Free Absolution by LJ DeLeon

craves it the way drug addicts do their next fix. From what I learned while in hIfreann, the reversal of his aging will become shorter each time he drains a life. Soon he’ll need daily hits to just maintain.”
    Her face showed nothing, but he felt waves of her tightly leashed anger. “This may be a one way mission, honey. Your daughters need your guidance and love.”
    A small twitch at the corner of her mouth accompanied the rise of one eyebrow. “Such odd words. You actually seem worried.”
    “No shit, Druid.” Rice growled before he vanished within a blink of an eye.
    Luc grimaced and pulled his jacket tighter. “Damn him to the Abyss!”
    “Where did he—”
    At Allana’s shocked expression, he sighed. “He said he wants to meet the new Cáidh Arm. I bet he’ll try to get approval from a higher power to take out Farley on his own.”
    “Will he get it?”
    “Not a chance. By the way, how much do you know about Otherworld?”
    “Nothing, I was exchanged for another and taken from there within hours of my birth.”
    Cripes. Talk about a convoluted mess of people all related to each other. If he survived the Farley debacle, he would have to perform the introductions. Better start now with who’s who. “The Cáidh Arm is married to the heir to the throne of Otherworld, Padraig O’Neill. Your brother.”
    She seemed to ponder his comment without a flicker of overt emotion. He understood her hesitation. To be thrown into a family—a royal one at that—would be overwhelming, maybe even intimidating. It was natural to worry whether she mattered, or in fact, was even wanted. After being alone for so many years, she’d wonder how she or the family would consider or accept a sibling who suddenly appeared out of the ether.
    All valid possibilities, though he didn’t think they were the real reason for her silence. Given her focus on her daughters, it probably hadn’t occurred to her to reach out to other family members, people she didn’t know or trust yet. After all, her foster father, along with Raziel, had kept all knowledge of her past from her.
    “You said my brother’s wife is Deva?”
    He heard the quiver in her voice. With a nod, he draped his arm over her shoulder and tugged her beneath the shelter of his jacket. “If we don’t get out of this storm, we won’t have to worry about the sheriff or Farley. We’ll freeze to death.”
    His tucked her against him as they plowed through the snowdrifts. “How much do you know of Earth?”
    “Earth? Over the past hundred years, I’ve visited often in times of great need, healing where I could.”
    “Really, do tell.” Her response was superficial and sparse, an effort to answer without answering. At least it distracted them from their dire predicament. In less than thirty minutes, a foot of snow had fallen. Visibility was near zero. White flakes whirled about them in a swirling gale, unforgiving if they didn’t heed warning signs.
    Darkness below, given the cabin was off the beaten track and tucked up in one of the hollows of the Appalachians, with this crazy weather and high elevation, they might not get out of here before early Spring—several long months from now. Not even his earthborn powers could melt a path to escape in the SUV. She could teleport them out, but they needed the car. Short of Fritz creating a portal for them to drive through to the Interstate, they were stuck.
    Something told him it would come down to Fritz’s help. Farley wouldn’t sit around waiting. One of his daemons, assuming they were still alive, would teleport him here.
    He cast a sidelong glance at her. Her face was taut, her mouth drawn tight against the storm’s fury, yet, a glow around her beckoned him, warming areas of his heart he didn’t know existed.
    Spending time, even a week, alone with Allana in an isolated, snowbound cabin might not be so terrible.
    Assuming Farley didn’t locate them before they were ready to take him on.

CHAPTER 8
     
     
    Luc