In the Land of Fae 2: Return to Ice ♔ (gxg)

17. join me

Valerie was swaying forward and backward in her old creaky rocking chair.

Her nimble fingers, which she found had grown shakier and shakier through the years, were knitting together a blanket with thick ropes of maroon yarn. She was planning on making it to give to Alastair as a thanks for her wedding gift and the pumpkin pie, even if she had rejected the portrait of her late lover whom she'd spent decades trying to erase from her memory.

It was dusk, and she had just lit the fireplace when she found that the cottage felt unusually cold. As she rocked beside the window, delicate brunette brows creasing as she focused on her knitting, she heard something softly hitting the roof. Turning to the window, she saw that a few snowflakes were falling from the sky.

She stopped rocking in her chair. "Awfully early for snow," she mumbled to herself, sitting up straighter as she watched the snow fall, an uneasy feeling growing in her gut. Then she heard the sound of crunching leaves near the cottage, and she peered farther through the window to see that Henry was approaching rather hurriedly.

Valerie set the half-made blanket to the side and stood up right as Henry barged through the door, a few stray snowflakes caught in his brown beard.

"Henry," she greeted him, but he made no sound as he stomped across the cottage and into Nyx's old bedroom where he kept some of his things. She waited, confused by what he was doing, until he walked out with two of his rifles. "Henry," she said more firmly.

The man looked up at his wife as he loaded up his gunpowder into both of the rifles. "They saw them, Valerie," he grunted. "We're going out tonight."

"What?" she breathed as he went back into the bedroom, and she followed him. "Who? Where?"

"John and two other lads went in the woods night before last and came back petrified," he briefly explained as he pulled a large coat over himself. "They saw her—the Red Devil, along with a few other of those creatures. They said the Blue Witch put them to sleep."

Valerie's eyes widened as she realized that he was referring to Alastair and Catori. She was not aware that they already had a name for Catori, as well. She watched as he slipped some of his largest, sharpest daggers into his belt.

"We rallied up almost every man in town," he said again as he slipped on one of his tougher pairs of boots.

Valerie's mouth opened and closed. She tried to process what Henry was telling her—tried to figure out a reason to beg him to stay, but she could not stop every man in town. He slung one rifle over his shoulder and held the other under his arm and shoved past Valerie, heading straight to the door.

They were going to the Fae village. They were going to use their guns against everyone—Alastair, Catori, Caspian—Nyx.

"Henry!" she exclaimed, chasing after him.

He hesitated right as his hand touched the doorknob and turned to look at her with a questioning expression.

She stood in front of him and fiddled her hands together. "Please..." she whispered. "Don't."

He turned more to face her, his face visibly confused. "What?"

She couldn't just let him go attack her daughter and the rest of the Fae—but that meant she had to tell him the truth.

"Nyx," she blurted, the only thing she could manage to say while she struggled mentally to form a coherent sentence and to gather up the courage to string the truth together. He looked at her with more confusion, and she paused before continuing, "She's there. With the Fae."