Chapter 50 THE ESSENCE OF AUTUMN
Chapter fifty
THE ESSENCE OF AUTUMN
Nuala
Iwas in a horrible place that reminded me terribly of my own dark prison filled with unspeakable pain. Only this place felt more like a labyrinth in which every hallway was a strand in a web that formed some kind of hive mind woven with blood magic.
I could have wandered in that place forever and never found anything. So I put my hands on the walls to try and get a sense of how to get to the middle where I was most likely to find the one who had created this hellscape.
The second I tried to spread my consciousness through the labyrinth, it was like the walls had sensed an intruder and began to converge upon me.
The air grew too thin for me to breathe, and I was abruptly forced to crouch down as I was confined in a tiny stone box.
The earth was cold and wet with decaying leaves and mushrooms beneath my bare feet.
The stone was rough and unyielding above and around me with patches of browning moss.
I might have succumbed to claustrophobia, but I knew it was not real. This place was not real.
Even if she could very much hurt my real body here.
“Bandruí!” hissed that chillingly familiar voice that made my skin crawl, but I held my ground.
“Yes, I have returned,” I answered. I did not speak her dialect of Sìth Gaeilge, but I could understand her in this place that was shaped by her will. Her meaning was in the stone and in the earth and in the very air.
Queen Aoibheal hissed long and lowly as she drew so near that I could feel her hot breath on the back of my neck through the stone.
“I have been waiting for you, little Seer,” she boasted. “Your mind will be mine. What a perfect weapon you will make against your would-be usurper.”
I felt her claws scraping along the outer walls of my mind in a cruel taunt. I knew that she could rip me open at any second, but she wanted to savour my fear first.
“He is going to consume you, Aoibheal,” I assured her, and the claws began to dig in until I felt the blood rolling down my scalp.
“I know what you are to him. He will not risk harming me if it means harming you,” the Autumn Queen retorted before her claws began piercing through my skull.
I gritted my teeth, breathing in through my nose to try and alleviate the agony as I let her seep into my mind in her attempts to steal it from me.
“You know what I am… to him,” I acknowledged as she drew deeper and deeper and closer to where I needed her to come. “But do you know… what he is to me?”
I felt her hesitate as if she realized this could be a trap before she tried to pull back a little. So I closed the doors of my mind behind her to keep her locked inside with me, and then I unleashed Rian’s ruthless power upon her.
“He is everything,” I snarled in disgust that she could think I’d ever allow myself to be used against my mate.
Queen Aoibheal screeched in fury and pain. I did not get much of a taste of her before she yanked herself away and thrust me out of her labyrinth. Such a violent exit shattered the mind of the mage through which I’d come.
But it had been enough.
The Fuath convulsed while I regained consciousness, and then it flopped to the ground. Rian still stood over me looking furious with his hand on my head. He had already healed the cuts Queen Aoibheal made on my scalp.
“Did you find her?” he asked hopefully, just as a roar made me turn toward the east. My mouth fell open at the sight of a silver dragon hovering over that red-and-green shield, which was about to shatter under his barrage.
“Nuala?” Rian prompted urgently, and I whipped my eyes back to my mate.
“Yes,” I reassured him with a grin just as the shield shattered with a resounding boom and crackle of magic. “But you will need to trust me for what comes next.”
Ornella
There was an army of fucking Draugr in the eastern field.
And though we outnumbered them, as descendants of the goddess Hel and inheritors of her death touch, they were the most powerful creatures in Autumn.
I was uncertain whether our army could battle them when the Wild Hunt was not at full strength.
Unless the fight could be waged solely by Rian and Darragh, who landed heavily in front of the Draugr and roared at them.
But any hope of that quickly dwindled once I noticed the figure standing at the head of the company of undead warriors. None of whom flinched before the dragon.
I had never before seen Draugr as they were reclusive even before their queen became too weak to fully rule the Autumn Court.
I certainly had never met the son and heir of Queen Aoibheal.
But I knew that the ram horns curling elegantly backward over that male’s head crowned him as royal blooded among his people.
Which meant he was Prince Caelan…
“Fuck,” I hissed in disbelief and squinted harder at the opposing army.
Draugr were taller than I’d expected and slender with greyish-green skin and hair that looked like it was strewn with the fine ends of tree roots.
They remind me a little of griffins with long, slender tails and leather wings that had hooked claws at the joints.
Their armour was covered in mushrooms and lichen and seemed to be made from roots and bone.
Their scent of decaying leaves and frozen earth permeated the battlefield with a potent dread.
I heard Sage mutter a curse as the fey behind us began to murmur in uncertainty of whether or not they should bow before their prince.
“Stand up!” Ciaran shouted when someone decided to prostrate themselves. Sage let me go to turn and help his brother bring order to the ranks again.
“Aoibheal may be your queen in name! But I will not bow to anyone who attacks their own court with monsters and blood magic. Will you?” he shouted in a challenge.
His question was treasonous, so I was greatly relieved when a chorus of agreement rang back to him.
I turned toward the Draugr again as Sage and Ciaran began issuing new orders to ensure the injured continued to be taken to healers. I vaguely heard them conversing with the surviving commanders as they reassigned units and discussed joining with the rest of the army.
But I focused on the portal that had appeared in front of the Draugr from which Rian and Nuala stepped.
Rian
Prince Caelan Den Lasair Shíoraí stood ahead and slightly apart from the rest of his infamous battalion known as the Caomhnóirí.
Each of the winged Draugr warriors stood at least a foot taller than me and smelled of the very essence of late autumn: of decay and the deep sleep before winter.
While most of their kind were nearly indistinguishable, Caelan was set apart by his ram horns.
Draugr were not welcoming of strangers, so it was rare to receive an invitation to the Palace of Eternal Flame.
But before opposing Queen Aoibheal, I had often acted as an ambassador for her, which meant that I’d socialized with more Draugr than most other fey.
And during all that time in their stronghold, I even managed to charm and befriend their beloved but elusive prince.
Caelan could not be more different from his mother.
While Queen Aoibheal made no secret of her aversion to me being called the Autumn Prince, Caelan had always been good natured about me effectively stealing his title.
She was ambitious, ruthless, conniving, and imperious, while he was quiet and introspective.
He preferred to take his time to observe and contemplate everything carefully.
He had always had the bearing of royalty.
Even if he was more interested in plying me with dandelion root wine and listening to tales from my latest travels rather than speaking about politics.
But there was no trace of that easy smile or laughter on his face now.
Those hooded and downturned eyes were distinctly catlike with slitted pupils that constricted even more with his anger as we approached.
Even the shape of his thin mouth, the broad bridge of his nose, and the flat planes of his face were very feline in appearance.
I could feel Darragh looming as a menacing presence behind me, and I could sense the other riders trying to push their thoughts at me, but I resisted the intrusions.
Stay with the army, I instructed them, and then I muted the bonds with them in order to focus.
“Prince Caelan,” I greeted him once Nuala and I had stopped in front of the stoic male.
It was treasonous not to bow to court royalty, and yet, such deference seemed impossible when he had failed to protect and prioritize his subjects. Still, I managed to tilt my head because in spite of my disappointment with him, Caelan was necessary for the prosperity of Ahnnaòin.
“Rian DorTìodhlac,” he responded with such distaste in his deep and rasping voice that I was offended.
“You finally sought me out after all these long years, and yet you seem displeased to see me,” I noted.
His slender tail lashed while his wings curled tighter toward his spine, but his cold expression betrayed nothing more of his rising temper.
“You cannot be surprised that I have not been fond of you since you threatened our queen,” he ground out.
“Ah, yes,” I pretended to recall the day he referenced. “You mean when she refused to do what was necessary to reverse the blight infecting our court.”
I should have taken her power then and forced it upon Caelan whether he was ready or not. But I had given her time to decide for herself in the hopes my friend could convince his mother to do what was best for her court.
They had all gone into hiding instead.