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Seth stood on the threshold with Lorelei unconscious in his arms. If the enemy waited for him in his house, he was in serious trouble, which meant he couldn’t risk staying.
He prepared to head back into the sky—maybe to take her to one of his closest neighbors—until he felt an unmistakable energy flowing toward him, something he’d felt in Ferrenden Peace two months ago when he’d met Queen Rosamunde for the first time.
He stepped inside and found the queen sitting on his couch, waiting for him, the woman who never left her kingdom, who for the past thousand years had lived in isolation, just as he had. In order to protect herself and her people from Margetta, she’d created an enthrallment veil that had kept Ferrenden Peace from the rest of the Nine Realms for over a millennium.
Now she was here.
Her gaze fell to Lorelei and she stretched out her arms. “Give her to me, Mastyr Seth.”
“You knew she’d be injured?”
Rosamunde sighed, a heavy sound that went way into the past, of a life lived in servitude to her calling. “Let’s just say that I had a vision and now I’m here.”
Fae visions were highly respected in his world. “Where do you want her?”
Rosamunde looked around. “Here will do just fine.”
Seth laid the wolf on the couch beside Rosamunde, positioning Lorelei’s back against the cushions and her head resting on the queen’s lap. This position left her wounded side fully exposed.
She placed her hand gently between Lorelei’s white wolf ears. Lorelei whimpered softly, her snout long and graceful, her winter coat creating a thick white ruff around her neck.
Rosamunde closed her eyes.
Seth felt a profound wave of healing energy pulse through the room. The ache in his knee and ribs lessened because of it.
Lorelei’s breathing hitched, then released. She finally drew a deep breath and the terrible, bloody wound began to knit together at lightning speed.
He called the fae healer and rescinded his request for her to come to him. He didn’t try to explain why he no longer needed her though he assured her that Lorelei was healing more quickly than he thought. He just wasn’t sure Rosamunde would want it known that she’d left her kingdom.
He remained standing in front of Lorelei, his gaze fixed to her. In stages, her breathing eased and she no longer panted.
After several minutes, Rosamunde looked up at him. “Mastyr Seth, from this moment forward, you must open yourself to Lorelei and to what the two of you can accomplish together. I know that you’re stoic by nature, not given to passionate pursuits or anything of a romantic nature, but for your sake and for the sake of your realm, I ask you to be open to all that you’ll soon discover Lorelei to be.”
His gaze fell to Lorelei once more. “I’ve felt her power, which she shared with me while confronting the Invictus tonight. She saved us both.”
“Be open.”
He met her gaze and saw in the weight of her expression not only his need to take her advice to heart, but her own suffering. He could relate. In many ways, he and the queen were alike, but even he didn’t carry the burden that Rosamunde did. She was perhaps the most powerful woman in his realm and had kept her throne safe from Margetta. It was believed that whoever ruled Ferrenden Peace could also take over the Nine Realms.
When Seth had visited the castle two months ago, he’d spoken with the queen about her responsibility to keep Ferrenden Peace out of the hands of Margetta or any other self-serving, realm person who wanted to enslave all the realms. She’d lived apart from her peers in order to preserve the freedom of all.
His own solitude had been a personal choice, while the queen’s had been a necessity for the sake of their world. The least he could do was take her admonition to heart.
“I’ll do as you’ve said.”
She appeared to breathe a deep sigh of relief. “Good, and that’s all that anyone can ask of you, Seth, to just be open.”
* * * * * * * * *
Lorelei hurt deep into her stomach all the way to her spine, then up through her ribcage. She was certain every one of her internal organs had been damaged when that horrible wraith had slung her battle energy in her direction.
She’d never known such pain and while lying next to Seth in the snow, she’d been convinced not only that she would die, but that Seth would as well. And she would have failed at the first important task she’d ever been given in her long life-on-the-run.
But from where she lay, with a warm hand pressing on her head and healing rolling through her body, she knew she hadn’t died after all. For one thing, there was a small spider web in the corner of the broad front window near the grand piano. Surely, the Nine Realm’s version of heaven wouldn’t have allowed spiders.
She pushed her paw against the healer’s knee, a form of gratitude, then sighed deeply. She was still in wolf form, a shape she’d come to treasure since coming to Walvashorr.
How long ago it seemed since she’d made the trek to Ferrenden Peace with Mastyr Quinlan and Batya, through the Caverns of Pickerne, the Dead Forest and the Snowfields of Rayne, all to get to Queen Rosamunde’s kingdom and to safety.
