She set her sights on saving this one little girl. She’d have plenty of time to plot and scheme later, as long as she escaped this situation with her life and her freedom.
She clasped Andrea’s hand between her own. “Your Mommy has to go away for a little while. Can you be brave for me? Let’s think of a happy memory before you say goodbye.”
The little girl nodded, tears gathering in her lashes as she closed her eyes. Her eyelids fluttered as her lips curved into a small smile.
“What are you thinking of?” Cassandra whispered.
“We baked a cake yesterday.” Andrea breathed a soft giggle. “Mommy was teasing me because I kept stealing licks of the frosting.”
Wetness dampened Cassandra’s own lashes. “That sounds like a very happy memory.”
“Get on with it,” the Fae soldier growled, crossing his arms and glancing quickly at Hella. As if to make sure his outburst hadn’t angered her.
Cassandra ignored him. “Okay, Andrea, hold that memory in your mind and we’re going to send it to your mother, so she has good things to remember on her journey. Are you ready?”
Andrea nodded, and Cassandra held the little girl’s hand as she reached for her mother’s with the other.
As soon as Cassandra’s fingers curled around the woman’s palm, sparkling heat surged through her veins. Her eyes slammed shut and her muscles stiffened as the little girl’s memory flowed through her.
The bittersweet taste of chocolate frosting.
Flour dust floating in a band of buttery light.
Bubbling laughter as a gentle hand swatted her fingers out of the bowl.
“Andrea?” The woman’s soft voice tugged Cassandra back into her own body and she opened her eyes.
The previously obliviated woman blinked, taking in the scene around her with a confused expression.
Cassandra’s limbs tingled, and her tattoo shimmered as she passed a thumb over it. What in the name of Letha had just happened? She’d only been play-acting, a careful diversion to save the little girl, distract her from the pain of letting go of her mother.
“Oh, my darling, why are you crying?” The woman knelt down and swept her daughter into her arms, cradling her head against her neck.
Cassandra stood on shaky legs, and Hella placed a steadying hand on her shoulder.
“What did you do?” The Fae soldier grabbed Cassandra by the shirt and hauled her into his face, pulling her from Hella’s grip.
Hella lurched forward, teeth bared, and was about to swipe her dagger from its sheath when Borea pushed between Cassandra and the soldier.
Borea placed a placating hand on the soldier’s chest, encouraging him to back up a step. “Our mistake!” she crowed with false cheer. “These things happen sometimes.”
The soldier tilted his head, a skeptical frown twisting his lips. “How did this obliviate regain consciousness?”
Borea shrugged. “It appears she wasn’t obliviated after all. Merely stunned.” Cassandra marveled at the swift smoothness of the lie. “We’ll take her back inside.”
The Fae soldier grunted, swiveling his head to observe the anxious, hopeful gazes of the other conscious humans and the angry impatience on the faces of his fellow soldiers. “Nothing to see here,” he bellowed, then turned back to Borea. “Back away so we can get on with our business.”
The woman scooped up her daughter, and Borea ushered them into the Temple, Cassandra and Hella following close on her heels. Hella held the door open and before Cassandra crossed the threshold, she glanced over her shoulder. Every cell in her body begged her to rush back into that courtyard to save the rest of the obliviated humans.
Hella, as if sensing the self-destructive direction of Cassandra’s thoughts, placed a gentle, but firm, hand at the small of her back. “Too big risk,” she whispered. Something vicious flared in Hella’s eyes. “We save more soon.”
The heavy wooden door thudded closed, cocooning Cassandra within the cool, quiet atmosphere of the Temple waiting room. She collapsed onto a stone bench as Mother Superior led Andrea and her mother into a private corner.
A few moments later, Borea glided over and crouched in front of Cassandra. “I’ve told them to stay here at the Temple for the night, to ensure that the woman’s obliviated state doesn’t return before morning. What happened out there?”
“I…I have no idea,” Cassandra croaked, and Hella stroked a comforting wing down her arm. “As soon as I touched them both, it was like the little girl’s memory flowed through me into her mother. It… I think the memory reawakened her.”
“I assume this has never happened before?”
