Page 167 of First Light
The man spoke, but his lips didn’t move. “What favor does Orla’s blood have to offer me?”
“My willing life.”
The dark man angled his head. “You come to me willingly?”
“I am a murderer and a betrayer. I do not want to die on land,” Aisling said. “Take my life and deliver my soul to Bríg that I may ask for her mercy.”
“If you come to me willingly, your wish is granted.” The man reached for Aisling, and Lachlan was still as the dark man took the dying woman from the prince’s arms.
Aisling and the kelpie’s eyes met for a moment, and then she closed her eyes, let out a breath, and allowed her head to fall against his chest. Her face turned white, and her lips were blue.
The air was still as the water horse turned back to Carys with Aisling in his arms. “I see you too, blood of Rhiannon.” The man’s lips didn’t move, and his voice came as a whisper in her ear. “The goddess’s daughters walk between worlds.”
Carys blinked. “What?”
The dark man turned to the loch. The second he stepped back intothe water, the air around Carys released, sound filled the air again, and Aisling and the man were gone.
“What happened?” Lachlan spun around, hand on his sword hilt. “Where is she? The monster took her!”
“Calm yourself, son of Robb.” Darius stood in human form in front of his people and stared out across the water. “The mage woman asked the kelpie to take her. There is nothing here to avenge.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Carys sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the dim morning light that gleamed like a pearl through the milky glass of her bedroom windows.
She’d sent Duncan and Lachlan away the night before. She wanted the company of neither. She asked Bonnie to help her bathe away the blood and the dust of battle, and just before she fell asleep, Cadell came into her room wearing his human skin and held her tightly as she wept.
She could feel her dragon overhead, curled in his natural form and waiting in the half-ready state he seemed to inhabit anytime she was near.
“Cadell, I need to go home.”
Her time in the Shadowland had been two weeks, but it felt like two months.
I will take you to the fae gate, Nêrys. Tell me when and I will take you.
She blinked back tears. “But if I go home, you can’t come with me, can you?”
Cadell was unusually silent.
“Cadell, I don’t want to leave you.”
You do not have to.His voice was resigned.I will follow you into the Brightlands, my lady.
Carys blinked. “Come here. I need to see your face.”
Are you dressed? Humans feel shame in their natural form, and I don’t want?—
“I’m dressed. I have my nightdress on.”
A moment later a knock sounded at her door. Carys went to open it and found Cadell on the other side.
She narrowed her eyes and looked down the hallway. “Where do you?—”
“There is a balcony not far from here that is accessible by air only.” He stepped through her door and stood at attention near the cold fireplace. “Robb had it added to the castle when Seren and Lachlan married.”
Cadell bent down and added a piece of wood to the fire, then gripped his hand into a fist, and Carys saw a red glow coming from his palm. Moments later he opened it and lobbed a ball of fire into the hearth. The small fire sprang to life, and heat permeated the air.
“I didn’t know you could do that.” Carys sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the fire, wrapped in a heavy cloak.