I laughed coldly and reached out to the shadows that snaked around my arm, following my tattoos with flawless precision. “Objects? No. Fae? Yes.”
He chuckled and leaned back, his smile showing fang. “We all have our hobbies.”
“I suppose we do. How about you tell me why yourhobbywas looking for me since all your needs have now been met.”
He released another deep knowing chuckle and I suppressed the shiver that sensuous sound created. “Trust me, little umbra, notallmy needs have been met.”
I snuffed the shadows out with my hand. “Stop calling me that.” Umbra was old fae for shadow and this was the third time he had used it. It reminded me too much of my previous life…a dead life. “You’re flirting your way out of my questioning.”
He inhaled deeply and his golden eyes sparkled. “You like my flirting.”
“I like a lot of things…I also dislike a lot of things. Your evasiveness of my questions being one of them.” I snarled through my teeth, unable to resist leaning in towards him. Whether it was from anger or desire I did not know. In fact, I could not remember any other fae affecting me so wholly, not even my former love. “Start talking, shifter.”
His fingers tapped on the arm of the chair before he spoke with a calculating air. “Alright then. How well do you know the Sanguine?”
I reared back and my heated anger turned to ice. “Enough to know that it is not to be talked about. Ever!” I narrowed my eyes on him. “The people of the Sanguine…the blood fae, were destroyed by the wrath of the goddess when I was very young. Their terrible power, the Sanguine itself, was destroyed with them.”
He leaned in with a growl. “Except such power could never be truly destroyed. Blood is an essence of life just like the water,the elements, the darkness, the light. As long as there's life, the Sanguine will continue to live on. The true question is, were all those who could truly wield it destroyed?”
My sentient shadows popped in and hissed silently at the shifter. “If you think I can wield the Sanguine you have the wrong fae, shifter. There’s the door.” I turned and walked towards the one thing I wanted him to walk out of.
“I know you don’t but someone you once cared deeply for had the possibility to.” He growled low. “Deirdre. The former Queen of Faerie.”
My steps faltered and my hand trembled on the door latch. I snapped it back to my chest. “The Queen of Faerie is dead. Or did you forget I was the one who killed her over one hundred years ago?” My voice held steady even while acidic grief burned my throat and my heart thundered inside of my chest. The sound of it caused me to stumble to the side and I steadied myself on the window sill as a growing panic seized my body.
The flutter of violet wisps outside caught my eye and I turned my focus on them. Willing my breathing to follow their rhythmic fluttering, I watched as the gnomes scampered about the clearing with their new weretree weapons, jumping and stabbing at the glowing butterflies that left trails of glitter in their wake. One was pissing on my flowers and more than a few were choking on glitter dust, tearing the wings off the very butterflies they had been chasing with their needled teeth.
A soft trilling sound shifted my gaze to a flock of chickadees singing happily in the berry bushes nearby. I fixated on that sound. A sound from my childhood. It was a memory, a whisper,my little chickadee,and I clung to it. Allowing it to unwind the tightness in my chest.
I stiffened when I heard the shifter take a cautious step towards me. Somewhere in my panic he had risen from his comfortable seat. “I am sorry. Is there anything I can do? Some way I can help you?”
I continued to focus on the melodies of the chickadees outside. “Yes. Tell me what I need to say in order for you to leave me and this place in peace?”
He sighed. “Are you truly at peace here?”
I snorted. “Peace doesn’t exist, shifter. But I try to seek it anyway. Ask your questions.”
A low rumble of agitation sounded behind me but I paid it no heed. Silence hung between us before he spoke slowly and cautiously.
“You were the closest to her. The general to the queen as well as…her partner.” I didn’t miss the catch in his voice at his last words. The shifter race hated the former Queen of Faerie for what she did to their people. I didn’t blame him for his distaste at our intimate relationship.
A dry laugh escaped me. “Close… yeah…I suppose you could call it that.”
“Did she ever speak to you about the Sanguine? About harnessing its power?” He pressed.
“No. She never spoke of such things.” I hissed, but she had used it, at least I suspected as much. “Besides, even if Deirdre did have intentions of harboring the Sanguine,she is dead!” Uncontrolled shadows exploded all around me and I heard the shifter curse with surprise. “It’s time for you to leave now.” I rubbed at my temples.
He growled threateningly and I heard his heavy step forward. “I cannot leave here without you. I need you to prove to me that she is dead. That she is no longer a threat to our world because…” his voice faltered and then he inhaled deeply, “ because I believe that not only did you fail your people that day, but you failed them twice by not killing her.”
“What!” I spun back around so fast my hair whipped across my face and my shadows sprung forth to wrap around his neck. “What did you just say to me?”
His golden gaze held mine even while the shadows constricted tighter around his throat. He reached up and instead of pulling them off him, he ran his hand over his braided hair. “Faerie isdying, Remnant. The Sanguine is here and I know Deirdre is at the center of it all.”
I snorted and snapped the shadows away from him. “All worlds die at some point. I fail to see how the other two are connected to such an event.” I hissed back even though that soft whisper of doubt infiltrated my resolve.
The shifter rubbed at his neck and pressed his lips thinly together. “Not in this way.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “I haven't seen signsof such death.”
