Ciaran was quiet for a moment, his face all scrunched as if hismeat tasted funny.
“You said your mother was powerful, and I know from Aodhan that is because you are a direct descendant of the goddess Danu. But you are far stronger than your brother. Why? What makes you so special?” he asked, raising his brows to let me know that he was teasing.Mostly.
I gave him the finger, forgetting he did not understand the significance of the human gesture until he cocked his head at me, but I ignored his confusion.
“Female dryads are naturally stronger than the males, and I am unbound. There is no one stealing my magic.”
“I see. And that fop said you have a husband?”
His casual reference to that monster made me drop my fork on my plate, startling us both with the loud clatter.
“You heard that?” I asked once I’d recovered.
“I assume it is the male that your father always meant for you to be bound to,” he continued easily.
“Y-yes,” I acknowledged warily. I had been more open with him than with anyone else but Sage. But Laisren was not something I wanted to discuss with anyone.Ever.
Ciaran was either content with that or he could sense my aversion because he merely nodded.
“They will rue the day that they underestimated your strength and power. I hope you know that,” said Ciaran, his tawny eyes catching me off guard with his intensity. The unexpected sincerity nearly made me choke up again, so I forced a playful smile for him.
“Careful now, Ciaran, or I might start to think that you actually care about me,” I teased him.
“We would not want you to be confused about that,” the asshole agreed with a smirk. I gave him the finger again out of habit, which made him frown at me.
“Is that supposed to mean anything?” he asked before popping the last of his honeyed carrots in his mouth.
“It’s a human thing. It means ‘fuck you.’”
“Fuck you,” he repeated the human English, his accent making the curse word sound so damn lovely that it was no longer offensive. “And what doesthatmean?”
“It has lots of potential meanings. It’s versatile, which is why it’s my favourite word. But in this case, I am using it unseriously to indicate I am annoyed with you.”
“And what other meanings can it have? How do you know which is meant?” he wondered.
“I guess it is mostly inferred by context,” I shrugged. “So if I said that I wanted to fuckwithsomeone, then it likely means I want to sabotage them. But if I were to say that I wanttofuck them, then it means I probably want to have sex with them.”
Ciaran frowned at me, and I noticed for the first time that he had an adorable little knot that puckered between his brows whenever he was confused.
“Do humans often associate sex and sabotage?”
“I think they do, actually. But I mostly just like the way it sounds. It is a very satisfying word,” I explained.
Ciaran grunted in response, unconvinced or uncaring, so I motioned encouragingly with my fork. “Just try it and you will understand the appeal.”
“Just finish your meal. I look forward to interrogating those ignorant little bastards, and Rian has just informed me that he needs to see us now. He has something to share with us about what Nuala learned,” Ciaran urged, going back to his no-nonsense mode with me.
I didn’t even mind this time. I was also eager to get to that interrogation, and I wanted to know if what Rian had to share was a plan for getting Sage back.
Chapter thirteen
THE BATTLE OF ERÉTRIA
Amira
Castor would not, or perhaps could not, elaborate on why he thought someone might be trying to lure me into battle. Only that he had received some correspondence from one of his spies in Erétria that worried him to that effect.
I could not decide how I felt about any of it, and I did not have time to figure it out. Once Riordan had finished imparting his instructions to the commanders, the griffins all shifted for flight. Riordan flew west to retrieve the rest of the army in the Highlands with the intention of meeting us on the battlefield, and we went south toward Erétria.
