I don’t know what to say. I wonder if he has heard anything. “I bite my lip as he rants, “You sneak off with Basarab, you don’t let me come and protect you, and then in the middle of the night, a stabbing pain tries to kill me as you rip my heart out?”
I plead, “It wasn’t what you think.”
“What do I think?”
I shake my head, “I don’t know. I’m so sorry about your mom and Sarah.”
His face drops, “That’s the news he refused to tell me?”
I close my eyes, “He never told you?”
When I open them, he is gone. I jump up and run down the hall. He has Constantine against the wall in the study when I get there.
“You let her die?”
Constantine looks at me, “Care to explain or shall I?”
I walk to Wyatt, touching his arm with my hand. “I’ll explain.” He shoves Constantine once more before releasing him and backing away.
He looks at me with hatred in his eyes, “You killed her, didn’t you?”
I shake my head, “It was Sarah.”
“BULLSHIT!”
I plead, “It was. She was possessed by Lucifer. We didn’t know. She had murdered your mother on the riverbank while we waited at the jet. We thought we were at the right spot for the horsemen, but we were wrong. We were off and Sarah knew it. She was there to distract us while the horsemen came for the guy Lucifer sent there to gather the power for him. I think he wanted the guy to take the power of the horsemen, and then he would take it from the guy.”
Constantine gives me a look, “That man was one of the sons of Dracula. He was my cousin.”
I scowl, “Okay, well that’s weird. Anyway, Sarah killed you mom and we didn’t even know. By the time we figured it out, your mom was dead. We killed Sarah, forcing Lucifer from her body.”
Wyatt looks back and forth between us. His nostrils are flared. “Why did you pull my dagger from your heart?”
I press my lips together as Constantine speaks softly, “You never needed it.”
He looks down and leaves the study. Wyatt looks at me, “What is that supposed to mean?”
I don’t know why, but I am terrified to tell him, “You know how you never aged for a long time, and you thought it was because you were a Van Helsing?”
He nods.
“It was because I was dead. Your aging slowed when I died and picked up again when I was born.”
“What does that mean?”
I step towards him, “We knew each other once, a long time ago. You were a child but we knew. We knew one day we would be together. Like it was meant to be.”
He scowls, “I don’t remember you.”
“But it happened. They took it from us, your mother and Constantine. Even the me from before doesn’t remember it. They took it away.”
He sits in the chair, “They stole our memories? Why would they do that? That doesn’t even make sense.”
I shake my head, “Constantine did it because he wanted me to love him and not you. I have no idea why your mother did it. She’s dead now so that’s not very helpful.”
He cocks an eyebrow, “I bet Fitz knows, but wait. You ruined the picture so the only way in is that painting in that chick’s house in Boston. The locked house.”
I sigh, “We can go there.”
He shakes his head, “I’m tired of traveling back and forth. I’m tired of all the nixie travel and flying, and all the bullshit. This is exhausting. Loving you is exhausting and everyone dies because of you in some small way. Loving you is like slowly being tortured.” He holds his hand over his chest and closes his eyes. He puts his hand under his shirt and pulls the sword from his chest. Blinding pain is there instantly. It never felt that way when I pulled Constantine’s from his chest. Wyatt’s is like ten seconds of death and then nothing. He drops the sword to the floor and gets up, leaving me alone in the room with the blade.
He doesn’t want to love me. I finally choose, and he doesn’t want to love me. I look at the window and run at it. I break the glass and jump as my wings shoot from my back. I fly to the spot where the gates sit open still. I land and walk into the garden. A deer passes by me. I walk to the village but it is silent.
There is no one there, no one has lived. How is that possible? In the ten minutes he left me in the garden, how did he kill them all? How did he hurt everyone? I never heard a sound, not a single scream. I enter the palace through the front doors and walk to the throne room. The daisies are still littering the halls and stairs.
I walk to the throne, running my hands over it. The pure light of the crystal is stunning. It reflects the light filtering into the room. I sit down, resting my weary legs.
“You sit at the throne of the fae?”
I look up to the see the white-eyed man and jump up, “Sorry. I meant no disrespect.”
He laughs, “Sit, it is your right. You have conquered the land.”
I shake my head, “What?”
“You killed the queen. These were all your subjects.” He holds his hand out at the flowers scattered about the floor.
“I never meant to kill her. I don’t know what came over me.”
His white eyes glisten in the light of the room, “You wanted to save your mother and yourself. You came to free the fae of the evil inside of Lillith. It had corrupted the queen. Lillith had her convinced she could take back the Earth. Lillith brought you here to kill her.”
“Why do the fae hate God and humans?”
He smiles, “If you can find that answer, you can solve all the problems in all the world. Why do any group of people dislike any other group?”
“Beliefs?”
He nods, “You are smarter than you look.”
“Who are you?”
He laughs, “Who am I? Does it matter? I asked you here to help me and you brought death to all my people. I am a fool.”
I shake my head, “I never knew he was my father.”
“You chose not to listen to your heart, and as a result, all of these people died.”
I wince, “What can I do?”
He shrugs, “What can you do?”
I feel like I am at the tea party in Alice in Wonderland. I sit back on the throne, “I will do anything I can to fix them.”
He smiles, “Then I suggest you call the witches.”
I nod.
He looks around, “Good luck, Rayne.” He turns and walks away and slowly becomes a huge white stag. His hooves click on the stone floor as he walks away from me.
I get up and walk to the window, and jump. I fly back to the castle. I use the front door but it doesn’t matter. Constantine gives me a hateful look from the book he is reading, “Windows are not easy to come by now, Rayne. The factories are all gone.”
I can’t fight the smile. Seeing him angry is funny. I’m not even sure why that is.
Stella gives me a hard stare, “Where were you?”
“The fae castle. I have to get the witches and ask them to bring back the fae.”
Stella gives her brother a look. He shakes his head, “That seems like a bad idea. Why not leave them where they are? They can’t hurt anything or anyone there.”
“They are a pile of flowers. I won’t leave them that way. The white-eyed man who turned into the white stag asked me to do it. I’m doing it. So far, he’s the only person who has just been honest with me from the get go, besides Mona.”
Constantine’s eye twitches, “Your cheap shots are still more venomous than a snake bite.”
Stella pauses, “Did you talk to the man who turned into the white stag?”
I nod.
Her jaw drops and Michelle’s head snaps around to me, “Oh snap. Seriously? The white-stag guy talked to you?”
I frown, “Yeah? He’s been talking to me since I arrived in the garden. Why?”
Michelle looks giddy. She gives Stella a look, “That means you are the true leader of the world, and you will birth the child who will save us. You’re like modern-day Mary.” Constantine coughs and Michelle laughs, “Minus the whole virgin thingy, clearly.”
I cock an eyebrow, “What?”
Stella nods, “The white stag will show himself to the woman who will save the world. She will give birth to the child who will unite the masses.”
Michelle nods, “That’s like Jesus, dude.”
I sigh, “Can we focus on the important stuff like saving the fae and killing the antichrist? I wanna sleep for real one day. I wanna sleep when I’m tired, not just when the dead take me. I have a feeling killing the antichrist means I get to chose my form and sleep regularly.”
Constantine sighs, “So back to Boston then?”
I glare, “No witches in London?”
He laughs, “No. Remember the European witch trials? We ran them out. They fled for the New World.”
“Great. Just great.” I stomp down the hall to Mona’s room. She is wrapped in blankets and Gill is sleeping on the bed next to her.
She smiles, and I can see her period must have ended. Her virginity is gone. She is beaming and glowing. She smiles, “Hi.” She puts her hands on her face, “Is it that obvious?”
I laugh, “Yeah.”
She looks down, “He is so amazing.”
“He probably would say the same thing about you. Anyway, the reason I came here is I am going to ask the witches to bring back his people. Did the witches who brought him back do anything special?”