Page 42 of Monsters of Midnight

“You brought them with you?” Magnus was incensed.

“I didn’t bring anyone with me,” I insisted. “I didn’t even know where I was going, but now I’m here it’s not such a bad thing they are too. They might be able to help talk some sense into your mom. The last thing you need is the blood of two people on your hands.”

“She isn’t done living yet,” Thrain said, stepping forward between Magnus and his mother.

“I feel done living,” Ryder’s mother said. “I have felt this way for years.”

“You can’t put your blood on his hands,” Oren said, stepping forward. “I’m sorry I brought him along,” she said to me. “I figured this would require a little more than my jurisdiction with the living human.”

“You took in the portal Vina made yesterday?” Thrain asked.

“They must have,” Oren agreed. “It came to the same place. It would’ve stayed open longer if Vina used her magic to hold it. Do you think Ryder had anything to do with this?”

“No,” I insisted, automatically knowing Ryder would never have sanctioned the death of his mother.

“She’s not going to die,” Thrain said.

“I don’t want her to die,” Magnus said, tears in his eyes. “It’s just she asked me to do it, and I don’t know what else to do.”

“It was a morbid request and unfortunately your perspective has been warped and changed. You inadvertently caused the death of your brother’s ex-wife,” Oren said, her voice a strange, soothing sound compared to the normal sharpness of her tone. I appreciated the cool grace of her words, and the temperament with which she was approaching Magnus. He was devolving in front of us, falling apart. His eyes looked at me searchingly.

“Will you ever forgive me, Caroline?” He asked.

I looked at him silently for a moment, searching inside of myself to find out if I had any anger or bitterness toward him whatsoever, and I found I had none. Not a piece of it.

I nodded my head slowly, looking over at him peacefully. “I have no issue with you,” I said. “Certainly, there is nothing you have done that killing your mother is going to help solve. Please know I am happy here and this is where I want to be. I just didn’t know it, so everything is fine from where I’m sitting and you should go in peace back to Earth.”

Magnus had tears streaming down his face and for the first time in all the days I had come to Undirheim, I wanted to reach out and hug somebody and make them feel better.

As if he sensed it, Thrain cleared his throat. This brought Oren stepping between me and Magnus just to make sure there was no contact between the two of us.

“Take them back to Earth,” Thrain said to Oren. “I’ll return her,” he said, grabbing me by the elbow and propelling me through the dark forest.

Chapter 24

RYDER

I was greeted by a couple of nereids when I arrived at the Vatican. Like the DGC, the fae found the water sprites useful in the fluid arts of reading people. I guessed these two, who looked like blue versions of the Incredible Hulk did a lot more than just reading. They looked like either one of them could take on an army with one of their hands tied behind their back.

It didn’t mean I couldn’t do that.

It’s just, I didn’t want to. That wasn’t what I was here for. I’d come to the Vatican to review the portal that was set here to find Cade and his brother.

Without any pomp or circumstance, the nereids escorted me to the high court, where both the dark and light fae were present. Traditionally, they ruled in separate areas of the world, but they had a Congress together in the Vatican, and it wasn’t until that moment as I stood there and looked at them, both, I realized the danger we were in.

“You are the targets,” I said, unceremoniously dropping the information. The two royals exchanged a look that made it pretty clear. Neither one of them was completely buying my story, but they were willing to listen.

When the demigods had broken with the fae and severed the world in two, the dark and light fae had been forced to come to some level of agreement, something which previously they had never done. In fact, since the fae had come to earth, they mostly had spent the time battling each other. At least until the demigods had risen against them.

The dark fae were forced to stabilize with the light fae and carve out territories that were agreeable to both sides. Because they were both definitely still two sides of the same coin. There was something so innately core to their differences it would be impossible to say if they were more similar than different.

“Cade is looking not just to take over the world,” I said. “He’s looking to reunite with his family and rebuild his dynasty.”

“How can you be so sure?” The dark fae king asked.

“The fact he brought his brother to life,” I pointed out. “An older brother at that, so he’s giving up any of his rights to rule. In fact, he has resurrected his own ruler.”

“He is still using the magic of your father,” the light fae king pointed out.

---