Beyond the Roselands

Chapter 4

I flew back up to the tree house and rushed up to Sprite. She gasped and whirled around. "Zeek? What's wrong?"

I struggled to get my words out properly, but I simply hugged her and shook my head. "I'm sorry. I just made a promise that I'm afraid I can't keep. And it may throw us into a world of trouble."

"What are you talking about?"

I sighed and explained to her what had happened in detail, telling her about her father's hatred of our baby. She sobbed at the end of the story and shook her head, rushing to the couch and laying over the pillow at the end. "No! They can't do this! They can't just steal the life we made together. I thought dad liked you. I thought he would approve of us being together. He should've expected this."

She fell forward under another wave of sobs. I sighed and sat beside her, hugging her to me while embracing us with my wings. "It's okay. I'll work something out. We have three weeks to think it over and see if we can stay away from Avery."

Sprite sniffed and buried her face in my shirt. "You know you can't run from him. Or the others. They're Faerys. They can go anywhere in time and space that they want. You saw how easily they teleported."

After a quick moment of thought, I grabbed her chin and looked he in the eyes. "You were sired by one of these things. What sort of power does he have?"

She paused and then looked down at my chest. "Well most of what he did that I saw were little tricks that didn't seem all that significant. Summoning birds, making flowers from thin air, and he even turned a frog into butterflies once. Those were mostly to entertain me, but I did see him perform magic on my mother before. I think he never really loved her. He would enchant her whenever he'd visit, which wasn't often, and she'd suddenly be all over him even more than usual. It's almost as if he forced her to be a sex slave. And whenever he'd leave, I'd watch him from the window and he'd go out a little ways before making a portal appear which took him elsewhere. I never dared ask what was behind the portal. I followed him once and when he opened it..."

She paused here and shuddered. "From behind it were the sounds of screams and chants in some sort of Faery language. I'd never learned much, but from what I did know I could make out the words death, conquest, and...I think the only other word I ever heard was rose."

I listened closely and then shrugged. "What if we travelled to where you lived before? Maybe your mom left burdensome clues as to what he'd do to her."

Sprite sighed and shook her head. "That would make sense, but I didn't live in Kilhar before I was brought here. I lived much further from Kilhar than anyone who's ever been brought here. Mom had to bring me all the way here to turn me over."

I nodded. "Well I wanted to go adventuring anyway. I won't take you with me cause you'll be getting super pregnant super fast super soon."

Sprite sobbed and nodded. "If it's what you want to do then using stop you, but what if dad comes for me while your away?"

"I'll leave you with mom and dad. If either of you are in danger I'm sure the entire village would rush to protect you, Faery magic or no Faery magic."

Sprite sniffed and nodded. "Okay. I'll pack my stuff then if you're going now."

"Better now than never."

I gave her a sweet kiss and then she yanked my head down harder. I could feel how stressed and afraid she was. Her fear made my feathers ruffle, but honestly, I was scared too. So to ease both our hearts, I carried her into our bedroom and laid with her. It was the only thing I could think of that could calm us down at the moment.

Once we'd finished, I stared down at her, sweat dripping down my hair. She clung to my shoulders and smiled, rubbing her stomach. "Danger or no danger, I'm still thrilled to know that I'm pregnant with your child."

I smiled back at her and delicately kissed her lips. "I'm excited too. And I'll do everything in my power to make sure that I keep the baby safe from your father. I promise."