Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
CHANEL
Sometimes my age really caught up with me.
It’d been a long, long, long time since I’d stopped counting how old I was.
Even longer since I got comfortable with immortality.
Change was the one thing people as old as me and Regan could rely on and expect.
Change was what we knew best. Yet somehow as I stood here watching life thriving in Third Realm I realized just how old I’d gotten.
I remembered too vividly the day the wretched Tephine nearly destroyed the world.
I’d spent the last two millennia since watching Third Realm deteriorate under her rule.
I couldn’t believe how far the realm had grown in the year since Bash and Collins finally took her down.
A year ago the fae realm had been nothing but ice and snow, life had almost ceased to exist beyond the palace.
“Chanel?”
I jumped and turned to find Regan, Bash, and Collins staring at me with the portal behind them. I frowned. “What?”
Bash arched one pale blue eyebrow. His moonstone colored eyes sparkled. “You went full statue mode there.”
I rolled my eyes. “I think I liked you better when you couldn’t speak.”
He grinned. “Yeah, she’s fine.”
Regan shook her head. “What’s happening in your head there?”
“Damn, tough crowd.” I chuckled and walked over to where they stood by the portal. “Can’t a girl enjoy a Tephine-free realm for a second?”
“Amen to that,” Collins mumbled as she braided crystals into her long pink and purple hair. “Any time there’s the slightest cool breeze my heart stops a little.”
“You’ve done an incredible job in the last year.
Really…” I gestured to the bright, colorful landscape rich with life and happy energy.
The fae realm had once been frozen into a state of perpetual winter.
The land was covered in ice and snow. But over the year it had thawed into a magical landscape. “This is …it’s just…”
“I find myself speechless rather often,” Bash added softly.
“And shirtless.” Regan pointed to all his bare glistening fae skin. “I don’t know why but I guess I thought you’d start wearing proper clothes once your demons were gone. And by demons I mean your family.”
Collins gasped and jumped up, her wings made of rose quartz lifting her off the ground so she could cover her soulmate’s ears with her hands. “How dare you speak of such monstrosities.”
I shook my head. “Regan you really have to stop cockblocking a girls’ eye candy.”
She narrowed her eyes at me and sighed. Then she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Though I admit I do understand where her point came from.” I chuckled. “Bash here still rocking his old school wardrobe with coats and leathers while Collins is in hot pink denim cut off shorts–”
“Hey, this is a long cardigan not a coat.” He ran his hands over the soft navy-blue material. “Now if you’ll excuse me, ladies, it seems some assistance is needed with our newest imported resident.”
I grinned. “Don’t channel your mother too much, Bastien.”
“Remember who you are, Simba,” Regan said with a giggle.
Bash gave us the most wicked grin. “I know who I am…but he doesn’t. Yet.” Then he winked and pushed off the ground with his pale blue wings.
“Don’t worry, he can’t keep a mean face for more than thirty seconds anymore.” Collins giggled. “Thanks for the exile, I guess? Still feels weird to me.”
“I suspect you’ll be getting used to it quickly.” I shrugged. “Fear of Tephine and ice was the only thing we had to keep your fellow fae behaved amongst the humans.”
She sighed and there was a heaviness to it that I recognized all too well. “Zuriel gave us some pointers, and then Savina gave us more.”
Regan nodded. “Any word on Tallulah yet?”
“Regan,” I hissed as Collins’ face fell. Tallulah was Collins’ best friend,who was more like a sister. She somehow fell into a portal to another realm and disappeared. It was a constant worry for Collins. “Seriously?”
She grimaced. “Sorry, it’s just been on my mind.”
“It’s okay, Regan. It’s not like I go more than a few minutes without thinking of her.” She rubbed a pale hand over her chest. Her pretty turquoise eyes watered and stared at the ground. “Zuriel has assured me she is alive but we’ve yet to find a way to get to her.”
I pursed my lips. “He got so pissed when I offered to go.”
Regan snort laughed. “It was fun to watch.”
“What did you have to do to get that much information out of Riven?”
At that, Collins’ grinned and her whole face sparkled. “I followed Araqiel around for three days turning every single taco related food item he attempted to eat into solid crystal.”
I threw my head back and cackled.
Regan literally applauded her. “I love the trickery of you fae — when it’s used for good.”
“Very vigilante of you,” I said with a wink and immediately regretted my word choice as Kaso’s face flashed through my mind.
Regan’s mind must’ve gone to the same place mine had because her whole mood soured. Her smile turned to a frown. She met my stare for a second then cleared her throat and turned to Collins. “Well, we ought to get out of your way now. I’m sure we’ll be seeing you soon.”
“Thanks, ladies. Bash and I would love to host the Virtues for a social visit any time.”
“Might have to take you up on that.” I started to turn away then stopped and took her hand in mine, giving it a light squeeze. “I know the last year without Tallulah has been brutal on your heart and soul but if it helps in any way, just know the pain gets easier to manage.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry, how insensitive of me. You two have lost the rest of your Virtues and I’m crying over one friend—”
“No.” Regan put her hand on Collins’ petite shoulder. “Just because we’ve experienced this doesn’t diminish your suffering now. We pray you won’t have to wait as long as we have.”
“We’ll come back to hang out once the holidays calm down a bit.” I squeezed her hand again then pulled away. “But if you’re gonna pull another stunt like that on Araqiel again please let us watch.”
“Deal.” She laughed and waved.
Together, Regan and I spun on our toes and turned toward the portal.
“I really want to explore Third Realm now that it thawed out.”
“Right? Not to mention Tephine never gave a shit to build a community for her people.” I stepped through the portal, feeling the telltale coldness wash over me until I stepped out onto the black marble floors of the elevator bank.
As Regan walked through behind me, I half turned to face her.
“Though we probably should keep how nice it is to ourselves so we don’t have a full blown fae purge–”
“WHAT?” Regan shouted, her cheeks burning red with rage and her blue eyes wide. “No!”
I spun around then did a doubletake. “Son of a bitchstick.”
Kaso and Andreas stood a few feet away in front of the portal into Second Realm with a blue haired mage on his knees and his arms cuffed behind his back.
Kaso’s golden eyes met mine and he had the audacity to grin at me.
To actually smile like I should’ve been happy to see him.
He lifted the hand he wasn’t using to hold down the mage and waved - with the mage’s wand between his fingers.
I let out a little screech of rage. “Kaso! We talked about this.”
Andreas nodded. “Yeah, we talked about it.”
Kaso shrugged and tugged on his suspenders just to send my blood pumping. “But we decided we like our new plan. So we’re stickin’ to it.”
Zuriel appeared out of nowhere, standing right in front of the captive mage. He shrugged. “They are quite effective.”
“ZURIEL,” Regan and I shouted at the same time.
Araqiel slid around the corner with a bucket of taquitos in his hands and wide eyes. “Did I miss it? Did I miss anything? Anyone swing yet?”
“I’m about to, just haven’t chosen my victim yet.” Zuriel looked pointedly to Araqiel.
Regan rolled her shoulders and balled her fists. “I’ll swing first but I know my target.”
“No, that’s what they want,” I told my cousin in a rush. Then I narrowed my eyes on Kaso. “We’re the Virtues here—”
“You know, there used to be a lot more Virtues.” Araqiel licked salsa off one of his fingers then used a taquito to point at us. “Only having two of you has put more work on your plate.”
My breath left me in a rush like he’d kicked me in the gut.
Regan clenched her teeth so hard I heard her jaw pop. “There’s three of us—”
“Yeah and ice cream goes in a taco.” Araqiel gave us an exaggerated wink before shoving a taquito in his mouth. Then he frowned and looked down at his bucket. “Actually, hold on.”
Before I could even get my mouth open to speak Araqiel snapped his fingers and a stack of vanilla ice cream towered out of the top of the bucket.
He grabbed a taquito and swiped it through the ice cream then took a big bite.
We all watched in stunned silence as the lead angel of all angels and living kind on Earth tested taquitos with ice cream.
He nodded but it was more of a dance. “I am so smart.”
“Araqiel,” Zuriel groaned.
“You know what?” He stabbed another taquito into the ice cream to scoop some up. “Maybe we need to make Bodhi do some more heavy lifting. Share their workload.”
Regan opened her mouth then shut it. She grimaced. “She’s a healer, not a—”
“He’s not wrong. Bodhi needs to step up before the others return.
We’re going to need her. However, she’s not a warrior of any kind.
She’s not a fighter.” Zuriel gestured to Kaso and Andreas, the thorns in our sides.
“But here's the deal. These two are very effective.
They can handle themselves in an altercation, and while they got distracted for a hot minute and got up to some mischief they've actually been quite helpful to us over the last two millennia–”
“Two thousand?” Regan’s eyes went wide. “Did you say they’re two thousand years old?”
I frowned. “You’re that old?”
Regan eyed Andreas. “I thought you were just mafia old–”