Blood of the Exiled (Witch Fairy Book 10)

by Lamer, Bonnie

  “Are they creatures?” I ask.

  Kallen gives me a funny look. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, what’s their true form. The figure we saw was Human looking and then it shifted. So is it Humanoid like Fairies and Witches, or is it a creature that is animal like?”

  “Does it matter?” Aiden asks.

  I glare at him. “Yes, it does.”

  “I agree,” Gunnar says to my surprise. Color rises like the tide up his cheeks when I stare at him incredulously. “What?”

  I shake my head. “You’re willing to kill Fairies, and me, but you have issues about whether or not this creature is a Humanoid being?”

  Defensive now, Gunnar says in a deep rumble, “I was hired to keep the King safe from you. I was not hired to kill you.”

  Aiden is looking at me strangely. “You thought we were here to kill you?”

  I put my hands on my hips. “Considering what the Witan tried to do last time, yes, I thought you were here to kill me. History does tend to repeat itself. What else was I supposed to think?”

  A shadow falls over Aiden’s face. “When you were here last, you almost killed the King and his Witan when they tried to retrieve your grandmother. You also stripped several Witches of their power because they dared to fight back. I’m sure you can understand why the King wanted to keep you away.”

  I need to sit down. For the first time in my life, I think I may faint from shock. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I ask in a shaky voice, “That’s what they told everyone?”

  “Did you expect anything less,” Kallen says in disgust.

  “Are you going to tell us that is not what happened?” Aiden asks.

  I shake my head. “Why bother. You won’t believe me anyway.” Did Lailah know this? Surely she would of warned me if she had. I can’t believe Raziel let me come here knowing that all the Witches believed this of me.

  Gunnar crosses his arms over his large chest. “I might.”

  I stare at him, wondering if he’s serious or not. God, I want to go home. “No, that’s not what happened.”

  “Does she look like a murderer to you?” Kallen snipes. He comes to stand next to me and places a gentle hand on my shoulder.

  Gunnar gives a half shrug. “I served in Iraq and saw things there that blew my mind. Anyone can turn out to be a murderer if they believe enough in their cause.”

  “What cause would I have that would justify the things you believe I did?” I ask.

  “To take over, to rule the Witches and bring back the Fairies to destroy our world.”

  A strangled laugh escapes me. “I could barely make myself return to this realm after my last encounter here. Trust me, I have no desire to do anything except go back home.”

  “When you arrived, you said you are heir to the throne,” Aiden reminds me.

  My lips quirk up in a half smile. “You guys were pissing me off at the time. I was trying to annoy you.”

  Gunnar nods. “It worked.”

  “What can I say, I have a gift.”

  “Why are you really here, then?” Gunnar asks. His tone is less aggressive now.

  “She came to protect the Witches from her grandfather and the corrupt Witches he surrounds himself with,” Kallen says. His voice does not sound less aggressive.

  “Protect us how?” Aiden asks.

  I’m too emotionally drained to explain. I’m relieved when Kallen takes over. “When Xandra dealt with the Witches before, she learned that his Witan had been slowly taking over his mind. They were stealing power from him over the course of years, so subtly it was hard to notice,” Kallen explains. “When Xandra stripped the magic from a handful of Witches it was because one, they were trying to kill her at the time. Two, they had been committing crimes against their own kind. They had stolen the minds of innocent Witches simply because they opposed the Witan’s decisions. They used their power to coerce and take advantage of other Witches, both in a professional arena and personal ones.” His meaning is pretty clear here. “Three, Xandra’s mother had called her father seeking help from two Fairy assassins who were sent for Xandra. This was the first he had heard from his daughter in over seventeen years. She had run from him and his Witan when they were going to force her to abort her pregnancy. She had been in hiding from them but was desperate enough to cling to the hope that he would help save her daughter now that she was grown. When Xandra and I returned to her home after defeating the assassins, her grandfather was there. He almost immediately began to speak a spell meant to kill my wife. When that didn’t work, he came back here to prepare his Witan and they came back as assassins themselves.”

  “You are saying that the King tried to murder his own granddaughter twice?” Gunnar asks, doubt ringing in his voice. “That is not the King I know.”

  I half chuckle. “We’re not exactly a close family.”

  “Did you attempt to kill them?” Aiden asks. I can tell from his voice that my answer to this question is very important to him.

  I shake my head. “I don’t need to do that. I don’t need to kill my enemies.”

  “Why not?” Gunnar asks.

  This is going to sound like I’m bragging. I look at them both and say, “Because I can wield enough magic to strip every Witch here of their power and still have enough to tear another hole in the fabric of the realms to return to the Fairy realm.”

  Gunnar considers me for a moment. “Your story is hard to believe.”

  I shrug. “Believe what you like. Kallen and I know what really happened.”

  “As do I,” a scratchy voice says from the floor. Great, Grandpa’s awake and he can fill their heads with even more lies. I should just go home now.

  “She is telling the truth.”

  Four mouths drop open. Mine is one of them. “Excuse me?” I say. My mind must be playing tricks on me.

  Grandpa struggles to sit up. Gunnar holds out a hand to him to help him out. “How do you feel?” he asks him.

  A strangled laugh escapes Grandpa’s mouth. “Like someone just tried to kill me.”

  I don’t think that’s really an emotion. I know what he means, though. Confusion, disbelief, anger, fright, and horror are probably raging in his brain right now. “Yeah, it sucks when that happens.” I didn’t mean for those words to come out of my mouth. I don’t want to be the person who kicks people when they’re down, no matter what they’ve done to me in the past.

  “I deserved that,” Grandpa says. He’s on his feet now but still leaning heavily on Gunnar.

  I look at Kallen. “Could he be a Skin Walker impersonating my grandfather?” I’m dead serious. This is not the man who I’ve interacted with before.

  “Sire?” Gunnar says, catching Grandpa when he starts to teeter over. “Let’s get you on the bed.”

  As they begin to move, Grandpa notices for the first time that there’s a loose noose around his neck. I loosened it when I came in. “What the hell?” His eyes shoot to me. “Who did this?”

  Why is he looking at me? His security chief is walking him to the bed. Gunnar would have a better idea than me who wants him dead. “I have no idea.”

  “Can’t you read the magic or some such thing?” he asks, his voice impatient and a tad bit whiny.

  “Magic was not used,” Kallen tells him.

  Dumbfounded, Grandpa says, “What do you mean? Are you telling me that someone broke into my home, despite the security and your circle, and tried to kill me without using any magic at all?”

  I purse my lips and pretend to think about it. “Yeah, that pretty much covers it.”

  Gunnar’s face hardens. “It has to be someone who was already here when the circle was put in place.” He looks at Kallen. “It is still in place, correct?” Kallen nods. “No interruptions in its placement?”

  Kallen narrows his eyes at him. “No.”

  I’m confused. “I thought everyone who was on the grounds was in the conference room after the iron in the air thing.” When the last words fall from my mout
h, I feel stupid. Duh. Obviously, whoever it was must have been hiding on the grounds somewhere. It’s doubtful they the person would come out to say hi before trying to kill us all.

  “So did I,” Gunnar says.

  Out of the blue, Aiden turns to Grandpa. “Everything your granddaughter told us was true?”

  Taken aback by the sudden switch in topic, it takes my grandfather a minute to answer. Finally, he says, “From what I heard her say, her recounting was accurate.” Aiden doesn’t say anything else. He crosses his arms over his chest and leans back against the wall, contemplating the older man.

  “Why are you being honest now?” Kallen asks. My thoughts exactly.

  Seeming to grow smaller, like all the air inside of him has escaped him, my grandfather says. “I am dying. I don’t want to take such secrets to the grave.”

  Is he serious? “Dying?”

  He nods once. “Cancer.”

  Kallen looks at me with a creased brow. “What is cancer?”

  My turn to have a creased brow. “Fairies don’t get cancer?”

  “If we do, we do not call it by that name.”

  “Sire, does anyone else know?” Gunnar asks.

  Grandpa shakes his head. “No.”

  “Are you getting treatment?”

  Grandpa shakes his head again. “No.”

  Hands on my hips, I ask, “Are you an idiot?”

  A wry smile forms on his lips. “Always.”

  I don’t like him vulnerable. It’s harder to hate him this way. “Why haven’t you sought treatment?” I ask.

  “The cancer has metastasized. It is everywhere.”

  “This is not something which can be cured?” Kallen asks, reminding me that I haven’t explained what cancer is yet.

  “Yes and no,” I say. “It depends on the type of cancer and how far it has spread.” Turning back to my grandfather, I suddenly find myself very angry. “What were you planning on doing? Were you going to just let things fall to the hands of Fatin or Sylar after you die? Do you know what will happen to your Kingdom if you do?”

  A sound comes from Grandpa’s general direction. It sounds like a whispered, “Yes.”

  I can’t stand to be in the same room with this man any longer. Spinning on my heels, I walk out of his bedroom. I’m not sure where I’m going, but anywhere will be better than here.

  Chapter 25

  Why? Why do I say things like that to myself? I know that it makes the universe laugh at me and prove me wrong. There are worse places to be at the moment besides my grandfather’s room. As soon as I turn a corner in the hall I’m in one of them.

  Sylar is throwing what appears to be a temper tantrum in the hall. Mohana and Fatin are trying to calm her but to no avail. Sylar reaches out and scratches Mohana’s face when the other Witch tries to touch her. If I had a pair of shiny red shoes, I’d be clicking them together and saying, ‘there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home’.

  “I will not calm down! There is a murderer among us and I am going to find out who it is!” Sylar is shouting.

  “Your way of finding out could leave us all vegetables,” Fatin snarls.

  Sylar looks at him like she would a squashed bug on a windshield. “It is not my fault if your mind is weak,” she snarls. She whips around to Mohana. “I will start with you.”

  Instantly, Mohana has her head between her hands and she drops to her knees. Pain is etched into lines on her face. Feeling the magic in the air, and seeing that Sylar’s lips are moving, I can figure out what’s going on. Sylar is sucking Mohana’s mind out.

  Yea, someone to take my anger and disgust out on. I know that’s the wrong way to think about this situation, but I don’t care. A burst of magic flies up from the earth and it leaves me in a heartbeat. Sylar is lifted from the ground and slammed into the wall behind her where I hold her still. The impact was enough to make her stop what she was doing and Mohana crumples to the floor.

  “How much did you take?” I ask Sylar. “I want to know because that’s how much of your mind I’m going to take.”

  A strong, firm hand grasps mine. I don’t have to look, I know it’s Kallen. “What is happening here?” he asks.

  “They’re starting to cannibalize one another.”

  Kallen nods sagely. “Good times.”

  I can’t help but laugh, and when I do, my anger begins to dissolve. I lower Sylar to the ground but I still hold her in place. “Give it back,” I tell her.

  After a contemptuous glance in my direction, Sylar focuses her attention on Mohana. I feel magic in the air again and Mohana gasps as her mind becomes whole again. Her anger is far from dissolving. Before Mohana can retaliate for being turned into a drooling, mindless idiot for a minute, a blood curdling scream echoes through the halls.

  “Divina?” Mohana says, rising to her feet. She, Fatin and Sylar race off in the direction of the scream and Kallen and I follow.

  The Witches stop in front of an open door several yards down the hall. Inside, Divina is sitting on the ground hugging a bloody body to her. I’m pretty sure the bloody body is Beren, but there’s so much blood I can’t tell for sure.

  I push through the Witches gaping from the doorway and crouch down next to Divina. “What happened?”

  “They killed him,” she sobs and releases her hold on the other Witch slightly. Now I can see the knife protruding from his chest around the place his heart would be.

  “Who killed him?” While I speak, I place two fingers on his throat and feel for a pulse. To my great relief, there is a faint one.

  “I…I don’t know,” Divina gasps, sobbing too hard to catch her breath.

  I look back to Kallen. “If you can help with Divina, I think I can save him.”

  “No!” Sylar snarls. “He needs a doctor, someone who cares if he lives or dies.”

  I’m dumbfounded. “You want to explain to the ER docs why he has a knife sticking out of his chest? I don’t think they’ll buy that he just fell on it.”

  “We cannot move him,” Kallen says. “His injuries are too great. Xandra is the only one who can help him now.”

  “Please,” Divina’s eyes are red and desperate. “Please save him.”

  I look to Kallen again and he comes closer. Sliding his arm around Divina, he helps me get her out of my way so I can lie Beren flat on the floor. I lay my hand on Beren’s chest and close my eyes. Sending my magic through him, gently at first, I search for his injuries. I can see his heart in my mind and the place where the knife nicked it. I begin healing him from his heart outward. I must do this slowly, I can’t make a mistake. I imagine the walls of his heart whole again, then I repair his left lung, his sternum, and finally, his skin. As I do this, the knife moves out of his chest until it clatters to the floor. Beren awakens with a gasp.

  Kallen can’t restrain Divina any longer. She scrambles to Beren and tries to wrap her arms around him again, sobbing even louder now, but he holds her at arm’s length. His voice full of betrayal, he says, “You stabbed me.” He looks down at his bloody chest and then back to Divina. “You tried to kill me.”

  “What? No!” Divina cries. “I came in and you were lying on the floor. I thought you were dead.” I thought she was bad before, she’s beyond hysterical now.

  Beren pushes her away from him and scrambles backwards. “I saw you. You were right in front of me. I felt you plunge the knife into me.”

  Speaking over Divina’s hysterics, Kallen says, “It was not her. You were only made to believe it was.”

  Beren’s disbelief is colored all over his face in permanent marker. “I know what I saw.”

  “We believe it was a Skin Walker,” I explain. “Someone who can transform into other people.” I look back to Kallen. “Do you think it could be the same one who tried to kill my grandfather?”

  “There was an attempt on the King’s life?” Fatin demands to know.

  “I just said that,” I say, not in the mood for dealing with him. “Why don’t you go chec
k on him.”

  Outraged, he says, “You left him alone? What shape was he in? What are these Skin Walkers you speak of?”

  I stand up to face him. “I have no desire to play twenty questions with you. If you want to know how he is, go see for yourself. Kallen and I need to find the Skin Walker or whoever it is before it tries to kill any more of us.” I’m tempted to say that I wouldn’t mind letting it have a go at him and Sylar, but I hold back. By the look on his face, I guess I didn’t hold back. How do words escape my mouth without me even realizing it?