and the demon can find Paisley anywhere, if he really wants to.”
Sage’s mind grasped wildly. “The Vvyndicate would send a team to protect her. That’s what they do. That’s what they’re for.”
Abigail didn’t speak. She only paced, one hand behind her back, the other holding the tail of the fox pelt around her shoulders, making Sage shudder at the weirdness of it.
“Are you saying you want to activate the Vvyndicate?”
That stopped Sage short. The Vvyndicate was a council offoxenCitlali with the sole purpose of protecting and rescuingfoxenfrom Khain. A full council of seven members could open a portal to the Pravus, but they’d only had five members for decades now. Still, they worked constantly, tracking Khain sightings, unitingfoxenclans, and executing protection details. They’d been especially busy lately becausefoxenabductions had been high for weeks. Activating the Vvyndicate was always serious business, and worse, the last time the Vvyndicate had asked Sage to do something, she’d refused.
Nana didn’t say anything, she only continued to pace around Sage, as Paisley slept on her shoulder, and their family stood gathered around them, hanging on every word.
Sage stood tall and nodded. “Yes.”
Nana stopped pacing and faced Sage. “As you wish. You’ve been ordered to appear tonight at midnight; there’ll be an impromptuvyanya.”
Mina gasped and several family members murmured.
“Avyanya,” Sage repeated dully.
If only the occasion were not so horrible, it would be wonderful.
***
An hour later, Sage was bathing Paisley in the bathtub at Sage’s cabin and Paisley was trying to sleep through it. Mina had already bathed her earlier in the day, but Paisley stillsmelled like the Pravus, and so Sage was bathing her again.
Mina, Frannie, and Rissa talked softly in the living room, and most of the rest of the family was still at Tod’s Table, which was only a short walk away. The vans would arrive soon to shuttle them all out to the land where the Vyanya would be held.
“Hold your head back,vi, so I can rinse your hair.” Sage said, calling Paisley by thefoxenterm of endearment for female children.Vixwas the term for adolescent females, andvixiefor teens and adults. The males were calledvo, vox,andvoxen.
Sage grabbed a towel. “Stand up, you’re all done.”
Eyes closed, head drooping, Paisley stood. Sage wrapped her in a towel and took her out into the dark bedroom and laid her on another towel on the bed. She combed Paisley’s hair and dressed her in pajamas, her mind spinning.
Why? Why? Why?
Why? … Why Rhen, why?
Why did this happen?
WHY RHEN! TELL ME WHY?!
Sage shook her head and looked all around in the dark, desperately seeking an answer that would make her feel okay again.
No answer came, and she whipped up more questions inside herself.
WHY? Why was this their life? Why did she have White-Whittinger disease? Why were they bornfoxen, always hunted by the demon and shunned by thevod? Why had Paisley been stolen by the demon and what in the hell had he done to her?
Sage’s heartrate sped up, and she squirmed in her seat, feeling angry and alone, trying not to imagine what had happened to Paisley during her day in the Pravus.
Had Paisley really slept through it? And did that matter? And how was it even possible? What did Nana White have to do with it?
??? !!
Sage felt like punching something, like screaming, like cursing and raging. She yanked the bedspread and twisted it in her hands, growling quietly. Paisley squirmed and murmured in her sleep.
My baby, my beautiful innocent baby,Sage thought. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, but most of all she wanted to kill Khain. She wanted to stab his own disgusting claws through his dirty murdering heart.
