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Trinity
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"Aunt Glory, when was the last time that you have seen Hibiscus?" I got straight to the important question before I told her what was going on.
"Why? What does she have to do with anything?" She was looking at me with a confused expression as Trevor set her back on the floor.
"Gloriana, my love, you were under a spell just now. You thought that we were traitors. You attacked me." Trevor looked her in the eyes as he spoke, telling her the hard truth before anything else was said.
"What? No, that's not possible. Please tell me that this is some sort of joke. Please Trevor. This is not funny at all."
"It is not meant to be funny, Aunt Glory. He is telling you the truth. You weren't the only one bespelled either. Your guards were as well. There were two dozen men in the front of the castle that tried to attack us when we came in through the doors."
"How? How did this happen? How is this even possible?" Aunt Glory looked at me with a disbelieving look. "Even if Hibiscus had something to do with this, I haven't seen her since she went to her place for her protection. She has not left her house. The guards have told me so."
"Oh, she left her house. Of that I am certain." I was pissed off right now. I was tired of Aunt Glory defending this psychopath.
"How do you know? What makes you so certain?"
"Because she tried to kill us." I heard Sterling's voice as he and Alloy made their way to the front of the group. They had stayed back out of fear when I broke into the room, but it was safe now, so they were coming up.
"Sterling?" She gasped when she saw the large blood slash across the front of his shirt. "What has happened to you? And you, Alloy. You both look as if you have been hurt so badly."
"We had been." Alloy confirmed. "My wounds were not poisoned though. Only Sterling's were. He nearly died. He would have, if it wasn't for Queen Trinity."
"That's my niece, saving the day again." She gave me a sweet look as she responded to Alloy's words.
"Now is not the time for praise. We need to get to the bottom of this whole situation, and fast." I could feel my heart racing as a thought occurred to me. "Where is Athair mòr?" Fear was settling over me again as I realized that we still didn't know if he was safe.
"I..I..I don't know." Aunt Glory looked as if she couldn't think properly. "Trinity, I think I am starting to feel that worry that you've been experiencing for days now." She grimaced. "I am starting to get a bad feeling and it is settling on thoughts about my best friend. I am still hoping that you are wrong, but I don't know if that is going to end up being the case."
"I think that we should send someone to check on Athair mòr. We need to send someone to his quarters. I don't think that I will rest easy until I know that he is safe."
"I agree." Reece nodded at my words. "We need to make sure that he is not in any danger."
"Yes, please, send someone to make sure that my brother is safe. I won't feel better until then."
"I will go along with some knights." Landon nodded and ran from the room. He didn't even wait for confirmation.
I was glad that someone was taking care of that for me. It would give me a slight amount of peace to know that someone was on their way to check on him. But I would still feel uneasy until Landon returned. For the time being, it was time for an explanation.
"Well, since you are more open to hearing things now, Aunt Glory, let me tell you all that has happened lately."
I took a deep breath then and started to explain to her all that had happened. I told her about the horror movie scene that we walked into when we got to Sterling and Alloy's place. I told her about the magic door and the clearing. I told her about how I had healed Sterling and saved him from dying while using Alloy's magic and asking that the Goddess mark them if they were innocent.
Aunt Glory had been quite excited upon hearing about the marks of innocence. She thought that was an amazing thing that she just had to see. Sterling was the only one who showed his mark this time, since I told her they both had matching marks.
"Worry not, Alloy, I alone will be enough this time." Sterling had told him.
"How cute is it that the two of you have matching marks now?" Aunt Glory smiled at them. "I always knew you two were the best couple ever and I never understood why you chose to live so far away." She frowned at them after the mark had been shown.
"You know why, Gloriana." Sterling hung his head. "People do not approve of us."
"Are you referring to the fact that you're gay?" Reece asked him with shock. "I have a hard time believing that. Our friends were here recently, and no one had a problem with their relationship."
"I wish that was the only thing that we had to overcome." Sterling laughed at him. "No, King Reece, it is the fact that we are metal Fae. In the eyes of the other Fae, the Fae that have more natural elements to their magic, we are abominations. We are not accepted by the general population. They think that we are unnatural and evil. We have put up with it for millennia. It is not something that we care to deal with anymore. That is why we moved to the farthest reaches of the land of Fae."
"And it is probably why Hibiscus chose us to frame." Alloy crossed his arms. "We are already considered evil by everyone else so, if she committed a series of crimes, we would be the most likely culprits when compared to her."
There is still one thing that I don't understand." Aunt Glory shook her as she thought about this. "How did Hibiscus do this if she doesn't have any notable magic?"
That truly was the million dollar question wasn't it? How did she do all of this if she couldn't perform any magic at all?
As I contemplated that thought I heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming close to the private room. I could smell Landon coming up fast, but the scent that was chasing him made me breath a sigh of relief.
"Gloriana?" Athair mòr cried her name when he ran into the room. "I am so glad that you are safe." Athair mòr ran to his sister's side and hugged her, even with her mate standing so close that the two of them brushed against each other with Aunt Glory in between them.
"Brother?" Aunt Glory hugged him back with a relieved sigh.
"What has happened? How did this come to be?"
"I will explain that, old friend." Alloy smiled at him and moved closer to him. The shock that was on Athair mòr's face when he saw the blood covering his friend was clear. He, like Aunt Glory, thought that something horrible must have happened, though when he heard the tale it was obvious that he had never expected the true extent of it all.
"So, it truly was Hibiscus after all?" He looked at me with an apologetic look. "I am sorry, Trinity, I should have listened to you. You were right all along."
"Let us not lay blame on each other. What we really need to worry about now is, how we're going to get Hibiscus to come to us willingly? I have a feeling that if we tried to take her by force, something truly horrible is likely to happen." I brushed aside his words and redirected the conversation to where it needed to be.
"I agree. We need a plan." Reece looked worried as he spoke. "Does anyone have any ideas?"
"I think I might know just how we can get her to come to us and to prove that she is the guilty party all at the same time. But you will all have to trust me. This is going to be one hell of a show that we're going to give her.." I saw the confusion on almost every face in the room when they saw the smirk on my face and the mischief in my eyes.
