Page 89 of The Rebel Seer

He turned to Neil. “If I know Rhys, he’s waited a long time for this. He’ll be at it for a while, and anyone not directly in the palace will feel the effects strongly. You should be able to move fairly freely outside the wards. Consider Bibi’s quarters our home base. I’m taking Ostara there to her personal maid. You make sure Dev is fed. I get the feeling they won’t care about him starving tomorrow. Take him off that damn hook and make him comfortable for the rest of the night. Dev…”

“Don’t die.” Dev seemed to understand the assignment. “You’ll get me out when the time is right.”

Neil was already helping Dev down, and he would put him back up when the time came.

There was no more reason to wait. He held Ostara’s hand and led her out of the dungeon.

After another long walk through too small hallways, Sasha breathed a deep sigh of relief as they made it to the door leading back to Bibi’s shared quarters.

The troll sat on the couch, holding the hand of Ione, who was still weeping. She looked up as the door opened and was on her feet in an instant.

“My baby,” she sobbed as she launched herself at Ostara, who smiled and lifted the much smaller troll into her arms.

“Oh, sweet Ione, she missed you as well. When she thought she would die, she wept at the thought of never seeing you again, good mother,” the goddess whispered.

Sasha took it in. The sight was odd. Ione, small and weathered, and so unlike the gorgeous Meadow. Ostara was merely a light inside her body. The beauty was all Meadow. She’d been raised in these strange, wonderous lands. She was Fae. She was love and light and had an embodiment of spring in her soul.

What if she didn’t want a vampire?

He stayed back as they spoke in hushed tones. Bibi walked over to join him.

“I’m sorry. The magic the Green Man weaves is potent. I was worried I would shame myself,” she admitted. “I can still feel it here, but it is like a distant song. However, I noticed Hubbie. He is one of the lowest servants. He cleans floors and washrooms. He spoke to me for the first time in years.”

Then the magic was doing what Ostara thought it would. Or rather undoing. She’d told him the wards couldn’t keep out some parts of the magic. “You need to get word to everyone to pretend. Pretend they are still under the spell. Otherwise, the king will likely put a stronger one on them. Tell them to bide their time. The Green Man and his goddess are here now. All will be well. They need only wait for the right opportunity.”

Bibi’s dark eyes shone in the candlelight, and he could see hope there. “I will begin spreading the word. I know who to talk to and who to…well, who to deal with so we don’t have problems.”

“If you can, access weapons. Hide them. Do you have any witches close by?”

Bibi’s head shook. “Not in here. He killed all the ones who worked in the palace, but there are some who would not leave the forests. I can send word.”

“Have them make charms to protect every servant from the king and the wizard. Sew them into your clothes. Hide them in your personal spaces. How many will fight?”

“All but a few, and honestly, after so much time under these spells, I would be surprised if they weren’t willing to simply stay out of it,” she explained.

There came a time in every authoritarian regime when the populace had enough. He had fought his own and lost because they were not ready. It appeared these Fae were.

“I will go with you.” Ione wiped her eyes and smiled. “I know I am new here, but I can help spread the word. I would like to offer my room to my darling girl.” She tilted her head up to look at Sasha. “Ostara tells me you are the one in Meadow’s heart. The one she can’t forget and can’t quite remember. Take care. She needs you.”

Bibi and Ione left, going to do their spy work, and he was alone with the only woman who had ever had his heart.

And the goddess she shared a body with. Alone in a too-cramped room where his head nearly touched the ceiling and he worried he would break the furniture.

Ostara stared at him. He knew it was her by the fully emerald eyes. A bit like Rhys’s since he ascended. Vibrant green, without a hint of white. She faintly glowed, and he realized that glow wasn’t merely hers. It was Meadow’s. He’d mistaken it for the glow of the goddess.

“You’re…she’s a companion,” he said, his fangs growing long.

“Companion?” Ostara asked.

“In my home, a companion is part angel. She glows to my kind. As supernatural creatures we are…how do you say…compatible on every level. Companion blood makes a vampire stronger, faster. Vampire blood heals and keeps the companion young and vital.”

Ostara nodded as though she understood. “Ah, a consort. That is what we call such men and women.”

So there were differences. “It’s almost always women where I come from.”

“A strange place then,” she said and seemed to come to some decision. “She is afraid. It’s why she wants me in charge of our body. She didn’t know how important this moment would be. She doesn’t remember her past lives except through what I have told her I see.”

“Is she afraid of me?”

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