“Thank the gods you are safe, Nuala,” said someone, and I tore my eyes from Rian to see Carrick had walked up behind his nephew. From the cautious way he glanced at Rian’s back, I had the feeling he was mostly relieved because he feared how dangerous my mate could become if anything had happened to me.
I also caught sight of Ciaran leaning against the central pillar of the yurt just behind Carrick. He was flipping his knife and catching it by the blade without even looking at it as he met my eyes with a hint of chastisement.
“Everyone out,” Rian commanded sharply enough to make me flinch in surprise.
He did not have to ask anyone twice. Carrick squeezed Rian’sarm and then offered me a smile before he went. Ciaran cast a portal and walked through without a word, and everyone else darted toward the yurt exit.
“Where did you find her?” Rian asked Darragh before the demidragon could go.
“At the river. She came through a Winter fey portal,” Darragh informed Rian. He glanced at me as if expecting me to be upset that he had ratted me out, but I’d never begrudge him for his loyalty to Rian.
Rian’s jaw clenched, his hands sliding free of my jaw, but he nodded. Then there was silence as we waited while Darragh walked toward the exit.
“Where did you go?” Rian demanded of me as soon as the other rider had left us alone.
“I went to repay a debt,” I answered calmly.
“A debt,” he repeated with obvious skepticism before his nose wrinkled. “You reek of human pollution.”
“I was in Uile Breithà,” I admitted.
“Nuala—” he hissed my name.
“I had to go and deliver my people’s ashes to the one who demanded them. I don’t know his name,” I added as his mouth opened to ask for it. “I think he must be some kind of dark god. And yes, Idoknow he is not someone that I should be making deals with,” I assured him when his eyes flared. “But he was my only hope, Rian! No one else answered my pleas! My coven owed him an ancient blood debt, which I agreed to pay in exchange for my freedom. I didn’t want to risk retaliation if the agreement was not honoured, and I knew you would stop me or you would want to come with me. Either way, I was afraid of how he might react. I am sorry for scaring you!” I added when he remained silent after my explanation.
Rian stared, his eyes bouncing back and forth between mine as if he were looking for any hint of my dishonesty, but he found none.
“I thought you knew that I was coming for you.”
“Yes,” I breathed with a nod. “But I think… he was the one who kept allowing me to see that. He gave me hope, and it kept me alive,” I whispered with a trembling voice. “My visions should have stopped the second they put me in that prison. In the dark.”
I tried to lower my head, but Rian tucked one finger under my chin and tipped my head back again so he could maintain eye contact.
“What do you mean?” he asked, the calmness in his tone masking the rising concern I could see in his eyes.
“I have always known I would be at your side when you came to Uile Breithà. Those visions came to me in the fire because they came from the Dagda. But there was no fire in my prison, Rian. The visions I had after I was trapped in the darkness were very… different.”
Rian narrowed his eyes, and I could see him carefully working through what I was telling him.
“Start at the beginning,” he suggested, and I sighed in reluctance to unearth these memories.
“It had to have been months in the dark without light or company aside from when they came to give me food. My mind was… fraying,” I admitted.
I stopped and closed my eyes, which caused the tears that were gathering in my lower lashes to tumble down my cheeks. I squeezed my eyes tighter when I felt Rian try to swipe them away with his thumbs, but it was no use when they kept coming.
“I would scream until my voice gave out. I screamed for my god. My brother. My father. Even my mother who was already dead. Iwatchedthem burn her,” I breathed, keeping my eyes on his chest as it began to heave with his growing rage. “I screamed for you too,” I added through a sob that I had not meant to unleash.
Rian released my jaw and slipped his hands around me so he could draw me up against his chest. I felt his lips press against thetop of my head, and I wrapped my arms around him, holding on to him with all my strength.
“I always thought I was strong,” I continued after I had caught my breath. “I had endured abuse all my life from bullies and my parents. But it really doesn’t take all that long for a mind to be broken by the dark,” I assured him. “That was when I became desperate enough to scream for anyone to hear me. Foranything. I didn’t care what.”
Rian began to rub his hands all over my whole back, and it was the most soothing thing I had ever felt.
“It started out as just a whisper. I was so desperate for any shred of connection that I fully opened my mind and invited it in. I still remember how it crept in like a spider, and that was when the visions began again. For the first time in months, I could see the daylight and feel the wind on my skin. Those visions gave me my sanity back.”
I felt him nodding his understanding because he knew as well as I did that there had never been another choice but to allow that dark entity into my fragile mind.
“My brother was angry because he believed I stole his birthright. He and his friends often came to torment me, but for many years, they were only able to do it from the other side of my cell bars. The worst they could do was get drunk and throw bottles through the bars. But then… They got old enough to be initiated into the warrior ranks and were given command over all the wards in the coven. And once they were able to get into my cell, they were no longer content to keep bars between us.”
