Chapter 11 Just Another Bully #2
But there was no time to discuss it with him. As soon as Carrick nodded, Rian raised his free hand to conjure a portal for us. With a firm grip on me, he tugged me into the swirling mist without another word to anyone.
The portal was freezing cold, like plunging into arctic water except it left only dew drops in my hair and on my eyelashes.
The Raveina Mountains where most aes sídhe made their home was even more frigid.
My breath rose in a cloud of vapour in front of me and a biting chill nipped at all my exposed flesh.
Rian must have felt me shivering because he quickly drew me closer and wrapped an arm around me. I sighed in contentment when it felt like a wave of heat rolled over us from an invisible fire as his magic cocooned me.
“Gods, I wish I could do that,” I breathed, and he gave a soft snort of amusement. I might be able to summon and tame fire, but it did not flow through my veins like it did in fire fey like Rian. Where I merely wielded the flames, Rian was in many ways its very essence.
I glanced around and saw that we were in a dark and snowy pine forest. I was confused at first about where the camp was until Carrick stepped through some foliage and revealed a stone staircase.
Rian drew me forward, and we were all silent as we descended into the ravine where the aes sídhe from Aes Suri and Aes Mirr camped.
I could no longer feel the cold thanks to Rian, but I did sense the humidity rising as we made our way downward.
We emerged from the stairwell at the bottom and were met by aes sídhe guards who eagerly greeted Carrick in a dialect that I could not understand.
But when they saw Rian behind his uncle, they froze and stared in a mixture of awe and fear as if he were a god walking among them.
Then they seemed to remember themselves and bowed so low before him that they had to hold their swords back to prevent them from stabbing into the ground.
And Rian hated it. There was absolutely no indication of his feelings on his beautiful face.
But I felt his tension as he directed them to the portal that he had left open behind us so the medical supplies could be retrieved from his tent.
His discomfort only increased as we made our way through the camp, stopping occasionally for Carrick to get directions to his family’s tent.
I felt many curious eyes on me too, although I avoided meeting their gazes.
Darragh discouraged the most curious among them from following us, but it was not long before they seemed to realize the reason for our appearance.
It was rare for them to see Rian, and Carrick’s brittle expression was telling.
We finally reached the campsite where Carrick’s wife was sitting. Before she spotted us, Rian turned to me and gently tilted my chin up so he could meet my eyes.
“Stay close to Darragh. You may go wherever your instincts implore you. Just know that not all aes sídhe feel very kindly toward witches,” he admitted.
“I know,” I reassured him, seeing the strain in his eyes as he was torn between his promise to guard me and being present for his family. “I will be alright. I promise! Please go and be with your family, Rian.”
“I will find you after,” he advised me, and I nodded, trying to convey how confident I felt to put him at ease.
Something in my smile seemed to placate him because he looked relieved as he stepped away.
His gaze rose to Darragh behind me, probably to relay instructions through their mindlink, but my attention was behind him.
The female at the fire had stood up and looked initially gleeful to see Carrick.
But then Rian turned, and I saw her falter in surprise.
Her eyes darted back and forth between the two men with growing alarm before she dropped the knitting in her hand.
Her hand flew up to the beaded collar of the shawl around her throat, her face scrunching in anguish as her legs gave out.
Luckily, Carrick reached her in time to seize her into a hug and held her upright.
“Come,” Darragh urged me, holding out an arm while Rian walked toward the sobbing couple.
I turned away, accepting Darragh’s offer and clenching his arm. But the moment we took a step in the direction of the rest of the aes sídhe camp, I felt that instinctual tug. The one that had made me ask Rian to bring me here.
I paused, drawing Darragh to a stop as I turned back in the direction of the nearest fire.
I saw Rian encouraging Carrick and his aunt into the tent to speak more privately, so I pulled Darragh toward the firepit.
The demidragon came without fuss and remained silent as I bent to pick up the knitting that Rian’s aunt had dropped.
I set it on the piece of wood where she’d been sitting and then stepped toward the fire, waiting for my gut to speak to me again.
That was when I noticed a strange stone in the middle of the firepit. Shivers of intuition erupted across my flesh the second my eyes landed on it, and I knew this was the reason I needed to come here.
“What is that stone?” I asked Darragh.
“It is a teine ceangal. Five were given to the aes sídhe by a fire god called Elius long ago. It is used by the Sua to communicate at a distance,” explained the shifter.
“Five,” I repeated, my skin rippling with awareness and my pulse hammering with adrenaline as the Unseen, the All-knowing, abruptly moved close. Close enough to touch me. To share breath with me.
Only four. Now only four, the flames whispered with hissing and crackling voices within my mind.
“And what happened to the fifth stone?” I asked.
Darragh was silent behind me, and he looked shocked when I glanced back at him over my shoulder.
“How do you know something happened to it?”
“The flames whispered it to me. Please keep talking about the stone,” I urged him. He appeared skeptical as he glanced at the fire but nodded in agreement.
“Each stone belongs to a tribe. When Rian’s people were destroyed by the Fuath, their stone was lost.”
Not lost. Not lost.
“You are sure it is lost?” I pressed him.
“No one has gone to look for it yet, since it is almost impossible for anyone but aes sídhe to use it, but it is not in the hands of the Sua anymore,” Darragh clarified.
Enemy ears. Enemy eyes, hissed the flames with such urgency that I shivered from the dread of the warning.
“How… would someone else use it?”
“It would require someone to be able to touch it while it is in the fire,” Darragh answered with concern.
Enemy ears! Enemy eyes! Enemy! Enemy! Enemy!
The flames chanted with such vehemence that I had to close my eyes and breathe through my growing alarm. Then I looked down at the stone in the firepit, which now felt like a viper in disguise that was poised to strike.
“It has been compromised,” I whispered.
“Compromised? You think someone else is listening?” Darragh confirmed in disbelief.
“I know it,” I stated confidently, and without thinking, I bent forward to reach for the channelling stone.
Someone shouted at me and moved so quickly toward me that I shrank instinctively in fear of further assault.
I hated that reaction. The one where I lost all control of myself and dropped to the ground on my backside to cover my head. My breath sawed in and out of me so hard that my lungs burned, I felt dizzy, and my head pounded.
Luckily, Darragh had intercepted the aes sídhe female before she could reach me. Now she was standing next to him and staring down at me in confusion as I tentatively lifted my head. I saw a baby strapped to her chest and a male stood behind her with a child on his shoulders.
“Shay,” Darragh greeted her calmly even as he firmly pushed her out of kicking distance of me for which I was immensely thankful. She did not seem to notice as her nostrils flared while she took in my scent.
“Is she human?” sneered the female in utter disgust, switching to the dialect of Gaelic I could understand.
“This is Nuala. Rian brought her here to—”
“And why was she reaching for the teine ceangal?” Shay snapped at him, and I had to admit, I was impressed she could yell at a demidragon.
“I realize that Rian thinks he can use our home as a dumping ground for all manner of riffraff. But contrary to what he seems to believe, he is not actually our leader, and we are not beholden to his every little desire!”
“Shay—” the male behind her attempted to speak.
“No! This is ridiculous! First he sent us a dryad and now a human? What will be next? Witches?”
I squeezed my eyes shut on a sudden flash of a vision, the disturbing image of this same female on her knees and pleading for the lives of her children…
“I am sorry to hear you feel this way, my dear cousin,” said Rian suddenly, and I jolted to attention just in time to see him reaching for me.
I breathed out a sigh of relief once he had me standing against him and wrapped up in his arms. With my head pressed against his chest, I turned my face slightly to peer at Shay who seemed much less brazen now that she was faced with Rian himself.
“I did not… realize you were here,” she admitted with a sheepish grimace. “You never come home.”
“Well, I am here now, although I wish it were under different circumstances. We can discuss the concerns you raised later, but for right now, I suggest you and Verin join me in the yurt with your parents.”
“Not until you tell me who she is and why she was meddling with my mother’s teine ceangal,” Shay insisted, her eyes narrowing again on me.
Rian stiffened, and at first I thought he was upset at me for poking around something precious to their people. But then he squeezed me tight, and I knew otherwise.
“Her name is Nuala, and you will not speak unkindly to her again,” he advised his cousin who blinked in shock at his stern tone. “You need the teine ceangal?” he added much more gently as he tilted his head to address me.
“It is compromised,” I whispered, lifting my head off his chest to watch as his concern devolved into anger.
“By the Fuath? How?” he asked me.
“I cannot be sure who it is exactly, but it is someone.”
“What are you talking about?” Shay demanded.
“Nuala is a Seer,” Rian informed her, and I could not help but smirk at her when she realized that I was in fact not just a human.
But before she could even open her mouth to demand how Rian could dare bring a witch home, another woman rushed into the camp. She was holding her side as if she had a cramp from running so hard and fast.
“Rian, tell me it isn’t true!” she gasped breathlessly.
“Orlaith—” Rian began in earnest.
“He’s not gone! Tell me it’s not true!” she shouted as her face contorted in pure anguish.
I was right; word of our arrival and the likely reasons for it were spreading through the camp fast.
“Who is gone?” Shay asked as her head turned back to Rian with wide eyes. “My father?” she guessed anxiously, but then the colour drained from her face. “Sage?”
“He is not dead,” Rian tried to reassure both women. “He was taken captive by the—”
Shay made a horrified sound as she turned away and covered her face with her hands. The male who had been standing behind her stepped forward to hug her while the child on his shoulders stared at us in confused horror.
“And what is being done to get him back?” the pretty blonde asked once she caught her breath. She strode over to put a comforting hand on Shay’s shaking back, but her anguished eyes were on Rian.
“We will get him back, Orlaith. There are—”
“You were supposed to be keeping him safe, Rian!” Shay cried, and I felt him stiffen when she turned around to glower at him with teary eyes. “You are supposed to be all-powerful so how could you let this happen?”
“I know that, Shay. And I will do all that I can—”
“This was not his fault!” I interrupted, too furious to remain quiet. I did not care if she was grieving. I knew how much guilt and grief Rian was already choking down over Sage, and I would not allow her to pile more on.
“Nuala—” Rian began to protest my defense.
“No! She doesn’t get to blame you without knowing the facts when all you have done is try to protect people, and she has done nothing!
” I maintained furiously. I felt almost feral as I squirmed in his hold to get turned around so I could face Sage’s sister.
“Rian almost died fighting Sylvan Elves to try and protect Sage!” I shouted at them.
I saw their faces drain of colour before Rian wrapped his arms around me to lift me off my feet and turned me away from Shay. I might have continued to fight, but the fire went out of me the instant his lips pressed against my ear as he spoke softly to me.
“Nuala, I can take it,” he whispered.
“Maybe so, but you shouldn’t have to!” I insisted as he set me back on my feet again.
“This is part of being a leader. When people are upset or scared, they need someone to blame,” he assured me.
He released me before I could respond just as Darragh appeared in front of me. The shifter raised his brows in a way that suggested he was either impressed or amused.
“Time to go,” he told me.
I nodded reluctantly and glanced over my shoulder to see that Rian had walked over to the fire to retrieve the teine ceangal. The moment he pulled the red-hot stone from the fire with heat resistant hands, its colour began to fade until it looked like an orb made of black glass.
I could tell Shay wanted to protest, but thankfully for her own sake, she bit her tongue this time because she had exhausted all of my patience.
“We need to borrow the stone if we are to discover who is listening to the Sua,” Rian told his moody cousin.
“Take it,” said another voice, drawing my attention to where Carrick and his wife were now standing in front of their tent. Sage’s mother was clearly devastated, but she raised her chin in determination. “Get answers, Rian.”
Rian inclined his head in thanks to his aunt and then held out a hand to me, which I took eagerly. He conjured a portal to take us home and tugged me with him toward it. I was obviously not the only one eager to get away.
Although I did not resist the urge to shoot a venomous glare at Shay just before we disappeared.
She was just another bully, and I hated bullies.