CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"Kane is the one who killed off both your first and second wives, is he not?" Sabre challenged, ignoring the look on Cerri's face for the moment, gathering Mark hadn't been entirely truthful with her. "He let you beat him then, only because he had done what he wanted. Cerriwyn goes with us."

Cerriwyn glanced at Mark before disappearing.

"He's bound to the human realm, Cer." Purgi said when they materialized, watching her daughter looking around for her Demon-lover. "He was banished a very long time ago. His traveling powers for inter-plane crossings was taken from him."

***

"Cerriwyn, look at it this way, at least you can put it all behind you now."

Cerri listened as her soon to be mate spoke, watching Nero -a Rainbow Fae- bouncing along the clouds on his tip toes. "You're only thirty years older then I am so don't talk to me as if I were a mere Pixlet." She said crossly. Nero had been among her choices and she chose him because he was her best friend, at least they were compatible." "Everyone lied to me."

"Just the Elders, and Sabre.... and Purgi... and Mark…"

"Must you remind me?"

"Sorry, Cer."

***

Cerri looked around confused. She had been traveling with her friends to where the bonding ceremony was to be held, when everything had just sort of melted away. Now she was standing in a barren field, the land scorched and arid. "Nero? If this is one of your jokes it isn't funny!" She shouted, hovering off the ground so her silver dress wouldn't get ruined. "Nero, I mean it!"

"It isn't Nero, my pet." Came a dark, sinister voice from the clouds.

She spun around to find a Demon slowly coming to land before her, his tattered black wings flapping lazily, his eyes boring into her through the crude mask he wore.

"It's been too long since we last met, Cerriwyn. Now it's time for you to finally come home." He extended his hand, tilting his head when she backed up from him, and narrowed his eyes. "I said come here NOW!" He roared, grabbing her roughly by her arm, and held a single ball of red magic to her. "Do not force me to use this." He threatened, the iron dripping from it.

Cerriwyn remembered him. She had been only a hundred years old, out picking flowers near the crystal pond when she'd seen a Demon watching her from atop a jagged rock. He'd frightened her so badly she had run all the way home, shredding her tender feet on sharp rocks.

She could feel the iron, her body naturally recoiling from the deadly substance but forced herself to move towards him. When he took her hand, she felt fear coursing through her, even though the deadly ball of iron was gone.

"That's a good Fae. Now then, let's go before we miss our OWN bonding ceremony." Kane murmured, waving his hand, disappearing with her from the scorched lands, courtesy of his power.

Nero was dead, that was for sure, along with the Elders, except her Caretakers. They were currently being held hostage in his realm, which was the fiery pits of what Humans would probably deem Hell. They entered, the heat already surrounding them, and Kane smirked down at her.

"Welcome to your new home, Cerriwyn."

"I can't live here!" *Cerri protested, feeling her wings dying from the intense heat, shriveling and retreating closer to her own body. "I will NOT be bound to you!" She conjured a crystal, smashing it against his face.

It was filled with water from the Tuathan's holy lake. She watched as the water did to him what the heat did to her wings, forcing him to let her go. She took off running, crying out as things bit at her bare feet. "Sabre! Purgi?"

They did not answer, no one did, and Kane was livid now that his future mate had attacked him in such a manner. He conjured up a red ball and hurled it at her, cursing when he missed by inches.

"Damn it!" He bellowed when she disappeared just as he went to grab her, rubbing his hands together, and whipped his head around. In the red mist, there was Sabre and Purgi, each bound back to back, their mouths taped heavily shut, blood pouring from their orifices.

"Now that she has defied my wishes, I shall end you for good."