Chapter 29 REFUSE TO COMPROMISE
Chapter twenty-nine
REFUSE TO COMPROMISE
Ornella
“I… hate… you!” I panted between the clashes of swords while I tried to fend off Ciaran, but he was just too fast! He gave me another painful swat on my outer thigh with the flat side of his blade when I failed to block him.
I might hate how utterly ruthless he had been with my training, but he was exceptionally talented at many forms of hand-to-hand combat.
And he had offered to teach me self-defense so that if I were given chuka again, I could protect myself without my magic.
I appreciated that more than I could ever allow myself to articulate to him.
“That means I am doing my job,” Ciaran taunted with that arrogant smirk.
It had been several days since Rian took over the city during which I had been shadowing Ciaran and Darragh.
We had a wonderful little routine down in which Ciaran practically dragged me out of my bed to train all morning, fed me lunch, and left me at the bathhouse.
Darragh took me from there to the city where I had been making myself useful in the deplorable conditions of the city hospitals.
Rian had made it very clear that his takeover needed to dramatically increase the standards of living for the city’s poorest and most numerous inhabitants.
I was sure it was because he genuinely cared, but I could also understand the politics behind making the people welcome him rather than organize against him. Less violence. Less death.
After my afternoon in the city were all the meetings.
Rian wanted a complete debrief every night from literally everyone involved.
I had to listen to hours of them talking about food supplies, trade routes, border security, taxes, training new recruits, scouting reports, negotiations with Nabeene, and a hundred other things.
I would be asked to tell them how many people I’d healed that day and what supplies were required in the hospitals.
Then I went back to stifling my yawns and occasionally growing acorns in my palm to flick at Ciaran.
“How was Nuala last night?” Ciaran asked as I caught my breath from our skirmish. He asked it gruffly, as if he didn’t want to, but he asked about her every single day.
“She still is not saying much. She eats and sleeps and does her… meditation thing with the fire. éadrom never leaves her side,” I advised him.
Ciaran seemed pensive as he whirled the handle of his blade through his fingers with enviable skill.
“Will he really reject her?” I blurted before he could bring up his other favourite topic: Amira’s letter and my intentions with it.
I was not yet certain I wanted to read her words before we went to take her captive.
There was a part of me that feared it might rock my already-shaky resolve to use her.
So I did my best to avoid his questions about the letter that lay unopened under my pillow.
“Rian is stubborn, and he has always had reservations about relationships and commitments,” admitted Ciaran, effortlessly changing the direction of his whirling blade. “Even in long-term relationships like what he had with your brother. I honestly don’t know what he will do.”
Fuck. I could not imagine what I would do if Sage had rejected me. I was not sure if Dowrra mating bonds were similar to those of anam, but I assumed they were.
“It is just… She is a Seer, and she was so certain that they would be together. Was she so wrong?” I asked him. Because if she could be wrong about something like that, then how could we trust anything she predicted?
Ciaran was pensive as he glanced over at the sundial on the grass to check the time.
“Rian is extremely possessive,” he began tentatively. “But keeping Nuala close is not the same as committing himself to her,” he pointed out.
My jaw dropped when I recalled Nuala’s insinuation that she wanted to try and avoid all the especially painful barriers that lay ahead of them. And I wondered if she had meant Rian’s stubbornness and his possessiveness.
“Fuck,” I muttered, but I could see it. For a moment in the tent after Nuala said she wanted to leave, I thought he might become aggressive and force her to stay there.
“Any luck summoning your armour?” Ciaran inquired as he began putting away the training equipment since we were the last people on the field as usual. My armour was his third favourite topic, which he also tended to bring up every godsdamned day with me.
“No progress,” I sighed as I handed him my wooden practice sword to put away. But he hesitated and looked at me with that pensive frown that I had learned to beware. “What now?” I asked him nervously.
“I do not remember it taking so long,” he admitted.
“Maybe it is because I am not initiated.”
“Maybe it is because you are not trying hard enough,” he retorted, and my ears flattened as I glared a warning.
“I am trying!”
“You could be using the time in Rian’s debriefing to explore that link. Rather than amusing yourself by tossing acorns at me all evening,” he pointed out drolly.
“Because every single second of every single day must be accounted for and spent productively,” I mocked him, making my voice deep and haughty.
Ciaran glared at me, but I was undeterred.
“I understand you are some kind of masochist with this fucking training regimen and running around to meetings! But I have had too many people try to cut me up into pieces that fit their idea of what I need to be, and I am done with that. So I will train with you because I feel it is important, but do not try to demand more from me than I am willing to give,” I maintained.
He stood staring down at me with his arms crossed and that pensive frown still creasing his forehead for another moment before he nodded.
“You are heard,” he relented, and I released the breath that I’d been holding.
I had not realized how anxious it had made me to risk disrupting the comfortable dynamic we had somehow managed to find together.
But I should have perhaps known the aes sídhe male would respect my boundaries. “We have a meeting,” he added.
I almost tripped over my own feet as I stepped forward to follow him into his portal. I had managed to forget that we were not going into the city today. Instead, we were going to the war tent for yet another meeting with Rian, only this one included all the Sua. It included Asha.
I had not seen Sage’s mother since she learned that her son was taken. The thought of facing her had made me so anxious the night before that I risked Rian’s dismal mood for some cneasú before bed.
Steadying myself with a deep breath, I walked into the portal and emerged outside the war tent with Ciaran.
“You alright?” he asked, and I nodded reluctantly as his portal closed behind. The guards opened the curtained doorway before us, and I followed Ciaran inside.
The room was even more crowded than it usually was, but it was a familiar sea of tanned and tattooed skin and lithe bodies clothed in fur and leather.
The aes sídhe all parted to let us through, many of them greeting us with solemn nods and murmured words.
And I even saw Faela whom I had not seen since before Aes Suri was attacked.
She smiled and nodded at me when she caught my eye.
I stayed close to Ciaran who led me to a corner of the yurt where Darragh seemed to be hiding after portalling all the aes sídhe there for the meeting. It did not look as if Rian had arrived yet.
“Well?” Ciaran prompted him. It had not escaped my notice that they seemed to speak aloud more rather than keep conversations private between riders.
“They are already fuming. They did not appreciate that he summoned them here,” the dragon advised, and Ciaran grunted in understanding as he gazed around the room.
“This won’t be pretty,” I guessed, and they both shook their heads without looking away from all the disgruntled aes sídhe villagers. I was about to ask if they thought Rian was up to this conversation right now, since he was rather ornery at the moment, but I saw Ciaran frown slightly.
I followed his gaze toward a small group of aes sídhe females at the edge of the crowd.
I was unsure what had drawn his attention at first, but then I recognized Orlaith.
And she was sobbing so hard she was losing her breath while two other females tried to comfort her.
My ears pricked up instinctively to make sure that everything was alright with her, and I regretted it immediately.
“—still cannot believe he is gone. He never would have been taken if he would have just stayed home! I am afraid that I should have fought harder,” she was crying to her friends who tried to hush and soothe her.
I could tell from the dmirr tusks stretching both of their earlobes that the two strange females were from the Aes Rurrinn tribe.
Orlaith probably hadn’t seen them in some time, and she was sharing about what happened to Sage.
But my indignation still spiked at her delusive words, and it made my scalp prickle with rage.
What the fuck did she mean that she should have fought harder?
Sage had made it clear he would not leave the Hunt, so she was out of her mind if she thought there was ever a chance of any other outcome for them.
And besides, she was mated to someone else, and Sage was mine.
Not only that, but how dare she feel entitled to such a public display of grief over my fucking mate when I couldn’t even let myself feel it?
When I had to fight against falling apart every fucking night because I needed to focus on bringing him home!
I was moving toward her without a second thought, incensed beyond any reason by her display. But a hand snagged me by one antler and jerked my head back before I’d taken a second step. Ciaran didn’t even say anything as he tugged me back to his side again.
“He is not hers to fight for. Why the fuck is she—”