Chapter 30
Lor
The familiar maroon-cloaked figures surrounded us, and I drew my sword, ready to fight if need be. Aoife could portal us out of here, but doing so would confirm the existence of the Fair Folk .. That would only triple their efforts to find us.
No, it was best if they just believed Aoife was some human companion of mine, a guard perhaps.
“Lorcan Wolfgang,” one of the members said from under their breath. “He’s supposed to be dead.”
Another member stepped forward, and she shoved her hood off her head. My heart stopped beating momentarily when I saw the familiar blond hair piled in a bun, tendrils escaping and falling across her forehead.
“It’s okay.” Leena held out her hands. “Everyone just calm down. Many of you have heard of Lor, the Butcher of the Brotherhood, but what you don’t know is that he was the former leader of the rebels.”
Everyone stilled, including me. What was she doing speaking so casually of the rebels like this?
Aoife shot me an unsure glance, but I was just as confused as she was.
“It’s okay, Lor.” Leena stepped forward. “This is the new group of rebels, the group I’ve continued to build since you left two years ago.”
My gaze widened, and I swiveled around, looking at all these people. “How many rebels are there now?” I asked.
“There’s over one hundred of us,” she said, a tentative smile quirking her lips, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword. “You’re lucky it was my group that found you. There are others out and about on Kiln Mountain, and they would no doubt have many questions about how you’re still alive.”
I glanced at Aoife, and she stepped forward. “We have many questions of our own about the brotherhood.”
Leena dipped her head. “Then come back to our camp, and we can talk.”
* * *
Aoife stayed a few paces behind me and Leena as we walked through the forest and toward the camp.
“I don’t understand,” I said in a low voice, the other brotherhood members melting into the trees surrounding us, no doubt scouting the area. “How are there over one hundred rebels?”
Leena looked up at me, smiling and revealing the gap in her teeth that I’d always found so endearing. “It turns out there’s a lot of brotherhood members uneasy with the direction the brotherhood is going in. It’s been easy to convert people to our cause.”
“And you never told the rebels the truth about me?” I asked.
She shook her head. “That is classified information. Something like that getting out could put everything in jeopardy, including my life since I’m the one who told the brotherhood you were dead.” She edged close to me so that her fingers barely brushed mine. “I’ve missed you, Lor. So much.”
“I missed you too. I’ve missed all of you, worried about you, wondered how you would fare without me, and it looks like you’re thriving. You’ve done so much for the rebels.”
She gave a half shrug. “I only continued upon what you already built. Give yourself some credit, Butcher.”
My gaze swept the surrounding forest as I counted all the brotherhood members creeping around us, everyone so casual, talking, laughing.
This was not the same rebel group I’d been in charge of.
Not the same rebel group Arthon had led.
Not at all. And I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, about any of it.
We walked through the forest, arriving in an area filled with thick, tall trees, their canopies so high it felt like they might actually touch the sun.
I arched my neck, looking around at the reddish brown tree bark, taking in all the tents and the central open fire, where a boiling pot of some kind of stew cooked, the scent of onion and garlic wafting through the air.
Aoife stumbled slightly, and I quickly caught her elbow and steadied her.
Our gazes locked for the briefest second, and I couldn’t help but remember how close our lips had been to touching before we’d been interrupted.
Aoife looked away and wrenched her arm from my grasp, the moment between us broken.
Leena faced me and gestured toward the biggest tent, tall enough that I wouldn’t have to bend to enter. “Can we talk?” she asked. “In private?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
I looked at Aoife. “Get yourself something to eat and drink, and I’ll be back shortly. Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, not meeting my gaze.
“Arcan,” Leena said, and one of the rebel members stepped up. “Show our guest to her tent and make sure she gets something to eat.”
Leena nodded at Aoife, then turned toward her tent, but I lingered and grabbed Aoife’s arm once again.
She stiffened and turned to me, and it seemed like she was already irritated by something I’d done. I had no idea what. Probably a million things. “Are you okay?” I asked in a low voice.
“Of course I am. I’m just in the enemy camp, surrounded by brotherhood members who are all supposedly spies that I’m to trust.”
“I wouldn’t put you in danger,” I said. “Not ever, Aoife.”
Something in her gaze softened, and I had the urge to sweep her up in my arms and kiss away every argument and worry she had.
“Lor,” Leena called.
Aoife stepped back. “Go,” she said. “I’m sure you two have a lot of catching up to do.”
Thick rugs lay on the ground inside Leena’s tent, and a small table was pushed against the back flap, covered in maps, and I was taken back to my time in the brotherhood, when I had the biggest tent that often was set up exactly like this.
Leena’s back was to me. “I think about that day all the time, you know.”
She didn’t have to say what day she was talking about. It was the day I decided to stay in Fairwitch Isle, to accept the crown hovering over my head and become king.
“I’m sorry, Leena,” I said, and she turned, tears in her eyes, arms crossed. “I never wanted things to end that way.”
I shoved a hand through my hair. “That day was so . . .”
So confusing, so overwhelming. I still remember our mission. Remember how we’d been sent to find out if Fairwitch Isle was hiding on Kiln Mountain. Leena and I had resolved to make sure we didn’t find it, resolved to lead Ronan astray.
Then we’d stumbled across the hidden kingdom, and I’d felt that pull to it. That inexplicable tug that made me walk toward it and right into the city.
“That day still feels like a dream.” She stepped toward me.
“You just wouldn’t stop walking toward Fairwitch Isle, and I had no choice but to follow.
I had no idea what was going on. No idea why when we stepped inside that crown appeared over your head.
” She huffed. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?
We spent a decade fighting together as rebels, and you never told me you were from the same mythical city the brotherhood was so desperately trying to conquer. ”
I swallowed, throat thick. Arthon had instilled in me that I could never trust anyone. To keep my secrets close, to never disclose them for fear of someone using them against me.
I ran a hand over one of the maps on the table. “Everything feels so different now,” I said. “With the rebels.”
Laughter rang in the air outside the tent. I tipped my head in the direction of the sound. “Do they not have to train before dinner?”
Leena gave a slight shrug. “I’m not you, Lor. I wasn’t prepared to take over the rebels. And when I did, I realized I had to do things my way.”
I squinted at the map, black dots on nearly fifty different spots. “Are these all the brotherhood missions you’ve foiled?”
“In the last year,” she said, and my mouth dropped open.
I blinked and turned to stare at her. “That’s double the amount we did in my last year leading the rebels. That’s amazing, Leena. You’re doing so well.”
She bit her lip, looking so unsure of herself. “I was worried I wouldn’t be able to accomplish what you or Arthon did, and I tried to run things the way you had, but I just couldn’t. I had to do it my way.”
“Your way is clearly impressive,” I said, staring at all those black dots, wondering what Arthon would have to say.
“The rebels had quite an adjustment to make,” Leena said. “They missed your schedules, your order, your rules. Some even defected, leaving the rebels and the brotherhood altogether because they didn’t like working under me.”
I snorted. “That happened when I took over for Arthon.”
Leena gave me a look. “No it didn’t. Everyone was relieved when Arthon died, and you stepped up.”
“Leena,” I said, my tone admonishing, but she just laughed.
“It’s true! Everyone feared Arthon. He did a lot of good starting the rebels, but he was also harsh and strict beyond reason. He was cruel, especially to you. The way he talked to you . . .” She shook her head, a few blond tendrils escaping her tight bun. “You were never like that.”
“He was trying to make me better, the best.”
“No.” Her eyebrows scrunched. “He was an old man with a lot of trauma and baggage, and he took it out on you. He hated himself, and every cruel thing he said to you about not being good enough, not working hard enough, not being worthy to be a leader—those were all the things he thought about himself.”
I blinked. I’d never thought of it that way.
I always thought I deserved every cruel thing Arthon said to me, but Leena was right.
I wasn’t like him. I didn’t lead with cruelty.
I never had. In some ways, I’d strayed far from Arthon’s teachings.
And now Leena had strayed so far from mine.
I thought of Aoife, of all the times she’d insisted she could do things differently than me and how I’d been so stubborn, so convinced she couldn’t.
I squeezed my eyes shut. I’d been a fool.
“Everyone loved you,” Leena said, not realizing the spiral her words had sent me down. “Including me.”
Those words snapped me from my stupor.
Leena took a step toward me. “Is that woman . . . the queen? The one whose curse you broke?”
I nodded.
“Oh.” She swallowed thickly, pressing her lips together like she was trying not to cry.
“I’d always held out hope that one day you and I would reunite.
That we’d be together again.” She stepped even closer, enough that I could see the pale freckles dotting her nose as she gazed up at me.
“Is it a real marriage?” She hesitated. “Do you love her?”
Godwitches be. I’d never wanted more than a partnership, someone to work with me as we strived to make Fairwitch Isle a better place.
I’d never cared if Aoife and I had a “real” marriage.
Not until right in this moment when Leena had asked the question.
I wanted to say yes, to imagine this life where Aoife and I were more than just wary allies.
Leena reached her hand up, cupping my cheek, and right then, Aoife walked into the tent.
She stiffened, eyes wide, and I quickly stepped back from Leena, immediately realizing how guilty that made me look.
A cold, indifferent mask slipped over Aoife’s face that I knew well. She was furious, and I couldn’t blame her.
“Oh.” Leena put her hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry. We’re just two old friends talking.”
“Yes, it looks like it.”
“We were talking about the brotherhood,” I said, then winced. That was what I’d intended to talk to Leena about. We hadn’t quite gotten that far yet.
Aoife raised her chin. “And what did you learn?”
“Not a lot,” I admitted.
“I imagine you didn’t,” she said with a pointed stare. “Well I didn’t mean to interrupt. I just wanted to know if you were hungry,” she said. “I got you a bowl of stew.”
“Aoife.” I stepped forward, but she whirled and stalked out of the tent before I could stop her.
I scrubbed a hand down my face. “I’d better go after her.”
I made to move but Leena caught my arm, her grip tight. “Let me. That was my fault, and she might not be ready to talk to you. So I’ll do it. Besides, I’d like to get to know her.”
I wasn’t sure if that was the best idea, but she was right. Aoife wouldn’t want to talk to me, and if I tried to push a conversation, we’d likely just end up in another argument.
I nodded and hoped this hadn’t ruined what little progress I’d made with my wife.