“Ta,” he replied honestly, having sensed she’d seen him like this before. “It seemed like a lot on top of everything else.” He made sure her gaze stayed with him. That she understood there would be no more secrets. Nothing kept back. “I would have eventually.”
“These are the robes of your calling, then? Robes that are part of your magic?”
“They are.” While tempted to change back, he waited. Allowed her to get used to them. “They most often appear when I fight magic.”
“So not always?”
He shook his head. “Nay.”
“Why?”
“Because sometimes they’re not needed. Especially when I fight alongside my brothers. ’Tis as though their magic helps sustain me.” He shrugged a shoulder. “’Tis also sometimes a matter of keeping those around me at ease. Those not used to seeing magic. But this...” He gestured at the fallen. “These men putting your life in danger made it impossible to do otherwise.”
Madison considered his robes for another moment before she issued a small smile. “It’s a good look on you.” She narrowed her eyes in thought. “Does that mean I have robes too?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps.”
Her eyes widened a little. “Did I just break Ireland's no-magic fighting policy?” She shook her head. “Because these guys definitely weren't wizards.”
“No more than the enemy did when they used magic to get these men here,” he said. “Not just that, but you didn't use magic directly against them. Your inner druidess fueled your ability to fight. The tree merely came to your aid. It inflicted no actual harm itself.”
He chanted back into his normal clothes moments before Bécc arrived with a mad scowl.
“What happened?” His second-in-command's gaze swept over the slew of dead warriors. “Those keeping watch reported nothing.” He shook his head, somewhat amazed. “Yet Aisling told me ye were under attack, and ‘tis clear ye were.”
It was a rare day Aisling spoke to anyone but Cian, so he could only be grateful.
“These are Raghnall’s men.” He gathered his weapons from the fallen, keenly aware of Madison eyeing her own blade buried in a warrior. “Somehow, he’s figured out a way to bypass King’s Heart via magic.”
“I will get it for you, lass,” he started, but Madison shook her head firmly.
“No, I can do it.” She kept staring down at the man and clenched her fists. “Ihaveto do it.”
He understood how much easier things had been under the influence of magic, so he applauded her need to carry this out on her own. Something she wasted no more time contemplating but did with merely a flinch. While tempted to clean the blood off with magic, he also understood that it was best this first time for her to experience everything as a normal warrior would so he handed her a rag.
She nodded grimly, understanding what she needed to do.
“So Raghnall’s men can appear anywhere, then?” Bécc asked as more and more of Cian’s men joined them and worked on gathering weapons.
“So it seems.” Though he wondered. He refrained from saying anything about them being drawn to this location. To Madison specifically, if he didn’t know better. Not until he understood why.
Bécc sighed and frowned. “Well, ye’ve my apologies for not getting here sooner, m’Lord.” He eyed Madison with concern. “’Twas poor of me.”
“If you could have been here, you would have.” Madison looked at him kindly. “Like you said, even your watchmen didn’t know, so how could you?” She shook her head. “It all happened too fast.”
“Yet ‘twas over even more swiftly.” Bécc eyed them with interest. “And the portal was closed?”
“’Twas.” Cian filled him in on what had happened, speaking loud enough for all to hear so that they might be encouraged. Take heart in news that offset Raghnall getting past King’s Heart. Past them. “’Twas our druidess who saw them stopped.” He gestured at the surrounding forest. “And ‘twas she who defeated most of them.”
He knew by his men’s nods of approval that they were impressed.
Madison seemed to take it in stride as she cleaned her blade. He felt her conflicted emotions, though. Her confusion over whether she should feel pride in their approval or would that make her a monster?
“’Twould not,”he said into her mind while they prepared to head back to the encampment and break their fast.“Remember, you did what you had to for your people. The alternative would have been a swift death for us both. What good would that have done anyone?”
What he didn’t mention were the atrocities she would have faced had she not acted. Because they both knew these warriors would not have ended her so swiftly. In fact, they might have even decided to take her back to Raghnall, considering she was clearly Cian’s woman.
As they gathered what little they had brought here, Madison rested her hand against the tree that aided them and murmured what sounded like a prayer of thanks in a distinctly different Gaelic.
