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"I will take the Farus officers back to their camp," Reemagar whispered next to my ear. I nodded while I watched four Fae shoot troubled glances at each other.
"Go," Tiearan told one of the brown-haired Fae, who nodded and took off running.
"The child will arrive soon," Tiearan said softly, holding a hand out to keep me at a distance. He was all Fae, I could tell by his scent, as was the other, brown-haired one. The one with blue-green hair, though—he was half. Nearly twenty minutes passed before the brown-haired Fae returned with two more Fae, one of whom had Toff in her arms.
"You have to understand that we didn't know it had happened until six days after we'd taken the child," Tiearan sighed.
"What?" I said absently, reaching out toward Toff as the two female Fae stepped beneath the roof of the tent. Toff hid his face against the female's shoulder. That wasn't like him. Normally, he squealed with laughter and reached out for me, no matter what.
"Toff, honey, come to your auntie Lissa," I said, reaching out for him. He gave an unhappy little sound and burrowed closer against the female Fae. That scared me, and I lifted my eyes to hers. She was young, as far as Fae go, perhaps two hundred years of age, with hair the color of red that maple leaves turned in the fall. And she looked frightened, too.
"Redbird desired to keep the child," Tiearan's words came from a distance. "She performed the mind-bond with the child, so he would stay with her. We did not intend for this to happen and we deeply regret it." I snapped right back to the present; I think my eyes and fangs were now showing exactly what I was.
"Explain to me exactly what a mind-bond is and what it will do to Toff when I take him away from here," I snarled.
If I hadn't had my Larentii with me, holding me back, I think I might have killed just about everybody inside the tent. Even Garde was holding me back, and he was almost as angry as I was. Tiearan explained that a mind-bond was something the Fae could do if they adopted a child. The child would see the one performing the bond as a parent—and only them as a parent. The child would be their own person once they matured, but by that time, they normally considered the adoptive Fae their parent and no other. I was so angry when he stopped talking that I could have taken Vionn apart anyway.
"I am sorry," Redbird apologized, even while she held my Toff tightly against her. I wasn't buying that apology and she knew it.
"If there is any way to make this up to you," Tiearan said, "we will do our best to oblige."
"And just how would you propose to do that?" I hissed. "If someone stole your child and forced you to come and haul their ass out of a bind, and then ended up taking your child anyway, tell me how that would make you feel?" I was so angry my eyes were likely blood red and my fangs pricked my lower lip. That was nothing compared to the headache I now had.
"We would not like it," Tiearan refused to look at me. "We thought we would have to contend with the Karathian King over this," he muttered. "We expected to die for Redbird's mistake."
"And I want to kill you," I said. "And if my Larentii had not given me mindspeech, telling me that it will harm Toff if Redbird dies, well, you might already be dead," I growled. "Didn't you have enough sense to hand him to somebody who would keep him safe, instead of f**king with his head?" Connegar had also told me that the mind-bond was irreversible in a child as young as Toff—if we tried, he would likely die or be simple from the damage.
"I thought my daughter would keep him safe," Tiearan glanced at Redbird, who was playing with Toff and pointedly ignoring her father and me.
"So I get f**ked over, for coming to save your sorry asses."
"There is nothing I can say or do, which will eliminate your pain or anger," Tiearan said quietly.
"So, I'm to go home, without my child. That's what you're telling me. Are you going to do this again? You get in a bind; you kidnap a child to get what you want?"
"We have never done anything of this nature before," Tiearan winced. "And it was to save our half-children that we did it. We understand the threat of loss, but not the loss. We cannot repay this debt. We have no way to do so."
"We will send him to you when he reaches his maturity, so he may decide which world he would rather live in," the other female offered. Her name was Rain, I knew; they'd introduced both of the females after a while.
"Sure, after you've raised him and indoctrinated him," I muttered angrily. "He'll resent the fact that he has to live with relatives he doesn't remember."
"He will not have the talent and capability that we have, and that will separate him from us," Tiearan sighed.
"So, my child gets tortured, no matter what," I muttered, now close to tears. I knew what growing up without belonging felt like, and these Fae had condemned Toff to that existence.
"He will love Redbird, and she will love him," Tiearan tried to calm me.
"Forced to love her," I shot back, wiping away the tear that fell. "Tell me what good that does me?"
"We cannot replace a child," Tiearan replied. "I am sorry."
"I will go back with her," the blue-green haired one offered.
"Corent, no!" Rain was standing, now. His offer also had Redbird off her seat, holding a hand out to him. They were lovers; I knew it in that instant.
"It is only fair," Corent turned his gaze on Redbird. "You keep her child until he comes to adulthood. Nothing can relieve that pain for her. Therefore, it is only fair that you suffer, since you did not confer with us over this matter. You chose this yourself."
"Corent," Redbird whined. Well, somebody was used to getting her way.
"Fine." I stood up. "Don't ever come to me or any of my kind for help. Ever. And if this child is raised in anything other than a loving environment, I will still come and take this world apart and I won't waste time doing it."
"We will see that he is loved and cared for and I regret that this has harmed you," Tiearan stood with me. "I understand that you would not truly harm us, I felt the insincerity in your words. You are allowing your pain to speak for you. If there were any way to take that away from you, I would do it. If there were any way for me to take back my daughter's folly, I would do it. I only beg you to take care of Corent; he has never been anywhere except through these valleys, and only knows a peaceful existence."
"I'll put him with the comesuli, near the light half of the planet," I was crying again; I couldn't seem to stop. Garde had his hand at the small of my back, trying to comfort me without being obvious about it. "The farms and orchards are there," I lost it, then, and the Larentii had to haul us all home.
