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This shit was just not to be believed.
“You’re sick in the head,” Rain whispered hoarsely. “There’s no help for someone like you and what you did was so far beyond wrong it wasn’t even funny. You don’t deserve to live when they're all dead. You don’t deserve to live because you’re a danger to all of our kind, but especially to Autumn. And she deserves a fair shot without the threat of you looming over her. We’re going to see that she gets it.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Before I had a chance to do something about it a knife flew through the air and lodged itself in the man’s throat.
Rain sighed heavily as if he was seriously annoyed by this new development as I whirled around. Ariel was standing in the doorway with a smirk on her face and another knife in her hand.
“I couldn’t very well let you boys have all the fun, now could I?”
Christ, these people.
“I can’t wait for you to go home,” Rain told his daughter in a harassed voice.
I glared at the man. “I can’t wait for all of you to go home. And, please, be strangers. Don’t come back any time soon.”
Ariel laughed. “No can do, big man. I’m the only Council member left and I’ve decided it’s well past time to put a new one together again.”
Rain gapped at his daughter. “When did you decide this? We’ve not discussed anything of this nature before. I didn’t think it was something you’d be open to.”
Ariel shrugged her shoulders carelessly, as if she hadn’t just dropped a huge bomb on us. “It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. Autumn solidified it for me. I’m going to ask her to be a member. Not only is she the last known Forest Witch at the moment but she’s also incredibly powerful;. More so even than I am. She deserves a seat at the table and for her uniqueness to be heard and the chance to make a difference. I think she’ll make a great addition.”
Rain’s eyes shone bright in the dimly lit room. “Do you have any idea how proud of you I am?” he asked in a voice thick with emotion.
I nodded because he wasn’t the only one incredibly proud of her. I knew everyone else would be too.
“I know, dad. I’m gonna ask Dash and Trenton and Simon too. There are some of the kids next door that I’d like to ask to sit in on the meetings and everything as some sort of training because I want them to have a seat at the table too but they might be too young just yet.”
I loved this. Ariel Kimber was proving with every word out of her mouth just how perfect she was for the job.
“We need to take them back to the forest and burn them where we found them.”
I wholeheartedly agreed and was glad we were getting back on track. “They might have been horrible but that’s where they belong. And I don’t want them on my land. Gunner also talked to me. He wants to salt the earth there.”
“We can do that. I’ll talk to Autumn and see if she’d be willing to go back now that the nightmare is over for her and there’s no threat to her there. It might offer her some closure as well. Isobel and I can both tell you how important that is and sometimes you have to go back to where you experienced hell in order to get your closure.”
I groaned, thinking about the information I learned and now had to share with Autumn.
“Yeah, about that…”
22
Autumn
I was back in the greenhouse but this time I wasn’t hiding from anyone or trying to escape an uncomfortable situation.
No, this place had become a sanctuary for me and just being in here brought me a sense of peace.
And I really needed peace right now.
Raven had told me what had been said about my mother and it had broken my heart to learn it. But, at the same time, I was also relieved in a strange way for knowing it.
In her own way she’d done what she could to protect me, but she’d also left me all alone in the world afterwards. I could understand why it was a world she’d no longer wanted to live in after what had been done to her. I couldn’t even imagine.
But I really could have used a mother, damn it.
Thankfully, I had no tears left in me to cry. They’d already been spent earlier in the week and now I was simply drained.
