I saw Rian cock his head, obviously noticing that I was staring at myself and not the burn, but he held the mirror steady for me. He watched as my hand rose nervously to touch the smooth skin of my face, and I inhaled sharply with surprise. Feeling the brush of my fingers and seeing them in the reflection on flawless ivory flesh was surreal.
Thisisme. Iaminside that face.
I was still pallid, and my skin was sunken and slightly discoloured under my eyes, but it would all improve with sunlight and nutrition. Most of my hair was so dark that it looked blue in the flickering of the lantern with strips of dark burgundy that gleamed almost purple in the firelight. Everyone always said it was strange to have two colours in my hair, but I thought perhaps it was pretty. Unique. And the colours went quite well together. Much like my mismatched eyes, which were the only thing in the mirror that seemed truly familiar to me. Even now that they were rimmed in black lashes that seemed to naturally curl up toward my full brows.
I shifted my hand from my cheek to trace down the straightened bridge of my nose to my mouth where my fingers lingered on soft and supple lips.
“Did she… make me this way? When she healed me, did Ornella make me like this?” I clarified as I turned to look up at Rian who was still watching me.
“That is not howaistriúworks. You are naturally this beautiful. Ornella merely restored you,” he assured me.
My brows rose, my mouth opening in surprise as my fingers slid free of my lips while I stared at him.
“You think I am beautiful?”
“I would either be blind or a fool if I did not see that,” Rian smirked, and then he set the mirror down before I was done processing any of it. My reflection. His words. “That surprises you,” he observed curiously before giving me another teasing smile. “Did you think I was a fool?”
“No, of course not, it is only… Your kind are so much more beautiful than a mortal could dream to be. I never imagined that you would find my physical appearance as anything more than… tolerable.”
“Tolerable,” he repeated skeptically before he laughed and shook his head. “You are… much more than that.”
I was not sure how to believe him when he was sitting next to me looking like a sinful angel. When every other high fey I had encountered looked almost as stunning.
“Nuala, I need to know who it was,” he reminded me, his expression darkening as he grew deadly serious again. “Who hurt you? Who is hurting my people?”
“It is Aoibheal. Queen of the Autumn Court,” I said.
Rian was stunned for a moment, almost disbelieving, but then he nodded as if everything made sense now.
“She is keeping me preoccupied so I cannot find her,” he realized aloud, and his hands clenched with fury.
Before I could answer, Rian stood up from the couch. He began pacing, dragging one hand over the stubble on his chinand cheeks while he pondered this revelation. The soft scraping sound of callused hands on his day-old scruff made me itch to touch him, so I tucked both hands between my knees.
Rian turned back to face me, his eyes sharpening with determination. “Do you know where to find her? Or is she still hidden from you?”
I closed my eyes to remember what I could from the interaction with the Autumn Queen when I was briefly able to perceive her with my Sight.
“She is still hidden, but I think she was underground. There were tiny bones crunching beneath her every step like dead leaves, and it smelled of damp earth and rot.”
My eyes snapped open when I recalled the gaunt and greyed face of the decrepit thing that was meant to be ruling this court but was instead hiding in a graveyard. Then my gaze shifted to Rian who had moved silently back to my side and was now kneeling next to where I sat on the couch. Waiting eagerly.
“You will not need to find her, Rian,” I advised him, unsure whether he was even breathing as he waited for me to continue. “She did not mean to reveal anything of herself to me when she grabbed me, but I Saw that she is using blood magic to control the Fuath. You could reach her through the bond she has forged with the Fuath mage she has ensnared to lead them. The one who destroyed the aes sídhe villages and attacked your riders at Aes Suri. Capture him and you will get her,” I implored Rian.
Rian was horrified again as he sat back on his feet and stared up at me in disbelief.
“She is using…” he trailed off and shook his head in disgust at the knowledge that his queen was using a magic that tainted the Tithriall further. A magic that was usually only used by the dark witches he had sworn to destroy.
“What does it have to do with the Vale? Could you see the connection—” he cut himself off, his golden skin suddenly paling as something occurred to him. “Has she already formed an alliance with Riordan? Will Aoibheal seek to abandon this courtas Balor abandoned his own? Will she risk its collapse just to save herself?”
“I didn’t see any of that,” I tried to assure him softly, but it did not seem to calm him. Rian raised his arms and threaded his long fingers back through his hair to rest his hands on the back of his head in clear distress.
“I will know more if you capture the mage and allow me to interrogate him. The closer I get to her, the more of the queen’s plans should be revealed to me,” I told him.
“I do not want you near her,” he told me firmly before his eyes dropped to my burned throat, and his expression darkened angrily again.
“The blood magic she is using… It did feel like it was coming from somewhere else. I do think it comes from the Vale, but I am not yet sure how,” I insisted calmly, knowing the key to Rian was logic. “The only way I have been able to See her seems to have been with proximity. The trouble is knowing where to look next. I didn’t know that I needed to go to the aes sídhe camp until you said you were going there. And I had no idea what I was even looking for until I got close enough to theteine ceangal. That means we need to use every lead we get.”
I could tell he understood and agreed, but his concern for my safety prevented him from admitting it aloud.
