Chapter Twenty-Four
DECLÁN HAD NEVER feltas terrified as he did when Riona flew through the crowd on Caith only to vanish into the tunnel leading out. Where was she going? What was she doing?
That’s when he realized.
She was giving herself to Raghnall not only to save his kingdom but his brothers’ kingdoms as well. He roared into her mind to stop, but she ignored him. She didn’t, however, block her thoughts from him nor stop him from seeing what she saw.
From experiencing the things she remembered.
So as he fought the enemy with magic and battled his dragon brethren the best he could, he followed her and Caith as they flew through the tunnel and past the bars.
He kept throwing magic at Siobhán’s ladders and the warriors on them, but his powers were fluctuating. Struggling like Madison’s when she tried to hold back possessed allies without Riona’s aid. He glanced at Cian across the way only to find him fighting in his black robes for all he was worth.
When Aodh roared over this time, Declán roared right back. His dragon brethren might not be himself right now, but could he not fight against his possession just a wee bit? Was there nothing of him in there? Couldn’t he see the catastrophic damage he was about to do? The numerous lives he would end?
Declán continued fighting as he followed Riona’s journey by endless warriors. Enemy soldiers who let her pass freely. And it chilled him to the bone because that meant Raghnall knew she was coming.
Without a doubt, welcomed her.
When Aodh flew over again and roared fire, pieces of the totem came crashing down. If that weren’t enough, Declán was thrust into Riona’s mind more firmly as Caith raced through the forest while simultaneously racing her into a memory.
They were back in their previous life.
“Faster,” she cried. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “He means to cut down the tree. Desecrate the area.”
Declán felt her sorrow when they came upon Raghnall’s former incarnate swinging an ax at a young King’s Heart. At the very tree, the three of them first met beneath.
“Stop!” Feeling the tree’s pain, she swung down from Caith. “Please stop.”
“I will not.” He glowered at her, then at the familiar stone archway built beside it. The very one from Declán’s courtyard. “Like that atrocity, this tree is an affront to what we share. What we would share if my brother did not bewitch ye somehow.”
Declán blinked as the memory of building it came rushing back.
He had created it for her as a teenager to honor the kindness she had shown his brother. The life she’d saved. Even the foal she had saved shortly after. And though he’d never said as much in so many words, it had been a monument to the moment they first met.
The first time their eyes connected.
They had sat beneath it many times over the years, simply enjoying each other’s company and falling in love. Something Raghnall was clearly aware of based on his rage as he couldn’t demolish the archway but felled the poor tree leaving nothing but a stump.
“No,” she cried, falling to her knees. “How could ye?”
“Mayhap ye’ll see things clearly now this is out of the way.” He tossed the ax aside and strode into the forest. “Mayhap now ye’ll see who truly stands in the end. Who is stronger than all else.”
Declán wanted to go to her in the memory, to soothe her any way he could, but it was impossible. Rather he watched her mourn the tree. Sob as she gathered up its splintered pieces. Hang her head and weep as she sat beneath the archway with them.
That is until her head snapped up as though she sensed something.
“My love,” she whispered. “What are ye doing?”
She placed the four splintered pieces beneath the archway, murmured a prayer, then raced into the forest again, once again on Caith’s back.
