“Molvan is gonna love you,” Meryn said.
Cassandra exchanged looks with Reston. “Who’s Molvan?”
“Public Works dude for the Queen. He almost cried when he heard he may have to find a place to stash all these guys,” Meryn pointed to the milling Vanguard.
Aiden turned to the large group. “Men, listen up!”
As one, the men turned and came to attention.
Aiden continued. “Gather your things. We’re heading to House Illiya. After that everyone is to meet at Dav’s bar for a welcome party of sorts. Orders will be given out there.”
One of the fae warriors stepped forward. “I’d like to check on my family, sir.”
Aiden nodded. “I was going to show you on the way to the city.” His expression turned somber as he stepped back and pointed toward the city center. “We have a board up with lists of the missing and confirmed dead.”
The warrior paled and looked past Aiden with dread on his face.
Priest stepped forward. He had to say something as a member of the ranking unit of the city. “You are not alone. Your unit brothers are here and we’ll explain things every step of the way.”
Aiden clapped him on the back. “Good man.”
He felt a small cold hand take his, and he looked over to see his mate watching him closely. Her eyes looked a sort of green color. They were pretty but seemed off somehow. “What’s wrong with your eyes?” he asked.
Seconds later, he felt a punch to the kidney. “Oof!”
He looked behind him, and Meryn was scowling at him. “Dude.”
Turning back to his mate, he was instantly apologetic. “Cassandra…”
She wiped at her eyes, laughing. “One second.”
Priest watched in horror as she seemed to put her finger in her eye.
Moments later, she looked at him, and he stared in amazement. “Gods, you’re…”
“You look like a fairy,” Meryn whispered. “You’re so pretty!” She then frowned. “Why couldn’t I have gotten pink eyes! All I got was a shitty emotion detector.”
Words failed him. Meryn was right. His mate looked ethereal. Her long blonde hair held a slight curl, her skin was creamy, and she had delicate features. “You didn’t look like this a few moments ago.”
She laughed. “Magicked contacts so I could live amongst the humans,” she explained.
Reston sighed. “We suggested them after we had to kill her second stalker.”
Cassandra was smiling and nodding until she heard that. “You killed them?”
Priest held up his fist, and Reston bumped it.
Aiden held out his elbow to Meryn, and she accepted.
Priest did the same for Cassandra. She daintily put her hand on his arm.
“Men, first the city center, then House Illiya.”
“Sir, yes, sir!”
*****
Priest’s eyes were on his mate as she watched the warriors closely as they examined each list.
“Priest, that one!” she exclaimed, pointing to a man standing stock still in front of the boards.
“Luca, that spell!” Priest called as he pulled the witch forward.
Not knowing what else to do, he simply wrapped his arms around the Vanguard warrior as the man’s knees gave out.
“Ellais!” Another warrior pushed his way through the men. “That’s my squad, brother.”
“They’re gone, Amir! My brother and his mate are gone! I should have been here!” Priest sat on the ground holding the warrior has he broke down.
Amir looked around as three other men stepped forward. Priest assumed it was his squad brothers.
Luca laid a hand on Ellais’ head and whispered the spell to calm him.
“We have him,” Amir said, gently pulling Ellais toward him. Priest released him, then looked around. A familiar face in the crowd on the nearby street had him waving. “Ramsey, get over here.”
The lion-shifter jogged forward. “What do we need?”
“Get this squad to the warrior villa. They get our full support.”
“You got it, boss.”
Ramsey helped get Ellais up and steered them away from the city center.
“Cassandra?” he asked, looking back to his mate.
She was rubbing her temples but kept scanning the crowd. “Sadness, but I think that may have been the only one directly affected.”
The men looked around to ensure their brothers were okay and nodded at her.
Reston scrubbed his hands over his face. “We’ll check on them after we get the house settled,” he promised.
Priest had a feeling this morning the men had been twenty different squads, but solidarity had quickly formed amongst them with Reston as their leader.
“Come on men, let’s get you home,” Aiden said, holding a shaking Meryn close.
As they walked to House Illiya, hearts heavy with their brother’s grief, no one said a word.
Chapter Three
The pain, fear, and despair seemed to swirl between the men as they walked down the main street heading toward the palace. House Illiya wasn’t a Founding Family like her mate’s house, but it was a Noble House, and like the Founding Families, her’s was located near the palace. Sighing, she trudged forward at her mate’s side. She really wasn’t looking forward to seeing how much work had to be done. She had left home centuries ago.
“Are you well? Sometimes emotions swamp Meryn,” Priest asked, pointing to where the small woman was being carried by her larger mate.
She shook her head. “I am not affected by emotions in the way an empath is. I’m assuming she has empathy?”
He nodded.
She continued her explanation. “I simply see those emotions reflected in the colors of people’s auras.”
“You were rubbing your temples earlier,” he said, still looking concerned.
“It was the transition from beige to blue that had me feeling dizzy. It all happened so fast.”
“Beige? Blue?”
She nodded. “I see people’s default emotions as beige. It’s the color I see when they aren’t super happy or sad or angry, just existing. It’s like the homeostasis color of emotion when things are well balanced.”
“That makes sense I guess.” They were both quiet for a minute. “Do you go by Cassandra?”
“I don’t really have a preference. When the guys baby me, I hear Cassie, but it’s mostly just Cas.”
He squeezed her hand. “You don’t seem excited to be returning home.”
She squeezed his hand in return, enjoying the extra support. Her past wasn’t traumatic, just sad. “I was born to my parents when they were very late in life. They were nearly seven-thousand years old when my mother discovered she was pregnant. They had already made arrangements for our house so they could begin to fade.”
He sucked in his breath and held her hand a bit tighter.
“Obviously, their plans got delayed upon my arrival.” She exhaled. “They lasted one-hundred years, long enough for me to come of age. One day, they sat me down and explained what they wanted. They gave me the option of staying with them until the end or leaving to explore the world.” She shrugged. “I couldn’t stay and watch them die, so we had a party. The next day I left and never returned.”