Amira
Perhaps I should have been horrified at the prospect that there were nowtwoof them with a world-ending power. But the revelation that Rian had a mate only seemed to make him more real to me. And the fact that his mate was a witch who had removed Orion’s brands simply because it was the right thing to do also made me hopeful.
Nuala rose with a soft laugh as if she could hear my thoughts and faced me.
“Before you start painting me in benevolent strokes, you should know what I did to our coven.”
“I have no coven,” I told her automatically even as my eyes could not help but scour the similarities in her face. The bridge of her nose, the shape of her brows, and the colour of one blue eye that reminded me of my mother.
“No. I suppose you do not. And that is the only reason that you are still alive,” she admitted, tilting her head at me as she approached me slowly. “He did not mark you as a sacrifice so you must be truly innocent.”
“Sacrifice?” I breathed, and she nodded as she hooked her finger in a leather cord around her neck. I saw it was attached to a small glass vial when she tugged it out of the front of her dress. I squinted at what looked like red ash inside the bottlewith confusion. “What is that?”
“The blood of five hundred witches all purified by the fire of reckoning to extract their diluted Phoenix blood,” Nuala explained. Then she dropped the vial back into the collar of her modest purple dress while I reeled.
“You killed them?” I verified.
“I sacrificed them to the Dagda as I was commanded. The reckoning by which they were judged for shunning the High Priestess bestowed. Although,” she added as she leaned nearer as if she were sharing some secret with me. “I relished the opportunity to exact my revenge.”
My eyes dropped to her collar where the vial of blood was hidden beneath her dress. If she was to be believed, then that was all that remained of my family. Along with any chance of learning who my father had been and what had happened with my mother.
“What… did they do?” I asked her tentatively.
“Suffice it to say that if you believe your mate’s abuser will deserve her fate, then they deserve theirs as well,” Nuala suggested. She was clearly done discussing it as she turned to Ornella. “I hope you have him back soon.”
With that, Nuala walked to Darragh who opened the tent flap wordlessly for her, and they departed, leaving us all in silence for one tense moment.
“It should go without saying that if you threaten Nuala in any way, I will make you wish for death. And you will tell no one about her,” Rian added as if in exasperation.
I had no doubt that his enemies would be ecstatic to learn he had a mortal mate that they would perceive as a weakness. Although Nuala was far from a weakness if she used his power in addition to her clairvoyance.
“I have no reason to wish her harm,” I reassured him. At least, I didn’tthinkI did. I was wary about what she had done to my mother’s coven but did not have enough information to know how to feel. What I did know was that my mother had fled fromthem with a lifetime’s worth of trauma, which she had always taken out on me. And Nuala had evidently suffered their abuses as well if she had felt the need to take revenge. But surely not everyone in the coven could have been equally guilty? Surely there had been innocents? Children? Nuala would have spared them. Right?
“She… freed me,” Orion chimed in, and I looked over to see tears brimming in his eyes as he continued to stare down at his arms. “I wish her no harm.”
“Good,” Rian grunted impatiently and then looked at Ornella and the broody blond man. “I need a word.”
With that, he exited the tent without sparing another glance in our direction, and the others followed him.
“Are you alright?” I asked Orion once we were alone in the tent. I tried to move toward him again, but Nell’s vines held even though they had started to brown a little. The cold made her magic harder to maintain, so perhaps they would grow brittle enough that we could get free.
“Fine now,” he reassured me, although there was still a hint of pallor to his olive skin. “Did they hurt you?”
“No. But are your wings really alright? You have not moved them since she healed them,” I pointed out.
Orion grimaced as he slowly lifted their great weight off the ground and then unfurled them across the back of the whole tent. He seemed tentative, as if he expected it to be painful, but the movement did not appear to cause him any discomfort.
“I will still be able to fly,” he breathed in utter relief. But not even that could stop his eyes from returning to his arms again once his wings had retracted. The emotion in his eyes brought tears to mine, and I ached to hold him.
“Can you feel Riordan?” I asked him, but he shook his head as he finally lowered his arms to look up at me.
“Amira, please be careful making deals. I know that Rian seems genuine—”
“I am trying to be skeptical but…” I lowered my eyes and inhaled in through my nose. “I believe him, Orion.”
“Be that as it may, neither of us can stay in Autumn. Riordan will not stand for it,” he warned.
“I know,” I admitted, nibbling my lower lip worriedly as I considered. “They just want reassurance that we will not make any more deals for sanctuary that will lead to more fey courts collapsing.”
