Page 3 of A War of Ruin and Reckoning

“Is that so?”

She counted her reasons on her fingers. “First, you refuse to help with anything about the Elphyne war. Second, you ignore finding your Well-blessed mate. Third, you’re not helping Aeron, Violet, or Barrow find anything we can actually use to unmake Maebh.”

“Are you done?”

“Not nearly!”

“Will you tell me your argument with the Six?”

Her lips slammed shut, and he resisted rolling his eyes. It was a juvenile, human expression, but the more time he spent with these old-worlders, the more their habits rubbed off on him. He shuddered to think what was next. Practical jokes, one of Laurel’s cocktails, spending days locked away in his room—fucking and sleeping. Well-forbid.

“If you’re not honest with me,” he reminded her, “then I’m not open with you. Simple as that. I refuse to be a pawn in another Seer’s game.”

“I’m not manipulating you.” Shock blanched her pale features. Her next words came out choked and full of emotion. “Believe me, I learned my lesson when we almost lost Willow.”

Her child had been taken captive by the human enemy. The girl would likely be on the cusp of adulthood now… if she lived. No one had heard from the child since the taint had worsened, which was odd. Leaf would have assumed humanity’s leader, Nero, would take advantage of this weakness amongst the fae. It seemed the perfect opportunity. That they remained in Crystal City likely meant Nero waited for the war in Elphyne to worsen… or perhaps for the taint to annihilate the Well.

He stared impatiently at Clarke. “What do you want?”

Helplessness flittered over her expression. “It’s been a decade since I had the vision about your mate. She hasn’t turned up, so I’m guessing my psychic abilities were unreliable back then, too. We’re on the cusp of an era no Seer has seen. The prophecy—”

“The one the Prime refuses to share completely?”

“Yes.” She clenched her jaw. “That one.”

He sighed and pinched the bridge between his eyes. “I don’t know why you keep trusting the snippets she’s revealed. It’s not the full picture. And until we get it, we’re only following their version. Do you understand?”

“Are you forgetting that I’m also a Seer?” She blinked at him.

“You just admitted your visions are unreliable.”

“They are now.” She flared her eyes. “But before, I had plenty of reliable visions about the Twelve finding a Well-blessed mate. Each time we add another to our team, we’re closer to stopping the horrible Void in our future.”

“The taint has changed everything.”

“So your answer is to waste years traipsing around Elphyne? However you want to spin it, one truth can be trusted completely—Well-blessed unions. No one can manipulate or fake them. Only the Well has the power to bless a union or a person. As a Guardian, you know this. Maybe they are the solution for the taint, who knows! For someone with such undying duty to the Well, how can you turn your back on what it wants?”

Because the thought of entering a relationship felt wrong, and females beyond sexual dalliances were distractions. Fae politics was a distraction. The integrity of the Well came first. Protecting this earth came first.

Someone had to draw the line. These humans from the old world wanted to change too much. Everything had worked just fine before they’d arrived.

Something in his gaze deflated Clarke’s defiance. Her shoulders slumped. She twisted her long russet hair and said, “Willow’s life is in danger if she leaves Crystal City before she’s reached adulthood.”

His eyes narrowed. “Varen told you that?”

Clarke nodded. “The Sluagh are beings born of chaos, which means Varen can navigate the taint and accurately foresee the future through it much better than me. But the problem is…” She frowned, mulling over something before beckoning him. “Come with me.”

Her grubby nightgown billowed as she walked out of his room. Leaf stared after her, wondering if this was another manipulation. But Clarke was right—he’d seen no evidence of manipulation from her since her daughter had decided to stay with the humans. Despite her demands that he hunt down his fated mate, she never tricked or forced him into following her guidance.

Eventually, he realized there was nothing for it. He was about to leave again, so what harm did it do to hear Clarke out before he went?

ChapterTwo

Leaf found Clarke conversing with Violet in the downstairs kitchen. Violet, having a nocturnal mate, was making a sandwich for dinner at dawn. The woman’s blue Well-blessed mating mark glowed beneath her battle-stained leathers. While she wasn’t an official Guardian—no blue teardrop beneath her left eye—she spent every waking hour with D’arn Indigo, fighting to protect the innocent.

Leaf had tried to stop their involvement with the Elphyne war, but they did it anyway, helping where they could. Leaf had always liked her. Rather, respect was a better descriptor. He didn’t like many people at all. But Violet was innovative, practical, and straightforward. How in the Well’s name she was fated to that cheeky bloodsucker was beyond him. Then again, it could have been worse. She could have mated with River. That crow shifter was like Indigo on manabeeze—unpredictable, wild, and a little insane.

“Hey,” Violet mumbled through a mouthful of food.

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