Dean’s shoulders straightened and the guilt in his eyes was gone, replaced with a steely confidence. “He won’t. Your son doesn’t have to test it. I was born to save the Earth plane. I’ve known it since that day at the fair. Your Highness, I won’t let you down.”
“Just like that?” His bravery, the goodness coming off this young man, moved me to tears.
“You forget I can read intentions,” he said softly. “At least I can read the intentions of those who don’t have me under a thrall stone. Would you let me read yours again? I would need you to think specifically about me and the prophecy.”
“Of course.” I would do anything to let this young man know he could trust me. “Please, do what you need to.”
He merely smiled. “And that’s all I need to know.”
“Dean, it’s okay.”
He shook his head. “Nah, I’ve been told I’m a little on the rough side. I won’t put you through it again. I just needed to know you would let me. I know it sounds dumb, but hearing I really do have a cause makes me feel better. Two whole prophecies can’t be wrong. When I realized Erna lied to me, I wondered if the witch at the fair lied, too.”
“You have to wonder if everyone is lying. That’s smart, Dean, but I promise I won’t. Kelsey won’t.”
“I won’t what?” Kelsey seemed to have finished her…I wouldn’t call it lunch because we’d already had that. Her second lunch, which would be followed by pre-dinner. I wish I had her metabolism.
“You won’t lie to Dean,” I said. “If he comes with us, you’ll take care of his physical training and Sarah will take over his magical training.”
A brow rose over her brown eyes. When she gave me that look, I could see her father plainly. “Have we thought about the fact that Myrddin might not like hanging with the dude who can kill him?”
“Well, I wasn’t going to introduce them,” I replied, though it was a problem. “I also hadn’t thought about the fact that I don’t know what Myrddin will do when he inevitably realizes Danny and Dev are no longer in thrall.”
“I’ll take care of Myrddin,” Dean said with the confidence of youth. “I know you think I need training, but I’ve been working on some battle magic…”
“You’re not ready,” Kelsey and I managed to say at exactly the same time.
Dean stepped back, his hands held up. “Whoa. Way to mom me, ladies.”
I rolled my eyes, but not before I noticed Kelsey’s flush. She wasn’t used to the whole mom thing yet, but she would get there. And this conversation had done two things—it made me comfortable with Dean, and it made me understand that protecting him was going to be hard.
We had to get him back to the Earth plane without rousing Myrddin’s suspicions. We had to figure out how to handle him. Somehow I didn’t think Myrddin was going to accept Daniel banishing him with good grace. Then there was the fact that he’d spent the last decade making friends with the same demons we were going to have to negotiate with.
And we had to handle all of it until Dean was ready to do whatever he was going to do.
My children were on another plane of existence and they had no idea where we were.
I forced myself to take a deep breath. All I could do was put one foot in front of the other and keep moving. I could hear Dean and Kelsey talking about training plans, but they seemed distant to me.
It felt like something was pressing on my chest. My brain went foggy and I had to breathe. My children were on another plane. They were vulnerable to our greatest enemy.
“Your Highness?” Kelsey’s eyes had gone wide. “You’re pale. Are you all right?”
I wasn’t all right. How could I possibly be all right? It all seemed to slam into me, and I wondered if this was Erna’s doing. Was she somewhere in this forest working a spell that made it so I couldn’t breathe?
We were trapped on a foreign plane and we didn’t have Daniel’s blood. If one of us was injured, we couldn’t take a sip of the king and heal.
If Daniel was injured…
“Hey, baby.” Daniel was suddenly standing in front of me, his hands on my shoulders. “I need you to take a long breath with me.”
I shook my head. He didn’t understand. “I can’t breathe, Danny.”