Slaves of the Night

Chapter 26

Rax

We hike back towards Olivan long before dawn breaks. Someone (Eero) doesn't like being woken up because it 'reminds him of all the horrible things that happened yesterday' thankfully my brothers are there with handfuls of snow to remind him how faeries wake up. No, it's not faeries, it's literally just my family that thinks it's funny to drop snow on the faces of people who don't like waking up. They tell him it's universal though.

The girls are as put together as ever, armed with hats and scarves from my mother who resisted her natural urge to bewitch them and let them go whole. She told me I don't trust her enough. I told her I have great reasons for not trusting her and could she give me my splinter back and quit cuddling it thank you? The damn puppy splinter likes to appear; it usually just does it around Eero and the princesses. Eero cuddles it which is whatever, he likes dogs. My mother tries to keep it to reclaim my childhood or something. She feels bad now and again about spending half of my childhood telling me parables of how evil my father is and how I ought to stab him that would be fun wouldn't it?

Ola accompanies us back, fully eager for the fight and even more eager for me to owe her one. Essie gets along with her great which is exactly all I need for the child. Honestly, she could possibly stop asking her impertinent questions about the faeries and Ola could stop answering completely honestly and I could pretend I'm still asleep.

"Stop trying to fall asleep standing up," Eero says, tugging me on, "Look, I see cars."

"Why would there be cars?" Kaisa asks, frowning.

"I don't know—Ola can you----why do you always feel the need to do that?" I sigh. Damn shape shifting show off. Of course she's transformed into a large wolf as she stands at my side.

"Well, she isn't supposed to be here," Eero reasons.

"Neither is a damn wolf!" I growl, as we approach the drive.

"Damn, it looks like my cousins what are they doing here? I have to send them away," Eero says.

"Yeah we really don't need extra people in the castle at the moment," I agree.

"Let me talk to them," Eero says, moving ahead. I follow him and so does Kaisa. Essie and Ola bring up the rear as a human and wolf respectively.

"Hello, Igor, what are you doing here?" Eero asks, trudging up the drive toward his cousin who instead of going to knock at the gate stopped upon seeing us.

"We're here for the wedding!"

"What wedding?"

"Does he think that will work?" Kaisa asks me.

"No, he actually doesn't know what he's talking about," I say, my face in my gloves.

"Your---wedding, to your fiancé," Igor isn't necessarily articulate.

"Oh---oh you mean that wedding? Yeah, no, that's off now, goodbye, try again another century, love seeing you though, bye—"

It actually works. It doesn't work, work. But it works in that Eero says 'bye' enough and pushes enough people in cars that they all wind up just sort of leaving because they figure he's having personal problems.

Then we try to get in the castle. That's not easy because my father has (as usual) locked the bloody gate since I'm apparently out of it. So, we have to go and after about an hour of searching find the secret passage entrance which thankfully Ola and I are able to spell open (it was frozen shut), and then we tromp back into the palace. Ola stays as a wolf because apparently she's happy that way and she wants to watch Eero explain why a fully grown wolf is following us.