Chapter 55
Derian
The alarm sounds quickly. Within moments the blaring horns begin, and the courtyard fills with warriors brandishing all manner of weapons. Cal, Ulna, and Taric are among them.
Ulna is the first to reach us, horror flashing across her face as she takes in Huntyr sobbing in my arms. She hasn’t moved despite the commotion around us.
“What happened?” Ulna cries, wide-eyed.
My aunt reaches forward and strokes Huntyr’s back. The gesture seems to pull Huntyr back to reality, and she finally steps away from me and begins wiping away her tears. I watch intently, noting the way she works to steady her breathing.
She’s okay. I assure myself. She’s going to be okay.
I look at Taric. “I want the guards doubled on all entry points into the fortress. Position scouts every mile from here to the Wastelands. All women and children get evacuated to the nearest town immediately.”
“You think she’ll attack us?” Huntyr asks softly behind me, her voice thin and uncharacteristically frail.
I only mean to look at her, but I feel my entire body shifting like she’s the center of my universe and I’m helpless to her gravitational pull. I soften slightly as I take in her red-rimmed eyes. “She knows the fortress, Huntyr. We don’t quite know what she’ll do with that information.”
“My sister is not going to attack us!”
Her voice slices through the courtyard, loud enough to summon the attention of everyone around us. I clench my jaw and keep my voice low and measured.
“She already has.”
And there are three dead Fae to prove it. Three families I will need to contact and deliver devastating news to.
Marla has three grandchildren.
Had.
I have to be the one to tell them their Nana isn’t coming home.
Rhen was newly mated. I can’t begin to imagine the tragedy of finding the other half of your soul, only to have them ripped away so immediately afterwards.
“She needs our help, Derian,” Huntyr hisses, stepping forward towards me, chin lifted in defiance. Gone is the sobbing girl. The Huntress of Velia now stands before me. “She doesn’t need to be met with your weapons.”
I grind my teeth together, suddenly at war with the overwhelming need to be the leader who has spent his life protecting his people from Velkai, and the need to guard the feelings of this woman who just watched her sister become one.
Cal steps forward, glancing between us as he clears his throat. “Maybe you two should fill us in.”
Huntyr sends a vicious, wounded glare towards me. “He can explain it.”
She stomps away, back towards the fortress, anger towards me replacing any bit of pain that just broke her apart. Tilting my head towards the sky, I run a tired hand over my face and stare at that constellation that had seemed so magical only a few minutes ago.
“What else do you need done?” Taric asks, jogging back towards me after relaying my prior orders.
The next command lays heavy in my gut.
“Send someone to find Huntyr and escort her to our room. She doesn’t leave these grounds.” My voice sounds hollow. I feel hollow. “If she somehow escapes this fortress, I’ll hold every guard on the perimeter personally responsible.”
Taric stiffens, dark brows lowering as he frowns at me. “We’re keeping her prisoner?”
Ulna gasps.
Perhaps it’s an overreaction.
But I know that woman. Gods, I know her to her core. And I know that nothing will stop her from trying to go after Tyla. Fuck, I would do the same if it was Luceron.
Running after that girl could get her killed, though.
I can’t allow that. There’s absolutely nothing I wouldn’t do to keep that woman safe. Even if she hates me for it.
I feel Cal’s attention on me before he beckons back towards the stone archway that leads back inside. “Derian would never hurt Huntyr. So, I think we can all trust he has a good reason for keeping her under close guard. Why don’t we get inside and you can explain to us what’s going on?”
Ishouldn’t be surprised to find Huntyr in the war room when we all pile in and begin taking seats around the table. Really, I should have expected her to be more than capable of evading any escort I sent after her.
She doesn’t bother to glance up at us from where she’s pilfering through the weapon chests, carefully examining the blades and crossbows before pulling her chosen ones out and arranging them on the floor behind her.
“Sit down, Huntyr,” I order.
The rest fold around the table, taking seats even as their eyes remain on her. Behind me, I hear the sound of claws against the floor as Kaia slinks in to join us.
“No,” Huntyr mumbles. “Plan your defenses if you want. It doesn’t concern me, anyway.”
“Sit down,” I bark, the sharpness of my tone cutting cleanly through the air. “Before I make you.”
She glances over her shoulder at me from where she crouches by the chest, and everything about her expression has hardened. Even as she smiles, there’s no joy in the taunting gaze she sends my way. She looks every bit the killer she is.
“There he is,” she drawls. “There’s that infamous Fae bastard who steps on everyone who doesn’t do as he tells them. I can’t believe I let myself forget for one second that this is who you are.”
Her words sting, but I keep my expression neutral as I walk towards her. She rises, stopping only when a foot remains between us. “And there’s the reckless assassin who is too eager for violence to realize when she might be making a mistake.”
“I’m not making a mistake.”
I match her taunting smile, running a finger down her jawline. “Isn’t that what you thought at the masquerade? And yet here I am. Alive and well. While another male is mistakenly dead by your hand.”
She jerks away from my touch. “I can still fix that particular mistake.”
“No, Huntyr, you can’t. Don’t delude yourself into thinking you would stand any chance against me. As generous as I am as a lover, I am just as ruthless of an enemy.”
Tiny sparks fly out of her fingertips, shooting harmlessly onto the wooden boards at our feet.
I hear Cal mumbling behind us, likely telling Ulna and Taric the truth of Huntyr’s background, based on the way Ulna gasps and Taric curses under his breath. I’d forgotten they don’t know who she really is. What she really came here to do.
“Ulna,” I address my aunt without moving my gaze away from Huntyr. “It would seem that my betrothed isn’t thinking rationally. Please get Lady Lachlan some tea to calm her nerves.”
The second the name comes out of my mouth, I regret it.
She lunges. Her fingers somehow find a blade and jab it towards my ribcage. I move fast enough to keep it from sinking into my flesh, but not fast enough to avoid the slash against my skin. I hiss against the pain and look down briefly to see blood blooming against my shirt.
Her eyes flicker to it briefly, and I swear I see something almost like regret for the shortest of moments.
“That wasn’t nice,” I growl down at her, gripping her wrist and pressing down on the muscles so that the blade falls out of her hand. It clangs heavily against the floor.
“And I don't need tea!”
“You also don’t need to go running off half-cocked into the night, chasing after a fucking Velkai who ran towards her homeland!”
She freezes, eyes misting for a quick second before she hardens again and takes a single step back from me.
“You don’t understand,” she whispers.
The silence stretches for so long that I feel like my organs are withering.
“You don’t know what it’s like to love someone. Not the way I love her.”
Oh, but I do know what that’s like.
That’s what makes this so hard.
I know exactly what it feels like to be willing to burn the world to the ground for another person. I know what it feels like to care about someone else so completely that you would rather they spend the rest of their life hating you so long as you’re able to keep them safe and protected.
“Sit down, Huntyr,” I command her again. “Or get out, but these weapons stay here, and the guard outside will escort you back to our room.”
“I’m not a child.”
“You will be treated like one until you stop acting like one.”
Her gaze flicks to where the guards linger by the door, watching our argument. “I’m going after her.”
“No, you’re not,” I sigh, running a tired hand down my face. “And every warrior in this fortress has been instructed to stop you if you try.”
Surprise flickers in her eyes. Then anger. Then what I think might be hatred.
“Don’t do this.” Her voice is low enough for only me to hear.
I know that what comes out of my mouth next will change everything between us, but I can’t stop it. I will protect her. Even if I’m forced to protect her against herself.
“You’ve given me no choice.”
She bares her teeth at me, fingers clenching and releasing against the blade in her palm. I watch her chest rise and fall heavily until she pushes past me, shoulder slamming into mine as she does.
Kaia moves towards her, but even the Eshari seems to be on the receiving end of Huntyr’s fury. The two exchange silent communication for a moment until Kaia slowly bows her head and retreats back towards the table, sitting next to Cal.
Huntyr stalks out of the room, slamming her blade into the wood frame of the door as she goes. It shakes for some time after she’s gone.