“I’m here to save Tempest and the amsirah. That’s my number one goal; destroying my father will be the bonus.”
“Your father can’t take the throne,” Tucker said.
“I know.”
I started through the trees again. We were supposed to meet Ellery soon, but I was impatient to see her. We could have opened a portal to Ianto’s old encampment, but we had time to kill, and despite the creatures in the woods, I needed a walk to clear my mind after everything that happened today.
We traveled in silence until arriving at the clearing where Ianto once stayed with the children. Ellery hadn’t arrived yet.
“When are we going to free them?” Tucker asked.
“Free who?” Ianto said.
“The prisoners,” Tucker and I said together.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT
Ryker
“Are you fucking crazy?”Ianto demanded.
“They can’t stay like that,” I stated. “I won’t let them be paraded and tortured throughout the towns and coastal communities.”
“How do you plan to stop it?” Ianto inquired.
“We’ll find a way. There must be a weakness somewhere in what they’re doing. I suspect we’ll find that weakness at night. I didn’t return to the green to see what was happening before I left, but I’ll return tonight. I have to know how many guards they have on the prisoners.”
“You can’t be serious,” Ianto said.
“I am,” I told him.
Across the clearing, a portal opened and Ellery emerged. Scarlet must have decided to remain with her family for the night.
When Ellery looked around for us, I started toward her. She smiled as she approached me, but it didn’t light her eyes in thesame way it used to. She was forging ahead, keeping it together, and doing what had to be done; she was also suffering.
When I opened my arms to her, she stepped into my embrace, and I clasped her against my chest. I breathed a sigh as the missing piece of me finally fit back into place.
“That was awful,” she said with a shudder.
I didn’t have to ask what she was talking about; I already knew.
“Word of the money is spreading through Nottingshire. It’s giving the amsirah some hope,” I told her. “We’re making progress.”
“Good.”
When she stepped back a little to survey the others, I released her and placed my hand on the small of her back. When her eyes settled on Ianto, her brow furrowed as the giant still looked about to shit his pants.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded.
Ianto finally closed his mouth, but he didn’t respond. A ghost drifted through the clearing. The woman kept her head down as she bobbed across the ground.
When a poltergeist dove out of the trees, ripped off her head, and threw what had now become a skull at us, the woman stopped floating while the poltergeist zipped away. His laughter mingled with the noises of the night as he vanished into the trees.
After a few seconds, the skull lifted off the ground and floated back to the ghost, who remained in place, waiting for it. When the head settled back on her shoulders, she didn’t look at us before floating into the trees.
Ellery rolled her eyes before shifting her attention back to me. “What is going on?”
She wasn’t going to like my response, but there was no way to soften it. “We’re going to free the prisoners.”
