Page 156 of First Light

A human protected by a powerful fae.

Dragon. Really big, really pissed-off dragon.

Regan was out of options, and by the anger burning in her eyes, she knew it.

“If you want a chance at finding Seren’s maps, you better leave now. I may not know who that fae woman is, but you clearly do. Think she’ll be pissed at you if you kill the Brightkin who owes her a favor? Take off, Regan. Leave me alone.”

Regan’s rage was clear when she screamed. The walls shook with anger, and the stones surrounding them shifted in their mortar. “I should kill us all now!”

“That seems counterproductive,” Carys said.

“Regan, stop!” Aisling ran to her aunt. “She’s right. We need to run. We have to leave now. Cadell will have raised the Northern Guard. Lachlan and his men are probably already outside.”

“No.” Regan grabbed for her niece, flipped her to face Carys, and pulled her to her chest. A second later, the tip of the bone knife was at Aisling’s throat.

Aisling cried out, “What are you doing?”

Regan backed toward the archway, still holding the knife at Aisling’s throat. “You’re soft like Seren.” She kept her eyes on Carys. “You won’t want me to kill her.”

“You think I care?” Carys shook her hands and slowly flexed her feet, which tingled and burned. “Aisling killed my sister. She tried to kill me.”

Regan flipped the knife around with a quick hand, swung her arm forward, and sank the knife into Aisling’s belly.

“Guh.” Aisling’s cry was soft and guttural.

“No!” Carys lunged forward but stopped when Regan dragged Aisling back.

“See? You’re soft.” Regan pushed the knife deeper. “Even though she did kill your sister. Tell me where the maps are or I will gut her in front of you.”

Aisling clutched her abdomen with both hands, blood seeping between her fingers. Her eyes rose to Carys’s. “Seren…”

“You’re not leaving this mound with me, Brightkin. So tell me where the journals are or I gut Aisling like a fish.”

Carys’s mind flew in a hundred different directions at once. Aisling was bleeding in front of her, but she wasn’t dead. Cadell was coming, but maybe not fast enough to save Aisling.

“Carys!” Someone in the distance was shouting her name, and there was the sound of stone and scraping metal. “Carys, where are you?”

Regan pressed the knife deeper, and Aisling’s face drained of color. “Tell me, Brightkin.” She whispered something under her breath, but Carys couldn’t hear it.

“Seren?” Aisling’s eyes had gone watery and blank. “Seren, help.”

No matter what Aisling had done, Carys couldn’t sit and watch her die under Regan’s knife.

“The journals are at Duncan’s cottage.” Carys kept her eyes on Aisling’s. “I hid them in an apple crate he keeps in the rafters. Now go and leave her with me.”

Regan smiled and pulled the knife from her niece, letting the woman fall to the ground. “You’re not a bad bargainer after all.” She took a step toward Carys, but just then a crow flew through the black stone archway and perched on the table, angling its black beady eye at Regan.

“Caw!”

“Damn you to the deep,” Regan hissed a second before she threw up a hand. The stone wall folded in on itself, creating a new passageway, and she fled through it, closing the wall behind her.

Carys rushed to the bleeding woman. With Regan’s knife removed, her blood was pouring from her belly to the earthen floor. “Aisling?”

“I deserve this.” The woman’s lips were pale, nearly blue. “I know I do. Tell Seren I’m sorry.”

“Seren’s dead.” Carys pushed her arm around Aisling’s body. “But you aren’t. Don’t die, Aisling. Help me out here.”

Bits of stone and moss were falling overhead, as if Regan’s and Aisling’s magic had been the only things holding up the chamber. Mushrooms grew up around Aisling’s body, feeding on the dark red blood pouring from her wound.

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