Chapter Thirty-Two.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Adam swore as he paced around his apartment, Eden watching.

"We-"

"Shit!" Adam swore again. "Cameron had the ring on him! We can't use it to stop the ritual! Shit! Even if we did, it'd be pointless! They'd just have us, too! Shit! Oberon and Titania! Shit! They're never together! I'm contacting the auction house and seeing if I can get those love stones now. I need to summon Ulrima, and let him know what's going on. Fuck! We won't be able to stop it! But he'll probably destroy them. Maybe. Fuck! All we can do is put Cameron out of his misery, now. But without a way into the forest, we won't be able to, and it can only be accessed by fairies and their gates. Shit, shit, fuck! Even still, I need to finish my project. I'm going to do a summons for Gramps and let him know I need him to help me with this project."

Adam disappeared upstairs to start doing whatever it was he was planning on doing, and Eden bit his lip and slid his hands into his hoodie, feeling two objects inside of it. Frowning, he pulled them out, finding both of the rings Cameron had taken from Eden, still looped through the leather cord he'd worn them around his neck on.

When did- he began to wonder. When he slid his hands around me!

Eden remembered Cameron's action, just before the Fairy Empress had grabbed him. The younger teen had attempted to wrap his hands around Eden's stomach, to hold onto him. Or had he? His hands might have slipped into the hoodie pocket in the movement.

Cameron had given him the rings without making it obvious he'd done that.

Adam returned downstairs with a case of supplies, muttering about how Ulrima probably wouldn't retaliate against the fae, since the actions had already occurred. It was the pre-action that he was mostly against.

"Adam," Eden said, and Adam kept moving. "Adam. Adam!"

The ancient mage looked over at Eden, beginning to speak, though his words died when he saw the cord Eden was holding up, the two rings hanging from it.

"Cameron must have slipped them in my hoodie when he grabbed me," Eden told him. "Is there really no way to save him?"

"No," Adam shook his head. "Unfortunately, the ritual only takes ten minutes to perform, from what I can guess about their methods of doing it. We're already past that, and they wouldn't have wanted to delay. Even if they were in the process of it right now, there's the matter of finding them, then getting past Titania and Oberon."

"You said something about them never being together."

"Yeah," Adam nodded. "Titania and Oberon are rarely ever together. Each one is on the level of a god, and nearly immortal. If their plan succeeds, they can become immortal. And having a mage as powerful as Cameron? Will likely be all they need for it. The fewer sources of magic fueling the spell, the less magic they actually need."

"Spell?" Eden asked. "What are they wanting to use him for, once he's a tree? To make them immortal? They're going to kill him to give themselves immortality?"

Adam started to answer, then realized that Eden was fighting tears. A slight push with his empathy told him all he needed to know. The spatial mage loved Cameron. That was why he was so protective of his combat rival.

"No," Adam told him, who started to talk again. "They won't kill him, he'll still live, as the tree. We will kill him, to spare him the life he'll have as their fuel. Fortunately, the spell they'll use him for, if he provides enough magic for them to be able to do it with the other trees, takes a lot of time to cast. Months."

"What's the spell?"

Adam gave a small sigh, then walked over to Eden.

"It's okay," he told Eden. "We can't save him, but we can spare him the misery of that fate. As soon as I finish this project, that forest is destroyed. For good. Dammit. This is one of the reasons why I hate it when kids awaken their magic. If only he didn't access his tree-"

"Wh-what does that have to do with anything?" Eden asked, and Adam noticed an odd tone in his voice, a hint of hope in his mind.

"Everything," Adam answered. "It's the primary way of gaining better control over your magic, that's why every teacher ever teaches it as one of the first lessons to magic. It also gives you a small boost to your magical strength as a result of simply being able to connect to it. It's also needed to have happened in order for the ritual to work. The ritual draws on that connection forged by you accessing it. The more times you have, the stronger the connection, the stronger your control over magic in general, and the easier the ritual takes hold. It literally converts you into your tree."

As Adam spoke, he felt the hope rise in Eden's mind. Concern was still there, but the utter panic was gone.

"Cameron's never accessed it!" Eden practically yelled. "I'd asked him what his looked like, and he told me he didn't know, because he hadn't accessed it, and didn't want to until you'd brought it up in training, since you didn't seem to think it was important!"

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"I thought he had," Adam's eyes widened as he realized with shock just how powerful Cameron really was. "If he's that powerful without having accessed his tree even once, and has that much control, that boy is a lot more powerful than we'd suspected."

"That also means we've got time, right?" Eden asked. "Time to save him before they make him a tree?"

"Yes," Adam hesitated. "Though there are some things that can affect it."

"Like what?" Eden asked, and Adam felt bad about what he was soon to say.

It might break Eden.

"They use silkspeech," Adam told him. "On people who don't already have access. It might not work on Cameron, since he's a natural mind mage who'll form a subconscious resistance to accessing it the moment he realizes they need him to, rendering their silkspeech ineffective. Unfortunately, as time goes on, they'll be able to wear away at that.

"In addition to that," Adam said. "No one knows where they keep their prisoners, or where they'd keep someone like Cameron. The fairies have a large number of realms, and they could be in any of them. No one's ever escaped from a fairy's prison before."

Adam sensed Eden's hope break. He didn't want to sugar things up and grant false hope. It was possible they could locate Cameron, but it wouldn't be easy and would take time. A lot of time. The most optimistic period would be four weeks, and that would only work if the Thorntons worked with him, which he doubted would happen.

"I'm going to do what I can," Adam assured Eden. "I-Eden. You love Cameron."

"No, I don't!" Eden's face flushed.

"Yes, you do," Adam said. "Admit it, Eden."

"You're mistaken!" Eden protested.

"Eden," Adam said. "Admit you love Cameron. You do. Admitting it will give me an opening to summon any nearby Cupid."

"What?" Eden asked. "Why?"

"Champions of Ulrima Protecting the Intimacy of Demigods," Adam reminded him what they were an acronym for. "Regardless of what Cameron's own sexuality or interests are, the Cupids are sworn to protect any romantic prospects he has, since he's a demigod, especially if he's in danger and unable to ever find out one exists. It'll require revealing who he is and bringing the attention of the heavenly war to us, but-"

"But that means," Eden finished for him. "That the heavenly war will turn their attention to the fairies as they fight to gain control of him."

"Which will enable us to free him," Adam said. "It might still take time to locate him specifically, but it'll buy us a lot of time. That, or speed up his finding. Either way, it's a win for us. As soon as we know where he is-"

"But what if they find him first?"

"The heavens will go to war to claim him," Adam answered. "It'll essentially be a beacon as soon as he's found, and until someone manages to hide him. But once he's out of the fairies' realms, we'll be able to locate him almost anywhere, given enough time. Or Ulfar would locate him."

"The Demon King who might be after him?" Eden said. "Who will be after him, if he finds out about Cameron being a son of Ulrima?"

"Yep," Adam said. "He can locate nearly any of his blood relatives, as long as they're in a mortal realm, so long as he knows their given name and their age."

"But wouldn't the gods want him in the heavens?"

"No," Adam grinned. "Because all gods can locate their children in the divine realms, no matter how well they're hidden. They'll keep him in a mortal realm. So, Eden. Do you love Cameron?"

"Yes," Eden admitted.

A few moments later, the duo of mages was greeted with the sight of a well-muscled man with pink wings, blond hair with pink tips, and pink eyes, a quiver strapped across his back, a bow in one hand. The angel wore a pair of pink pants with a red belt, a pink heart for its buckle, as well as a pair of crimson boots with pink laces.

He also had an arrow knocked, the heart-shaped tip aimed directly at Eden, the string pulled back, ready to fire, an intense look of suspicion in his gaze.

"Cupid! Cupid!" Adam exclaimed. "Whoa, there, boy!"

"False claims of love to demigods are taken very seriously," the Cupid said.

"He really does love a demigod!" Adam said. "It's the same demigod the heavenly war in Tejina is over! His name is Cameron, well, that's what he goes by. He's the son of Ulrima, and right now, the fairies have custody of him, but only until they convince him to access his inner tree. Under your oath, you're sworn to act in these circumstances, as he'd never been in a relationship and has a prospective one that's true."

The Cupid hesitated. It wasn't entirely within the oath, but it could be considered close enough. He could sense an actual, tangible potential for relationship, even if they were wrong about the source. She wasn't that far away, either, which did start to pull things under their oath.

The Cupid relaxed his string, then returned the arrow to his quiver.

"I'll speak with Namil about this," he stated, his eyes glowing for a moment. "Seems his divinity's been bound. That might make it a touch more difficult, but we'll manage."

The Cupid then left through the elevator, and Eden gave Adam an inquisitive look.

"Cupids can't actually teleport," the ancient mage told him. "I used a summoning spell to bring him here with your admission. It wouldn't have worked if you didn't actually love a demigod. I'm going to get to work on summoning my father, to see if he'll respond. With his help, I should be able to speed up making the thing to destroy the Fairy Forest. You can get some sleep."

Eden nodded, but sat on the couch to watch as Adam began creating the circle. As the ancient mage worked, his cell phone ring, and he let out an aggravated sigh, then answered it, setting the phone on speakerphone so he could resume working on the ritual to summon his father.

"What, Lucas?" He asked, and Eden perked up.

"I heard about the incident with the fairies," Lucas stated. "As you know, Adam, I'm in charge of the Anti-Fae Task Force. This poses a serious problem."

"For everyone," Adam smirked. "Including the fae. I just sicced a bunch of gods and angels on them. Consider yourself lucky that Titania and Oberon were only looking to grab Cameron, Lucas. Or they could have thousands of more trees being forged at this moment."

"Unfortunately," Lucas said. "We're looking to see how they managed to attend the auction without anyone realizing it. Someone on the inside had to have assisted them. Can you offer anything?"

"Just that by the winter solstice, I'm planning on razing their forest to the ground."

Lucas let out a sigh, then hung up the phone. Not twenty seconds later, it rang again. Adam swore, checked it, then swore again.

"What, Nathaniel?" He asked after answering it.

"You and I," Nathaniel said. "Have a common interest right now, I believe. Titania and Oberon took what was mine without permission, violating an agreement we had. Why don't we put our differences aside until he's been recovered? I can't locate him myself, and while you can, it'll take you longer without my cooperation. Once he's found, we can discuss his living situation. Truce?"

"Temporarily," Adam agreed.