Luckily, Darragh had intercepted the aes sídhe female before she could reach me. Now she was standing next to him and staring down at me in confusion as I tentatively lifted my head. I saw a baby strapped to her chest and a male stood behind her with a child on his shoulders.
“Shay,” Darragh greeted her calmly even as he firmly pushed her out of kicking distance of me for which I was immensely thankful. She did not seem to notice as her nostrils flared while she took in my scent.
“Is shehuman?” sneered the female in utter disgust, switching to the dialect of Gaelic I could understand.
“This is Nuala. Rian brought her here to—”
“Andwhywas she reaching for theteine ceangal?” Shay snapped at him, and I had to admit, I was impressed she could yell at a demidragon. “I realize that Rian thinks he can use our home as a dumping ground for all manner of riffraff. But contrary to what he seems to believe, he is not actually our leader, and we are not beholden to his every little desire!”
“Shay—” the male behind her attempted to speak.
“No! This is ridiculous! First he sent us a dryad and now a human? What will be next?Witches?”
I squeezed my eyes shut on a sudden flash of a vision, the disturbing image of this same female on her knees and pleading for the lives of her children…
“I am sorry to hear you feel this way, my dear cousin,” said Rian suddenly, and I jolted to attention just in time to see him reaching for me. I breathed out a sigh of relief once he had me standing against him and wrapped up in his arms. With my headpressed against his chest, I turned my face slightly to peer at Shay who seemed much less brazen now that she was faced with Rian himself.
“I did not… realize you were here,” she admitted with a sheepish grimace. “You never come home.”
“Well, I am here now, although I wish it were under different circumstances. We can discuss the concerns you raised later, but for right now, I suggest you and Verin join me in the yurt with your parents.”
“Not until you tell me whosheis and why she was meddling with my mother’steine ceangal,” Shay insisted, her eyes narrowing again on me.
Rian stiffened, and at first I thought he was upset at me for poking around something precious to their people. But then he squeezed me tight, and I knew otherwise.
“Hernameis Nuala, and you will not speak unkindly to her again,” he advised his cousin who blinked in shock at his stern tone. “You need theteine ceangal?” he added much more gently as he tilted his head to address me.
“It is compromised,” I whispered, lifting my head off his chest to watch as his concern devolved into anger.
“By the Fuath? How?” he asked me.
“I cannot be surewhoit is exactly, but itissomeone.”
“What are you talking about?” Shay demanded.
“Nuala is a Seer,” Rian informed her, and I could not help but smirk at her when she realized that I was in fact not just a human.
But before she could even open her mouth to demand how Rian could dare bring awitchhome, another woman rushed into the camp. She was holding her side as if she had a cramp from running so hard and fast.
“Rian, tell me it isn’t true!” she gasped breathlessly.
“Orlaith—” Rian began in earnest.
“He’s not gone! Tell me it’s not true!” she shouted as her face contorted in pure anguish.
I was right; word of our arrival and the likely reasons for it were spreading through the camp fast.
“Who is gone?” Shay asked as her head turned back to Rian with wide eyes. “My father?” she guessed anxiously, but then the colour drained from her face. “Sage?”
“He is not dead,” Rian tried to reassure both women. “He was taken captive by the—”
Shay made a horrified sound as she turned away and covered her face with her hands. The male who had been standing behind her stepped forward to hug her while the child on his shoulders stared at us in confused horror.
“And what is being done to get him back?” the pretty blonde asked once she caught her breath. She strode over to put a comforting hand on Shay’s shaking back, but her anguished eyes were on Rian.
“We will get him back, Orlaith. There are—”
“You were supposed to be keeping him safe, Rian!” Shay cried, and I felt him stiffen when she turned around to glower at him with teary eyes. “You are supposed to be all-powerful so how could you let this happen?”
