The Fae Book 3: Butcher and Raine

Chapter 6 (Raine): Not In Fear

Four months later...In the grand scheme of things, four months isn't much time, but in my life, I don't think I'd ever lived through four such intense months. In some ways, the last sixteen weeks felt as if I'd packed a lifetime of living into them. My hand went to my seven-month belly, my little baby kicking as he moved around, maybe trying to find a comfortable spot for a nap.

I'd spent a week with Daisy and Burr after I'd run to them, learning more about the fae, about just what the hell the Sceptre and his Orb were. Basically having my mind bI0wn about this supernatural world I'd had no idea existed, much less how intricately linked to it my two best friends were.

"My True Queen calms the storm," Burr had instructed me. "Daisy can command me, and she's the only one with that power. As his Orb, you'll bring him light --"

"Stop right there, Burr! He can just turn on a fucking lamp if he wants light," I said angrily. "I'm not bringing him anything."

That may have been a lie. I was willing to bring Butcher a sharp knife to the heart -- if the bastard even had one, and quite honestly, all evidence pointed to him being a fucking cyborg. As my shock from the day I'd spent as Butcher's guest had faded, I'd found what was rising inside of me wasn't fear but anger. An anger so intense, it really left me feeling as if I could quite cheerfully kill Butcher should the opportunity arise. And I was kind of hoping it did. Anger had always been my go-to, but this feeling was an entirely new level for me.

"As his Orb --" Burr tried again.

"As his nothing! I'm turning down the job. You couldn't pay me enough to be anything to that man. He can find someone else to be his Orb because I want nothing to do with that asshole."

Lightning cracked outside several times in rapid succession, letting me know Burr was losing patience with me. Well, too bad because I hadn't asked to be part of this supernatural life, so he could just take his little lightning bolts and shove them up his --

"As his Orb, you need to know what I'm about to tell you," Burr had said, arms crossed imperiously over his chest.

Daisy put a hand on her husband's forearm as she walked past him to the couch, and the lightning stopped. Immediately. I wondered if that worked when they were having arguments, although I didn't suspect they had many since Burr lived to please Daisy and gave her whatever she wanted.

"Raine," she soothed as she sat beside me on the couch, "please listen to Oberon. Whether you want to be or not, you're the Sceptre's Orb and you're going to need this information. This isn't something you can just turn your back on. For whatever reason, the fae have chosen you for this role, just like, for whatever reason, they chose me to be Oberon's True Queen."

"They chose you because you're perfect, Daisy," he said seriously.

Daisy beamed at him, and Burr beamed back at her like a lovesick puppy. Sometimes, I wasn't sure who was more gag-inducing -- Hatch with Harmony or Burr with Daisy. It was close, but as sweet as it was, I couldn't imagine a man looking at me like that without wanting to smack him just on general principle.

"Listen to him," Daisy said one more time.

So, because she was one of my two best friends and I loved her, I listened while Burr talked. Following the weeklong Fae 101 immersion course, I'd ventured out to start living my life again. Burr had commanded the fae to cloak me, and that meant different things at different times. To allow me to continue teaching at my studio, they would cloak me to look like someone else entirely to Butcher or any of his evil minions. Other times, I would be completely invisible to him or his MC members.