Free CARNAL, The Beast Who Loved Me by Victoria Danann Page B

find out.”
    “Good. Kellareal is a close, um, family friend. But I don’t agree with what he’s done here. This isn’t freedom. It’s just another kind of servitude. And twenty-five years is quite enough to repay any debt.”
    Rosie went back to work feeling a small consolation knowing she’d planted the seed of an idea that might eventually stop the cycle of Exiled sacrificing their children to monsters. She didn’t know what Kellareal had been thinking when he set this up, but she didn’t like it.
    She went through the motions of performing her tasks. Dandy tried to be pleasant. That is to say, pleasant for Dandy, but Rosie was too traumatized by the scene she’d witnessed to care. Her mind was busy thinking of ways to wipe out the Rautt without using her abilities as witch or demon or both.
    The next morning she woke from a bad dream and rose before it was light. She thought she’d go down to the kitchen for water, then try to go back to sleep, but part way down the stairs she realized there was quiet conversation in the back of the house. Focusing her attention, she could hear bits and pieces. Enough to know that Free was talking to Serene about his conversation with Rosie the day before. She wanted to eavesdrop, but she’d been born with her parents’ memories intact, including her father’s ardent sense of right and wrong.
    That voice in her head said to turn around and go back to her room. Quietly. So she did, where she lay in bed wondering, for the thousandth time, if she shouldn’t just go home. Nothing was keeping her there. She didn’t need Kellareal for transportation or permission or to help her find the way. She’d just been letting life take her along like a leaf floating on a river. Every day she’d made the decision, consciously or unconsciously, to give it one more day.
    Maybe she wanted to see what would come of Free’s and Serene’s discussion. Maybe it was the beginning of the end of their quarter century of bondage to a misbegotten deal. If she’d played a small part in that, she’d feel good about it. She decided to wait a little longer and see.
    When she woke again later, a stream of light was coming through the shutters on her window like a vestige of hope and she found she was feeling a little more like herself.
    That day she was more open to Dandy’s attempts to engage her. She even managed a laugh when one of Charming’s friends spilled a glass of cider on his own crotch. His friends were merciless, including Charming.
    “Cub. You didn’t really shit yourself! The john’s just over there.”
    “Wait till the sun hits the leather! Ouch!”
    “You’re gonna be begging for mercy in a really high voice.”
    The kid turned a bright red, not appreciating the laughter at his expense, even if it was all in good fun. Rosie approached the table, sending a rippling wave of magic-laced intention ahead of her.
    “What’s so funny?” she asked.
    Charming and his two cohorts turned and pointed at Cub, whose pants were perfectly dry.
    “He spilled cider…”
    Rosie looked at them like they were crazy. “The glass of cider is full.”
    They looked at the glass and, seeing that it was full, regarded it like it was a snake about to strike. Cub, on the other hand, looked at her like she’d hung the moon. He was just as confused as the others, but he didn’t miss the fact that his reversal of fortune coincided with Rosie’s arrival.

     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Carnal hadn’t slept in his parents’ house in so long he couldn’t remember exactly when the last time had been, but he still thought of it as ‘home’. The incident with Blaze had left him with such a profound sense of loss and guilt that, for the first time in memory, he felt like he had no discernible direction. The status quo with the Rautt seemed pointless, in addition to being fruitless.
    They had his brother, dead or alive. What they’d done to his best friend was shocking even for