Jericho tossed her a proud grin. “Stay back, angel. Until we’ve split Siria from Chrysalis she is still very dangerous. But grab Galeta and Esmerelda, tell the Blue to alert the fairy council, all will be revealed soon.”
Aeric’s heart sped, his pulse thundered through his ears like a stampeding herd of wild stallions. As much as he hated the imp, Rumpel had saved his ass.
As if thinking of the demon conjured him, suddenly a pillar of flame manifested just beside Aeric.
Chrysalis continued to scream and wail, trying desperately to sever the bonds of rope penning her in.
“What do you want?” Aeric turned to Rumpel who was still dressed in black leather, but with the flames licking at the collar of his jacket he looked more like a demon from hell than the malformed man child most fairy tales made him out to be.
Rumpel’s smile was wicked as he said, “You owe me, hunter. I’ve not forgotten your debt. And I call it due.”
“Now!” He growled. “I’ve not even saved my girl yet. This can wait.”
Scrubbing his jaw, Rumpel shrugged. “I’m a patient man, you’ll save her, then you come to me.”
Locking his jaw, Aeric curled his fists.
Suddenly a scroll appeared; the very one he’d signed his name in blood with.
“You see this, huntsman? This…” he shook it, “is an unbreakable pact, you don’t keep to your end of the bargain, and neither will I.”
“I already know how to save her,” he snorted.
Rumpel chuckled. “Humans, such hubris you all possess. Do you honestly believe you solved the riddle all by yourself? I planted the truth in there, only to be revealed the moment needed. Because, if you weren’t aware already, Siria has gleaned information from Chrysalis’ pathetic, little brain in the past. If you’d so much as hinted to the truth, the outcome would be…” he looked around with a look of profound satisfaction, “much, much different.” Staring right at Aeric, Rumpel smiled. It was an easy going, friendly grin. One that, to an outsider, would make the man appear much more trustworthy than he was. “Now, what do you think would happen if I turned back the hands of time, oh say,” he glanced at the watch on his wrist, “thirty minutes ago? Hmm? And perhaps I might even pluck,” he mimed plucking an object from Aeric’s head, “the memory right out.”
Fury boiled and bubbled like a frothy cauldron in his blood.
“Ah yes, now you see.” Golden eyes glimmered. “Fix this mess, and then we leave.”
“You filthy son of—” Aeric turned to rush him, but Rumpel vanished in a plume of sulfurous smoke.
That’s when he was aware of the eyes blinking large back at him. Alice was like a deer caught in a hunter’s crossbow. Hatter didn’t look shocked, so much as confused.
“Who were you talking to?” Alice whispered.
Knowing that Rumpel could only be seen if he wished to be seen, trying to convince the two of them he’d not gone crazy seemed pointless at best. He shook his head.
“Then can you please,” Hatter growled, “tend to my daughter?”
“Please?” Alice said it softer, much more kind than her husband.
Just then a pop of indrawn air sounded and before them was the Green wearing only a cloak of Ivy and Hawthorn, Danika buzzing agitatedly, and a glowering Galeta in a robe of arctic ice.
“What is this about?” The headmistress sneered, glancing between the lot of them.
“Judgment has been called,” Esmeralda the Green (fairy of truth and justice) intoned in a deep, throaty breath. Her eyes had gone completely black, as they always did when she peered into the realm of truth and justice.
When a fairy, or denizen of Kingdom broke law or faith with their realm and the matter was severe enough, they had to go before the fairy council. But sentencing always fell to the Green.
The wind whipped up then, rushing through the trees and bowing branches as they rustled and shook from Esmeralda’s gathering powers. A green mist rolled from beneath her feet, and her body crackled and sparked with raw volts of energy.
With a loud inhale, she rolled her head toward Chrysalis and shook it. “There are many present inside this one, but one who stole her way in at precisely five minutes after birth.”
Suddenly Galeta seemed more interested, and listening intently to what was being said.
Esmeralda continued speaking into the absolute and sudden quiet around them. “Siria, daughter of the sun, has broken faith with all of Kingdom. She has trespassed where she does not belong. To do it she made a deal with the broker.”
“Damn that imp to the bowels of hell,” Danika snapped. Esmeralda didn’t startle or blink out from her trance at Danika’s sudden intrusion.
Finally the fury of Chrysalis ceased, and a sudden keening took over. “No, no. Please, no. I only wished…”
Galeta hissed and if Aeric wasn’t mistaken, looked genuinely shocked. Which he found to be oddly shocking in and of itself, Galeta was known far and wide as being no sympathizer of Danika.
Esmeralda pointed a clawed finger. “Before punishment can commence, the souls must be untwined.”