Page 127 of First Light

Darius eyed them, tossed his head, then turned to walk down the hill, leaving them in his dust.

The fog wrapped around Carys’s legs and arms, chilling any piece of exposed skin. “Can we walk back? I’m freezing.”

“Not until you tell me what you promised her,” Duncan growled.

“Here?” Exhaustion was quickly overtaken by anger. “Right here?” She wrenched herself away from him and turned to survey the broken castle. “Right here in the middle of her hill? Really, Duncan?”

He swallowed hard, released her shoulders, and turned, holding his arm out to the side and motioning toward the path. “My lady.”

He said it to antagonize her, but she refused to take the bait.

They walked in silence, passing the clearing where the bear had attacked him.

“Carys, wait.”

She turned to look over her shoulder, and Duncan’s face was grim.

“Let me go first,” he said. “Please. In case something is on the path.”

He walked past her, limping a little; the wound on his cheek was red and angry.

Her anger died down when she saw him trying to hide the pain. “Do you have anything for that cut?”

“Aisling will have something back in Sgàin.” His voice was clipped, and he didn’t elaborate how he’d survived the bear, how he’d managed to fight his way to the top of the hill, or what he might have promised a fae-powered bear named Orick while she’d been meeting with the Crow Mother.

The stick that had caused the attack lay at the base of a pine tree, covered in blood. There were black marks in the soil and blood smeared on the rocks.

“I’m glad you weren’t hurt too badly,” she said quietly.

“Are you?” he snapped. “Maybe you should have gone back to the horses when I told you then instead of being a stubborn, reckless?—”

“I wasn’t being reckless.” Anger banked at a slow simmer quickly rose to a boil. “I was listening to Darius, who told me I might not get another chance to meet the Crow Mother. It’s not my fault you picked up a fucking stick in a fairy murder forest!”

Duncan spun, stepping back up the path until they were face-to-face. “Do you even know what could have happened to you? You could have disappeared for a hundred years. You could be dead. You could have given away your only child to be her snack for tea.” His face went pale. “Oh God, please don’t tell me you?—”

“Do you think I’m that big an idiot?” She shoved his shoulder. “Do you think I don’t know even a little bit about how to talk to the fae after all the books I’ve read and all the stories?—”

“A week and a half ago, you thought all that was fiction!” He grabbed her hand. “I never should have brought you here. I should have kicked you out and dealt with the police and told them you were having a mental breakdown if they came calling. God knows I should never have brought you here.”

“Oh, fuck you!” She tried to walk past him, but he had her hand in an iron grip. “Let me go.”

“No.”

She leaned in. “You think I would have given up if you told the police I was a lunatic? Then you don’t know me. At all.”

Duncan’s face twisted. “You really love Lachlan that much?”

“I wanted to know the truth!”

You don’t love that one. Not really.She blinked at the memory of Angus’s words, but she didn’t break her staring match with Duncan.

“So you found the truth.” Duncan dropped her hand and spread his arms. “And all of this along with it. Ready to play queen yet? Ready to fall into Lachlan’s arms and live your life in this place? Ready to abandon our world like he wants you to?”

“No!”

Duncan lifted his chin. “Oh wait, he doesn’t want you to do that, does he?”

Carys could feel the heat pouring off Duncan’s body. Steam rose around his neck, and the brilliant green eyes that usually towered over her were directly in line with her own because of the slope of the hill.

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