Chapter 51
Chapter fifty-one
MIONN NA SíOCHáNA
Nuala
They were speaking too fast in that ancient dialect for me to catch everything they were saying, but I did perfectly comprehend Rian’s demand to see Queen Aoibheal.
I listened as there were murmurs among the feline and bat-like warriors that had been so still and silent until then that they could have been statues. Then I watched as Prince Caelan smiled and stepped back with his palms hovering over the earth between him and Rian.
“I invoke Mionn na Síochána,” he declared in a deep, raspy voice that was at once chilling and entrancing.
I sucked in a breath and held it as the oblong circle of gleaming red runes from my vision appeared out of the trampled grass. The heat from the magic seared the green turf until a ring of bare and charred earth was left around the glowing symbols.
Darragh rumbled anxiously behind us, but neither of us paid him any attention as Rian released me and stepped over the runes and into the circle.
I winced in sympathy for him when he hissed in a sharp breath and tensed as the magic in the circle began to seep into him.
I looked down expectantly and saw a smaller circle of runes had formed around his feet, just as it had in my vision.
It meant that if he used his magic, the circle would punish him for it.
We waited in an unbearable silence until the ground just behind Caelan began to crumble.
I held my breath as a hole formed from which a heavy fog began to drift, carrying the scent of death.
Not like the mildly appealing smell of a damp forest floor, which wafted off Caelan and his warriors. Something was rotting inside that hole.
After a tense heartbeat, a skeletal arm shot out to brace against the ground, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
But I managed to stand my ground while an emaciated creature with tattered wings and tarnished horns climbed out of the hole.
She was vaguely feminine in a dress that was created from spiderwebs and mossy bark.
But in her decrepit state, there was very little left of whatever beauty she might have once possessed.
Queen Aoibheal moved as if all her joints had seized, and every step made a clicking sound as she hobbled over to Caelan. All of the Draugr, including the prince, bowed deeply in her direction.
I was compelled to do the same even though I hated this creature to the depths of my soul.
I thought nothing could be as potent and overwhelming as the aura of the Undead Prince.
But even as diminished as she’d become, Queen Aoibheal was still powerful.
I could feel her magic like a heavy vapour sitting in my lungs and throbbing in my temples.
My ears were ringing, and the discomfort of her presence made me ache to scratch my own skin raw.
There was another moment of uncomfortable silence in which Queen Aoibheal seemed to be waiting for Rian to bow to her, but he refused. She glared at him and at the dragon when Darragh made a deep chuffing sound.
And then her hateful eyes fell upon me.
“I know she possesses your power,” she hissed at Rian as if she thought he was attempting to trick her. “Step into the circle, bandruí,” she added and curled her lip at me.
I expected her demand, so I ignored Rian’s growl of objection and did not hesitate to step over the runes to stand next to him again.
I was so used to pain that I had hoped to enter the circle with the same grace as my mate.
But the sensation of fire searing through my veins was not something I could have prepared for.
It was only years of learning to dissociate through torture that allowed me to hold in anguished screams. The urge to retreat was nearly undeniable, but I knew one could not leave once they had been anchored by the circle.
Thankfully, after a moment, the magic seemed to settle in my blood and the pain became more bearable.
“Nuala,” whispered Rian, and I nodded that I was fine, realizing that he was holding me up against his side.
“She is rather tough for a mortal,” Caelan remarked to my mate with grudging respect, but Rian ignored him.
“It could have killed you,” he hissed to me.
I grunted in acknowledgment as I raised my eyes and returned the cold glare that was being levelled at me by Queen Aoibheal.
I held her stare until she finally deigned to join us in the rune circle.
I had hoped it would hurt her as much as it hurt me, but she merely grimaced in what seemed like a mild discomfort.
“I hear you have grievances to discuss,” she smirked, her tone making a mockery of all that she had done.
“Indeed,” growled Rian. His arm was still around me, and I wished it were not necessary, but I knew I was too likely to collapse without his physical support. But he still looked at her directly before he spoke. “You used blood magic to attack my people with an army of Fuath.”
I glanced hopefully at Caelan. He was so inhuman that it was difficult to gauge his expression.
But from the way he stared at his mother, I could tell that he was waiting to see if she would confirm the accusation.
Perhaps that was even why he had agreed to this meeting, so he could learn the truth of what she had done.
“You should have anticipated such consequences for your loved ones,” Queen Aoibheal goaded Rian with the most malicious smile I had ever seen.
I saw Caelan clench his fists as he looked away to hide whatever emotions might have crossed his face, and that was all I’d needed to see.
I had no intention of allowing Aoibheal to continue to take cheap shots at my mate. We were in the circle now, right where I wanted us, and Caelan had proof of all that Rian had informed him about. It was time to act.
“You are a mockery of fey power,” I spoke up before Rian could respond to Aoibheal’s cruel jab.
She seemed surprised by the casual disrespect, and the Draugr behind her began to fidget in uncertainty of how to respond to a mortal witch insulting their queen.
“It is no wonder the blight has spread as much as it has when you are so… unimpressive,” I continued.
Rian put a hand on my back that I knew was meant to caution me, but my gaze stayed locked on the queen who was beginning to vibrate with her rising anger.
I should have been too terrified to anger such an ancient creature.
But I found I was actually rather amused that she could be so easily incited.
“You are nothing, and yet, you presume to insult me?” Aoibheal shrieked in pure outrage. “You will return to the earth long before I even think of you again, mortal!”
“We shall see about that,” I smirked before I began to draw on my magic hard and fast. The red runes at my feet all lit up in a warning that was much too late.
“Nuala, no!” Rian tried to stop me, but I had already unleashed a blast of fire magic that was far more powerful than any mortal should be able to wield.
It left me dizzy, but even worse was the fiery pain of claws driving into my skull and ripping through my veins.
I screamed out in pain this time as the oath circle shattered like glass with a boom that resounded deep in the earth under my feet.
I had not told Rian this part of the plan because I knew he would never agree. But in striking the first blow, I had not only broken Mionn na Síochána, but I had also taken the punishment for doing so upon myself.
Leaving Rian free to act against Queen Aoibheal.
“Nuala!” he gasped, kneeling with me instead of going after her as I hunched over in agony.
“Get. Her,” I gritted out, because I knew that Aoibheal would already be slinking away into another portal.
Then all I could focus on was the foreign magic that felt like it was crushing my head. I used Rian’s power to drink some of it down and lessen the pain, but it was a tidal wave that kept badgering me.
I was not sure how much time passed before I felt new hands on me. All I knew was that they were friendly ones when I was pulled against a broad chest and held tight.
“I have you,” Darragh assured me, and I realized I was crying too hard and loudly to even thank him.
And then everything went black…
Rian
The sacrifice that Nuala had made in the circle meant that Aoibheal was finally within my grasp. Everything I had fought to accomplish during the last two decades was just seconds away from fruition because of my mate…
But I could not pull away from Nuala while she was writhing and screaming in such pain.
“Get. Her,” she urged me through her clenched teeth, and still I could not bring myself to move from her side. Not until she used my power on the curse to siphon some of the pain that was tormenting her.
Darragh! I shouted down the bond, but my friend was already there and drawing Nuala into his arms.
“I have her. Get Aoibheal!” he insisted as he nodded his head toward where Aoibheal had been hit by Nuala’s shocking display of power.
I looked up and saw the queen was on her back with her thin arms curled around herself. Caelan knelt over her, looking shocked and uncertain how to help her while the other Draugr tensed in wait for his instruction.
If I did not get a hold of the situation, then my mate’s sacrifice would be for naught.
“My apologies, Your Highness,” I said before I struck out at Caelan with a blast of air magic from Darragh that threw the Draugr prince. It was not nearly hard enough to hurt him, but it would keep him winded for a moment.