Chapter 36 HE DOES NOT LIE #2
“Amira,” breathed Orion in warning. We did not need to be able to communicate mentally for me to understand his concern. The whole reason that we agreed to provide sanctuary to Balor was to keep him out of Rian’s hands in case the Autumn Prince wanted to consume his power.
“What will you do with them?” I asked and hoped that these new instincts from Orion would help me know if the Autumn Prince lied right to my face.
“I will do what should have been done centuries ago. Take his power and pass it to Aisling,” Rian answered, echoing the same sentiments from Ornella’s letter without hesitation.
And gods damn him, there was no trace of any deception or malice in his eyes or voice; he was either a very good liar or he was truthful.
“And what if she doesn’t want to be the queen?”
“She has no choice. Our people need new monarchs or we will continue to decline. Each of the monarchs must be renewed, and I will not stop until I have done that,” Rian reassured me. The truth again.
“How do I know you will not keep the power?”
“I could not even if I had any desire for more power than I am already cursed with. The most I could do would be to sip a small amount of his power, which he would easily replenish. But to take on the mantle of a fey king? That kind of power is in the blood.”
That kind of power is in the blood.
I blinked at him as his words jogged the memory of Hypatia’s words. Was it a sign to trust him?
“You do not crave more power?”
“Darling, if I could give what I have away to someone who would not end the Four Courts with it, then I would,” Rian informed me with a humourless smirk. “I am more of a lover than a villain; although I have never been afraid to be villainous when it proves necessary.”
Before I could stop myself, I glanced across the tent toward Ornella, who stood next to the grumpy blond man with her arms crossed. She met my gaze and rolled her eyes with one of her typically dramatic sighs.
“He does not lie. It’s annoying.”
Rian remained serious although his mouth curved with the threat of a smile at one corner.
“Give the miserable traitor to me, and I will even spare your precious king,” he suggested when I began to chew my lip with my indecision.
Now that was an offer that I could not refuse.
“Done.”
“Amira!” Orion hissed at me.
“For Riordan. Done,” I insisted to Rian.
“His safety is only guaranteed as long as the king does not threaten my family again,” Rian cautioned me firmly, and I nodded in agreement.
“And what… about the recompense for Sage?” I asked hesitantly. The Wild Hunt undoubtedly felt that Riordan was responsible for the rider’s death. So I imagined this would be a more personally demanding price to pay.
Sure enough, Rian’s eyes hardened again in accusation as his eyes shifted between me and Orion.
“Do you know what they wanted with him?” he asked, his voice a deadly rumble.
“No,” I admitted honestly and shook my head.
“Did you even think to ask them?” Ornella butted in, her voice shaking with fury. “Did you not stop to wonder whether they might want to fucking hurt him?”
“She did ask them! She had concerns,” Orion spoke up in my defense, but Ornella merely scoffed at him.
“Sylvan Elves are not supposed to come to the mortal plane and interfere here, but I will not be taken off guard by them again,” Rian advised me significantly.
He wanted to know whether he should expect more interference from the elves, but I hesitated to tell him the truth that the Sylvan could only come once.
There was no denying that they might make a nice deterrent if Rian had any aspirations of conquering the Vale.
But despite every reason not to, I actually believed him when he said that all he wanted was for his people to be safe.
And if we were going to build trust between the Vale and Autumn Court, then we were going to have to start with honesty.
“It was a one-time deal,” I admitted.
“And yet their bright shields continue to block your realm from my Seer,” Rian mused suspiciously.
“That is… I suppose that is a lasting boon of our first bargain with them,” I guessed, and Rian hummed as his eyes flickered over both of us in resentment.
“I should drag you both before Riordan and force him to watch me drain the life out of you,” he admitted with a viciousness that belied his beautiful smile.
“But as much pleasure as I would take in that, it would only incite even more bloodshed. We need to bring peace and unity to the fey realms so we can finally turn our attention to the war that really matters.”
“If it is peace you want, then taking us was a mistake. Riordan will be coming here for us,” Orion told Rian before I could ask what war really mattered.
“He has been given the message that if he comes here or makes any more deals with fey monarchs, then I will flay the flesh off both your bones,” Rian assured him.
I shivered at the promise that rang with the same truth with which he had informed me that he would give up all of his power to someone else if he could.
“Then what is the recompense for the Light Wraith?” Orion demanded, and I realized that Rian had not actually named his price for that. But I found that I knew what he would say before he even spoke the words.
You must lose love to gain the forgiveness that will save your world.
“No,” I whispered.
“One of you must stay here as my guest until I have renewed all the monarchs. To ensure that Riordan does not move against another fey realm,” Rian maintained.
I looked at Orion who had paled as he glanced at me.
“You do not know my king. He does not respond well to his family being threatened either,” Orion hedged.
“That is only the first part. You must also help us get Sage back,” Rian added to me solemnly.
“Get him back? But I thought he was—”
“He is not,” Ornella interrupted as if she could not bear to hear me say the word. “I still feel him,” she added as her arms tightened around her shoulders.
I knew skiá could not hear each other across worlds, but anam were apparently like one soul. She could feel him even from wherever the Sylvan had taken him.
“How am I supposed to help with that?”
“You tell me,” Rian insisted. “How did you manage to make contact with the Sylvan in the first place?”
The stars will answer if you beckon to them with the one whose thread is split in two.
But mind the darkness does not swallow the stars…
I looked over at Ornella, clearly the one whose thread had been split, and knew what I had to do.
“I can take Ornella to the portal that we used.”
“Where?” she demanded, stepping toward me as if she would drag me there immediately.
“Spring Quadrant. In the Silver Moor,” I answered. “The portal appeared to us there. But we were warned about the consequences of Shadow consuming the Light. He cannot come with us,” I added with a nod at Rian.
Rian sighed. “I have no interest in anything—”
“Not your shadow. The Destroyer,” I clarified firmly, and there was silence as they absorbed my chilling words. But Rian’s obvious discomfort at the mere mention of this entity made me feel much better that he took it seriously. And he was clearly not in league with such evil.
He raised his eyes to Ornella who stalked forward to stand anxiously over where he knelt with me. She was on the balls of her bare feet and ready to go and get Sage.
“How will you make them give him back?” he asked her with genuine concern.
“Oh, you know me, Rian. I have a way with words.”
“And we are doomed,” muttered the blond with a sigh, earning himself an offended glare from Ornella.
Before they could bicker any more, the tent flap parted around the final rider. The one who looked like an angel with silvery hair, fair skin that glowed as if with an inner brilliance, and eyes that shimmered like opals.
Behind him, I was shocked to see a mortal woman. Another fire witch according to my magic, which flared in recognition of her. Although she was unlike any other witch that I had ever seen before with dark wavy hair that was streaked with red and mismatched eyes: one blue and one amber like mine.
“Darragh,” Rian spoke to the man, clearly not happy at their arrival in the tent. I got the sense that he was being protective of the woman when he rose at her approach.
“She wanted to come, and I was not going to stop her,” Darragh explained himself with a shrug.
“Of course I had to come the moment I sensed there was another witch here,” the woman said to Rian as she strode by him to look down at me.
Those eyes were rather unsettling, but she was actually very beautiful as she tilted her head down at me.
“Well, you are an interesting find, daughter of ambition and mutiny,” she mused in intrigue.
“Although you still reek terribly of Atropos.”
“You can… What?” I blurted in shock at her words, unsure where to even begin unpacking what she had said. Daughter of ambition and mutiny?
“Her greedy fingers have been all over your essence, plucking and strumming to listen to the tunes of your fate. My Sight is much less invasive,” she reassured me.
“That is debatable,” muttered Ornella with a smirk at the blond man who merely bit his lip to hide a smile.
“So there are different kinds of… Sight?” I verified, still in shock that she could evidently sense the touch of another Seer on me. One who had neglected to mention that we would be under attack less than an hour later.
Although…
Your enemies are closing in, and your path diverges suddenly in the most painful of ways.
Yeah. Maybe I should have taken that more literally.
“Of course. There are as many kinds of Sight as there are gods who gift it to us,” the witch revealed.
“Who… What is your name?” I asked her haltingly.
“This is Nuala,” Rian answered as he raised a hand to rest possessively on her back.
To my surprise, the witch turned her face up toward him with narrowed eyes before she drifted by both of us to approach where Orion knelt.
“There is magic… festering on you,” she noted with intrigue as her head tilted curiously. She began to squat, and all the riders, including Rian, shifted closer. The vines tightened all over Orion until he could barely breathe.
“Please don’t hurt him!” I blurted. I knew, logically, that they were all just ensuring he could not harm Nuala, but it still scared me.
Nuala glanced at me with raised brows before looking back at Orion with realization.
“Mates,” she said with a sadness that seemed to make Rian recoil from her.
But it didn’t stop him from standing threateningly over Orion as she knelt down in front of my bound mate.
I tensed as her hands rose, hovering inches above his head before they moved slowly down until they paused above his arms. She hummed as she reached for his forearm guards, which made him try to jolt away.
Before I had blinked, Rian had a blade to his throat. “No! Please… Don’t hurt him,” I choked out.
“I do not care what bargains we make, know that I will not hesitate to spill every drop of your blood right now if you harm Nuala,” Rian warned Orion.
I could not breathe as I waited for Orion to nod slowly. And this time he held still as Nuala unlaced his guards to uncover his mutilated arms and slave brands.
“What are those?” hissed the blond who leaned over Orion to see what had gotten Nuala’s attention.
“The mark of an unwanted master,” Nuala answered, brows pinched as she examined the brands on my mate.
“She was never my master!” Orion hissed resentfully. And I could tell that it was taking every ounce of his willpower not to yank his arms away from them.
Nuala seemed oblivious to his rage and the proximity of all the riders standing protectively over her. Her pretty face began to harden the longer she stared at the brands. Like she could see what they meant. I wondered if she could also see what had been done to him as a child.
“The person who did this to you… they do it to many children,” she said. It was not a question but a statement, and then she looked up at Rian beseechingly, which made the Autumn Prince smirk at her.
“You destroyed all your monsters, and now you wish to destroy those of others as well?” he guessed.
“There is no room for such monsters,” she insisted as she returned her attention to the brands on Orion’s skin.
She slipped her hands up his arms so that her thumbs smoothed over the brands.
It made him tense in absolute revulsion at first, but then he slackened in shock.
I knew the reason a second later when I saw an oily vapour rising from his skin and being absorbed by the witch’s thumbs.
Within seconds, those vile brands had disappeared from his skin, which left only the scars he had inflicted upon himself by blade and fire behind.
“Rian may still decide to kill you, but I could never let anyone die whilst their body is still tainted with the name of their abuser,” Nuala explained herself. She sat back on her heels while Orion sat gaping down at his arms.
“How did you—” he stuttered.
“The only way to dissolve the magic was to consume its essence. Only Rian or I could have done it for you,” she informed him with a glance back at me as if she knew that I’d be feeling guilty that I could not help him.
“Nuala,” Rian reprimanded her, but she merely shot a glare at him as I realized what she had just revealed.
“You are Dowrra!” I blurted, my eyes darting to Rian whose jaw ticced with a telling anger. “He’s your mate!”