Reaper's Nox (Chapter 4)

4

Maddox carried Ronie over his shoulder as he ran as fast as he dared, using his Fae Step to put more distance between them and their attacker. He stopped at the entrance to the Fae lands and looked back. The whole house was engulfed in flames. Fire trucks were pulling up and connecting hoses to hydrants and starting to put the fire out. A stab of guilt pricked the back of his mind. He turned and entered the portal stepping into the Spring Court once again. Narrowing his eyes against the sun, he ran off in a different direction from the last time he was there. He moved toward the boarder of the Spring and Winter Courts. As he stepped into the Winter Court, he breathed a small sigh of relief. He had to make haste.
He walked as fast as he could, his feet sinking halfway up his calves in powdery white snow. His breath came in dense clouds before his mouth. He was growing weary and quite chilled too. If he was cold, he knew Ronie was which made getting inside all the more important. He slowly approached a dilapidated hut with a stable in the same state. There were a couple of bovines penned up. He took a few steps closer and a glaistig stepped out. She placed a hand on her hip as they exchanged gazes. He saw her eyes drift to Ronie slung over his shoulder.
“Maddox Morfin,” she said dryly, “what d’you want?” She turned away from him and made her way to the stable, snatching a bucket up along the way.
“I need a place to stay for a few days, Magpie,” answered Maddox.
“I would love to but harboring you is a death sentence. Your maam made certain all your allies knew she was serious.”
“Come one, Magpie! I know you better than that. You wouldn’t let a little threat keep you from disobedience,” Maddox chortled with a smirk on his face.
Magpie whipped around and glowered at him. “Go ahead, Maddox, ask me what happened to my cattle. Do you even remember how many I had before you denounced your right to the throne before all the Unseelie Court?”
He shrank back at her sudden rebuttal. His mother must have really made good on her threat to cause the glaistig’s personality to change or maybe she resented him now after what happened. He turned his gaze to the snowy ground and sighed deeply.
“Right,” he said dejectedly as he turned to try to find another place to hide with Ronie. Time was of the essence. She could awaken any time and he needed to get her warm.
“Who’s the lassie,” Magpie asked from behind him.
“My charge,” he answered over his shoulder.
“Is she not freezing?”
“I imagine she is, but I didn’t have time to wrap her up warmly. I had to get her out of the situation. If she had listened to me in the first place, I wouldn’t be in this mess. Or maybe I would. Who knows?”
“A few days you said?”
“Yeah.”
“Get her inside and start to warm her up. I’ll be in after the milking.”
“Thanks, Magpie. I owe you one,” sighed Maddox in relief as he turned back toward the hut. He pushed the door open and stepped into the hut. Magick was employed to make the inside of the hut more luxurious. He spotted a bed and headed toward it sliding Ronie off his shoulder as he did. The blankets pulled back allowing him to place Ronie on the bed. When he was moving her feet under the blankets, he noticed that she had lacerations all over them. Concern was written on his face as he gazed down on her.
He quietly left her side and approached a cabinet with bottles and jars lining its shelves. He grabbed one with light pink salve and opened it, smelling the contents before turning and heading back to Ronie’s side. As he did, he grabbed a stretch of fabric. He sat next to her and placed the jar on the bed as he ripped the fabric in half. Taking the jar of the salve, Maddox dipped his fingers into it and pulled some of the fragrant pink jelly from it, coating each of Ronie’s feet in turn and wrapping the fabric around each.
Just as he finished washing his hands of the salve, the door swung open and Magpie walked in carrying the bucket of milk. Maddox turned toward her and reached for the bucket, but Magpie swatted at him with her free hand. He lifted his hands level with his head and took a step back in submission.
“Start talking, Morfin,” she demanded with a smirk on her face, “how did this human girl become your charge?”
“Ronie is only human in that it is the way in which her parents could be together. She is actually Reaper and Angel,” Maddox explained.
“Titania’s left tit, Morfin! You know they are still at war, right?!”
“I do. That is in fact why we are on the run. I became her guardian because I owed her mother for saving my hide back when I first left my matron. Over time, we became friends and she trusted me. That made protecting her easier, but after today…”
“So, you’ve been in the mortal realm all this time? Why is today going to change things?”
“I have and the reason things are going to change is because I have completely betrayed her trust in me. On top of that, I forced her to leave her family behind without trying to save them.”
“But…she is the only one ye had any real reason to protect.”
“While that is the truth of the matter, she won’t see it that way. Perhaps it is my fault or perhaps it is her family’s fault for leaving her in the dark about what she is. Currently, it’s a moot point.”

As the two continued to catch up, Ronie opened her eyes to a graying wooden wall. She was lying in a bed that she immediately recognized wasn’t her own. Underneath her was a lumpy and prickly mattress. On top of her was a long-haired fur blanket. For a moment, she forgot what happened, but it all came rushing back. The crater in her back yard; the bald, honey-skined man fighting her father; her mother’s body nothing but a burnt-out shell; the complete darkness that swallowed her mind before--. She closed her eyes tightly against that last memory but tears still filled them and ran across the bridge of her nose as she shifted and pretended to still be asleep. She pulled the fur over her head and shivered a little. Despite the warmth, there was a deep chill she couldn’t shake. Ronie wept silent tears. She knew her body would be sore later, but she couldn’t keep her it from tensing up as she tried to remain as still as possible. Still, her body was racked with her grief. She wasn’t certain how long she had cried before she had drifted into an uneasy sleep.