Page 111 of A Dance with the Fae Prince (Married to Magic 2)
“Do you think it’s safe?” My voice is so soft that I’m sure he reads my lips more than hears my words.
“I don’t think anywhere is safe for us anymore,” he says solemnly. “But I think all the Butchers are gone.”
“Good. Follow me.”
“And just where do you think you’re going?” he asks as we slowly climb down the tree.
“I’m not sure yet.” Even though I think all the Butchers are gone, I still slink through the dark forest, clinging to trees and trying to make myself as small as possible. We come to the edge of the clearing where the Butchers caught the survivors.
“We should give them a proper burial,” Giles says softly.
“There’s no time.”
“No time? All we have now is time…while we wait for them to come and kill us.” Anger creeps into his voice. I know I’m just a convenient outlet for it. He’s not actually angry at me. Yet another thing that my family prepared me for—allowing vicious tirades and wounding words to be nothing more than glancing blows that rarely meet the mark.
“I’m not going to wait for anyone to come and kill me.” I scan the mountains, trying to figure out where Raph might have climbed from. “I spent my whole life at the whim of others, waiting to see what they’ll do to me next; I’m not waiting anymore.”
The hiss of my name nearly startles Giles out of his skin.
“Katria! Over here.”
Raph stands between a boulder and the mountain, at the edge of the carnage. Giles is a step behind me and rushing over to him, dumbstruck as he lays eyes on Hol’s son. Raph’s gaze is distant. Shock has hollowed out his usually precocious demeanor. He stares up at us, blinking several times, looking for the first time like the child he very much is.
“I thought we were the only ones who survived.” His lower lip quivers as he fights back tears. “I saw them rounding everyone else up. I didn’t know what to do.”
“Who else is with you?” Giles asks.
“I’ll show you.” Raph leads us through nooks and crannies created by boulders and rocks removed when the tunnel was made. It’s nearly impossible for us to squeeze through in some places; no wonder the Butchers didn’t think to even try. But for Raph’s lithe, little frame, it’s no trouble at all. He saw a path where no one else did. A hideaway not even Allor would know. “When it happened, my father told me what to do. I was gonna be where he told me to. Swear. But…I was worried, you know, since not all of Dreamsong coulda been told… I went to see how Ralsha was. And well, then she had a friend, who had a friend. We were just tryin’ to look out for each other and by the time we got here, they were already…you know. I had this hiding spot and shared it.”
The pathway enters the mountain. On the other side of the brief, naturally formed tunnel is a sheltered glade. Two dozen fae children huddle together. Some weep openly, others consoling them. Most just clutch themselves, or each other, staring blankly with eyes much like Raph’s.
“I didn’t mean to break the rules and not go with the rest, I swear.” Raph wipes his nose with the back of his hand and shakes his head. “D’ya think my dad’ll be upset?”
“No.” Giles breaks then and there. He falls to his knees and clutches the small boy tightly. I can only imagine that Giles has watched this child—maybe all of these children—grow up in the city that he swore to protect. The city that is still burning. “You did amazing, Raph.”
“You really did,” I echo. “How did you manage to evade the Butchers when no one else could?”
Raph looks up at me. “Told you already, the best guide there is. No one knows—” he gulps down a burst of emotion “—knew Dreamsong like me. No one can get into places like I can to make deliveries. Especially not those Butchers. And specially not if my ‘delivery’ is my friends.”
I kneel down as Giles finally releases him. I place my hand on Raph’s shoulder and lock eyes with him. “Raph, what I’m about to ask you is entirely unfair. It is a burden that not even the most skilled adults could shoulder, and I’m going to ask if you’re willing to do it.”
The spark of fire in his eyes reassures me. Underneath the shock and sadness is anger and determination. Even though his city is still smoldering, he wants revenge. We all do.
“I have something very important I need you to deliver. And I swear, if you do this, it’s the last delivery I’m going to ever ask of you.”
“Katria?” Giles asks worriedly, as if he can somehow sense what all of this is building up to. I wonder if he can see the plan that’s forming in my head even though I’m making it up as I go. Raph just continues to stare in determined silence.
“I need you to deliver me into the heart of the High Court.”
