Blood of Sirens: Book 13 of The Witch Fairy Series (16 page)

I stiffen in the arms of the two Angels holding me.  “What did you say?”  My eyes find the beautiful, mocha skinned Angel.  He is not smiling, but there is something in his eyes.  A truth he wants me to find.  Urim determines fates in a way I will never understand.  He is not allowed to share what he knows just as Raziel is not.  But, his words and his expression hold a promise.

“I can say no more, Xandra.  I can only confirm what you already know.”

Angels can be the most frustrating races in the universe to communicate with.  Their meanings are almost always veiled and their adherence to the rules of free will borders on fanatical.  I often can’t take their words at face value.  Which is why I feel hope at the moment.  Urim is telling me something, something I want desperately to believe.  It’s pointless to ask him if I’m getting his meaning right, though.  So, I keep the question locked up in my brain, not letting it escape uselessly into the universe.

I glance around us.  “How do I fix this?” I ask.

Lailah smiles at me.  “Lucky for you there is one among us who revels in restoring peace and tranquility.”

My eyes shoot to Valoel.  “You can fix this?”

Smiling, she nods.  “I can fix this.  You are not the first Angel to go supernova.  Because you did not know what you were doing, there is no malice here.  There is no intent to cause pain.  For you, this one time, I will restore balance.”  In other words, don’t mess up again because she won’t offer this service again.

I hug the Angel tighter.  “Thank you.”

“We will leave you now to these mortal affairs,” Urim says in his deep, soothing voice.

Lailah pushes a loose strand of hair from my cheek.  “Believe.”  I don’t need to ask her what she means.

I nod.  “I’ll try.”

With a smile, she gives me one last, tight hug.  “That is all we can ask.  Good bye, my beautiful granddaughter.”  As quickly as they came, they are gone.

The world around me snaps back into action.  I glance around in amazement.  Windows and roofs are where they should be.  The Fairies are awake and unscathed.  The only evidence of what happened is the blood still oozing from my ankle.  I guess they figured I could heal that myself.

“Princess, are you alright?” Naja asks for what I assume is not the first time.

Taking a deep breath, I nod.  “Yes.  You said Kegan followed Kallen and the Sirens?”

Naja’s turn to nod.  “Yes.  He has not yet returned with information regarding their whereabouts.”

I suspect Kegan has run into trouble.  I doubt the Sirens would let him follow them for long.  “Did the entire army leave?” I ask, searching the crowd for signs of warriors.

“I believe so.”

Are the Sirens truly keeping their word?  That doesn’t mesh with the plan for complete annihilation.  Then again, they don’t seem to give their warriors much information regarding their true plans.  “Have you searched the area?”

Naja nods.  “I sent scouts who have reported back.  There is no sign of the Sirens or their warriors.  I have remained here with the King.”  So, if her scouts missed something, it’s not her fault.  Okay, that was petty.

I stare down at my biological father.  Every bit of DNA in every single cell in my body is programmed to seek out Kallen.  But, my DNA wouldn’t exist without the Fairy lying on the ground.  He needs to be my first priority.  Kneeling next to him again, I pull enough magic to heal what I assume is a nasty concussion.  A part of me can’t help but be impressed by Kallen’s physical strength.  He must have caught Dagda completely off guard, though.  Dagda is pretty tough himself.

After a moment, Dagda’s eyes flutter open.  He takes in his surroundings trying to figure out where he is.  As soon as he does, he shoots to his feet nearly knocking me down in the process.  “Where is he?” he demands. 

“Gone.”

After a few choice words that have many of the Fairies around us covering their children’s ears, my father puts his hands on my shoulders and searches my face.  “How are you?”

“I’ve been better,” I admit.  At this point, I’m going to keep destroying half the village to myself.  The crowd doesn’t seem to remember it happening.  I assume Valoel took care of that when she put everything to rights.

Turning to Naja, Dagda asks, “Is the village secure?”

“Yes, sire.”

His attention focuses on me again.  “Take me to the palace.”  I reach out and place a hand on his arm.  As soon as I make contact, I teleport.

As soon as we appear in Isla’s office, Tana is out of her chair and flinging herself into Dagda’s arms.  He pulls her tight against him and whispers calming words into her ear.  I hate to interrupt their moment, but my husband is still missing.  “Kallen has given himself to the Sirens.”

Why isn’t Isla’s face showing surprise?  Her eyes lock onto mine.  “I am sorry.”

I point an accusing finger at her.  “You knew!  You knew and you let it happen!”

“Whoa, reel it in.  Even you can’t survive a palace falling on you,” Taz reminds me as I unconsciously begin drawing magic. 

I close my eyes and concentrate on not going supernova again.  My wings have appeared, but I’m not flashing any blinding Angel light.  Progress.  When I’m fairly certain I can keep myself from exploding, I open my eyes again.  The guilt on Isla’s face is almost enough to push me back over the psychotic break line that now exists in my brain.  She starts to speak but I put a hand up.  “You do not want to say a word to me at the moment.”  I am trying to rationalize her actions in my head.  She obviously had a vision.  One that showed Kallen leaving with the Sirens.  Visions are subject to change because of free will.  Nothing is set in stone.  Her vision could have just as easily been wrong.  But it wasn’t.  Now, we’re all blindsided when we could have planned for the possibility.  We could have prevented it.  Isla opens her mouth to speak again.  To my surprise, Taz leaps onto her desk and starts growling at her.  First, I had no idea he could jump that high.  Second, Isla takes his warning and holds back whatever words she was going to speak.  Taz really is afraid I’ll go supernova again if I get any more upset. 

“How are doing, Xandra?” Felix asks.  He is by my side staring up at me, his eyes and body posture radiating concern.  “I felt what happened in the village.”

I look down at him in surprise.  “You did?”

“Of course he did, dimwit.  We’re linked to you,” Taz snarks.  Yeah, that’s going to help my mood.  His eyes and teeth are still pointed in Isla’s direction, though.  “Now, pull it together before you accidently kill someone.”

I hate it when he’s right.  I do the calming breaths thing again.  After a moment, I throw my voice out into the soundless void in the room.  I’m not even sure everyone has been breathing the last few minutes for fear of angering me more.  Am I that scary when I’m mad?  Well, unfortunately for them, I don’t see an end in sight for my temper.  “You kept vital information from me.  Information which could have been used to formulate a plan.  I have always trusted you to do right by Kallen and me, but you failed us this time.  I understand that visions are not always true.  Regardless, I would have been better prepared and probably wouldn’t have destroyed a good part of the village when I found out about it.”  Tana gasps behind me and I know Dagda is itching to ask for details.  “It has been fixed,” I assure them without turning around.

“Xandra, I do not see how warning you of this possible outcome would have made you less upset,” Isla tries. 

Dagda disentangles himself from Tana and stalks toward his High Chancellor.  “Damn it, Isla!  I am with Xandra on this.  You had no right to withhold such information.”

Isla rises from her chair, her expression as menacing now as Dagda’s.  “Do not tell me what rights I have with my grandson.”

“Hey!” I interrupt.  “He may be your grandson, but he’s my husband.”  I throw my hands up in the air.  “This is pointless.  You are never going to admit we’re right.  I’m done.  You do whatever the hell you want to do, but I’m going to find Kallen.  And Kegan.  I don’t know if your vision showed you Kegan following after the Sirens and their warriors, but he’s missing, too.  Have fun explaining to Alita how it was better for us all if you didn’t share your vision.”

“Xandra!” Dagda calls but I am already gone.

I wasn’t lying when I said I was going to try to find Kegan.  I have no idea how to find Kallen at the moment, but I can at least make sure his cousin is alive and well for Alita’s sake.  I come out of my teleport a street away from where I found Naja last time.  I want to avoid the crowded entrance this time.  Both Taz and Felix have joined me and the three of us jog toward the middle of the village.  For once, Taz doesn’t complain about the pace.

We find Naja easily.  She is busy organizing the female Fairies in the village into groups for guard duties regardless of the fact the Sirens supposedly have what they came for.  Dagda really did choose wisely when he appointed her.  “Naja,” I call over the many conversations around us.

She turns in surprise.  “Princess, I did not expect you to return.”

I can’t help a frown.  What did she expect me to do?  Wipe my hands of the situation and stay home?  Maybe she’s not as good as I thought she was.  Okay, I’m probably a tad sensitive at the moment.  “Which way did Kegan go?”

Naja joins me and my Familiars.  “Are you planning to search for him?” 

“She’s a quick one,” Taz snarks.  “I believe the Siren magic has pickled her brain.”

“Yes, I am going to search for him.”  The words come out sharper than I intended, but Taz is right.  Why else would I ask which direction he went.  I might want to take a moment to consider how often I am in agreement with Taz in my current state of mind, but I’m not going to. 

I don’t like the concern crawling over Naja’s face.  The Fairy is about to tell me something else I do not want to hear.  Taz and Felix move into flanking positions and honestly, I’m not sure if they are getting ready to attack Naja or rescue her if I decide to attack her.  “If you do not tell me everything in the next thirty seconds, I will make sure you are not only fired, I will insist you get the job of bacon distributor for my Familiar.”

Naja’s eyes widen in shock.  She’s considering if I’m serious or not.  She must decide I am because words start flowing out of her mouth.  “Princess, there were thousands of them.  They had the village surrounded.  When they left, the left in all directions.  I can tell you which direction the Prince was taken from the village, but I cannot be certain they did not double back to throw us off the trail.”  She pauses for a second then pushes forward.  “I am afraid that Kegan was foolish in his attempt to follow them.  He was most likely caught and either dragged to the sea or left for dead.”

Where is the sugar coating when I really need it?  Left for dead?  Yeah, it does make sense.  I still need to look for him.  Alita needs to know one way or the other.  “I appreciate your honesty.  Now, which direction did Kegan go?”

“North,” Naja says softly.  There is pity in her eyes and I don’t like it. 

“Want me to gnaw on her shin until she stops looking at you like that?” Taz offers.

I’m tempted.  “Thank you, Naja.  Go back to what you were doing.”  I spin on my heels and start heading north. 

After a few moments of walking in silence, Felix says quietly, “She is correct.  You should prepare yourself for the worst.”

“I know.”

“Saying you know and actually believing it are not the same thing in your head,” Taz claims.  “You like to ignore reality a good deal of the time.”

I glare down at him.  “With all your confidence building words how could I ever fail?”

A rustling in the trees just ahead and to the right has us all stopping.  I pull magic and my Familiars move into attack positions.  Slowly, we move toward the spot.  At this point, I hope it’s a Siren.  I have a lot of pent up aggression I would love to release.  My hopes are dashed when we are a few feet away from whoever is hiding there.  The childish whimpering can’t be coming from a Siren or one of their warriors.  “Come out of there,” I order.  My voice is stern but not mean.

The bushes part and a boy around the age of eleven shows himself.  He is a Fairy boy, not the enemy.  “Princess,” he says shyly and does an awkward bow.

“What are you doing out here?” I ask, glancing around looking for any trace of warriors.

“I wanted to help.  I followed them for a while, and then I got scared.”  The boy hangs his head in defeat.

He is breaking my already broken heart.  “It’s okay,” I tell him.  “You tried.  That is more than anyone else did.”  Except Kegan.  Why did he pick now to be brave?  “Do you know which way they brought the Prince?”

The boy lifts an arm and points east.  “They went that way.”

Frowning, I ask, “Are you sure?”  The quickest way to the ocean is north or west.  Headed east, it would take at least an hour of walking.  It seems like the Sirens would want the quickest escape route.

He thinks for a moment.  “Maybe it was that way.”  This time, he points west.

While the boy and I have been talking, my Familiars have inched closer to him.  The young Fairy backs away from them until his back hits the bushes where he was hiding.  “Um, guys…”

I don’t have time to finish my statement.  Felix lunges for the boy, knocking him into the bushes.  Two other well hidden children scramble out.  “They are scouts,” Felix informs me.

Children?  The Sirens use children as scouts?  The other two kids turn to run but Taz can move pretty fast when he wants to.  He cuts them off.  The two consider splitting up, but I don’t let them.  I cocoon them in magic.  I take a minute to remind myself these are kids, not seasoned warriors.  Torturing them for information is out of the question.  Which is probably why the Sirens use kids as scouts.

“You were waiting for me,” I say to the one still lying in the bushes with an extremely irate Tasmanian devil on his chest.  I’m not certain Felix shares the ‘we do not torture children’ sentiment.  His face is mere inches from the boy’s.  “Why?  Were you supposed to get word back to the Sirens if you found me?”

“N-no,” bush boy stammers.

“Then what?”  I mean, it was a given I would try to find my husband.  There must be more to this little game.

“We’re supposed to lead you astray.  Make you search in different directions.”

Sirens are so damn annoying.  Before this is through, I really may kill one of them.  “Okay, that plan failed.  Now, tell me which way they really went and I’ll let you go.”

All three kids remain tightlipped now.  I try to wait patiently, give them time to come to their senses.  I expect the boy with Felix’s foaming saliva running down his neck to be the first to crack.  What I don’t expect is Taz to start doing a happy dance.

“HA!” my Familiar shouts.  He is hopping up and down and moving this way and that.  I’m starting to get worried.  Is he having a nervous breakdown?

“Taz, are you okay?”

“Okay?  Nah, I’m great.  I know which way the numnuts went.  Let these runts go, they aren’t any use to us.”

I consider Taz for a moment before deciding to trust him.  Dropping my magic, I tell the kids, “Go back to your parents.”  They don’t move.  “Go on, we don’t need you.”

One of the boys I trapped in my magic shakes his head.  “We failed.  We cannot go back now.”

What is that feeling crawling up my spine?  Oh, it’s just my complete and utter hatred of Sirens.  “What will happen to you if you go back?”  Please tell me you’ll get grounded.

“We will be ostracized.” 

I have to know.  “Meaning?”

Bush boy responds.  “Meaning we will be turned away if we are able to find our way back to our clan.  The clan,” he corrects.  Because it’s no longer their clan.

“If you were successful in deceiving me, how would you have found your clan?” I ask.

“If the war was successful, they would have found us,” the third boy says.  My head is going to explode.  These kids will soon be covered in my brain goo.  I hope they have strong stomachs.  How does a Queen of any race get so twisted she is willing to sacrifice children for her own safety.  I hate Sirens.

“Xandra!” a voice calls from up ahead. 

I turn and my mouth drops open.  Garren is walking toward us.  Slung over his shoulder is what I assume is an unconscious Kegan.  I can only see his butt and legs, but I’m pretty sure it’s him.  I rush forward.  I don’t even care that the three kids scramble off into the woods.  I’ll worry about them later.  Hmm, there’s a lot of stuff I’m putting off worrying about until later.  I may want to look into some antianxiety meds between now and then.

When I reach them, Garren relieves his shoulder of Kegan’s weight.  He lays him gently on the ground.  “He put up a good fight,” Garren tells me.  “If Kallen had not rendered him unconscious with magic, he would have taken out more than the seven warriors he did.”

All I can do at the moment is repeats parts of what he said.  My brain is having trouble processing anything at the moment.  “Seven warriors?  Kallen rendered him unconscious?”

Garren studies me for a moment.  “I believe you are suffering from shock.”

Coming to my senses, I snort.  “I’ve been suffering from shock since the Sirens showed up.”

“Nah, it was way before that,” Taz says unhelpfully.  “How has that been working out for you?”  I ignore him as I so often do.

“How did you find him?” I ask.

Anger begins to ooze from Garren’s pores.  “Despite the doubts some have about me,” he means Isla, of course, and maybe a few others in our group, “I have yet to be tempted by the Sirens.  I have been searching for them.  I caught the end of this fight.”  He cocks his head in Kegan’s direction.  “Kallen was being wrapped in the Sirens’ magic so he could be transported to wherever they are hiding.  I do not believe he saw me fight my way to Kegan.”