“He seems better,” Ryder said as he stepped from behind the connecting door that led to our bedroom.
“Not as much as he’s pretending.”
“You’re wise for someone so young,” Ryder said as he approached me. “And you’re right.”
“I’d like to think so,” I murmured, considering everything I’d said to Ristan.
“Our daughter is perfect,” he smiled wickedly.
“And you, Fairy, are an assshoooole!” I teased and smiled.
“Please leave Ristan be on this. He was right as well. He isn’t a fool, so whatever that girl did, or made him feel, it’s affected him on a base level and that’s not something you can mend. We have enough to worry about with the Tree and the ice swathed around it,” he said as wrapped his arms around me as I held our daughter.
“I guess you’re smart too, but not for your years. You’d think since you are as old as dirt, that you’d be a lot smarter,” I said with a mischievous smile on my lips.
“I think you’re due for another counting lesson.”
“Promise?” I asked, but the boys cooed and we smiled. Life wasn’t going to be easy chasing these three, or saving them so we could enjoy chasing them. “I’m scared,” I said and felt my throat as it tightened. “I can’t lose them, ever.”
“We won’t,” Ryder said as he kissed my forehead and smiled as Kahleena cooed and reached for him.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
We had been to the Tree right after it had been iced to see the damage, and so far we hadn’t found a way to break the enchantment. We had every friend and ally to the Horde out searching for answers, along with people searching through spell books and other archives of history to seek answers on what type of spell it could be, as well as the beings that had cast the spell to begin with.
To make sure that we hadn’t overlooked anything, we had a Human doctor examine Kahleena, and he had diagnosed her with failure to thrive. He’d then ended up with failure to breath, due to Ryder’s hand being wrapped around his throat. Time wasn’t with us, and even though we had hundreds of beings looking for the way to unfreeze the Tree, it seemed to be just beyond our grasp.
I was holding Kahleena when Ristan came into the room, his eyes immediately seeking her out. “She’s not getting any better,” he whispered. “She’s getting worse.”
“Yes,” I whispered back as I held the tears in, but failed. Danu had warned us that we had less than two weeks to bring the children to the Tree or the consequences could be dire, and we were watching it play out before our eyes now. My heart was breaking unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. I was losing my child, and I couldn’t stop it from happening. No one could. A lot of good it was to be a Goddess when I couldn’t even save my own daughter.
“We need to thaw out that Tree,” he said as he leaned against the wall. “Does Danu know how to do it?”
“If she did, don’t you think I’d be doing it?” I said as I swiped angrily at my tears. “I’m sorry,” I said as he closed his eyes against my angry words.
“Have you seen her lately?” he asked and opened his eyes to look at me.