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The wraith fell sideways thrashing on the ground, but the troll stood there blinking several times.
A number of trolls moved in close. “Jonas? I think this is Jonas, from out at Evangeline Lake. He had a farm there a hundred years ago. Jonas, is that you?”
Ethan, have some of these realm-folk been bound for over a hundred years.
Yes, some longer.
My God.
The crowds murmurings grew louder and louder.
The troll looked around and took a step back as though astonished. “Where the hell am I?”
“It is Jonas. He always had a mouth on him, that one.”
Some of the crowd laughed, but other trolls approached him and took him by the hand. Ethan called out. “Finn, take charge of him. We’ll need to interrogate them all.”
“Yes, mastyr.”
Several more Guardsmen grabbed the wraith, but the creature didn’t put up a fight, which surprised Samantha. “Is she physically hurt, demoralized, or what?” she asked quietly.
“They gain their power through the bond.”
“That’s horrible.”
“It is. It’s been a scourge for centuries. I’m hoping our new millennium will see the last of them.”
“I do, too.”
But the next bonded pair was hauled forward only this wraith fought long and hard against what he had seen happen to the first couple. He hissed and shrieked.
Ethan stood slightly in front of her, a protective position, as Samantha created the original arc of fae-power, shedding a silver-violet wave across the wraith’s back. Once more the pair fell to their knees, this time the bonded mate was a tall fae woman who bore a lot of bruises on her arms.
With Ethan joining his power to hers once more, she repeated the process, and the bond was once more severed. The wraith fell forward prone and didn’t move. He lay there twitching, his power completely gone.
Like the troll, however, the fae appeared stunned at first, her dull eyes eventually finding clarity as she began to focus on everything around her. Finally, she said, “Caldwell. This is Caldwell. And I’m free.”
Her words brought a huge cheer rising from the residents. Huzzas followed, a long, triumphant string of them.
Samantha smiled as Ethan slid his arm around her waist and gave her a squeeze. She looked up at him. We’re doing some good here, aren’t we?
Yes, we are.
Samantha performed the service repeatedly until twelve wraith-pairs had been completely dissolved and the outlaw wraiths imprisoned. The recently liberated realm-folk were turned over to a team of fae who specialized in bondage crimes with a network of services that supported victims of all species.
As for Caldwell, since the Invictus force had not only been turned back well before the city’s outskirts, and those wraith-pairs captured were now dissolved, it was party-time once more in the old stone square.
The mayor begged for Ethan and Samantha to participate in the festivities, but other than offering a few words at the microphone to wish everyone Goddess-speed, he excused himself for the sake of his Guard and his need to stay on patrol.
As the Guard took to the air, a deafening round of cheers and shouts followed.
Some even called out her name.
The sight of so many well-wishers in the stone-built town of Caldwell, added another layer to Samantha’s confusion about just where she belonged.
*** *** ***
Ethan flew Samantha back to his primary residence. He’d come to love the feel of her next to him like this, her feet balanced on one foot as he drifted through the air.
Five Guardsmen accompanied them and Finn had the rest on patrols searching for more Invictus sign.
He might even have felt like he could let down a little, but something restless moved through his ranks, like they each caught a distant jarring vibration that kept his troops on edge.
I need to be with my troops.
Now? Tonight?
Yes. Something’s going on.
But I thought…
What did you think? Because we’d worked together?
Yes, because we’d saved a number of your people, bringing them out of years, even decades of captivity, that you might be able to stop, to take a little time with me. This wasn’t easy you know.
She’d grown stiff in his arms.
Now this felt familiar, the few times he’d allowed a woman to get too close; she wanted more from him than he could give.
He needed to set her straight, so he pathed, Bergisson comes first, it always will.
I get that, or thought I did. But Finn can take charge now and then. He’s more than capable.
The fact that Finn had been telling him something similar for the past decade didn’t ease his mind or his temper. He shot back, And now you’re an expert on battling the Invictus?
Not exactly. But I am an expert when a man is being a dick, which you are right now, by the way.
He almost smiled, but he was too edgy to be that amused and why did he have to like it when she called him a dick?
Whether or not you’re right about this, I have to go out.
Do you want to at least check to see if there’s another vision you can use? Seems to me I did some good just now.
He wasn’t sure why he was being so pricklish, but he relented a little. Yes, you did a lot of good and I’m proud of you. But, Samantha, whatever the future holds, Bergisson comes first. I have a million realm-souls on my shoulders and I feel them every living day of the year.
I know you do.
He didn’t like that she fell suddenly quiet, then he knew why. He felt her doubts like a wave washing over him, tightening his gut a little more, making his edginess reach that jumping off point.
And it ticked him off that even after all she’d just experienced and accomplished in Caldwell, that she would think for even a second that she didn’t belong here.
You’re thinking about Shreveport.
And my grandmother’s home.
Shit. His personal frequency tightened up into a knot. He couldn’t bear the thought that she might choose to return to Shreveport. But why couldn’t she see the value of staying, even staying with him?
Then he’d hardly made it easy for her. If anything, his realm had been one long nightmare, including his own Neanderthal conduct that got sprung at the slightest hint of another male getting close to her.
Still, it irritated him that she didn’t see that she belonged here. But then maybe she was more like Andrea than he wanted to admit.
When he touched down outside his primary residence, he’d never been more grateful than to see Vojalie and Davido. They sat in chairs near the fireplace, the baby monitor between them, Bernice probably tucked away in her crib.
