Page 17 of The White Stag
Reagan finally seemed to settle down. I didn’t want to leave her, but Oisin and Finnan could handle anything while I slipped away. Finnan was as close to a healer as we had here, and Oisin had a comforting nature. Estrella needed to know what was going on. I would have to message her a second time today without Reagan present when she was expecting her.
I hit call on my computer, and she answered right away. Estrella wasn’t glued to her laptop because she had a kingdom to run, but she managed to be there even if we called unscheduled.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded.
“She’s already deep in detox from those pills. Alastair had to dose her with that tea every day because it was wearing off by dinner. I’ve never heard of that happening with any Fae before. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think up what kind of Fae can fight off poison like that, and I’m coming up with nothing.”
Estrella frowned.
“That’s because there isn’t one. You know we’ve developed those bracelets that render a Fae mortal if they are incarcerated because coming off of those pills is cruel and unusual punishment. When we were still using them, it was the same for every single Fae. They got the same dose, and it wore off at the same time.
“Shifted dragons are notoriously hard to subdue, as are other types of Fae, but they go down like every other Fae. No Fae in their right mind, whoknowsthey are Fae and have experienced everything that has to offer, wanted to take those pills willingly, but if they wanted to eventually getoutof prison, they knew they had to take them. The bracelets are much more humane,” she said.
“Finnan says the formula the humans prescribe is the exact recipe being used by the Fae Courts. I know the Unseelie don’t use it anymore, but the Seelie do. He stole one of hers and tested it. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to test what she took from Alastair’s, but we’ve spent enough time in the human realm to know they might take suggestions on medication, but not dosages.
“Alastairneededher to stay mortal until he was ready to make his move. It sounds like he was if he was trying to force her to marry him when we got there. I don’t know. I just keep thinking she’s some kind of Fae that can fight off toxins and poisons, and he might have suspected that too. Seelie girls get married off when they are fifteen or sixteen. Reagan just turned nineteen. Why did he wait?” I rubbed my forehead.
“Because every Unseelie in my kingdom would destroy the Seelie Court. After what he did to my child, I’m not seeing the problem with that. I’m giving his parents the courtesy of dealing with it before I do because I’m of the mindset I don’t want a war, but every time you call me and she’s suffering, I start to change my mind,” Estrella growls.
“We’re taking care of her. She’ll get through this, and we’ll bring her back to you. I just can’t help but think she’s some kind of powerful Fae to be going through this so soon.”
“Oh, I know she’s a powerful Fae. I could feel it when I carried her in my womb. Despite many people claiming to be able to predict that kind of thing, there’s no way to know what kind of Fae someone will be until they change for the first time. They weren't correct if Alastair met up with someone in the mortal realm who claimed to know how to predict that.
“My tutor taught me every type of Fae that lives in my kingdom. None of them can do what you are thinking. That tea is illegal in both realms, and the iron pills have never been used on children before. The tea hasn’t either. So what you’re thinking could be an unusual Fae type could simply be the fact that her body was prevented from ever awakening and trying to fight it. I’m furious about that, by the way.”
She was right. Everything I was finding unusual could very well be the fact that neither of those things were supposed to be used on children. Still, I just had this feeling in my gut that Reagan would surprise us all when her Fae side emerged.
I heard shouting from Reagan’s bedroom. It was loud enough that Estrella heard it too. She wasn’t scared of much, but she looked terrified.
“Whatever that is, deal with it. Save my little girl.”
I went tearing down the hall. When we had left with Reagan, the bracelets that replaced these pills were being phased in. When Estrella handpicked us for Reagan’s bodyguards, they trained us in every scenario that could possibly come upexceptthese pills. This could have been avoided if that stupid boy hadn’t landed her in the emergency room. Her foster parents had no excuse for slipping it in her food when she refused to take it, and Alastair knew better than to continue to give it to a child, but here we were.
We’d been studying detoxing off these pills just in case Alastair was a total shit and kept her on them. She could be going through anything in there. I understood why Estrella wanted to give his parents a heads up, but everything he did was utterly un-Fae. I would enjoy ripping him apart with my claws.
I threw the door open. Reagan was sitting up and draped over Oisin’s shoulder. Finnan was rubbing her back.
“What the fuck is going on? She needs to be resting. Let her sleep through the worst of it.”
“Yeah, mate. Great idea,” Finnan snapped. “She vomited in her sleep, and we’re trying to stop her from choking on it.”
I growled. We’d been content to get her away from him and then eventually return home to her mother. I was done playing nice. I wasn’t a nice person. I cared about a few people in this world, and I’d do anything for them. But most other people in general, I couldn’t stand.
IloathedAlastair. I’d wanted to kill him since the day he’d become a threat to Reagan. I never thought letting him fuck off to the mortal realm was a good idea. Once Reagan was out in the human world, we couldn’t bring her back until her Fae side awakened because of the magic at the border. Alastair’s parentsknewshe was here when they banished him and chose banishment over death or jail.
I couldn’t kill himyet.But it would make me fucking feel better to gather every shred of intel I could find on him and plan an epic death for him just in case my queen changed her mind about unleashing us on him this side of the border.
I was furious. Finnan and Oisin were better at caring for sick girls than I’d ever been. They’d built me to terrorize and kill. I was an expert at all forms of tracking. It took me longer to find Alastair than I would have liked, but now that I knew where he was, I could watch his stupid Seelie ass whenever I wanted.
And from now on, when I wasn’t with Reagan, I would be watching.
Finnan
We all dealt with our shite differently. Reagan was probably the most important person in Cyrus’s universe, but he wasn’t deep in his man feelings like Oisin and me, so he wasn’t with us now. Instead, Cyrus was off in a blind rage, plotting mayhem. A Boogeyman’s fuckery differed from that of a hobgoblin but could still be fun.
My immediate concern was Reagan. She should have been peacefully sleeping, but she wasn’t. Detoxing off iron was terrible, but it wasn’t usually this violent. I hadn’t seen it in person, but as soon as we knew Reagan was tricked into taking it, I started reading journals of healers who helped people get off of it.
The tea and soup I made hershouldhave worked. She would have slept through the worst of it and not been in too much pain when she woke up. It also shouldn’t have been hitting her this fast. Instead, her body was violently trying to get rid of the iron as fast as possible. I’d never heard of that happening with any other Fae before, and some of them were on this much longer than she had been.
