Rafe paced back and forth,

  making deep, grumbling sounds from the depths of his throat while

  casting contemplative glances at a very nervous and subdued Alice.

  Since our harrowing escape to

  the demon realm her normally curious personality was absent and she

  was very pointedly avoiding eye contact with everyone. The girl

  perked up and became terribly interested whenever something magical

  happened around her and with this realm oozing magic from every pore,

  it should have been sending her into joyous fits simply being here.

  “The girl reeks of fae

  stench,” Rafe growled, eyeing Feros suspiciously.

  “That she does,” Feros

  admitted, “and I had thought I had the situation under control.”

  “Under control?” Rafe said

  with a stiff laugh. “The only way to control fae influence is to

  snuff the source.”

  Alice broke her silence to

  exhale a soft gasp, eyes wide and pleading towards the demon king.

  “I thought she would perhaps

  make a better asset to us,” Feros explained. He stood and

  nonchalantly, but pointedly inserted himself between Rafe and the

  girl.

  It was a bold move to stand

  while the king was and even bolder to make any move to even hint at

  protecting someone from him. I or one of his children may have been

  allowed to take such action, but it was brave and perhaps a bit

  stupid for someone considered the equivalent to a commoner under his

  employ. I fully expected the king to strike him down verbally and

  would not have been surprised had he turned physical, but Rafe merely

  scowled at the fiend.

  “An asset?” he spat. “The

  girl has cost us an entire castle and everything it contained!”

  “For now, yes, that’s

  true,” Feros admitted, “but you know that I would not dabble in

  fae matters what so ever if I didn’t think there was potential for

  a big pay off. I also fully admit that it has been long enough since

  I worked directly with pure blood humans that I had forgotten how

  unreliable they can be, particularly children.” He cast Alice a

  serious glance like a disappointed father.

  “What pay off?” the king

  growled impatiently.

  Feros looked around at

  everyone present, judging how much he would be willing to say in

  present company. It was only Rafe and the entourage we had arrived

  with minus the two, very confused, human servants who had been tasked

  with carrying the book to Mistra’s room in the demon castle once

  they had awoken. Tiffany was technically still present, though was

  slumped in one of the meeting room’s chairs, still unable to regain

  consciousness.

  “Are you overly familiar

  with fae magic?” Feros asked with a nod of his head to the king.

  “I’ve studied about it

  enough,” Rafe grumbled.

  “Yes, of course, I wasn’t

  questioning your book knowledge, but have you experienced it in

  person?”

  “Of course not, I wouldn’t

  let a fae anywhere near even the edges of my kingdom, let alone

  darken my door,” Rafe replied with a disgusted grunt.

  “And have you kept abreast

  of their politics?”

  Feros was leading the king

  somewhere without directly spitting out what exactly he was trying to

  convey. In my opinion, it was his most irritating quality. He loved

  to dance in circles around important information, even when the

  situation was dire and there was limited time.

  “What kind of mad man would

  I be to do that?” The king looked incredulous at the idea that

  Feros would even suggest such a thing. “Their politics are chaotic

  and nonsensical on the best day and absolutely maddening to try to

  track most days.”

  “I’m sure you have someone

  in the kingdom tasks with tracking it, yes? If I may make a

  suggestion to you, it might behoove you to start touching base with

  them more regularly,” Feros suggested seriously.

  Rafe stopped mid pace and

  fully turned to face Feros, a dark look on his face. “And if I may

  make a suggestion, you should start telling me exactly what you’re

  trying to get at and it may behoove you in the future to remember to

  mind your tone when speaking before royalty.”

  Feros inclined his head, but

  the subtle smile did not fade from his lips. “Apologies, my lord.

  Well, since I am well versed in different kinds of fae magic, I

  recognized right away that this girl very strongly exudes the

  influence of Spring fae.” He paused as if he expected someone,

  anyone in the room to react, when no one did his smile transformed to

  a bit of a frown. “I suppose I may have to explain a bit why that’s

  relevant, I am really quite used to the fae being the buzz of

  conversation in other realms. Everyone knows better than to interfere

  or draw attention to anything fae, but humans and demons I suppose

  really do act like they don’t exist at all. Perhaps that’s a good

  way to avoid drawing any attention at all, but if you’re the rabbit

  you should keep your eye on the hawk at all times.”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “The point,” Rafe reminded

  loudly with clear annoyance.

  “The point is that the

  Spring fae have been gearing for war against the Winter. Their

  respective courts have never been particularly fond of each other,

  but a series of complicated political decisions on Winter’s part

  recently have finally pushed Spring over the edge. Winter is not a

  push over though and Spring will need every weapon in their arsenal.

  It seems that some of their weapons might have gotten a bit lost

  along the way.” Feros spun around and looked meaningfully at the

  girl. “Alice here is obviously a fae touched child and one that I

  think wasn’t intended to be fumbled and lost. I know you can sense

  it, but extend your power and have a good feel for what I’m talking

  about.”

  Rafe gave the fiend an

  unimpressed look, but unfurled his will and swept it over the girl.

  Alice’s eyes went wide with both fear and wonder, her entire body

  shaking as his power enveloped her. Her lips parted and she let out

  an uncomfortable squeak that I assumed was meant to be a plea for him

  to stop. A moment later, his power receded and Alice groaned softly

  and slumped forward in her chair, still conscious but clearly

  exhausted from the interaction.

  “Hmm,” Rafe hummed, now

  looking notedly less annoyed, “I see.”

  “She is rough, but there’s

  a diamond of potential locked within her,” Feros confirmed.

  “Pity that she is human, if

  she were a demon she would already be unstoppable.”

  “I have said pretty much the

  same,” Feros mused, “I have some ideas on that, but we can

  discuss that at a later date. For now, I think she is a powerful

  asset to have in our possession, even if she is certainly a liability

  right now. Winter sensed her and seized on the chance of eliminating

  her before Spring could find her first.”

  “My kingdom was at risk of

  being invaded from two kingdoms and you did not think that should be

  explained to me?” I questioned.

  I had been deferring to Rafe

  to handle the situation seeing as we were in his kingdom, but I

  couldn’t keep silent any longer.

  “Well, yes,” he admitted

  with a dry laugh, “even I can’t twist that to be anything

  different. However, had our young ward simply listened and followed

  my instructions to the absolute letter there should have been no way

  for them to sense her. I had been shielding the whole area around her

  any time she explored her powers, even before I had officially became

  her trainer, but it can be exhausting to keep it up all the time,

  hence why I had specifically and seriously told her never to do

  anything with her magic outside of when I told her it was okay. In

  order to fully keep the shielding up, I need to ground and recharge

  my magic every so often. It seems that at some point over the past

  month Alice chose the exact wrong moment to be defiant and it

  happened to line up with my resting period. If they had been looking

  for her and I think we can assume now they had been, even a brief,

  unshielded spark would have been enough for their trackers to

  determine where she was.”

  Alice, who had seemed to

  recover a bit, had enough decency to look up with shame in her eyes

  and nod her head to validate that she had been dabbling with her

  powers outside of the instructed times.

  “So you hinged the fate of

  my kingdom on a little girl’s ability to resist playing with the

  equivalent of a toy?” I crossed my arms in front of me and frowned

  at the fiend.

  “Again, I haven’t worked

  with pure humans in so long, it was a mistake.” Feros looked

  flustered, it seemed it was not something he tended to feel all that

  often. “Most creatures have an innate sense of self-preservation, I

  had forgotten that humans seem to be one of the few creatures that

  value immediate satisfaction of their curiosity over their long term

  safety.”

  “Tell a demon child not to

  touch fire because it’s dangerous and they obey while the human

  child will thrust their hand directly into the flames to test if you

  were right,” Rafe added.

  “Exactly, it’s a wonder

  the human realm has survived at all for as long as it has.” Feros

  bowed to me deeply with much more sincerity than he ever had before.

  “I truly apologize for not briefing you more intensely on the

  danger the girl posed. I thought that doing so would require some

  intense study on your part since you are completely unfamiliar with

  fae workings and would distract you from your own magical studies.

  Obviously I made the wrong choice and left you blindsided.”

  “It certainly has,” I said

  stiffly, “I assume you plan on ensuring this is made right

  somehow.”

  “We can try,” Feros said,

  “but I was unfortunately being serious earlier when I warned that

  the House Yser might be lost to us for now. Though I don’t think

  they will find much there they will care to occupy and keep for

  themselves, but if they infer where we’ve gone they will likely

  hold up there until they find a way to cross or hope that we will try

  to return to take back the castle. It is best that we don’t try to

  return until we can find a way to verify they’ve left and are long

  gone.”

  “Now I have no kingdom,” I

  softly lamented.

  The knowledge sat as a heavy

  pit in my stomach. In what felt like a breath of a moment I went from

  sitting atop of plinth of power, raising my own army, and plotting to

  take more kingdoms as my own and now I was little more that a refuge

  being given sanctuary.

  “You do not, no.”

  Mistra snaked her hand around

  mine, squeezing it tightly. “We will get it back, one way or

  another. Our kingdom needs the connection to the human realm to

  thrive, we cannot let the connection be severed permanently.”

  “My daughter is right,

  though I’m not sure it’s her place to do my speaking for me.”

  Rafe gave her a scolding look, though it softened quickly. “We

  cannot let what is effectively an invasion of our rightful land

  stand, regardless of who it is that has invaded. If we must stand

  against the fae to get it back, we will. Perhaps this is even a small

  blessing, the Church will not dare breath too hard near the fae least

  they draw attention to themselves. I assume they will have to lay low

  with any magical schemes they’ve been working on. This might act as

  a bit of break in their arms race, giving us time in this realm to

  get ahead of them.”

  “Oh

  I would love to see that,” Feros said with glee, “the Great

  Church trying to deal with the fae. They tend to think they’re just

  made up, pagan nonsense or allegory for some kind of demons, that

  would be a very hash realization.”