Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
Earl Tarlord dropped to his knees before me, leaving the pursuit of the Dragon and those riding it to his warriors as he cupped my face in his hands and lifted my chin so that he could meet my eyes.
“Are you hurt?” he demanded, a wildness in his expression that should have had me recoiling in fear but instead had the terrified thrashing of my heart calming at last.
“No,” I breathed. “Not physically.”
“You’re bleeding,” he said in disagreement, dropping a hand to the bloodstained hem of my dress and fisting the material as he lifted it to reveal my leg beneath.
“That isn’t my blood,” I said, swallowing back the bile which threatened to rise as I was reminded of what had happened to my husband. “Alestro is…”
“Which of the other warlords did this? I’ll have their Earl’s head by morning,” he snarled, his hand lifting to the remainder of the vines which had bound me and were left knotted around my chest, tugging sharply as he broke apart the magic in them.
The jolt of motion jerked me forward before they had entirely shattered and I found myself breathing in his air, the stubble lining his jaw almost grazing the softness of my cheek.
His other hand still cupped my jaw and our eyes locked as we found ourselves altogether too close.
The want which I’d fought so hard to stifle in his presence reared its head again, the ache I felt when I looked at him all too present with his powerful aura dominating mine.
My lips parted, the words I’d been choking on for so long begging to be free. But then my mind snapped back to the brutalised corpse of my husband which still lay warm in our bed chambers.
I jerked back, scrambling to right myself, locking my jaw as a bite of pain shot through my hip.
Earl Tarlord stood as well, the disbalance in our heights becoming all the clearer as he towered over me.
“It wasn’t one of the other warlords,” I said, focusing on what mattered. “The Dragon had earth magic but he was allied with…”
I trailed off, the truth of what I’d just witnessed seeming too unlikely to be real. The three people who I’d just witnessed working together in this chamber had all been from warring nations, each of them born on opposing sides of The Waning Lands.
“What happened with the Flamebringers?” I asked, forcing myself to meet my Earl’s eye despite the heat it brought to my cheeks. “The ones who were launching an attack in the forest?”
“I sent out a legion but…” his words cut off with a frown.
“What?” I pressed.
“It is strange,” he said. “We took up position in the outlook to take stock of their numbers and assess the threat. There was no army. The flames were certainly cast with magic but they were sporadic and localised. It appeared there were only a handful of them out there.”
“A distraction,” I breathed, my eyes moving to the keystone which now stood whole once more.
The foul stench of power which I’d always associated with this place was gone too.
“Pyros, Stormfell, Avanis and Cascada…” My hand met with the stone and I closed my eyes as I put the pieces together.
Members from every nation had been here, all of them working toward this common goal.
“What is it?” Earl Tarlord asked, moving up behind me like a wraith. “Are you well, Lady Septa? I wish to see you somewhere safe before I join in the pursuit of the Dragon–”
“The Dragon will be long gone by the time you join the hunt,” I told him plainly, everything making sense to me even if I didn’t want it to. “They didn’t come here to fight.”
“Did you hit your head when they attacked you?” Tarlord asked softly, his fingers brushing a knotted tendril of my hair aside, the skim of his hand on my neck sending a shiver through me.
I choked out a strangled sound which might have been a laugh or might have been the beginnings of hysteria.
“I would bet my soul that no Fae beyond Alestro have met with death at the hands of those intruders today,” I said, turning to my Earl, the truth of that statement sounding as insane to me as it clearly did to him.
But it made sense. In a way which only madness allowed…
or in a way which demanded I accept the truth of all they’d said to me.
“What reason would they have to come here beyond warfare?” Tarlord asked. “And if that wasn’t their purpose then why would only your husband have fallen prey to their wrath?”
“Because with him it was personal,” I choked out, my mind once again landing on the memory of Alestro’s bloody corpse, of the way he’d clung to life despite the torture he’d been through.
Of the way her sword had finally run him through and I’d been able to do nothing at all but watch as it happened. “The Sky Witch was among them.”
“Stormfell?” Tarlord demanded. “Are you certain? Stormfell are upon us too?” he turned as if meaning to raise the alarm once more, his agitation clear but I snatched his hand and forced him to turn and look at me.
“No,” I said firmly. “Not Stormfell. Only her. The Sky Witch, the Dragon, and…”
“And?” he pushed, his fingers banding around mine in a firm assurance that he was here with me, locked in and listening, needing to understand this just as I was slotting every piece of it into place.
“The Void,” I finished.
“The…” His brow furrowed in confusion, his eyes piercing me to my soul.
There wasn’t doubt in his gaze but there was a hungry need for understanding which I knew all too well.
I’d spent my life seeking to understand everything to its fullest, unveiling facts and figures, analysing, assessing, adjusting my take on things because I didn’t ever want to dismiss the truth in favour of blind faith or prejudice.
“Septa, how can that be?” my Earl demanded.
“They came because this was corrupted. They came together because they have united for a greater cause. I think… There is something happening in The Waning Lands which is bigger than the war and far more dangerous than it too.”
Tarlord moved closer to me, the stillness in his powerful body proving how much he valued my word. He wasn’t going to dismiss or deny this. He was listening. And I let every drop of what I knew, suspected, and feared spill from me as I told him the truth.