We walked single file with Adam bringing up the rear, through several more rooms and hallways before we were led to a room with the mark of Trinity above the door frame. I mentally prepared for the feeling of being drained and wondered if I'd give in to being a weak-ass girl and passing out if the room was warded against magic.
Today had been too much. Tomorrow wasn’t looking any better. But I was a survivor and I had this in the bag as long as I didn’t end up bagging the Dark Prince and tossing his body in the lake a few miles away.
I stepped through and exhaled as no pain took over my mind and no blasted past was thrown in my face. I looked up in time to catch the Fae watching me. For what? I'd passed the test at the front door and I hadn't felt any spelling of the walls here, had I missed something?
I turned looking back as Larissa was thrown back and landed on the floor, her face pinched with pain as she looked up at me, "Larissa?"
"How did you get through?" Larissa whispered her eyes wide as she stood back up.
I turned glaring at the Fae, "Enough of these fucking tests! I saved your asses today, now let them in!"
"Fine, first tell me how you just walked through a ward that should have knocked you on your ass," Ryder said crossing his arms over his chest to glare at me.
"Easy, I stepped the fuck through it."
"Only Fae are able to cross it without being invited," he continued.
"Then it's broken, because I assure you I am not Fae!"
Thirteen
"Stop looking at me like that! Witch here remember? I am not a fucking Fairy!"
"How did you pass through the spell? It's not broken, I placed it myself," the Demon growled. I'd hoped to not encounter him again. So much for hoping.
"I told you, I stepped over it. I'm not Fae. If I was, wouldn’t you guys have picked up on it already?" I challenged Ristan, crossing my arms over my chest as I pegged him with a glare.
"Indeed," he snarled.
"Enough, she cannot be of Fae blood without us being able to smell it and I for one don't smell anything besides human on her," Ryder spat like I was something distasteful and moved further into the room taking a seat at the far end of a huge oval table that engulfed most of the meeting room. The others quickly followed his lead and left us standing.
Convenient. His thirteen men that always seemed to be with him had taken seats as if they had been pre-assigned—or in some sort of pecking order. The room had slate black walls that mimicked stone and under any other circumstances I'd have given them more attention but my curiosity was firmly on the murders.
I still hurt like hell and the healing process wouldn’t fully work until I slept.
"How do you know she knew her killer?" Ryder asked jumping straight to business and ignoring the fact that we had been left standing like hired help.
"She made tea," I mumbled bringing my hand up to rub the back of my neck where the pain was starting to become unbearable.
"She made tea and that alone tells you she knew her killer?" This from Ristan who had his eyes narrowed at me.
"She cleaned, she made tea. Yes, sounds lame but seriously there was no dust in her front room, the window was broken from inside the house, the killer or killers weren't rushed and she opened the door for them. The car was parked out back, so if the killer had been trying to break in to kill the victim, why the hell wouldn’t she go through the back window which was low enough for her to break and slide through easily? It seems pretty stupid to even consider the fact that she would go through a window on the front porch in daylight hours and what she did inside…" I shivered as small bumps broke out across my skin from the image that had been inside that tiny green house, "It wasn’t done in minutes, it was precise and the killer only took what they wanted. There were no cuts anywhere else that didn’t serve a purpose."
"You got all of that from the few minutes inside the house?" Zahruk said whistling.
"Yes" I replied trying not to show how tired I was.
"You think a woman did that?" Ryder asked carefully.
"No, I don’t think. I know at least one of the killers was a woman. There was mauve colored lipstick left on the glass. The victim wore no makeup. The heel impressions in the gravel and dirt also confirm my theory."
He considered it and then spoke softly, "Why would a woman take another's uterus and ovaries?"
I ignored it. I had no freaking idea why anyone would do something so horrendous. "What leaves a green aura trail in its wake?" I asked after a few moments of awkward silence.
Fourteen heads shook their reply.
"They took her eyes, she wasn’t a power Fae. She was an earth Fairy for fucks sake." Ryder snapped testily.
I dropped my arm and felt my knees sag briefly before I caught myself. Ryder had noticed it though. There wasn’t much he didn’t notice.
"Are we boring you?" He asked harshly.
"She took a bomb today," Adam replied before I could, "She has yet to sleep which means she hasn’t healed enough and needs to do so soon."