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Hazel met her look for a moment, and something passed between mother and daughter. Basil felt that sting again and involuntarily took a small, quiet step back.
“Yes,” Hazel said, dark eyes glittering with resolve. “We need to find her and bring her home. The fae who took her is dead. I have kept my promise all these years, and now our deal is null and void. I deserve to get my daughter back.” She thought for a few seconds. “We need a fae to take us into Faerie.”
“Why?” Lily asked.
“Faerie’s borders are magically sealed, only allowing fae and lower life forms to cross over. Fae can take humans, witches, or otherworld creatures over the border, so we need a fae to grant us passage. They’re just so hard to find outside of Faerie…”
“Umm, hello? Basil’s a fae? He can take us.”
Both pairs of eyes focused on him.
“I’ll do it,” he said, without missing a beat.
Hazel shook her head. “No, sweetie.”
The endearment cut something tender within him, leaving behind the same taint that spoiled all the memories of his mom now. Not my mom, not my mom. He clenched his jaw.
“From all we know,” Hazel continued, “granting passage is not just the physical act of a fae taking non-fae over the border. Some sort of invocation of fae magic is needed, and you…” She didn’t finish, but the message was clear.
He didn’t know any fae magic. He might possess fae powers now, but he didn’t have the tiniest clue how to use them.
“Can’t we look it up? Ask around?” Lily put both elbows on the table, leaned forward.
“There’s nothing in our books about that sort of fae invocation, at least not that I remember. Back when I was looking for a way to break the oblivion spell on Robert, I did intensive research about all things fae magic, not just in our library, but those of other witch families as well. I never found any information about the details of a border crossing invocation.” She rubbed her temples. “No, we’ll need to find another fae who’s willing to take us into Faerie.”
And it could take days, if not longer. Time Rose might not have, depending on her situation over there.
“I can ask Alek,” Lily said, “and he can tap his resources through Arawn’s network. Maybe he can point us to a fae, and then Baz can learn along the way.”
As one of the enforcers of the Demon Lord, Lily’s mate Alek had access to information and contacts among the otherworld community that eluded the witches. Still, even with Alek’s help, finding another fae would be time-consuming.
I could go alone.
The thought whispered through him, rising up out of the darker corners of his heart, his mind, where a primitive need sat and festered. All his life, he’d been the odd one out, the rare male born to a witch line, the one without powers, in need of protection. Sure, he’d long shared the position of being the magic-less anomaly with Maeve, whose powers were bound inside her after her lethal outburst at the age of eight, and knowing he wasn’t the only one had helped him get through his darkest hours.
He once mentioned to Merle, Maeve’s older sister and one of his best friends, that he’d made his peace with his lack of magic. Truth was, a part of him had never gotten over it. Maybe if his family let him contribute more, if they allowed him to participate in their work as much as his human strength enabled him to, he wouldn’t have felt so left out. So coddled.
But as it was, he had to fight for every scrap of independence and agency along the way. Hazel would even have barred him from the mission to rescue Lily when she was kidnapped a couple of weeks ago if Merle hadn’t stepped up and vouched for him.
He was tired of having to ask, to beg, to argue for them to accept him in their ranks. Tired of being considered weak and vulnerable.
Well, he wasn’t that anymore, right? He did have powers now, he just needed to learn how to wield them. What better place to gain knowledge about how to be a fae than in Faerie? He could go look for Rose and discover his powers along the way. If he managed to find her and bring her back, Hazel and the others would have to acknowledge him as their equal.
Resolve set, he backed away quietly. Hazel and Lily were so busy discussing the details of the rescue mission, they didn’t notice his retreat.
He decided not to tell them about his plan. Doing so would only trigger the usual arguments, making it harder to get away. They’d never let him go alone. Knowing they had such little faith in him hurt. He should probably be used to it by now, but all these revelations left him raw, his emotions strung like a taut rope, his heart aching.
They thought he couldn’t do it alone. He’d prove them wrong.
* * *
Sling backpack packed with essentials: Check. Bow: Check. Quiver full of arrows: Check. Half a dozen knives and daggers strapped to his body: Check. Combat gear: Check. Nerves…nerves? And we have a runner.
Basil sighed, rubbed his sternum over the twin strips of his sling backpack and the quiver, trying to alleviate the pressure there. He had an uneasy feeling it wasn’t caused by the weight he carried. Well, at least not the physical one.
He’d just finished packing everything together, had pulled on his boots, and was ready to sneak out of his room when the door opened and a petite redhead peeked in.
Maeve.
