“No,” was Tia’s feeble response. No doubt she didn’t want to hear what he was about to tell her, because sometimes ignorance truly was bliss.
As Tia moved to pull her hands away from Bran, he captured them in his much larger ones. “Aw, my precious little witch, you know damn well you did. And I'm thinking you already realize what that implies.”
“What it means is she’ll be strong enough to fight.”
“What it also means is all that power might damn well kill her,” he rumbled with a slight growl. “Whoever has her knows everything about her. That much is more than clear. And if they plan on activating all her powers, all at once, she may not be able to handle it. Who could? We had planned on slowly unbinding her powers, gradually, a little at a time. But we shouldn’t have waited so long. She didn’t even know what the Hel she was before being taken. Even if her body can withstand all that power, her mind might just fucking snap. And I’m thinking whoever has her doesn’t really give a shit.”
“No, I refuse to think that way. They can’t possibly want her dead. If that was the case, why bother taking her at all? It’s got to be more to it than just that.”
“Are you trying to convince me that’s the case, or yourself?” Bran bit back.
“What the Hel else am I supposed to do? Just give up any, and all hope of finding her alive?”
“No, but you do need to admit if only to yourself it’s a possibility we might be on a revenge mission as opposed to a rescue one.”
“Well, I can’t! Let me rephrase that. I can’t, and I won’t. I won’t let go of the hope of us finding our baby girl alive, and more than some broken vessel. Because if she is ruined, if she has no hope at a life, or if she is gone, then it’s my fault. All of this is my damn fault!” Tia’s lips trembled as she said the last. Her voice began to shake as she continued. “I’m the one who talked everyone into the plan in the first damn place, then kept hesitating to tell her the truth despite what all of you kept screaming in my ear. You think I don’t see the anger in all your eyes? You think I don’t know part of that anger is geared towards me?” She gave a harsh, bitter laugh. “I’m angrier with myself than any of you could ever be.”
If Bran hadn’t known better, he wouldn’t have noticed his beloved was now crying, as her emotions were so skewed her tears practically evaporated before even hitting her skin. She moved as though to pull her hands from his, so Bran held on to her that much tighter. “Don’t you dare,” he said on a menacing growl that still managed to sound loving.
“You’re damn straight we’re angry with you, and we have every right to be. But you do not get to walk away from that anger. You own it, you accept your part in it, and you deal with it. Because that anger does not diminish the love we have for you, least of all mine. I’m a bloody fucking demon. I don’t walk away from those whom I love just because they fuck up. Especially since I’m one of the ones who allowed you to make that fuck up. Any one of us could have told her the truth; none of us had a spell binding our tongues. We chose to go along with your wishes, so that puts the guilt of the result on every last single one of us, not on you alone. And it’s on every one of us to get her back. But one thing you need to do is accept the realization we may not find her alive.”
Tia made a disgruntled sound, getting ready to protest.
“No. Dammit, no. I want to find her alive as much as you do, and don’t you dare try to even attempt to believe otherwise.”
Before Tia had a chance to blink or form another protest on her lips, Bran stood, taking her with him, and then took her place on the couch, with her straddling his lap. Running his large fingers through her thick, wavy, red hair, he breathed in her scent and continued in his deep raspy voice, “We will continue hoping for the best, my beautiful little witch, but we must also prepare for the worst. That’s all I’m trying to say to you.” With that he captured her lips in a kiss so heated and demanding Tia could do no more than submit and allow him to take control.
There was no sense in taking this conversation any further, and they both needed some form of release before they continued. Bran decided during their talk he was not even going to mention any more of the demon aspects of the situation. Summoning name be damned. If there was still a chance of bringing his little girl back alive, nothing was stopping him from going to the human realm. It was a risk he would have to take. Tia would only try to stop him from going if she knew the entire truth of it, and that was not an option. And if somehow his daughter did have a summoning name, they would cross that fucked-up bridge when they got to it.
Letting himself go completely, Bran allowed his demon form to slip to the forefront to come out and play, his clothing becoming a not-too-distant memory. He wanted this time with Tia to be with him as his true self, no pretenses, and not with a face he had stolen from someone else. Even knowing how much his wife hated to be flashed anywhere by anyone else other than
