Ornella reached for the trunk, likely to open a portal, but the elves retaliated. Bright blasts of their Light magic shattered around a ward, which I had not seen her erect to keep them away. Cracks spiderwebbed through the bright dome as it blinked into sight all around us.
Ornella snarled with determination, her teeth clenched and body straining with effort. It was clearly all she could do to wield both the Light magic that shielded us from the elves and the portal magic at the same time.
“I can help!” I tried to tell her, holding out my bound hands for her to sever the magic binding me. But she only glared at me and ignored my offer. Not that I could blame her since I had no idea what I could even do.
Just as I thought the elves were about to break through her ward, the trunk of the tree split almost in half from the force of her magic and purple vapours ruptured.
I scrambled to help her grab Sage and get him through to safety, but Ornella was not moving. A glance up at her reassured me that she had not passed out from exertion, but she was just sitting there.
“Ornella, the portal!” I tried to urge her.
But she remained kneeling over Sage and looking up at the elves with a smirk of such utter satisfaction that it made the hairs all over my body rise again.
“I promised to fracture you if you hurt him. And you fuckinghurt him,” she reminded the elves venomously.
I had no idea what the fuck she was saying until…
Rian stepped through the portal to stand right next to her in a truly terrifying suit of armour that appeared to be made from thorn and bone. He was instantly flanked by both of the other two riders in similar armour, and then Nuala joinedthem. She still wore a pretty purple gown, but she had donned a breastplate made of bone over it.
The elves hissed in fury at the sight of them.
“Scrios,” they snarled, the light wavering so erratically around us that I worried this place was about to collapse.
Rian did not speak. His beautiful face was painfully severe as he and Nuala both raised their hands. I expected them to cast those magic-devouring shadows at the elves, but instead, they began syphoning around us. I couldfeelit as they began to pull the magic apart from beneath my feet until everything trembled. The elves screamed in fury as their focus quickly shifted from offense to defense.
Betrayal is the path to right your wrongs, but mind the darkness does not swallow the stars.
Well it seemed that the Wild Hunt had in fact betrayed me when Rian came in spite of my condition that he stay behind for this. And now I feared that the darkness was about to swallow the stars…
Chapter thirty-nine
LIGHT AND SHADOW
Ornella
He was in my arms.Sage was in my arms.
I had barely been holding on through the horrible pain that felt like I had been cleaved in half. Like I had been holding a noxious breath that was slowly poisoning me. And now that he was back in my arms, I would happily see Rian darken the world rather than let him go again.
“Ready to be initiated, little doe?” Ciaran asked me, drawing my attention from staring at Sage when the other rider knelt next to me. He put one hand on Sage’s chest, and his fingers clenched so hard in his brother’s tunic that his knuckles turned white.
I looked down when his other hand extended a familiar helmet to me over Sage’s chest.
It felt wrong that the first order of business once Sage was finally with me again was my official initiation into the Wild Hunt. Especially when all I wanted to do was take him through the portal somewhere safe and secret to protect him until he woke. I knew I had to share him with his loved ones, but there was no use arguing that logic with the demands of primal instincts.
But we had spent hours hammering out every detail of thisbattle. I had argued tirelessly with Rian over whether to include Nuala, how best to try and fight the Sylvan, and how to handle Amira. We both knew there was only so much that we could do to actually hurt these creatures. Fighting them was a very delicate balance of cunning and undeniable force. My power in combination with that of both Rian and Sage seemed to be the only way we could try to make thempayfor what they had done. But no one aside from me could use all three magics at once without my initiation, and I could not be initiated without Sage. Luckily, it was not necessary for us to go to the stone altar where Aodhan was untethered. All that was needed for my initiation was for all of the riders to be together.
So in spite of my instincts that screamed for me to take Sage and hide him, keep him all to myself, I remained.
“Ready,” I told Ciaran, ignoring Amira as she crawled over to crouch against my back. She was horrified as she watched Nuala using Rian’s power to devastating effect.
I dropped my cloak, revealing my mate’s Wild Hunt armour which was still sized to fit me. I took Sage’s helm, which Ciaran had brought, while focusing on summoning and directing my own armour onto Sage. I had practiced with Rian and Ciaran before leaving with Amira to make sure I would be able to protect Sage. But my armour was much easier to command now that I understood it was attached to my shifting abilities rather than my magic.
I pulled Sage’s helmet on at the same time as the other riders all donned theirs. Then Nuala took over entirely from Rian so he could turn his attention to the rest of us. She was able to use the power they seemed to share just as effortlessly as he had to keep the elves destabilized. She could not actually fight the Sylvan, but she was able to keep them distracted. She pulled magic out of the earth beneath us so that the Sylvan were forced to pour power into it in order to keep this strange place from collapsing. We had been betting on them not wanting to leave before reclaiming me and Sage, and it seemed we were right.
I had not seen Rian in his full armour since I killed Aodhan and became an unwilling rider in the Wild Hunt. And the sight of that gold-streaked mask kneeling across from me gave me a brief pause as it struck me just how far we had come since that fateful day. Had I really gone from the captive he loathed to… dare I say a friend?
Shaking myself free of the preoccupation, I watched as he removed a gauntlet and drew a knife to cut his palm. The other riders all did the same with their own weapon, but I opted for the use of my claws. My jaw clenched in restraint when Ciaran took the blade from my hip to slice Sage’s palm, but my mate didn’t even flinch. And I was unsure whether to be relieved or alarmed by how unresponsive he was to the pain.
