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I sighed and nodded, wrapping my arms around my middle. "With the little I know about fae, she does seem fairly generous in good tidings."
Esther hummed noncommittally. "You should get into the shadows. I don't know how long we'll have to wait, but we don't want him to see you."
She's so young, I thought, staring at this girl before me. A woman, yes, but so early in life. I hoped her lovers had a plan to keep her with them for many years to come. She would age well.
"Will you be all right?" I asked, echoing Hazel's question to me.
Esther smiled, brave and fearless and confident. "I will. I'm terrified, you know. But yes, I'll be all right."
I swept her up in a hug, recalling Laszlo's speech to me the night before, hoping and praying to all the gods whose names I knew that my mates would be safe, that this woman and Hazel and all the men they loved would survive.
"You're not alone," I whispered in her ear, and then I pulled away.
I waited, tucked into the curve of Hywel's front leg with Magdalena's cloak shielding me. Hywel's heat and his steady breaths offered shallow comfort. The sun set quickly, but the time seemed to drag, every slight shifting shade of color in the sky another moment that I waited for Birsha to appear. What if he didn't come? What if Magdalena—or Morgana—and Nimue betrayed us, or failed us and fled? What ifwhatwas and would bewas Birsha's victory and our defeat?
No, my own voice echoed in my head.No, I won't accept that. I won't surrender again. I will fight until I am free, even if that freedom is death. I do not belong to Birsha.
Hywel rumbled in my ear, tail scratching over the ground restlessly, and up from the burning bud of the sun sinking from the horizon, a figure on a horse approached. For a moment, he was only a brilliant silhouette, remarkable solely by the setting, and still I shook in witness, wanting to scream, torun.
Then the sun burnt away, and his shape settled and grew larger.
His enchantments were starting to fail. The templeswerefalling, as Conall promised, and the man on the horse was old and plain and average. His hair was steel gray and black, lines of age carving down his face, over his heavy brow. He didn't look strong or stooped, tall or short. Had he always been unremarkable, or was that part of the figure he'd built himself into, like the legend of my sword fashioning it into Excalibur?
"You meant it," Birsha said, slightly awed as he slowed the horse outside of the circle of trees.
"You underestimate me," Esther answered.
His laugh was sharp. "I did once. Where is your witch?"
"I will give up the dragon, but not her," Esther answered, hands fisting at her side. She'd wanted a weapon, but we agreed it was too important he see her unarmed. "I'mnotstupid."
"You will give up the dragon? And your allies?"
"I will give up the dragon and my alliesin exchangefor Amon. Who I see you haven't brought."
"I'm not stupid," Birsha mimicked, smirking.
He wasn't moving. My breath was rough and uneven in my chest, my body so tight I thought a nudge might send me shattering into a pile. Hehadto move.
"I am beginning to understand your true nature, Esther Reed," Birsha announced, and I held my breath as he swung down from his saddle.
"I doubt that," Esther quipped, turning to the side, offering him less of her body in case he were to strike.
"I'd assumed you were nobler, more determined to do good. In truth, you are a survivor, like myself."
"You forget that I know exactlyhowyou go about your survival. No, I'm not like you." Esther's bottom lip quivered, and I wondered if it was an act. No, her terror was real.
"Hmm, we'll see. You're in your youth yet. Decisions will be made when the time comes," he mused.
Esther spun her back to him, striding toward the edge of the circle of trees, facing me. Her chin was high but her eyes were wide now, darting around the canopy as she thought. "We'll see. Are you going to bring me my sphinx, or should I wake the dragon now? It will be quick, and when he sees you—"
The bluff was enough. He hadn't survived so long with empty risks. Birsha burst into action, marching across the grass to the center of the small field, his hand raised and a storm cloud turning his plain face ugly with hatred.
"Wait!" he cried.
He did not want to face Hywel awake, that much was clear. He hadn't lied. He wasn't stupid. He'd survived averylong time, in hiding, shielding himself with stronger creatures. And now we had him alone.
But he was right about something else. He always underestimated Esther Reed.
