Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

I took the steps two at a time to get up them quickly. Rasmus had drawn Zara's former human image for me before I knew her. We'd used it to search for her identity online.

I was winded by the time I reached the third floor. Panting, I knocked on the new library's door and waited.

"Enter," Rasmus said.

Still breathing hard, I went inside. Rasmus and Zara were stacking books in small piles. They looked quite entranced with their task.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need yer help, Rasmus."

"Of course. What kind of help?"

I drew in a deep breath so I'd have enough air to speak. I still hadn't recovered completely from the arrow incident. I tired too fast and got winded more easily. But I still breathed air daily, so I really couldn't complain. Things could have gone much worse for me than struggling with shortness of breath.

Of course, the stabbing no one knew about probably hadn't helped, either.

"I need ya to draw the female fairy Mulan froze. The enforcers are here. They're trying to confirm her identity but it fails to show her. I think Mulan's magick won't let the statue show up."

"How strange," Zara said. "May I come to see this as well?"

"Sure," I said, unable to think of a reason why that might be bad. "The enforcers are here to help me find out for sure who's trying to kill me and help put a stop to it."

Zara smiled tolerantly at my explanation. "Yes. Rasmus explained their purpose. I find it quite fascinating that they are not subject to your working restraints."

I shrugged. "Well, they have constraints too, just not like mine. Everyone working for the Shadow Breakers follows a set of rules to do their work. It is for everyone's safety and to ensure the best possible outcomes. The Shadow Breakers are not lawless magickals."

Zara lifted a brow. "Because the lawless ones are the paranormals you arrest."

"Yes," I said, wishing she'd just leave it there. I felt sure I knew where this was going and needed to cut it off before it could get out of hand. I smiled at Rasmus. "I'm sorry to interrupt yer organizing."

"It's no problem at all. Let me retrieve my drawing pad from my old bedroom. I kept it there for nights I couldn't sleep."

The guardian was sleeping in my room now but hadn't moved all his stuff to our quarters. His old bedroom was now being used as his office. He had a desk set up in there to work. When I was otherwise occupied, Rasmus stayed close to Zara by using his Orlin-sanctioned pretend-brother status. I appreciated him for it.

I waited at the top of the stairs for them. When they appeared, I started down. With their longer strides, I needed to get a head start. At the bottom of the stairs, I walked back to a now staring Hart and Jessing.

Their gazes remained locked onto both guardians, but kept straying to Rasmus. And I knew what they were thinking. It was the same thing everyone thought when they didn't look any farther than our appearances. They wondered what someone who looked like Rasmus saw in someone who looked like me.

They had no way of knowing that we weren't even magickal equals because Rasmus was in a whole other category. However, compared to Jessing and Hart, I was a rock star. I was more powerful than either of them or any of the other magickals they knew, including Ezra. If the enforcers realized it, though, they gave no indication.

Jessing's gaze turned to me when I got close. "I am impressed, Aran of The Dagda. Your guardian is a beautiful male. You traded up a skyscraper's worth," she said in a loud whisper that I felt sure everyone heard.

I made the introductions quickly. Rasmus and Zara nodded to the enforcers without saying more than a simple hello. I could see they were keeping their neutrality firmly in place with my co-worker guests.

I turned to Jessing and grinned. I no longer even thought of Jack and Rasmus as serving the same purpose in my life. Jack had been a candle warming my bed. Rasmus had set me and my sheets on fire. And he still did. I had felt no lessening of passion from him in all the time we'd known each other. His self-control and caring during my injuries made me love him, but once I physically recovered, my clothes were always at risk of being torn off.

I didn't mind telling others how greatly my life had changed. "Things were over between Jack and me the moment I went to prison. Ya have no idea how well I traded up," I told the owl shifter, glancing at the tall, elegant male now flipping to a blank page in his drawing pad.

We both watched with delight as the guardian's long fingers drew lines across the page with efficient ease.

Hart leaned down to my ear. "Power rolls off him but not off of her. Is that normal?"

Jessing leaned on the other side. "She is beautiful, Hart. Beauty is its own power."

They spoke about them like Rasmus's drawing prevented the discussion from being heard.

Their expressions remained stoic, but I knew both guardians heard every word being said. I appreciated their tolerance and would thank them for it later.

Hart and Jessing weren't being subtle, but enforcers never were.

I answered Hart's observation because it was in all our best interests. "Zara suffered a trauma not long ago and is still healing. Her magick is equal to his. It merely sleeps until she is well enough to use it."

"Ah..." Hart said, leaning upright again.

My gaze remained on Rasmus until he quietly pulled the sheet from the tablet. "Who gets this?"

"Me," I said, holding up my hand.

Rasmus smiled as he walked to me and handed it over. "Is that all you needed?"

"For now," I said. "Thank ya for taking the time. I don't want to keep ya from yer organizing."

"I'd be interested to see who she is. Are you planning to check now?" Zara asked.

Hart and Jessing both had been leaning over my shoulders to look at the penciled image. "Sure. Let's check now," Hart said, slipping the paper gently from my hand.

Jessing just as gently took it from his fingers and held it out for him to take a photo of it.

"Did it work?" I asked.

Hart nodded. "I'm uploading it to the Shadow Breakers database. It's running her likeness now. I had it already preset to search Ezra's relatives before extending outside his family."

It took over a full minute for Hart to get an answer from the search. We all held our breaths during the wait. Rasmus caught my eyes, and in his gaze, I saw our shared memory of doing something similar to find Zara. Except back then, he had drawn her from my description, which had come from a vision.

I smiled and nodded to him. It was like we were a true team these days. I loved this feeling. I also liked not constantly mistrusting his intentions. Contentment urged me to sigh in relief, but I didn't want to explain my emotional reaction to Hart and Jessing, who were watching me too closely.

"She's in the database. Princess Lulutha of Airing Dale. Daughter of King Alamos and Queen Meatha of Airing Dale. Older sister of Prince Ezra, Prince Lionel, and Princess Dreama. Princess Lulutha carries the title of Arbitrator. She is the executor of her father's kingdom. There are no images of the younger two siblings."

"So she's their version of an enforcer," I said, rubbing my forehead. This was the worst thing that could have happened. "And I froze her."

"I thought you said your Wu Shaman froze her."

I waved a hand. "Her family won't care about semantics or who helped me. All they will care about is that she failed to kill me. Not destroying a threat weakens their rule and makes them susceptible to takeovers. Some fairies do not recognize The Dagda's god-state. They barely see my ancestor as their equal, and they judge me as less powerful than him because of my diluted heritage."

"Their kingdom falling will not happen in this realm. We will not know if or when it falls, and if it does, it will be because of their children. Weak offspring who cannot stand up for what is right are doomed to fail. One of my sons learned that the hard way. He nearly lost a wing," Jessing said.

"The lack of harmony will ripple across the agreement humans have with fairies visiting our realm. They bring us fairy magick and take a conglomeration of human power home with them. Even Conn cautioned me not to mess with that status quo. Now I've taken out the one fairy who was tasked with maintaining harmony."

Jessing huffed. "But she tried to stab you without a rightful challenge. She carried out an unprovoked attack by the laws of the fairies and our own. You have every right to kill her, Aran. She wanted you dead. It is a lucky thing your guardian kept it from happening. This whole situation is without doubt Ezra's fault for lying to his family. His lies grow like weeds in a field and sprout more lies that choke out the flowers of truth. The fault is not yours."

Princess Lulutha had more than just wanted to murder me. She'd given it her all and briefly succeeded. The fairy princess had mortally wounded me and nearly caused my death. The problem for the fairies was that I refused to stay dead.

They didn't realize yet that they were battling the mages in the Dagda stone, my guardian, and Conn, who were all experts at keeping me alive.

And Goddess knew, I'd given them all lots of practice.

"My problems are in our realm because I am here. The killers and the contract will be here. I've taken out not one but two of the royal fairy family. I've created a mess in our realm that is nearly impossible to fix. I can't travel to the land of the fairies. The Dagda won't let me."

And I couldn't leave Conn, Mulan, and the guardians behind to fight misguided fairies until they came to their senses. Murray, a fairy I counted as a friend, had done nothing significant to help. He'd shrank back from the angel magick surrounding Ezra and left me with dire warnings not to kill the betraying male fairy.

I didn't know how I was going to fix this, but I had to come up with something. Killing the fairies would start a war. Letting other fairies dethrone the one who formally safeguarded humans was another bad idea.

But I couldn't just let both of them go.

Either Ezra or his sister—perhaps both—might come after me again. At some point, I'd drop my guard and they would succeed. That would be the price of not following this through.

And what about Fiona? The angel currently guarding her wouldn't be there forever. He said he was watching Ma because that was where Fiona currently stayed. What would happen when her training was over?

My head spun with it all. I should have recorded the scene in the cave with Hisser. Conn was always telling me I needed to learn to use technology better. I never dreamed there would come a time when I wished I had done so.

"I need to go. I need time to think," I said.

I'd been saying similar things a lot lately. I was always running away from what I discovered when the answer wasn't readily available. When I was younger, I never wrestled with a decision like I tended to do these days.

Now, I had to be more careful than ever. I had so many people in my life that I would never sleep if they had to live in constant danger because of me.

Damn Ezra for causing me this anxiety. I had suspected my troubles were because of him. Learning the identity of my fairy assassin confirmed his role. And I hadn't needed Hart and Jessing after all.

Fairies visiting this realm were required to register with the Shadow Breakers.

I knew that factoid but I'd forgotten it. If I'd thought of asking, Ben could have looked her up. But I hadn't. Too much was going on for me to think clearly.

Dying multiple times had left more than one lasting impact that I was finding difficult to overcome.