"I am tellin' you," snapped an irritable, reedy voice all of a sudden, coming from the hallway, "The salve I applied last night is more than enough for the injuries she sustained. If she's still complaining about pain, I can only say she is probably over exaggerating."
"I beg to differ," said Demon's voice in response, his voice low and purring with menace, "She cannot move for the pain, healer, I doubt that is over exaggerating anything, not to mention half of her wounds have sealed up while the others stay open, and though she is not openly bleeding, I can certainly smell fresh blood."
"Perhaps you are oversensitive," the healer suggested, his tone curt and annoyed, and a moment later he came striding into the room on his stubby legs, his cane striking the floor as he waddled in, Demon close behind him.
"And perhaps you should be quiet and look," Demon suggested in return, looking all ready to tear the healer limb from limb if he had to hear one more disagreement out of the wizened elf.
"Fine," snapped the healer, already tottering away from Demon and approaching the bed where Catherine lay, his aged brow furrowed in annoyance as he came over, snapping his fingers to conjure his stool into being just beside the bed. "Sit up, girl, and be quick about it."
Catherine did as she was told, or tried to. The minute she got her arms under her and attempted to lever herself up, a searing agony shot the length of her back, resonating from her wounds, and she collapsed backwards with a gasp of pain, tears springing from her eyes, and Demon rushed forward to lean over her, his expression dark.
"Oh, come now," snapped the healer, looking exasperated as he clambered up on his stool and onto the bed beside her, "It cannot be so bad."
"Say another word, healer," Demon growled as he gently slipped an arm beneath Catherine, carefully beginning to turn her over, "Claws or not, I will be sure to make quite the retaliation against you."
"Do not threaten me, Cait Sith," the healer warned him coldly, brandishing his cane as Demon carefully began to lift Catherine's shirt, "I may be old, but I am none to be bullied by—merciful Creator!"
He broke off with a startled yelp as he finally lowered his beetle black eyes to Catherine's back, and his mouth fell open in alarm as he took in the raw red skin and still open wounds, one of the worst of which was now trickling just the slightest amount of blood.
"Would you care to rectify your earlier statement, healer?" Demon asked quietly, his tone menacing as he narrowed his yellow-green eyes at the elf. "Just what about this is over exaggerated exactly?"
The healer shook his head in silence, still looking rather stricken as he gaped down at Catherine's wounds, his expression uncomprehending.
"This can't be," he squeaked, shaking his head more firmly now, clambering forward to lean over Catherine, his nose almost touching her back as he stared at the puncture marks. "I made absolutely certain the salve would heal those injuries by mornin'."
"Even if they weren't all healed," Demon said softly, "She shouldn't be in this kind of pain. She can't move, healer."
"There shouldn't be wounds or pain," the healer insisted, his expression deeply concerned now as he watched the one severe puncture ooze yet more vividly crimson blood. "This makes no sense…"
"You made the potion yourself?" Demon inquired, eyes mere slits now. "Here, in this room, you made the salve from scratch?"
"No," the healer said, shaking his head, "But it was fresh from my stocks when I came at Oberon's call. No more than a day old… This shouldn't be happenin'."
"Well, it is," said Demon tersely, "And I'd rather like if you fixed it."
"It isn't a problem with the salve," the healer said, a frown coming to his face as he continued to inspect Catherine's injuries with a keen black eye, "Somethin' else…"
"What else could it be?" Demon asked, barely holding on to his temper, only doing so by remembering he had once been able to be much more patient than this, once upon a time in his life.
"The gate," said Catherine quietly, and the healer and Demon both turned to look at her as she turned her head to peer up at them through pained jade eyes, "Maybe…I don't know, maybe something was wrong with the gate?"
Demon's eyes narrowed again, and the healer seemed to lapse into thought.
"Oberon could have put something on the briars I suppose," he mumbled to himself, tapping his chin with a wizened finger, "But he would have been sure to mention it last night…no, I don't think so… He hasn't altered that gate's design in centuries, why would he bother now? Especially with something like putting a potion on the thorns?"
His eyes fell back to Catherine's wounds; taking note of just which ones were still open, and which ones had sealed themselves over night, his eyes marking a pattern.
"There's a pattern here," he said quietly, bending over her, and Demon leaned in as well, scrutinizing the outline the healer drew over a good area of Catherine's back, more towards the top of her shoulder and neck than further down along her back. "Not quite so large…more towards the top, but I applied the same amount of salve there as I did on the healed areas…"
"Where?" Catherine asked, blinking over at him as best she could from where she lay.
"Here," Demon said, lifting a finger and very lightly tracing it over her shoulder, encompassing the still injured area. "Just here…Can you think of anything that would make that happen? Other than the gate or the salve?"
Catherine thought back, trying to remember that moment when she'd gotten herself injured, but all she could think about from the moment she'd ended up ramming her back into the gate was just the gate…and then later the salve… but what about the in between time between the two? She thought backwards from the minute the salve had been applied.
"Lady Weaver had me take a bath," she said thoughtfully, but the healer shook his head.
"That was all over," he said, frowning, "These open wounds are in a pattern on your back, just close to the top of your shoulder. A bath wouldn't leave a pattern like this. What else? Anything at all?"
She thought harder, moving backwards through the night before. Before the bath, she'd just had her dress and Sonata's cloak on, but she didn't think that would have made a difference, either. That would have been all over, too, and the straps of her dress had been pretty much devastated on the right side during her scuffle with the satyrs and then when she'd run into the gate because of Rowan. Her train of thought came screeching to a sudden, jerky stop, her mind freezing on Rowan, and her eyes grew wide as she remembered something she had been working to suppress. After she'd run into the gate, she remembered now, Rowan had grabbed her again…he'd taken her blood.
"There's no way," she whispered, feeling her heart thud rapidly against her chest as a sudden panic began to rise up.
"What, Catherine?" Demon asked, his voice urgent.
"Rowan took my blood," she whispered, turning her head to stare up at him, jade eyes wide with disbelief. "From the pattern you traced out that was where…"
She couldn't even say it, just the memory of the Winter Prince's mouth on her skin was revolting enough, she didn't even want to say the words aloud, but she didn't need to. The look in Demon's eyes as he slowly lowered them to the wounds on her back said he understood, and he was livid.
"The Ice Prince took blood?" the healer squeaked, sounding horrified. "From you? Why?!"
"I don't know," she said, her voice trembling, "I think he was just being sadistic…"
"Sadistic with a purpose," murmured Demon, and she flinched to hear the low growl in his voice, ever the infuriated Cait Sith. "A blood exchange is as good as a vow, even if he didn't take it for anything other than to ensure your pain. And that's what he's done now. He wants your pain, and he's gotten it. When he took your blood, his intentions went into you, into the wound, and now they won't heal because of it."
It sounded ludicrous when he said it that way, but how else did he explain it? It was the truth, after all. A wound may not be a living entity, but intentions and desires were, and Rowan's desires had filtered into Catherine's wounds by way of his—Demon shuddered to even think it—saliva, the same way her blood had passed into the Prince as he'd taken her blood. The Prince wanted Catherine to experience pain, any kind of pain, and now that was what was happening. His intentions had become imbedded in her wounds, and now were deliberately keeping her from healing. Worse than that, they were inciting physical pain when she shouldn't have been able to feel it. The left behind fragments of Rowan's sadistic wishes had remained behind, and had negated the healing effects of the salve the healer had administered.
"Then there's nothin' I can do," the healer said, his voice faint, almost like a breath of wind, and he moved away from Catherine, his hunched shoulders hunching over even more in defeat. "If the Prince has taken her blood and wished her ill by it, then no amount of healin' will be able to undo it."
Demon hissed a curse under his breath, barely restraining the urge to lash out at something, anything, though the porcelain vase on the nightstand was making a very alluring target. He turned away before he could break it into a thousand pieces, breathing deeply to calm himself as the healer slid off the bed and onto the floor, his black eyes somber.
"I am so sorry," the healer murmured, speaking to both Demon and Catherine. "I wish I could help, but the only way to reverse this effect is if you manage to get the Prince to take back his ill wishes, but since you make it seem as though he did it unconsciously then I doubt even that would help you now."
"So what do we do?" Demon asked in a low voice.
"Pray he gives up his ill feelin's towards her," the healer said with a helpless shrug, "Otherwise that wound could remain open for the rest of eternity."
Demon's eyes narrowed and he felt his anger surge again. The healer suggested that remedy as though he really expected it to help…well, they'd sooner get an apology out of Mab for all the wrong she'd done than ever hope that Rowan would give up his anger and sadistic tendencies towards Catherine. That much was certain…
"You can't give her anything for the pain?" he asked in a very quiet voice, closing his eyes, trying to block out the red fury building inside of him.
"I could but it wouldn't work," said the healer morosely. "The whole purpose of the Prince's ill desires is that she suffers, which means anythin' I give her would just be about as helpful as if I didn't give it at all."
"I see," murmured Demon, his eyebrows slanting down into a furious line, "Thank you for your assistance, healer."
The healer nodded slowly, not speaking as he gazed up into the Cait Sith's face, which held barely controlled rage, then glanced over at Catherine, who was lying on the bed, pain and tears brimming in her eyes, and heaved a sigh.
"I am sorry," he murmured again, meaning it, and turned to make his way out of the bedroom, his little walking stick clicking against the tile floor as he vanished from sight.
When he was gone, Catherine slowly rolled herself onto her side, trying to breathe through the slight pain it caused her, and pushed herself up, turning watering jade eyes onto Demon, who stood rigidly at the bedside, his eyes still firmly shut, his hands clenched into fists.
"I'm sorry," she murmured, and his eyes snapped open at once.
"For what?" he asked, turning to stare at her, still visibly angry, but she knew it wasn't anger towards her.
"If I had known that would happen," she said through the gathering tears, "I wouldn't have let him get that close…"
"It is not your fault," Demon told her firmly, "And though I am loathe to say it I do not believe Rowan had any idea of what would happen, either. I am sure he has heard of a blood oath, given it would be a poor reflection on Mab's educating him if he didn't, but I feel she left out telling him that any blood exchange is a blood oath, whether words are spoken or not. Intentions and desires speak louder than any words, and he managed to leave them with you. Otherwise, I feel you would be in much greater pain if he knew the effects of his actions."
Catherine suspected he was right, and was secretly glad in her way that Rowan was ignorant to the possibilities presented to him from taking her blood, but it made her wonder…
"Sonata knew he took my blood," she murmured quietly, "And so did Mab and Titania and Oberon, but they didn't react like you just did…Shouldn't they have known?"
Demon heaved a sigh, running a hand through his hair, a look of total exhaustion on his face.
"They should have," he said, settling down on the bed, "But since you didn't say anything about making a blood oath, I doubt it would have crossed their minds that something like this could happen. Not to mention we didn't know about this until this morning. If your wounds had been acting up last night, it probably would have come up sooner."
"Should we say anything about it?" she asked him, her brow furrowing, but he shook his head.
"No," he said quietly, "If we do, Oberon will call for a repayment of blood to make the deal fair. Not only that, but that would let Rowan know he has power over you, and Mab would know as well. For now, it is better to be quiet about it and hope we can find something else to work against this."
"Would anyone know a way to fix it, other than trying to convince Rowan not to hate me?" she asked, making the feeblest attempt at a joke.
"If anyone would aside from Oberon or Mab, it would be Lord Wrath," Demon admitted tiredly, his yellow-green eyes swirling with thought.
"So our best chance for everything right now is still him," she murmured, and he nodded mutely. "Then we need to get going, Demon. If we can't get to him—"
"Catherine, you can barely move," he said, turning to her suddenly, his expression a mixture of pained and furious, "And I suspect that whenever Rowan manages to think of you, it will only cause you more pain, which could happen at any time. That could render you incapacitated right in the middle of wherever we are and that could put you in even more danger. Why do you think I am about to let you walk out of here like this?"
"Because I'm not giving you a choice," she said, suddenly just as angry as he was, and pushing herself away from him, rolling off the bed, and regretting it when it caused her entire back to surge with pain, robbing her of breath.
She nearly collapsed, but managed to brace herself on the wall as before, even as Demon hissed and raced around the bed to her side, reaching out an arm to support her, and though she might have liked to push him away and insist she could do it on her own, she knew better, and allowed him to circle her waist with an arm, steadying her.
"You might not be giving me a choice, but your body isn't giving you one, either," he told her quietly.
"I need to find Wrath, Demon," she said, pain in her voice and in her eyes as she tilted her head back to look imploringly up at him. "That's the whole point of this! Finding my dad, now getting this whole blood oath mess taken care of, he's the only one who would know anything about either issue!"
"You don't have to be with us," Demon told her, and her eyes flashed with alarm, "I'm asking you to stay here while we go find Wrath, Catherine. Not that we will not find him, but that you remain here, where it is safe."
"I thought you knew me better than that," she said, and he could see the hurt in her eyes, a hurt that had nothing to do with her shoulder.
"I do," he murmured, "You wouldn't stay here if your life depended on it if you knew you could find Wrath, but I made a vow to you that I would protect you and this is me fulfilling that oath."
"The minute you left I'd be right behind you," she told him angrily, glaring up at him. "You really think you can just expect me to stay here?"
"I could always have Oberon enchant you into sleep," he said, his eyes narrowing, "You wouldn't have a choice then, and you would at least be numb to the pain."
"Do it and see if I ever forgive you," she spat at him.
"I know you wouldn't," he sighed, looking a little amused now as he gazed down at her. "But I wouldn't forgive myself if you came to harm trying to be a warrior woman when you are injured like this…Isn't it enough that I failed to protect you from this already?"
"It wasn't your fault," she said angrily.
"We could argue the fact all day long and onward if you like," he murmured, "But the truth is clear, whether you believe it or not."
"I think I said something about kissing you if you kept on like that," she said dangerously, and he allowed himself a dry chuckle.
"You may kiss me all you like," he told her, stooping to sweep her off her feet again, bringing her back to the bed and setting her upon it, "I can imagine worse punishments for my failures."
"Then start imagining them, because they're coming," she growled at him as he drew away, and he smiled softly.
Realizing she wasn't getting anywhere fast, Catherine hurried to change tactics.
"Demon, please," she begged, grabbing onto his wrist when he made to turn away, "You know this is important to me."
"Is this the part where you try to appeal to my gentler, weaker side?" he asked with a small sigh, looking back over his shoulder at her. "If you really want to, I'm willing to sit and watch."
"Demon," she said, her temper flaring again, along with a hint of desperation.
"Catherine," he murmured, letting her continue to hold his wrist as he set himself down on the edge of the bed, "You know I can't just let you walk around in this state."
"If you leave me here, Oberon will ask why," she told him quietly, "And do you really want to try to come up with a good excuse?"
"Your injury isn't healed," Demon said simply.
"And why isn't it?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "It should have been, and he'll know that. You say you don't want him to know about the blood oath but you're missing a key element here."
Demon muttered under his breath, realizing her logic and hating it. He couldn't leave her here, it was true. Oberon would demand an explanation, and it would only be so long before the Summer King figured out the truth of the matter, assuming, of course, the healer hadn't already gone to inform the monarch already. So if he couldn't leave her here and he couldn't take her with the rest of them to find Wrath, what could he do?
"I am sure Spindle would be happy to see you again," he mused thoughtfully.
"Demon," she snapped, really annoyed now. "If you take me out of this castle, you aren't getting rid of me no matter what you do."
"I cannot let you get hurt again," he said, anger and frustration plain in his tone and in his eyes as he turned to fix her with a yellow-green stare.
"And you won't," she said quietly, "You're not the only that will be there, Demon. Trinity, Nikki, Puck, Tertius and Glitch will all be there, too."
"And if that's not enough?" he asked, glaring now.
"Why can't you trust me on this?" she demanded.
"I do trust you, I don't trust myself," he retorted. "How can I trust myself to keep you safe when it's because of my failure already that you have this injury in the first place? How can I have a hope of protecting you like I vowed to if I already let Rowan trap you like this?"
"That's not your fault," she said, staring up at him, looking stunned by his outburst.
"Then whose fault is it?" he growled in his throat.
"Rowan's," she said, "All Rowan's. Alright? So please—please!—stop blaming yourself for this, Demon! Or I really will make you sorry you kept on about it! I know you're worried about me, I know you promised to protect me, but I'm not a kid. You might think I am based on how you were raised, but I'm not, okay? I can take care of myself."
"Then why haven't you?" he demanded, stopping her dead in her mental tracks. "You say you can take care of yourself, fine. Prove it. Because for the past few weeks, though I really hate to point this out to you, you have not been doing the most stunning of jobs, Catherine. You cannot sleep without nightshade, you are developing an immunity to it, you were injured last night because Rowan cornered you, he managed to initiate a blood exchange, and on top of all of that you really want to try and tell me you can take care of yourself after you endured whatever you did with Sage?"
He knew he should never have even considered saying all of that to her, but he was past playing nice now. She was hurt, she was ill, it was his fault, and he was not going to stand idly by and watch her get again because he let her bully him into bring her with the rest of them to look for Wrath. He knew it was her venture, knew it was her father they were looking for, but at the moment he really couldn't have cared less. His first priority was to protect her, always, and he hadn't. And because of that they were where they now stood. If he had to make her so mad at him she never wanted to see him again, so be it, but he wasn't about to let her get hurt again because of his incompetence.
"I will go find Trinity," he said quietly, rising to his feet, pulling his wrist out of her slackened grip, "And tell her what has happened. Nikki and Puck as well. They will need to know what is going on so we can figure out where to keep you while we find Wrath."
He started to walk away, but something stopped him dead as it grabbed the back of his shirt, and he turned his head in alarm to see it was Catherine, sitting up, her hand fisted in his tunic, with such a furious look on her face he thought he might just be imagining it. Of course, that was until she dragged herself out of the bed, wincing and hissing every couple of seconds as the pain in her back increased, until she was standing toe to toe with him, with her jade eyes blazing angrily up at him.
"You," she said in a low, dangerous voice, "Are really damn lucky I know you said that to try to piss me off and make it so I'd be happy you left, because otherwise you'd be on the ground crying for that, and I'm not going to tell either Nikki or Trinity you said that, because they'd side with me and then you'd have a whole other ring of hell to deal with. But I will tell you this: I am walking out that door, I am going to Oberon, and I am demanding he changes you back into a cat, because you are just flat out annoying as hell when you're a human, and I really don't give a damn how sexy you are when you're human. I'll take your cat-self over your human-self if it means I can get you to shut up. And while I do that, you're going to go find Trinity, and apologize on bended knee for the delay, and tell her we'll be out of her ASAP. Think you can do that?"
If he hadn't known she was dead serious, he might have had the gall to laugh. In any case, he didn't manage to keep from smirking down at her.
"You can't walk," he said coolly, "How do you plan to get to Oberon if you cannot even walk?"
"I'll crawl," she said waspishly, and now he did laugh. "You think I'm joking?"
"I know you aren't, and that is what is so utterly appalling," he said, rolling his eyes, at the same time feeling a surge of dull irritation. "I can see you are going to make it deliberately harder for me to make you stay anywhere, aren't you?"
"You just figured this out?" she asked, narrowing her jade eyes at him.
"I was at least hoping you would consider I am only doing this for your wellbeing," he murmured quietly.
"Oh, screw wellbeing," she muttered, and his eyebrows shot up. "If I cared about my wellbeing, I wouldn't have come here at all, Demon, you know that. You told me before we even came here how dangerous it would be. I knew the risks. I just thought you did, too…"
The way she said it made his insides shrivel up a little, but he tried to ignore the discomfort and instead cocked his head at her, feeling weary all over again.
"Is there nothing I can say or do?" he asked quietly, and she smiled almost apologetically up at him.
"Sorry," she murmured, shaking her head, "There really isn't. You're stuck."
He sighed again, closing his eyes and thinking for a moment, wondering if there really wasn't anything he had a hope of doing. He couldn't consider one single thing where she didn't either make him regret it for the rest of his existence or where he didn't feel like he had been an absolute bastard, or where she didn't win out over him.
"Fine," he murmured at last, resigned, "I see there's no choice…"
"There's always a choice," she told him, "Just this time I'm not really making the choice easy."
"At least we can agree on that," he murmured, "But I will have my say in one thing, Catherine. We are telling Nikki and Trinity about this, and we will see what they say."
"Whatever they say, it won't change my mind," she told him. "They know me well enough after nearly ten years to know that they can say anything to the moon and back about this and I won't listen. And I know they'll worry, but, Demon, they wouldn't be my friends if they didn't, and they wouldn't be my friends if they also didn't let me do what I need to. And I need to do this. It's one of the big reasons why I'm here. Before we even came, it was the only reason I was here. I need to find my father, and if Wrath can point the way, and even help us with this new thing, then he's who I am going to look for. No matter what that takes. It matters that much to me."
"I know, I know," he groaned, running a hand exasperatedly over his face. "Woman…you will really drive me to an early retirement…"
"I didn't know you worked," she said, the corner of her lips quirking.
"I do work," he muttered with a sigh, "Every day, to keep you alive. So far, it's been proving one of the most difficult ventures of my entire existence."
"I won't apologize for that," she murmured, her jade eyes darkening slightly at it his words.
"I am not asking you to," he answered, frowning at her. "I am merely marveling at the fact that in all of my centuries alive this has been the first instance that I have ever forced myself to work so hard for an individual other than myself."
"And why do you do it?" she asked, tilting her head at him, looking a little bemused. "You haven't done this for anyone else, even though it would be probably be a lot easier on you if you did, because all I seem to be able to do is get into trouble, but you go out of your way to help me. You have since before we got here…but you never really explained why outside of you want to see my full potential. I was satisfied with that answer before, but I'm not so sure about it now."
"What exactly are you asking me to say, Catherine?" Demon sighed, feeling a little whiplashed. Hadn't they just been talking about how she wasn't going anywhere in her condition? Why were they suddenly talking about him and his motives?
"I'm just asking you to tell me the whole truth behind why you're so desperate to keep me safe, vows aside," she told him, her jade eyes narrowing slightly. "And if all you can tell me is that it is because of the vow, then I'll be fine with that. I just want the truth."
"The truth…" He sighed again, one hand now over his face entirely, his eyes closed, feeling a slow tick beginning in his temple the longer he stood there. This wasn't what was supposed to be happening.
He was supposed to be convincing her to stay put, to rest while he and the others found Wrath and either got answers or brought him back somehow to speak with her himself, but that apparently was not at all what was happening. And that rather annoyed him. Rather than taking him at his word, or making himself heard on the matter, she was completely switching topics to something altogether unrelated. His motives for protecting her… Aside from the issue being thoroughly inconsequential to their previous discussion—a discussion he rather wanted to continue on—he really didn't want to speak of his intentions currently, because he himself wasn't entirely sure how to answer…
"Catherine," he began wearily, but she cut him off, as though sensing he was attempting to delay her.
"Demon, it's just me asking for the truth, is that so bad?"
"When you can hardly stand from your injuries, you are insisting you go gallivanting off into the Briars like said wound is nothing, and I am failing to convince you otherwise, it is not so much whether the issue you are asking about is good or bad as the timing of asking about it is good or bad," he answered quietly, lowering his hand to look at her, frowning slightly. "Can't we discuss this later?"
She eyed him for a moment, not sure if she wanted to let the issue go so easily when he was making his own interests such a big part of the morning, but she also knew he was right. The truth could wait, it wasn't as though not knowing would kill her or anything so gruesome, but it did bother her that she didn't really feel satisfied anymore just hearing that his oath to her or his interest in her potential were the driving force behind it. Not to mention if it had really just been the oath, he could have just said so now and been done with the whole affair, but he hadn't, which meant he didn't think it was his oath binding him anymore than she did. Still, you could lead a horse to water, but you couldn't make it drink, as they said. She'd led Demon to water, but he sure as hell wasn't drinking.
"Alright," she murmured softly, sighing, "I can wait to hear the answer. But, Demon, don't even try and start with your whole spiel about me staying here, because we just discussed that it's not happening, and nothing you do is going to change my mind. Not even if you went and begged Trinity and Nikki to die me down or something."
"Nothing at all I can do?" he asked, arching a brow, his expression disbelieving.
"No," she said firmly, narrowing her eyes at him. "We've already said you won't get away with forcing me to stay here, either by tying me down or getting Oberon to enchant me to sleep, not to mention he'd be nagging to know why you asked him to do it in the first place and you'd probably owe him a favor, and I really don't think we need to be having that right now. Nikki and Trinity will side with me even if they're worried about my injury, so you won't get very far with that. Your only other alternative is to take me with you."
"Or drop you at Spindle's," he reminded her idly.
"Not happening," she said curtly. "I'd follow you the minute you left and you know it. And before you even try to suggest that you'd drug me with nightshade to make me sleep, you already know that won't work and you wouldn't do it anyway as it is because you're already worried to death about me being immune to it."
Demon absolutely loathed it when she was right…or at least as right as she was. He could handle it if she was right on one issue so long as he could still be correct on another, but she had thoroughly nullified each and every issue that he might have had a chance on. He was cornered. As a cat, that was unacceptable, and a normal course of action would be to lash out. The mortals didn't have their saying "corner a cat, get scratched" for no reason. But, alas, he couldn't lash out at Catherine. That would be doing her harm, and he was sworn to protect her from harm. Not to mention he didn't very much like to think of the repercussions that might come from such brazen behavior.
"You won't even think on this?" he asked quietly, his gaze beseeching as he looked down at her.
"I already have, and my answer is the same," she said firmly, "I'm going with you."
He heaved a deep sigh. He'd known she was going to say that, but hope sprang eternal as they said.
"Very well," he murmured, "Then I will go and apologize to Trinity for the delay, and tell her we will be out of here as soon as you are ready."
"Ready," Catherine said with a small smile.
"You sound so convinced of that," he muttered as he moved around her to the bed to begin stuffing their clothes into the small sack he'd retrieved earlier.
"And yet you don't," she sighed, turning to watch him out of the corner of her jade eyes. "Why is that?"
"Because I know better," he muttered, pushing the last bits of clothes into the bag and yanking the ties shut with rather excessive force, feeling his temper flare momentarily as he finally came to terms with his being utterly thwarted. Why couldn't he argue with her?
If he'd been Grimalkin, he would have probably had a much better time of getting her to do as he wanted, but that was out of the question. He was not Grimalkin, he was Demon, and Demon was sworn to protect Catherine, even if it meant doing so in the most unfavorable of conditions with her injured and in potential mortal danger as they embarked on a crusade of rather startling proportions. He really might retire after this…
While he packed, Catherine leaned against one of the posts of the bed, watching him through tired eyes, wishing she could better ignore the still throbbing pain in her back, though she was glad at least to notice it had abated somewhat for the time being. She wondered vaguely if her pain wasn't so much related to Rowan's current feelings for her as his sadistic tendencies in general. After all, she doubted he was thinking of her this much as it was, wherever he might be in Winter, hopefully enduring whatever punishment Mab had decided for him. That would border on obsession if he was thinking of her so immensely and with such strong feelings of dislike, even as she paused to consider that maybe—since he had made the blood oath without really realizing what he was doing—that perhaps his feelings and thoughts for her were more subconscious on his part. Everyone could think of something in the back of their minds without ever really realizing that they were sitting there thinking about it, so why couldn't Rowan? Still, she thought, weariness driving her to sit on the bed while Demon continued to finish their packing, she was really hoping that wherever Rowan was, he had better things to be doing than just sitting there thinking about her and the kind of pain he'd like her to be in…
Even if he was, it wouldn't really make a difference in what they were about to do. Regardless of what he wished on her, and how fiercely he might wish it, she wasn't going to let a little thing like his sadistic desires get in the way of her finding Wrath, and then her father. She hadn't made it all this way just to let a bastard like the Winter Prince cut her off now. Neither he, nor Mab were going to stop her…and neither was his elder brother…
She'd been doing well so far this morning not to think about Sage, but, of course, it wasn't the easiest thing in the world. No amount of physical discomfort or mental exhaustion could make her forget the night before, waltzing around the floor of the great hall before the entire Summer court and Winter and Iron attendants… And even his short visit afterwards, to apologize in place of his brother, was burned like a brand into her memory… She was still shamed to think back on that moment, seeing him standing in the corner of the room, hidden almost entirely in shadow, and feeling her heart leap to think that he'd come to check on her. That he might care…
Yeah, right… Like Ash had said, Mab was all about appearances, and she had made sure her sons were no different in their opinion on that fact. He had only come to make things seem as right as possible between her and his mother and brother, since his mother couldn't be bothered to do it herself, and she was in no mood to allow Rowan near her again after the disgrace he'd caused. Still…just for a split second, she'd been foolish enough to think it. But, in the end, he was still a Winter Prince, and he cared nothing for her. The sooner she could fully acknowledge that, the better off she'd be…if only it were that simple.
"If you're just going to sit there," Demon murmured suddenly, causing her to start and turn to look at him, "I'm going to leave you here and fix a lot of problems."
The Cait Sith was watching her through half closed yellow-green eyes, and though his face was carefully composed in his usual mask of indifference, she could see the gleam of knowing in his eyes as he leveled a stare at her, and felt her stomach knot uncomfortably to see him scrutinizing her with such ease, like he could see right through her.
"I'm going," she said firmly, pushing herself to her feet, ignoring the weariness in her limbs and the burning in her shoulder. "We already discussed this."
Demon didn't respond immediately, taking his time eyeing her from where he stood at the side of the bed, one hand resting lightly on their now stuffed pack. After a moment he sighed and lifted it on one hand, holding it out to her so she turned with a surprised expression to look at it.
"If you're coming, you're carrying," he told her quietly, and she glanced up at him. "I might have lost most of my dignity as it is, but I refuse to be a pack mule, human body or not. If you reach the point when you cannot physically move while still carrying it, then we will discuss my shouldering it. Until then, if you want to act as though you are perfectly fit for this journey, we might as well act as though we believe it."
"I believe it," she said, frowning as she snatched the pack out of his hands, swinging it onto her shoulders and wincing slightly as it caused her wounds to throb, "You're the only one with a problem."
"Because I know better," he murmured as he swept by her, "But I cannot change the mind of a stubborn human girl, especially when that human girl is you."
"You say it like I'm special or something," she sighed, following after him as he led the way from the room, out into the hallways.
"You certainly make the argument that you are," he replied with a small snort, glancing back at her. "Even without stating directly that you are exceptional in some way, your every action says so, so you are very lucky that your subconscious seems as incapable of lying as you are or we might have a bigger conflict on our hands."
"I don't know if I understand what you're trying to say," she said, quickening her pace to keep up with his longer strides, peering up curiously at his face.
"That you are special," he sighed, rolling his yellow-green eyes, "Just do not make a habit of boasting about it, or I may be tempted to sew your lips together just for a respite."
"Hmmm…" Catherine gave him a skeptical look. "You know, you haven't been this cynical in a while. Are you really that sullen about me coming with you?"
"I am not sullen," he said curtly, "I am just thoroughly exasperated with how desperately you seem to want to put yourself in more danger than you already have, even if by accident. As we discussed, you have made my job quite difficult."
"If you explained why you work so hard at your job, I might be able to make it easier, you know," she told him quietly, and he felt his shoulders tense as he heard the clear prompt for him to answer her earlier question.
"Perhaps later," he murmured, not looking at her. "Right now, we have other matters of a rather sensitive nature to be dealing with."
"Like what?" she asked, looking ahead as well as he turned a sharp corner, leading towards the main entrance.
"How much you need to apologize to Trinity for holding us up, and how you plan to explain to our three comrades that you really are in no fit state to be going anywhere while you are still convinced that you are," he murmured as they strode down the next hall and into view of the front entrance, where Nikki, Puck and Trinity stood waiting with Oberon and Sorrel.
Nikki and Puck were lounging by the front doors, Puck's arms looped easily around Nikki's waist as she leaned back against him, the pair of them watching Trinity pace restlessly back and forth across the hall. Oberon was similarly distracted by the girl's movements, but Sorrel did not seem to pay her much mind, and instead stared straight ahead of him, thus making him the first to see Catherine and Demon as the pair came into view.
"Late," the Cait Sith announced, causing the others to turn in their direction. Trinity even stopped her incessant passing to turn a gleaming blue eye on them.
"Good morning to you as well, Sorrel," said Demon in a resigned voice, rolling his eyes as he led Catherine forward towards the group.
"Where have you been?" demanded Trinity, not quite angry, but certainly a little irritated as she strode forward, her sneakers squeaking on the floor until she was standing right in front of Catherine and Demon, giving them a rather annoyed look.
"Catherine's shoulder was acting up," said Demon easily when Catherine hesitated as Oberon turned an inquisitive gaze on them. "She needed a moment to stretch it out before we could finish packing. Did you get everything else?"
"The nightshade and stuff, yeah," said Trinity, nodding and giving Catherine a concerned look. "Shouldn't your shoulder be fine by now? The healer said it would be by morning."
"It was a little stiffer than I thought it would be," Catherine said with a small smile, avoiding looking at the Erkling as she faced her friend. "It's nothing big. Don't worry."
"You sure?" Trinity asked, her brow furrowing.
"Yes," sighed Catherine, rolling her jade eyes skyward. She thought she heard Demon give a low snort, but when she glanced at him he was totally straight faced, looking down at her through the corners of his yellow-green eyes. "Really, I'll be fine. We should really get going."
"Here here," said Puck, raising his hand as though toasting her, and when she glanced at him he flashed her a grin from over Nikki's head and shrugged. "We've been waiting for this for two weeks, I'm a little stir crazy."
"He's got cabin fever," Nikki said, grinning up at the faery, who snickered. "If we don't hurry he might just let loose right here in the front hall and not even God knows what might happen then."
"God looks away when I let loose," Puck informed her with a wicked smile. "He's afraid of what He'll see."
"I bet He is," said Nikki with a roll of her dark eyes. "You'd make the devil cry, Puck."
"Probably," he agreed, nodding.
"Unlikely," Sorrel and Demon said as one, their expressions identically resigned as they looked at Puck.
"And what do you know about it?" demanded Puck, looking rather affronted as he faced the two Cait Sith, who merely exchanged a bored look and sighed, shaking their heads. "Hey! I asked a question!"
"Our King was the Morningstar's companion for a millennium and you want to question why you don't think you would make him cry?" Sorrel inquired, twitching his whiskers as he gazed up at Puck through narrowed green eyes.
Puck fidgeted slightly at the mention of Wrath, getting a glimpse of just the kind of person he was trying to compare himself to, and frowned when Sorrel and Demon both continued to give him rather inquisitive looks.
"Fine," he grumbled, dropping his chin on Nikki's head, "No competition there."
"Wow, Robin Goodfellow, conceding defeat," said Trinity, feigning amazement as she turned to stare at him. "I think that's got to be the first instance of it in the entire history of Faery."
Nikki felt Puck tense at her friend's words, surprising her, and, glancing up, she noticed his expression seemed a little withdrawn as he gazed at Trinity, but before she could say anything to him, he caught her watching him and offered a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"It's actually the second time," he murmured to her when she frowned at him, "But don't tell her that."
He said it jokingly, but she could hear the small note of pain in his voice. And she didn't like it one bit, but something else in his expression told her it was best if she didn't nag, so she held her tongue, though she continued to look up at him with a rather concerned expression, and he smiled reassuringly down at her, his arms tightening marginally around her waist as he nuzzled her temple.
"I'm fine," he murmured in her ear, and she merely nodded in response.
"In any case, we need to go," Trinity said then, her authoritative voice bringing everyone's attention forward to where she stood by Oberon and the front doors to the castle. "We've got a long way to go and probably not enough time to get there in."
"We have plenty of time," sighed Demon, earning him a rather dark look from the ivory haired girl, though he seemed unconcerned, "Believe me on this at least, if we attempt to rush to the Briars and through them to find Lord Wrath, it will only cause us more unnecessary troubles. Not to mention it will only make the venture that much more dangerous than before."
"Danger, ha!" said Puck then, his emerald eyes glinting as he smirked. "I laugh in the face of danger! Ha ha ha!"
"Holy crap," said Nikki, craning her neck around to stare at him again, for an entirely different reason than before, "You just made a Lion King reference!"
"Like a sir," he said, smirking, which only served to amuse her further so she snorted with laughter.
"Only Robin Goodfellow," sighed Catherine, smiling faintly at her friend and the faery, barely managing not to wince as she shifted the pack on her shoulder, causing it to burn slightly.
"Indeed," said Trinity with a smirk of her own, "But can we go now. Please? I know I'm not the only one on pins and needles just raring to go. This isn't even my adventure, this is Cat's, and I know I'm not the only one aside from that's excited about this."
"Of course not," Puck said with an indignant sniff, "Danger, intrigue, a few random plot twists thrown in, tom foolery and such. If anyone's excited, it's me! I haven't been to the Briars since…" He counted off on his fingers, his brow furrowed with thought. "Damn…it's been almost a decade since the last time I went there!"
"My God, a whole decade," gasped Nikki in feigned horror, putting both hands to her mouth. "You must be just dying to get out there, Puck."
"Hey, don't laugh at a decade," he told her severely, though he was grinning as he straightened up, still holding her around the waist, and followed Trinity towards the front doors, "You haven't been alive for two decades!"
"I will in six months," she told him with a smile. "Then what will you have to say about it?"
"That you were still only nine years old the last time I went to the Briars," he said smartly, flashing her a smile and winking.
"Man, that makes you seem really old," she told him, and he snickered.
"You know like an older man," he said, waggling his eyebrows at her as they fell in behind Trinity. Puck gave a brief nod to Oberon as they passed the Summer King, who inclined his head in return as he watched them file out of the front entrance.
"How old are you anyway?" Catherine couldn't help but ask as she and Demon also followed the miniature parade out into the courtyard, heading for the main gate.
"Old enough to know better," he said with a lame shrug, glancing back to smirk at her.
"And you don't even have the excuse of being young enough to do it anyway," Nikki observed, glancing up at him through amused brown eyes.
"True, but I don't need an excuse," he said, turning his nose up.
"Because Robin Goodfellow needs no excuses," Nikki said with a knowing smile.
"I really don't," he said with a chuckle as he sauntered along, arm in arm with her, towards the briar gates.
Behind them, Catherine slowed suddenly as she rested her eyes on the main gate, which was slowly beginning to unwind itself from Trinity's way as the girl approached it, unafraid of the lethal thorns protruding from it, but Catherine actually stopped as she spotted a particular path of thorns, coated in deep crimson, barely noticeable against the reddish brown of the other barbs, but she saw it…and so did Demon.
As she stopped, he slowed as well, stepping a little ways past her, only to stop when she didn't immediately take up walking after him, and when he turned back it was to see a look of hesitancy and haunted remembrance on her face as she gazed at those thorns, no doubt reliving the events of the night before, and feeling that pain in her shoulder that the briars had been partially responsible for causing it. He didn't like seeing that pain in her jade eyes, or the way she continued to hesitate, even after Trinity, Nikki and Puck had already crossed through the gate and were waiting on the other side, looking back in confusion at her as she continued to linger.
Demon stepped back towards her with a small sigh, his yellow-green eyes darkening as she glanced up at him, giving him a full view of the fear in her eyes. He lifted a hand to her, palm up, and she looked at it in surprise, as though not entirely sure what she was supposed to do.
"Come on," he murmured softly, and she lifted her jade eyes to him, looking startled. "What did I say before we left, Catherine? What am I here for?"
She blinked at him, comprehension dawning in her eyes as she looked back down at his outstretched hand, then over to her friends as they came to stand at the edge of the gate, their expressions similarly reassuring and worried at once as they realized the cause for her hesitation.
She met Nikki's eyes as her friend looked at her, and Nikki gave her a reassuring smile, her dark eyes alight with warmth and a subtle glow of remorse. Trinity's expression was similar, though there was more a suppressed anger in her gaze than remorse, though Catherine knew it wasn't anger directed at her. Puck's expression was somber, a thing she hardly ever saw, but he smiled when she looked over at him, and flashed her a thumbs up.
"Catherine," Demon said again, drawing her attention back to him and his still outstretched hand, "What am I here for? I told you before, so you tell me now. What am I here to do?"
She met his yellow-green gaze as he stared at her, feeling her stomach turn over, but not in an unpleasant away, and for a moment she felt all the pain go out of her body, even from her shoulder, as she looked back at him, seeing the way he appeared to look straight into her soul, seeing more than she allowed.
"What am I here for?" he asked her once more, his voice low, quiet, his eyes narrowing behind his silvery bangs.
In spite of herself, and everything running through her mind as she stood there, just feet from the briar gate, she felt herself smile slightly at him.
"To protect me," she said quietly, and he nodded.
Still smiling faintly, she lifted her hand and gently put it in his, allowing his fingers to curl tightly around hers, his hand dwarfing hers in size as he drew her forward, leading her through the gates. She felt her heart give an unsteady jolt as they passed through the thorn laden gates, but the warm pressure of his hand around hers gave her the small push she needed to go through them without letting the memories of what had transpired there just hours before overwhelm her, though she couldn't quite keep Rowan's smirking face from dancing before her eyes as she glanced over towards the crimson soaked thorns for a final time before stepping past them and out of the grounds of Arcadia. Turning her eyes forward to her friends as they stood there, waiting, she wasn't even really aware of the quiet rustling of the gates closing behind her, and didn't look back as Demon continued to pull her gently forward, still holding her hand.
Nikki and Trinity smiled at her as she came up to them, and she heaved a deep sigh as she came to a slow stop in front of them, giving the best smile she could in return.
"Ready?" Nikki asked softly, and she nodded.
"Then let's get this circus on the road," said Puck with a jubilant whoop, punching a fist into the air, "We've got a King to find, a father to locate, and hell to raise during the times in between."
Catherine grinned as Nikki rolled her eyes in exasperation, and Trinity gave a rather derisive snort.
"And who says you're going to have time to raise hell?" the ivory haired girl demanded, hands on her hips as she faced Puck. "I am going to march you all into the ground before this all over and done with, and there will be no time for hell raising if I have anything to say about it."
"Oh, you're in charge, huh?" said Puck, giving the girl an appraising look as she smirked at him. "Well, I suppose I'll just have to sneak it in somehow, or I'll die of boredom."
"With all the fun we'll be having on the way, something tells me you won't be bored," Nikki informed him as they set off, Puck now taking the lead as he directed them towards the trod.
"It is probably true to suggest such a thing," he admitted with a lame shrug, grinning down at her, his emerald eyes alight with excitement. "After all, since I didn't get to give either Winter princeling a proper beating last night, I think it's fair to say I'm going to get all of my angst out during this trip."
Catherine didn't hear how Nikki responded to that, her mind lapsing back into the previous night's events as Puck's mention of the Winter princes. Gazing off into space, allowing Demon to lead her by the hand, she didn't really notice anything around her as her mind filled with the images of both Rowan and Sage. It seemed forever ago already that the things that had happened the night before had actually…well, happened…but she knew they had. Still, it was so hard to believe… She supposed it came with acknowledging that just a few short months ago she had been a normal college student, living a mediocre college life, making future plans for a human existence, and now she was here, in a place that hadn't existed until three months ago, at least in her mind, with her friends, discovering their new paths, and new goals. Until three months ago, she'd been satisfied with her life. She wouldn't go so far as to totally happy, but satisfied at least, now, as she followed Puck and Nikki and Trinity towards the trod that would really get them started on their journey, she wondered how she could have lived the plain life she had been for so long. Even thinking back on how, at one point, she'd questioned whether she would even stay in the Nevernever after the fact of everything that might happen, she couldn't believe she would ever be content to leave. Even if she did return to the Mortal Realm, it wouldn't be enough…she'd come back, because this where she belonged. Where they all belonged…
And no Prince, not even two of them, bent of taunting and tormenting her, was going to keep her, or anyone else, from staying where they belonged. Even if she never forgot Sage—because she knew she never would—it wouldn't matter, and even if Rowan came back time and time again to haunt her, and even if the wounds on her back never healed, she didn't care. She had a whole new life ahead of her with Nikki and Trinity, and Demon and even Puck. So wherever either Sage or Rowan was then, it didn't really make a difference. Even if Rowan wasn't receiving the punishment some might feel he was owed, she could get over all of that, because she had other things to think about.
"Well, ladies and germs!" Puck announced grandly some time later, drawing to a stop at the edge of a large patch of ferns and turning to the rest of the troupe with an enormous smile plastered across his face, "Here we be! Just over yonder is the trod! The pathway to our dreams! Our hopes! Our potential death sentences! Who's ready to run through it?!"
"I was until the last bit of your sentence," Nikki told him, giving him a rather weary expression. "Our potential death sentences? I'd rather stay here…"
"Oh, pah," snorted Puck, striding forward to seize the girl by the hand, "You have no sense of fun. It's no fun if you don't even have to worry a little about the personal wellbeing of your life."
"Funny philosophy you've got going there," she said, smirking, "Do you always keep that in mind when you go out adventuring?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," he said, grinning. "It's what makes the time spent running around such fun. Besides, if you don't risk your neck at least once in your life, you haven't accomplished a damn thing. Take it from someone who knows."
"Given all the times you've risked your neck, Goodfellow, I do not even want to consider you sane enough to be giving such advice," Demon informed the fey, who gave him a dirty look.
"Well, at least you know I'm not," said Puck, rolling his emerald eyes.
"Not what?" Trinity asked as the fey sauntered over—still holding Nikki's hand—to bend down next to the patch of ferns, looking for the trod.
"Sane," Puck answered, flashing a devious grin over his shoulder as he coiled his hand around a clump of ferns and pulled.
There was a loud click, and the outline of a door shimmered in the air briefly before the entrance to the trod actually solidified right before their eyes. Puck grinned at it as it swung open, revealing a misty landscape beyond, with not even the faintest hint of sunshine to be seen.
"That looks inviting," said Trinity uncertainly, peering through the door. "Nice and creepy, just the way I like it. Just what are we looking at here? Halloween Town?"
Puck snorted, rolling his eyes. "Just go," he told her exasperatedly when she continued to linger uncertainly on the threshold. "Before we all die of old age."
"I don't want to hear you dying of old age, sir," Nikki told him, turning to glare at him, "You have to be at least a thousand years old, so I don't want to even hear about old age bothering you."
"Madam," said Puck, aghast, "I am insulted! Do I really look that old to you? I am no older than a spry six hundred years old, and I'll thank you to remember it."
"Spry, he says," snorted Nikki, rolling her eyes while Trinity glanced over her shoulder to grin at them both. "Because six hundred is such a young, flowering age."
"He apparently thinks it—eeek!" Trinity let out a piercing shriek halfway through her humorous observation, and when they all jumped and looked around it was to see a hand in a metal gauntlet shackling her wrist as it tugged her forward, right through the doorway.
"Tri!" gasped Nikki, looking stricken, and had started forward when Puck threw out an arm to hold her back. "Hey!"
She looked up at him, alarmed, and saw him smirking at the open trod, his emerald eyes glowing with mirth.
"Puck," Nikki started furiously, but he clapped a hand over her mouth to silence her, put a finger to his lips, and pointed through the open door just as Trinity's irritated voice sounded from beyond.
"You ass! You scared the living hell out of me! What the hell was that for?!"
"It is wonderful to see you, too," said an amused voice from the other side of the door.
There was a loud slapping sound, and a small grunt of pain.
"Jerk!" snapped Trinity's voice as Catherine stepped forward to peer through the misty doorway to the land beyond, just able to make out several shapes in the dim light, two standing toe-to-toe, and a third lounging off a little ways.
"Tri," she called uncertainly, and one of the shapes turned towards her, "You okay?"
"Fine," snapped Trinity, sounding thoroughly annoyed, "Just Tertius deciding it'd be funny to scare the shit out of me is all."
"You should know better than to lurk in doorways," said a third voice, sounding faintly amused, coming from the shape lounging somewhat further off from the first pair.
"You stay out of this," the first shape snapped, turning right back around to point a finger at the other, which was taller and somewhat lankier as it finally pushed itself up from the tree it had been reclining against. "You're just as bad as he is!"
"Ouch," said the third shape, still amused. "Here that, Tertius? She thinks you're as bad as me. That's got be a bit of a blow on your ego."
"I have heard worse about myself," Tertius said, chuckling quietly, and Trinity snorted.
"You knew he was going to do that," Nikki accused Puck, who was snickering now, clearly entertained. "That's why you didn't let me go rushing in to help her!"
"Well, duh," he said, grinning hugely, his eyes alight with mischief. "She was so eager to see him and getting all antsy about how long we were taking, so I figured I'd do the civil, gentleman-like thing and let her have him."
"You didn't have to do it like that, though," Nikki told him, smacking his arm.
"Is there really another way it could have been done?" Catherine asked, grinning slightly as she approached the entrance to the trod and hesitantly stepped through. "Come on, Nik, you know that was funny."
As she set her foot down on the opposite side of the door, though, a jarring pain bolted through her shoulder, robbing her of breath and turning her vision black for a moment. When she regained her senses, she was kneeling on the ground with someone's arm around her for support, and Nikki and Trinity were both demanding to know if she was alright.
"Fine," she said feebly as they converged on her, her vision still winking with black spots as the sudden hurt abated as quickly as it had struck, "I'm…I'm fine…now…"
"Good grief, you scared me," Trinity told her, her blue eyes wide as she knelt in front of her friend, "What the hell just happened?!"
"I…" Catherine began, glancing nervously at her pair of friends, noticing that Tertius and Glitch had also moved forward, out of the mist, to stand over her, their expressions slightly concerned. Puck stood behind Nikki, his emerald eyes fixed on Demon rather than her, but she had the distinct impression he was questioning the Cait Sith without speaking, and confirmed those suspicions when she glanced back in time to see Demon nod mutely back at the fey.
"What's up with your shoulder, Cat?" Puck asked then, turning a skeptical gaze on her.
She felt her stomach lurch uncomfortably. "What?"
"Don't what me," he sighed, rolling his eyes and folding his arms over his chest. "That's the worst possible way to avoid the question. You could at least be creative. Some people tell me to fuck off; you could at least have gone with that."
"I wouldn't tell you that," she said, alarmed.
"Then answer the question, please," he sang at her, frowning while Nikki and Trinity simply looked bemused. "You said earlier your shoulder was bothering you, so I'd just like to hear what about it is being so painful, because it shouldn't be hurting at all, but it is. That's a problem. A big problem. And I'm sure Nik and Tri would like to hear the answer, too, because they worry about you more than I do."
Catherine felt her heart sink as she glanced at her friends now, seeing them give her nearly identical looks of bemusement and concern, and realized she had reached that point she'd talked about with Demon. The moment of truth…
"Alright," she sighed, beginning to push herself up, letting Demon assist her, still with his arm around her waist, "Fine, I'll tell you guys, but I want two promises before I do."
"Uh-oh," muttered Puck.
"Firstly," she said, finally back on her feet, her shoulder still throbbing, though nowhere near as horribly as it had a moment before, "I want you guys to promise you will not, under any circumstances, send me back to the castle, or ask me to stay behind anywhere, no matter what you might want to do after I tell you."
"I don't like that promise," Nikki said at once, her expression clearly reluctant, and Trinity nodded her agreement.
"Okay, then let's get moving," Catherine said, starting to walk off, knowing she wouldn't get far, and was again proven right when both Nikki and Trinity reached out and grabbed her by the arms, holding her back.
"Fine, we promise," Trinity said, a little desperately, her expression clearly outweighing her annoyance at Catherine's stubbornness. "We won't send you back, deal?"
"Deal," said Catherine, allowing them to draw her back between them. "My second promise that I want from you guys is that you will not go AWOL and go running off to murder a certain someone when I tell you, either. Trust me, Demon's already on the list for wanting to and he's got the same restrictions."
"I never conformed to those restrictions," Demon said idly from behind her, "As you never gave me such limitations."
"Well, I'm giving them now," she said, giving him a hard look over her shoulder to which he sighed and shook his head. "So, you can promise this just like they can. You won't go on a crusade to kill anyone, and you'll just sit and listen and trust me on my word, deal?"
Nikki and Trinity exchanged uncertain glances with each other over the top of Catherine's head, and Trinity even glanced over at Tertius as the Iron Knight stood off to the side with Glitch and Puck. He met her gaze, and gave a helpless shrug and a soft smile.
"Do we have a choice?" Trinity asked at last, heaving a sigh.
"There's always a choice," Catherine told her friend with a soft, almost apologetic smile, "I just make the choices difficult."
"You really do," Nikki agreed, even as she sighed, too. "Fine, you've got your promises. We won't make you stay behind or go off to kill anyone, no matter what we hear or think. Fair?"
"Fair," agreed Catherine, and then glanced at Trinity to make sure her blue eyed friend was on the same boat.
Trinity nodded in agreement, and Catherine nodded back.
"Right then," she sighed, looking around for a moment before settling herself neatly on the grass, and Nikki and Trinity, after a moment's hesitation, sank down beside her as well. Tertius and Glitch settled themselves by a pair of trees ringed in mist, and Puck made himself comfy at the roots, pulling an apple seemingly from nowhere and beginning to whittle chunks out of it with his daggers. Demon remained standing, his eyes on Catherine as the girl took a deep, steadying breath, his yellow-green gaze carefully blank.
Catherine turned her gaze onto her friends, wishing she could make their looks of worry go away, and knowing she couldn't, and that what she was about to tell them would probably not serve that purpose any better, but knowing there was really no other alternative. Her shoulder gave a dull throb of pain and she winced automatically, lifting a hand to clutch at it. The earlier spasm was still fresh in her mind, and she wondered just how often—if it continued to happen—that it would occur throughout the journey… More than that, she had to wonder just how Rowan's feelings and thoughts, either conscious or subconscious regarding her, really affected how much pain she felt… She wished she had a better idea, so she could more easily assure Trinity and Nikki, but she only had her guesses, and what Demon had told her for certain, so that was what she had to go on right now… For a moment, though, she almost wished she could make Rowan feel the same pain that he was making her feel, even if he wasn't aware of it. She knew it wasn't possible, so she could only hope for now that Mab was making good on her word to properly discipline her son, whatever that discipline might involve…
