This had to work, and we all knew it.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Cade had been fussy so I brought him along with me for a visit with Alden before we left for the Tree. He was snuggled up on my shoulder, content for the moment as I sat in a chair near Alden’s bed, watching him sleep. Alden had been through hell at the hands of the Mages, and Eliran had been trying to accelerate Alden’s healing process. One of the other Fae healers who I knew had been working on Ristan a few days ago had used her healing touch on him as well.
Bruises and angry red welts remained on his hands and arms, but he was a fighter. I readjusted Cade in my arms, and turned to find Ryder watching me from the door of Alden’s room.
“I thought I’d find you here,” he said softly.
“He doesn’t deserve what the Guild is doing, or the Humans.”
“No, he doesn’t. We can fix it though, and luckily the children we saved can vouch for what occurred at the Spokane Guild.”
“The children,” Alden whispered and turned to look at me.
“Are recovering,” I said softly. He’d taken blows to the head, which the healer had been working on. Luckily she’d caught the blood clot in time to remove it before it could have done any real damage, but the side effect was a massive headache. “We saved a lot of them; some are still receiving medical care from Eliran as we speak.”
“My head feels like it was used as a soccer ball,” he said as he tried to sit up.
“Don’t get up, Alden,” I said, watching as he gave up. I stood and handed Cade off to his father. “We have news from Vlad and Adrian. It’s not good.”
“Damn, kid. I’m already on my ass, what could be worse?” he asked as his gray eyes watched me. I felt my stomach flip-flop as I tried to figure out the gentlest way to deliver this blow. “That bad?” he asked as I continued to search my brain for the way.
“The Seattle Guild is accusing the Fae of attacking the Spokane Guild. They’re labeling you as a traitor. Because of your connection with the job at the Dark Towers, they’ve seemed to connect the dots and now think you allowed us in to kill and destroy the Guild.”
“Shit,” he said as he rested his head back on the pillows and looked at me. “I knew there would be accusations, but that’s extreme, even for the Seattle Guild,” he mumbled.
“It gets worse,” I continued. “The Humans in Spokane are calling for blood. I believe the Seattle Guild is fueling the fire—well, I believe the Seattle Guild has a couple of Mages inside that are helping to fuel the fire.”
“I thought the same thing. But even without the Mages prodding things along, you know how the Elders are. If they think the Fae attacked the Spokane Guild, they’d be forced to call for blood or chance being challenged for new leadership. I don’t blame all of them for this, and you shouldn’t either. Losing the Spokane Guild was a huge loss to them; it’s where our history was stored. We can fix it, kid.”
“It’s still there,” I corrected. “Ryder sealed off the entrance to the catacombs before we burnt the Guild down so the history is still there and safe. But fixing this won’t be that easy,” I said as I moved closer to hold his hand reassuringly. “I think they set us up. They knew we would show up, and I think we were meant to take the fall for what happened there. I think the Mages are ensuring that war is openly declared on the Fae and that we have nowhere to run. Within minutes of the Guild being burned, national news, international news, and social media had the story up. As if they’d been tipped off and had a prepared story beforehand. We think that a glamour or illusion spell had been placed on the Guild, because up until we entered it, the Humans walked by as if nothing was amiss. After we entered, it broke. There are pictures of us entering the Guild, taken just before Ryder dropped the invisibility veil over us, which means someone was there watching us from the outside. Bilé was who you saw in the catacombs, and he let the Mages know some information about the Demon and it might have given them some ideas. Adrian and Vlad were there, and yet they didn’t feel or see anything wrong. You know Adrian’s instincts as well as I do. He’s normally able to smell a trap from a hundred feet away, and he didn’t sense anything. The person there who reported it has to be either in league with the Mages, or had been tipped off.”