On the trip back, he had to listen to Clyde and Alden both scold him. Daulton didn’t share how he really felt about the whole situation, just listened. He knew he would hurt his mother by just leaving without a word. He didn’t know how much he had hurt Astrid with the kiss they shared. A sigh left his lips as he laid on his bed staring up at the ceiling. He couldn’t get her off his mind. They had only been home a day or so and it was already abundantly clear that he cared for her.

To Daulton, Astrid wasn’t just someone he could sleep with. No matter the hurt he caused, she had always shown great kindness. She was also the one other person to warn him about Lotus. He should of listen to the angel, instead he went and got his heart broken. Even after the first kiss they shared, she wasn’t one to turn him away the next time she saw him.

Rolling over in his bed, he looked at his window at the morning light. “Are you going to apologize to her?” Alden voice was just from across the room, thanks to Daulton leaving, twice, unexpectedly, Alden was in charge of watching over him. Now, the two brother’s shared a room, it was rather large, but they could still get in each other's way. Especially when Daulton didn’t want to be followed all day every day.

“What are you talking about?” Daulton said as he say sat up in bed to stare over at his brother across the room. “Astrid. You did leave her in tears after all. She isn’t one of your playthings.” Alden wasn’t one to sugar coat anything as he spoke to his brother. His words caused Daulton to grumble and get out of bed. He grabbed his towel and nodded. “We can leave in a few.” The white haired demon said while walking to the washroom. He knew he had to say we because Alden was going to go with him, on mother's orders.

After cleaning himself up, Daulton dressed in his new clothes his mother had bought him. He felt uncomfortable, he almost felt like a noble. His wardrobe was made of the finest silks in Arri. Black dress pants, a black shirt that ruffled on the top around his neckline, and a light blue coat with gold lining, and white designs around the neck and down the chest on either side of the opening. He didn’t want to wear any dress shoes, so he chose his black boots.

Alden was beside him in his normal black and white clothing. Walking out of their house, they headed to the white court.

When they entered, both Alden and Daulton gaped at the statues around them. They soon had to ask someone where the house of Astrid was. Following the directions of the woman, they soon made it to the large house made of white marble. “Holy hell…” Daulton said as they stood at the front steps, unsure if they should keep going. “Want to go fetch her for me?” Daulton said nudging his brother. “She isn’t a dog, Daulton.” Alden glared over at his brother then grabbed his arm to pull him with him. “I know… I didn’t mean that.” The white haired demon side and finally was able to move on his own will after a moment of dragging.

Reaching the glass door, Alden was the one to knock. The man that answered, stared at the men in silence. Clearing his throat, Daulton was the one to speak, “I would like to see Miss Astrid….if she is willing to see me. Daulton Gader’el.” He said almost fumbling over his words.

“Come in.” The servant let them walk past the door and closed it behind them. “Wait here for a moment please.” The man turned away and walked off. Leaving the two men waiting besides the front door. “If her Aunt comes here first, you're screwed.” Alden said with a laugh. “Or you will be killed by Remedy.” Alden nudged his brother who had turned white. He had forgotten about them. “Coming here was probably a bad idea.” Daulton said and was about to turn around, but Alden grabbed his arm. “No, you don’t. She deserves your apology.” The comment from his brother made Daulton sigh and stay where he was.

Toya was alerted immediately when the troublesome one showed up at her house. She was puffing on her pipe as she pushed herself up from her comfortable spot. “Bring the little asshole in here.” She puffed more. Toya had long waist length brown curls. Her skin was like Lily’s and her eyes were too. She wore a long dress shirt but no pants. Compared to her sisters she looked rather lazy. She went into the meeting room for the White Manor and fell down into her throne.

She looked so ladylike, not, as she lounged herself down and stared at them as they entered with the assistance of her servants who had gone to fetch them. “Did you think you could come here without me know.” She took the pipe out long enough to speak up at them. “Screwed is right. Killed by Remedy not so much. I’m not trying to piss my sister off.”

She pulled on the pipe and reached over to get a glass of whiskey. She held it out to the boys. “Here,” it would probably bottom them out.

“Mother no!” Keira came in and she looked distraught. Keira was a tall lithe girl with long blonde hair. Her eyes were like her mother’s. “You wouldn’t dare give people as young as them THAT.” She pointed to the whiskey. “That could kill a horse.” Toya shrugged and downed the entire thing.

“Whatever, prude. Just like your father.” Keira scoffed at her mother and left to leave her mother in control of the situation. “Pussy, you tried to leave after you got intimidated. Why on earth would I let you near my grandchild?” She filled her glass again and put the pipe in her mouth. “Give me one good reason why you should be allowed to see her?”

She looked at Alden and winked just a bit. She was clearly scheming. “You hurt her. See my grandchildren Astrid and Remedy lost their parents and I don’t intend on letting them get hurt because some douche boy keeps playing with one of their emotions.” She took the pipe and pointed it at Daulton. “So tell me, why should I trust you near her. Give me a good reason and maybe I’ll tell you where I dropped her. She isn’t in Arri and I may have left her without the means of protection and she can’t defend herself. So speak up. Time is ticking.”

Sucking it up, it was time to be himself, not a scared little boy who didn’t want to fight. If Rem came in so be it. Instead the man servant came back to them with a nod and a motion to follow him. The two men didn’t wait and followed close behind. “Be polite, please.” Alden whispered to his brother was they walked through the house. “I always am.” A smile lined Daulton’s lips as he teased.

His smile was soon wiped from his face when the woman spoke. A sigh almost left his lips after her first words. The servant soon left the room. From the presence of the woman, Daulton figured it was Toya, the woman who took Astrid in. His arms crossed his chest as he kept his face straight. “Wasn’t trying to hide anything.” He wasn’t teasing as he spoke. These words made Alden nudge him to be quiet.

Toya soon offered them a glass of some liquid, and Daulton was about to grab it when another girl walked in. Her voice made his ears ring for a moment and drop his hand. He watched the two exchange words, and then she left.The woman spoke, and Daulton didn’t like her attitude. Her language was vile and abusive. The way she held herself was like she didn’t care about anything. How did Astrid grow up as well as she did with this woman around?

“I don’t have to answer to you. You're a drunk who just like to abuse people with your words.” He was open with his words. He already didn’t like the woman. Alden sighed and just about put his face in his hands. “What is he thinking…” Alden thought. “You just rather hurt her with your words. Damn everyone else. It is a miracle that Astrid turned out the way she did.” He spoke with a tad annoyance on his voice. “I will speak to Astrid alone. Where is she?” He asked sternly. Ready to leave the place, but he needed her location.

Toya scoffed a bit at the boy and she stared down at her crystal glass before slamming it down on the table. “Well aren’t you just a sassy little shit.” The laugh left her lips as she leaned forward on her throne. “I’m going to tell you right now that you don’t know jack shit about heartbreak, loss, or anything like that. You are young, Nymph told me you are seventeen.”

She nodded to someone and chairs were brought in. “If you listen to me I shall tell you where she is but I’m going to teach you a life lesson kid. I’m not an asshole because I was born one. The world made me one.” She was cross with Daulton but before long she froze. “Fuck.” The word left her lips in a hushed tone as childish squeals started to resonate on the manor walls.

“Sit in those chairs and don’t you say a damn thing. If you do want your tongues.” Toya ordered and before long she stood up and caught two five-year-olds.

“Grandma!” The two squealed at her as she lifted them up and kissed them.

“Did you have fun at the library today?” She slung them around her as she sat back down in the chair and set them in her lap. “Or was it boring because you had to be quiet?”

The brown haired girl spoke up first. “Kite and I were really good Grandma! We got to draw pictures.”

“Yeah! We drew our heroes!” Kite spoke up, he was a boy with wild blonde hair.

“Oh? Can I see?” Toya smiled down at them and kissed each of their heads.

“Yeah!” They yelled together as they brought out the drawings and showed her. “We drew you, Grandma. You are the best! No one can beat you.” She held them close and laughed as they spoke to her in turns.

“Can I ask you a question?” She looked at the childish drawings with love. They nodded to her almost furiously. “Where is your Papa? What is he going to think?”

The children were suddenly quiet. “WE FORGOT PAPA!” They whined and looked down at their drawings. “What if he gets mad? Will he be upset Grandma?”

Toya shook her head. “I don’t think so at all. I think that if you were to run off really fast up to our library and find your mother’s drawing supplies or perhaps Astrid’s drawing supplies, if you ask Remedy nicely, that you can draw him to your heart’s content. He will never have to know you forgot.”

The twins contemplated what she said. “What if he finds out?” Kite blurted out and Tempest looked sad. Toya rubbed both of their heads.

“He will forgive you as long as you give him lots of hugs and kisses.” She kissed them again and smiled down at them. “You two are my favorite treasures, do you know that?” The twins shook their heads. “Never change alright?” The nodded to her. “And stop growing so fast… I think I count another inch since yesterday!”

“We want to be tall and strong!” Kite yelled and Tempest giggled as they clung to her.

“Well I am strong but I am not tall. You don’t have to be tall to be strong.” Toya informed the children.

“Yeah but being short sucks. You have to climb places that taller people like Papa can reach. You have to climb on the counters to reach stuff Grandma.” Tempest was quick to inform.

Toya groaned a bit. “Yes, yes rub it in. I am shorter than your Papa!” They laughed at her and kissed her as she hugged them again. “You better hurry before he gets home and really finds out. Go, up to the library with you. Beg Rem if you have to.”

They climbed off her lap. “Okay, Grandma but can we have story time later?” Toya looked at them and laughed.

“Yes, yes but later does not mean in five minutes. I mean it, if you two ask me before I am ready I will stall telling you my tales. So you have to be patient alright?” They let out a chorus of aws at her as they ran off in the opposite direction that they had stormed in from. Toya took a breath as she stared at Daulton and Alden.

“Close the doors, please. I don’t need them hearing me being an asshole.” Toya informed the house staff. “Make sure they can’t get back in this room.” The doors shut and they were alone again. “I am not an asshole to everyone.”

She scooted up to the edge of her seat and looked at Daulton as she leaned onto her lap and watched him. “My name is Latoya Rose-Wintercrest. I am under one hundred. I was raised by my sisters because my parents were killed defending Arri. My element is fire and my temper reflects this.”

She hated talking about herself. “At fifteen, I was just like Daulton. I probably would have screwed everything that walks if it wasn’t for the fact that I got pregnant with my first child. Blaine isn’t my first husband despite how long we’ve been married.” She coughed a bit uncomfortably. “My first husband was named Seth. We were the same age. We have our son Costel… and five years later we were pregnant again. We were so scared.” She shook a bit and she took a deep sigh.

“My daughter was born with her umbilical cord around her neck. It suffocated her in the womb. We named her Rose Hunter. Rose was my last name and Hunter was his. It broke my heart and because of the complications of my pregnancy, I was told that I could most likely never get pregnant again. I was twenty. We took her to Arri and we buried her. Five years after that or so we get this letter from Sularia. My daughter is alive but she can’t come home. Arri has this thing that dead children go through and they become Oracles. My daughter didn’t come home until she was five. I thought I would never cry more than I did when I felt held her again.”

She looked uncomfortable but she took a break. “Everything was fine for a long time after that. Costel grew older and he married a young angel named Estrella. I was ecstatic when they told me they were pregnant with Rem. A year after that they had Astrid. I had forgotten that I was practically barren at that point because I could spend my days being the best damn grandmother ever. Seth and I were married for a long time… He didn’t die if that’s what you’re wondering. Not him. Costel was protecting a friend of ours out in the woods one day. He was such a good man. Vampire hunters mistook him for a vampire and put a stake in his fucking heart.” Toya choked it out. She was upset but she pulled herself together after a few minutes.

“I wasn’t alright. I’ve never been alright but that broke me. It didn’t get better. Seth decided that he had enough of my moping. Of how miserable I was because of Costel’s death. I wouldn’t say I was tossed out but I might as well have been. You think this is a drunk?” She waved to the glass. “My whole world was gone. I was an utter mess. I stayed with Estrella and the girls for a while but I couldn’t stand looking at Astrid. She looks exactly like her father.”

Toya shook her head. “So I got on my dragon, took a shit ton of alcohol, drank myself into a frenzy, somehow managed to lose my clothes and jump off my dragon for a cheap thrill. Landed in the lap of a young assassin. Same age as me but I guess we were young still. His name was Blaine. We met many times after that time. He didn’t need to know how broken I was. Sex didn’t let that matter. However, something wonderful happened. I wasn’t broken like I had been told. Blaine and I were expecting our first child. We named him Jayden.” She smiled at him and she was so proud of him in her eyes and the way her voice sparked with life.

“It wasn’t terribly long after that when I found out that Estrella wasn’t taking care of herself. She was dying of a broken heart, quite literally. Without Costel she had withered away. She must have weighed as much as Astrid when Costel was alive. When she passed away I had to carry her myself to a grave not far from their home. She must have only weighed fifty pounds if that. Her blonde hair was falling out just from touching it in large patches. Her wings had bald spots all over the place. The girls were so young and they didn’t know what was going on. Astrid wouldn’t stop asking Estrella to wake up… I had tried to check in on them as much as possible…”

She got real quiet. “The smell told me it had been a few days but the girls had been living in it. They had been so far away from me that I could only go and see them whenever Jay was alright. I hadn’t noticed how sick she was until it was too late. So I brought the girls to live with us. Took them a while. Astrid didn’t speak at first. Took her a week and Blaine’s constant pestering and dumb jokes. Rem was so angry and reminded me of myself. She remembered how her father died and how it made her mother die… and poor Astrid didn’t understand why everyone was leaving her. She had nightmares for months after that… Seth never saw them after we split up. He didn’t care. I don’t know what happened to him and I don’t care. It wasn’t and isn't important.”

Toya tapped on her knees trying to keep herself together. “I’m an asshole because I’m lost nearly everything trying to get to a place where I can be remotely happy. Blaine and I have four children together. Jayden, the twins Ynnarah and Keira, and our youngest Aurora. He’s adopted Rose but she does her own thing now, too old to be bound by the house.” Toya laughed a bit. “And the twins you saw are Tempest and Kite, they are Keira’s. Keira is your age, Daulton. Her husband was Torn, the Prince of Epics… and he’s gone now. The twins are really not even a year old. They grew fast as soon as they came into their lupine blood. I adore them with everything I have.”

The queen gave a silly laugh. “I am an asshole to protect my family.” Toya punched her leg. “Because being a damn pushover doesn’t save anyone. Seth broke my damn heart but if I had taken it out on Blaine I wouldn’t have what I do now. If I had treated Blaine the way you did Astrid… I wouldn’t have this.” She waved her hand around. “Blaine and I built our empire together. I wasn’t strong enough to do it myself but he is my partner and mate, he helped me. You are lucky in the fact that Astrid is so nice but if she had been anyone else… She wouldn’t have looked at you a second time.”

She pulled herself up and sat against the back of her chair. “I am the Dragon Queen, the Master Tactician of Arri, The White Queen. I did not get here because it was handed to me like my damn sisters. I was forced to take this role. I didn’t want this but here I am. I am not bitter, I am still hurting but I would never take that out on someone else that I could love. Take it from me Kid the world sucks ass. What Lotus did was really awful and I’m sorry about that but you can’t run because one fucking woman ruined it for you. I won’t condemn Lotus for being herself but I do believe that you can’t sit there and just keep hiding. If you want my granddaughter, you’ll have to earn it. I’m not sure if she’ll forgive you easily. If she will have you, you better take damn good care of her because she is one of my special gems. I would burn the world for her like I would her sister and cousins. I wasn’t lying when I said I dropped her off in the middle of Laeto without a way to help herself. You are on a time limit but she is a resourceful girl. If you want her, go find her but you better not give up or run away again. This will be the last time, not my word, but Blaine’s.”

She stood up and approached them. “I’ll speak with Alden after you’ve gone. Unless you have suddenly changed your mind about my granddaughter. In which case, I’ll have you step outside and wait.” Her voice was soft and it wasn’t the same asshole tone she had with him earlier. “You don’t want to be me Kid but I’m far too old to go back and change how I am.”

Daulton stood before Toya. He was about to turn and walk away. He didn’t want to hear the story she had to tell. He wasn’t in the mood to hear her excuse for why she was the way she was. He might have been hurt, but he didn’t get drunk and talk the way she did.

When the chairs were set behind them. Daulton and his brother took their seats. They both watched the scene of the two children and Toya. The young demon took this excuse to start to stand up, he wanted to leave. Maybe Alden could get the location out of the woman. Instead of walking away from his chair. He was pulled back down. “Sit. Do not get up again.” Alden’s voice was stern, more stern than usual. Daulton looked at his brother who glared at him. “Okay. Fine.”


The kids soon left the room, leaving Toya to start her story. A sigh left his lips as he listen. All he heard was an excuse for her to live in the past. Yes, she had lived a bad life, but that didn’t give her the right to act the way she did. “Same for me.” He thought to himself. He hated that he realized it. He had been hurt by Lotus, and he treated every woman he met horribly. Like they would hurt him the way she had. No one was as evil as her. “I should give her a chance…” He thought as Astrid appeared in his mind.

When she approached, the brothers stood from their chairs.  When she finally finished speaking, Daulton looked hard at her as he spoke. “You just told us your whole life story to gain pity from us. You're living in the past far more than I am…” He paused for a moment as he stepped away. “You wallow too much in your past and haven't moved on. I’m choosing to move on with my life.”

Walking away towards the door, he turned to look at her once more. “Move on and stop using your past to be a drunken asshole.” He turned to Alden. “Get the location for me, brother. Thanks.”  With those as his last words he left.

Alden stood there for a moment then sighed. “I am sorry for my brother’s words. He likes to speak his mind a bit too much.” He turned to face Toya. “I think Astrid could change him into a better man. If you let her have the chance that is.”

Toya chuckled a bit at his outburst and watched as he left. “For the record Kid,” she pointed Alden, “My body temperature runs too high to be drunk off this shit. I just like the taste. Meet a fire elemental sometime and ask them. I’m imbued with the element of fire just like Lily is light. I’m an asshole because I’m protecting my family. One day when you have a family you’ll find yourself with a choice. This is mine. Plus, I’m not one hundred percent alright either. I have to go to Angela about three times a month for mental wellness. I’m crazy.” She swirled her finger by her head. “If it gets out of control too much I lose my shit and start setting stuff on fire. It’s not about living in the past for me. It’s about dealing with it. Angela calls it… post traumatic something or other.”

She lounged in the chair for a while longer before getting up. “I actually really like Daulton and I think he could be a good man if he got the stick out of his ass. No one that young should be like me.” She walked over and patted Alden on his head. “Mainly I’m a hard ass because I have to be. My kids? They turned out just fine. Remedy is too much like me to even begin to understand. She is stuck in the past but she also deals with her demons. Watching her mom die the way she did… and being there when her dad’s body was brought back. It’s done things to her. Having your heart broke? That’s nothing. I could give a damn what Seth did to me. What happened to my boy though… I’ll always remember the last time I saw him and that was after his body got brought home to us.”

She shrugged. “Astrid can make him a better person only if he wants it. I wasn’t joking when I said she was in Laeto. However,” She put up her hand. “Do not tell Daulton that she is safe. He needs to panic just a bit. If we tell him he’s safe he will probably take his time getting there. I sent her to be with Angela’s daughter Daphne for a bit. She was a wreck after what Daulton did and I thought being around all the nature would help her. We raised them in a rainforest. Figured she needed to go back to her roots just a bit.” Toya smiled.

“Also I’m not the biggest hardass in Arri. I’m quite laid back compared to Cathrine. Now that bitch has some problems.” Toya laughed a bit. “Though you wouldn’t be able to tell without actually having her tell you. Tell Daulton once he’s done being like this and goes to get her, that I like him and if I didn’t I wouldn’t have let him go after her at all. Her grandfather on the other hand… If Daulton messes up anymore Blaine will probably get involved. He isn’t the nicest person when his family is in danger. We love our family and we would do anything for it.”