Kade

Turning my head to check on Cherish, my chest tightens when I see the lost expression on her face.

She's lost everything twice now. Ella showing up for her has helped her cope with her and their parents deaths but the pain isn't gone yet. Now, not only has she lost her family that she grew up with, she's also lost her family that she just found.

We haven't asked her all that Forrest said for the simple fact that it seems like it'll take just the smallest thing to set her off and she'll have a breakdown. We can't afford to give her time to breakdown right now. It pisses me off that she can't take a minute to grieve her new family because she needs to run.

"Cherish, you okay?" Xander asks softly from behind her.

She bobs her head. "Sure."

We all know that's a load of shit but we don't comment.

"Are you guys sure that Andrei will find us?"

"As long as he got out of the castle before they locked it down he'll find us. Even if they locked it down while he was inside, he'd still find a way to come for us," Xander explains.

"Do you think he got out?" She asks.

"There's no way of knowing for sure right now. We can't call for him right now on the off chance that he's not fighting or hiding from someone, so we have to wait."

"First we need to find a change of clothes," Xander says. "We'll stick out like a sore thumb in the village."

"I'll stick out anyway because I have human ears," Cherish points out. Xander tilts his head, conceding that.

"Okay, so we don't stick out even more. It's hard not to recognize the uniform of a royal guard. Yeah, Cherish isn't wearing her princess-y clothes, but between me and you, we do need to stop to change."

"Fine." I summon a portal to take us to our home in the human realm. We never took our clothing with us when we left here. Deciding instead to leave it in case something like this happened and we needed to run, we'd have some clothes.

We exit the portal inside the house and Xander heads off to change his clothes.

"Aren't you going to change?" Cherish asks softly.

I shake my head. "You're not going to be left alone, ma hai. I'm sorry, but for now, we can't take the risk."

She plops down on the couch and sighs heavily. "What's the point? I mean, Forrest said that he did all of this to be king and that he was working with the other kingdom to get peace. He has what he wants. I'm not a threat. I've barely started getting my damn powers, let alone know how to use them."

I kneel in front of her, taking her hands in mine. "You will get stronger, Cherish. Your brother doesn't deserve the crown. He needs to pay for his crimes. Even if the kingdom does know that he's the cause of your family's death, they won't do anything about it. They'll look the other way, so long as it doesn't turn his anger to them. There will be some that will try to rebel, but if there's not a leader, they won't be able to do much."

She looks at me. Studying my face with eyes that are missing their usual spark. I find myself wishing that spark was back. When she had so much life in her, it was a wonder that she didn't gravitate people to her in flocks.

"What are you saying?" She asks flatly.

"They'll need a leader, ma hai. You will have to be that leader."

"But-"

"He's right, princess," Xander says from behind her. His eyes meet mine and there's a question there that I know we'll be discussing later but for now, I choose to ignore it and focus on the woman sitting in front of me.

"I'm not a leader," she mutters. "I can lead in dance, or even art, but not in a war."

"That may be so," Xander allows, "but that won't stop the people from needing one. You're the logical choice. If your brother loses his throne, the crown becomes yours. You'll be our queen."

She squeaks and shakes her head. "No. I can't be a queen. I can't. I don't have any interest in that amount of power over one person. Let alone a shit load of them."

Xander and I exchange a look before I let out a breath. "Alright. We'll drop it for now."

I leave Cherish with Xander and go to my room and grab some clothes. Changing quickly, it only takes a few minutes for me to get back to them. When I come out, Andrei is there as well. Thank fuck.

Andrei turns at the sound of me entering the room. "Alright, now that we're all here. We need to leave."

"Where will we go?" Cherish asks, standing up from the couch.

"Somewhere that will actually welcome us," Andrei answers evasively.

She narrows her eyes at him. "And that would be..."

"Somewhere safe."

She rolls her eyes. "Whatever. Let's just go."