“She’s a witch,” Lady Albright said stepping onto the camera. She made a slight bow. “Madam President, she is a human who has just discovered she’s a witch. She is with the Albright clan at the moment, although we are not her final home, she is not one of our lineages.”
“What is her lineage?” Vina asked.
“It’s unclear as of yet. We are still trying to find time to look into that,” Lady Albright explained.
“We’ve had a few other things on our mind,” I muttered.
I could feel Ratchet’s hand shaking in mine. Could he be having withdrawals so quickly? Did he need more flowers? Surely there should be a way to detox from them. Did they not have something at the DGC to handle this or was it something they shouldn’t be told about?
“We’ll find her lineage as soon as we get the monster sorted,” Lady Albright assured Vina.
“Cade brought his brother back to life, using the rings of Typhon,” Ratchet gritted the words out. “They killed Ryder’s wife, Caroline.”
“Cade killed a human?” Vina asked.
“Fae banshee,” Ratchet clarified.
“She wasn’t just a fae. She was my best friend,” I insisted.
“Vina is not going to care about that,” Ratchet said under his breath. “She’s going to worry about the politics of it.”
“A fae was killed on DGC land?” Vina mused. “That’s not going to go over well with the fae.”
“We’ve got a find a way to stop Cade and his brother,” Lady Albright pointed out, trying to redirect the conversation toward getting help for Ryder.
“Well, that’s Ryder’s responsibility,” Vina said.
I stepped forward. “Aren’t you going to help him at all?”
“Well, if Cade killed a Fae, we’re going to have to do something about that,” Vina chewed her lower lip. “The fae are going to demand an explanation so I need all the facts.”
“I want her back,” I blurted the words out. “Caroline. I want to get Caroline out of Undirheim.”
Vina looked sharply at me, her gaze narrowing. “Can someone please explain to the newbie the rules?”
“We have,” Ratchet said, his hand shaking even worse in mine.
“I know she can’t come out of Undirheim,” I said. “I’d like permission to go there to see her.”
“The only way to go to Undirheim is to die,” Vina said, brushing me off and changing the subject. “Where is Cade now?”
“According to our radar, Cade is still down in Perú.” Ratchet muttered.
“He’s probably getting energy from the sun temple there,” Lady Albright explained.
“If those monsters get loose, this entire planet’s done for,” Ratchet insisted.
“Well, maybe we should be worried about that a little more than about what the fae think of Caroline’s death,” Vina directed.
“Are you going to send help?” Ratchet asked.
“I’ll put some people together from here,” Vina said. “We will send an inquisition group to Magnus. Get Ryder to call me back when he’s feeling better. Make it soon.”
The screen went blank and Ratchet collapsed, his hand falling loose from mine as he fell to the ground.
“We need to get him to a room.” I glanced over Ryder, but he was still laying prone on the ground.
“Don’t worry,” Katrina said. “We can use a little magic and move both these big guys down to their rooms. The question is, how are we going to heal them fast enough to stop the monsters?”
