Page 80 of True Sacrifice
We marched into the castle. Throne room would be our best bet, and we certainly knew the way. Guards followed along behind us, signaling to those in front of the throne room door to allow us immediate entrance.
King Ailill was sitting apprehensively on his throne. He looked grumpy as hell. Oh well, motherfucker.
“We want to see all the humans you have taken from the human realm in the past four months.” Jasper announced, slinging the fae off his shoulder and to the ground. Justice and I followed suit, feeling no shame in the loud crack I heard off mine as he landed on his shoulder.
King Ailill rolled his eyes and signaled in the air with his fingers. Many guards immediately left. They better come back with the humans. I looked at Ailill; he looked exhausted. Dark bags covered his normal golden hue. His hair was long and blonde, with braiding done on the sides, but it hung limply in strands. He looked about twenty-two in human years, powering relatively recently. The weight of the crown certainly has taken away some of his youth.
Guards marched back in, some with a bunch of humans shackled together. Others had humans dressed in various degrees of elegance and they stood in line freely. They filtered through for several minutes, filling the room with about twenty different women. None of them were Mor.
I looked amongst all the familiar faces, as I accounted for all the people from the missing fliers. I found Sheila quickly. Her bronze skin and dark hair with piercing dark eyes throwing daggers at me. They dressed her in a very formal black gown. Sheila looked at us with annoyance like we had just inconvenienced her with our presence.
Her gaze flicked to Ailill with the same amount of venom. We had found Sheila, but where the fuck was Mor?
“You seem to be missing one.” Justice muttered out, going over to the humans and sniffing them. The ones with shackles squealed and recoiled from him. The others stood still as statues. Except Sheila, of course. She smacked Justice in the face.
Justice lunged, grabbing her. She struggled against his hold as he dragged her back to where the rest of us were standing.
“Let me go, you filthy, ass-sucking, orange humping, piece of unicorn shit.” Sheila yelled.
Ailill got to his feet, but didn’t move.
“She hit me. Means I get to keep her,” Justice purred out, licking her neck. “Morrigan sent us to rescue you,” I heard him whisper into her ear.
She stopped fighting immediately and instead looked up to Justice curiously.
“She’s just a human. What could you possibly want with one of those?” Ailill said, sitting back down, like this wasn’t bothering him. The way he looked at Justice suggested differently.
“You know Morrigan?” I heard Sheila whisper back to Justice.
I didn’t catch what Justice said back, but they continued an almost silent conversation for several minutes. In fact, everyone seemed to watch them. Sheila pulled back and looked Justice in the eyes and nodded. He released her.
She walked back over to where she had been standing before Justice grabbed her.
“You now owe us.” Justice purred to the king.
“What would you like for payment?” Relief flooded through Ailill’s voice and I’m sure Justice could feel it, too.
“One day, we will call for you and you will answer that call,” Justice said, staring the king down.
“Of course, Your Highnesses.” Ailill gave a brief nod. The fae had always been respectful of demon business. But where the fuck was my mate?
Justice turned his back to leave, and I followed along as if I wasn’t entirely confused.
“What the fuck happened back there?”I asked Justice, but he didn’t reply until he was back in the woods outside the castle.
“Mor isn’t here. Sheila also wants to stay. She says she has a good thing going and gave me her number to give to Mor whenever she is in the realm.” Justice said cheerily. Like he was happy to give her the good news.
I grabbed him by the shoulder to turn him to look at me. “We still don’t know where Mor is.”
“No. But we found Sheila. So at least we have some good news for when we find her.” Justice smiled.
I couldn’t hold back any longer. I grabbed him by the neck with both hands and squeezed while shaking him. “How are we going to find her now?”
Jasper’s arms banded around me from behind, causing me to release Justice as I fought to get free. He released me after backing away from Justice and turning around.
“You need to calm down, man,” Jasper said, holding his palm flat on my chest for just a minute, before finally he was no longer touching me. I felt Justice pushing calming energy into me and I wanted to fight it off, but another side of me just wanted the peace for a few brief moments.
“Sheila is going to meet us in a few hours, after everything has calmed down, and sneak us back into the castle. The fae figured out the vampires have been pumping these events in the human realm with blood. They’ve been taking the humans and keeping them safe until the vampire blood is out of their systems. After that, they play with them and keep them as pets.” Justice sat down on the forest floor as if he was settling in comfortably.
