Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) by Gwen Rivers (free ebooks romance novels .TXT) 📗

Her flame green eyes glow eerily in the darkened room. “Is it okay if I sleep in bed with you?”

In answer, I lift the covers and scoot over, making room for her small form.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask.

Silently she shakes her head so her blonde curls bounce.

I stroke her hair.

“How about if I sing you a song?”

A slow and easy nod.

I’m not a natural, but I do remember a song a young girl sang to me once while I suffered in the deepest depths of despair.

Long ago and far away

In a field kissed with golden sun

A sprite flitted from branch to flower

and there she met the one

Her love as fresh as a summer breeze,

her heart as big and warm

his eyes guileless and serene

gave no hint to the coming storm

Together they danced and laughed and played

until the light faded from view

For then he turned into a monster there

and she his victim anew.

Her breaths are slow and easy by the end of it, the cadence I’ve managed to pull off hiding the disturbing imagery of that song. Not exactly a lullaby, but it’s a message I plan to instill deep in her psyche.

You never know what lurks beneath the surface.

For the longest time, I saw the world in black and white. Good or bad. Mine or not. Until my monster met its mate.

The tears begin anew. Gods, I miss him.

What had ever become of Astrid’s Declan? With the FBI trapped in thrall, they would have forgotten about him. But I want to meet the boy my young friend had given her heart to.

Not for the first time, I wish I was a free agent, able to go out and hunt the way I used to. Not for victims, but for my friends and family.

For my mate.

“Hold on, Aiden,” I beg the quiet shadows of the night. “I haven’t given up on you yet.”

Her growth is human and yet my daughter is distinctly other. I fill my days as best I can by teaching her everything she needs to know. Where there are holes in my knowledge, Laufey and Garret are happy to fill in. I curse myself repeatedly for not finishing school, the way Gretchen had.

Had my laziness not held me back, perhaps I could figure out a way out of this mess.

The more I get to know Addison, the more I realize how broken Underhill is. Because there is no force stronger than the love between mother and child. If someone had taken her from me, nothing would have stopped me from getting her back.

All of her gifts are gentle and sweet. Healing wounds both physical and emotional. Her laughter is like the tinkling of bells. I have a hard time believing this child will claim both the Shadow Throne and the Fire Throne. The Unseelie court is cutthroat.

“She will rule with love,” Sophie tells me as we sit on her front porch and watch Addison chase butterflies with a net.

I snort. “You’ve never met the fey.”

She studies me and then leans back in her rocker. “No, but have you.”

“Many of them. And they are all dangerous in their own way.”

“Any animal will bite when cornered,” Sophie says and continues to rock.

I think about Aiden’s wolf. The beast who’d shredded his younger brother. Aiden hated himself and the wolf for centuries because of that. Yet from the wolf’s perspective, he’d been cornered and lashed out at the nearest perceived threat.

Had Aiden not shoved him down so hard and let himself be captured and tormented, he and his wolf could have found a balance long ago.

I stare at Addison. Will she rule with wisdom and love?

Will she want to rule at all?

“Mama?” Addison tugs on the hem of my shirt.

“What is it, imp?” I frown when I see the tears gathered on her lashes.

“Tate told me that grandpa told him that my daddy was a bad man, that he left us.”

I grit my teeth together. Damn you, Garret. “Your daddy is not a bad man. You know he risked his life to save Aunt Gretchen. And me. More than once.”

She lets out a little puff of air. “But why isn’t he here with us? Doesn’t he love us?”

My heart is breaking anew. How do you tell your six-year-old that her father is practically frozen in time? That he’s done it for her and that someday she will have to return the favor?

I hate these moments. Not just because my heart bleeds anew from missing my mate, but because I’m so not prepared for them. “Addison Sophia,” I say and crouch down beside her. “Don’t you ever, ever think for one moment that your daddy wouldn’t reshape the worlds to be with you. If he could be with us, he would.”

“Then why isn’t he.”

Because he might be dead. Because we might be too late. But I can’t let myself think that.

“Because bad people are keeping him from us.”

“Auntie Chloe says you used to kill bad people.”

I have never once lied to my daughter. Fey can’t lie and turned mortals aren’t supposed to be able to either. Physically I can, but from the moment Addison was born I knew I would never lie to her about any of it. “That’s right. But killing is wrong and you should never do it.”

She rolls her eyes and puts one hand on her hip, her sass coming back to the fore. “Of course not. That’s your job.”

A laugh bubbles out of me as I watch her skip off, curls bouncing.

She’s ready. I can feel it in the darkest pit of my soul. Addison Sophia Jager has reached her full strength. She seems to glow with a gold and green light. Birds perch on her windowsill, waiting for her to rise along with the sun before they sing. With a snap of her fingers, she can set a bonfire fifty feet high. One sharp inhale will call a hurricane toward the coast.

Ghosts flock to her, the disembodied