Naile was staring at her, her face pale before she finally shook her head.
"No, you're right, we can't all fit in Faerie. Creatures will be left behind and how can we live with ourselves if we took a place and left another to die?"
"Vanish," Etani corrected, and Naile frowned in confusion. "You wouldn't die, you would simply cease to be. It's quite different, and death is pretty easy going, but I don't imagine we would enjoy being vanished. At least with death you get to go around again. Vanishing is simply that, you are gone and that's the end of your story."
"How many times have you died?" the redhead snarled.
Etani looked at her, chewing on the edge of her nail. "This century? Seven or eight, I think. I stopped keeping track a long time ago," her tone was casual, but her words had the redhead looking like she had eaten a lemon.
Looking down at her nail, she frowned at the sharp edge and bit it again, trying to dull it down but her teeth weren't strong enough yet.
"As much fun as this conversation is, I have a demon and a vampire out there getting bored and I have nine more creatures to get through before this world goes down." She pushed herself up and tossed the heavy braid behind her, her hands going to her pockets and she smiled at them all. "If you're really looking for a catch, I could owe you a favour."
That caught the redhead's attention, and she bit her full lower lip. "Why would that matter?" she asked curiously.
"It's not often that I have to explain things lately, but I'm the heir to Winter and I will be queen when the time comes." All eyes lifted to her hair, and she grinned. "A temporary side effect of a Phoenix. Should be two more and I'll have my hair back. I'm not liking the curly thing." She threw the redhead a sympathetic look, the woman snorting her agreement.
"Very well, I'll give you some magic, and you will owe us a favour. Each of us," Naile said, and it was Etani's turn to snort.
"No chance, little witch. Your coven gets the favour, and you can argue it out between you. If it's within my power, I'll do it."
A general murmur went up and Naile looked to the redhead who seemed to be a fellow leader.
Finally, the two seemed to come to an answer and Naile stepped to Etani.
Leaning down to meet the witch, she felt the magic sliding into her like silk, teasing around her skin and mind until she was tingling deliciously with it.
She didn't feel any different, leaving her a little disappointed that she couldn't suddenly make things fly.
Without a word, she grinned and then licked the tip of Naile's nose, making the witch jerk back in surprise.
"Careful witch, one might think you enjoy kissing me," she teased, and Naile blushed, making Etani laugh.
Ruffling the girl's hair, she gave the witches a wave and left the house to find Daemon and Uzo sitting on the grass outside the gate, looking bored.
They stood up as she approached and she smiled at them, turning to look back at Naile who had come to see them leaving.
Taking Daemon's hand, he pulled them through the tear and… into Ayathian…
***
Etani pulled her hand free and turned slowly, staring around at the familiar hallway she had paced a hundred times before.
"What are we doing here?" she asked, and a soft curse had them all looking up to see Aelen glaring down at them.
"Hey elf boy, come down here," Uzo said and Aelen only looked even more annoyed.
"You brought us here for Aelen? Out of all the elves in both worlds, you pick Aelen?" she demanded, and a thump had her turning back to the elf.
"I not good enough for you?" Aelen growled, his eyes narrowed.
"Oh please, don't act all hurt now," she snapped back, and he grinned at her.
"How I've missed your attitude. How's the adventure going? I did make a note that I wasn't invited."
He was teasing her, and she glared at him, recalling his tying her to the chair and injecting her with iron to keep her weak and unable to heal.
"That's because I don't like you," she quipped, and he put on a hurt face but then he smirked, and his hand shot out.
He caught her by the back of the head and jerked her forward, his lips mashing down on hers in a fierce, unexpectedly passionate kiss that flooded his magic into her in a way that baffled her as though he had dripped ink into water, the cloud of it spreading out into her.
She jerked back from him and had been about to yell at him when her ears began to sting and she gasped, gripping them.
In a matter of seconds, they were on fire, and she felt their moving, the cartilage tearing and ripping apart, the skin moving under her fingers and pushing her fingers out of the way as they stretched.
At some point she had fallen to her knees, curled in on herself as pain radiated out from the sides of her head and it was over as suddenly as it had started.
Her fingers trembled as she felt along her ears, long and tapered as she had always known them to be.
"You look better with those ears," Aelen said, smirking down at her as she glared up at him, trailing her fingers along them and deciding that they were indeed her old ears back.
Taking the elf's offered hand, she pushed herself back to her feet and then she kicked his shin.
He yelped and jumped back from her, her boot getting a good solid blow on his skin.
"Why are you incapable of being nice to me?" he demanded, indignant.
"You poisoned me," she said but it wasn't entirely the truth, or at least it wasn't the whole truth.
Daemon took her hand, and she stepped back, being pulled by the two men.
"That was business," he complained, and she narrowed her eyes at him.
"I'll show you business when I get back," she snarled and his face split into a wide grin.
"I look forward to it princess," he purred, and they were through the tear in realities.