Page 107 of The Flame and the Forsaken

He looked again at the line to keep from losing it, then let his eyes travel back toward her.

“I love you, Erran.” She pressed a hand to her mouth. “Please be safe.”

The night startedin flames and ended in embers.

Mariel waited with the others in the carriage house in solemn silence. Destin and Erran arrived first, and she launched herself at them both, hooking one arm around each. They were covered in soot and stank of wood smoke but were unharmed.

Rylahn came later. He entered quietly and sat in the tall chair they’d left empty for him. It took some time before he had anything to say.

“Everyone escaped. Most of the damage was in Sessaly’s apartments, where it’s believed the fire originated. Who started it, how they got in...” He leveled a drained, accusatory glance Mariel’s way.

Hestia opened her mouth to speak, but he stayed her. “There’s no need to apprise me on the letter, love. I already know.”

“Rylahn, wemustdo what they say.” Hestia’s crestfallen expression became more wilted with every word. “That’s our lass. Our Ses.”

“We do not negotiate with radicals,” he grumbled and drilled his gaze at the stone wall.

“You don’t mean to let them hurt her.” Erran looked dumbfounded. He peeled away from Mariel and approached his father. “Father?”

“Did I say that, Erran?” Rylahn pushed the words through a hard clench. His stony gaze persisted. “Look to your wife. She knows where your sister is.”

“If I did, I would go for her myself,” Mariel said, rising. “This isn’t the work of Obsidian Sky, Rylahn. We haveneverharmed anyone.”

“Haven’t you?” Glaring, he scratched his fingernails down his neck. “Aye, you know more than you’re saying.”

“I know it wasn’t us!”

“Do you expect anyone to believe that?”

Erran stepped between them. “The auction announcement threw a lit torch into a gaseous mine. How many people saw that? How many people are slated to lose everything? Mariel’s right. Obsidian Sky would have sabotaged the auction, but they wouldn’t have set fire to our keep. They wouldn’t have taken Ses. They wouldn’t have risked Mariel’s or Destin’s lives.” He glanced at Mariel briefly. “And they look to Mariel for direction. They wouldn’t undertake such a violent act without her nod.”

“You opened the window for her,” Rylahn said to his wife.

“Darling, you’re tired. Who was going to see any message all the way from the sea?”

“I sent no message. I—” Mariel rushed off when a bout of nausea gripped her. She made it as far as the handwashing basin before she lost her belly.

Erran pulled her hair out of the way and traced a hand down her back. “I’ll send for a healer.”

“Nay, it’s...” Mariel rested the back of her hand against her mouth, but then more came up. “I’m not unwell.”

“Inhaling smoke can be deadly. I’d feel so much better?—”

“Erran, I’m with child.” Until she said the words aloud, the revelation hadn’t felt like a truth belonging to her at all. It still didn’t, though her surprise was embarrassingly unearned. They’d lain together dozens of times and had taken no precautions. Maybe it was as Hestia had said, and she’d suffered from the lack of mothering into her adolescence, but it wasn’t that she hadn’t known better. She understood good and well how bairns were made.

“You’re...” Erran took several steps back. One hand scraped his face. The other hovered just over his mouth. “You are?”

“Mar, is this true?” Destin asked. She heard his chair creak from the shifting weight.

“Hestia said” was all she could get out before she vomited again.

“All the signs are there,” Hestia said. “And she has notbledthe entire time she’s been in convalescence.”

“Is that what you call being imprisoned, Mother? Convalescence?” Erran snapped. He placed his body between Mariel and the others, lifting her chin to catch her eyes. He breathed in and held it, his mouth inflating through the release. “You’re not spending another day locked away. Not fecking one.” His head moved only slightly over his shoulder. “Do you understand me? I will take her tonight, and you will never see us again.”

“We’ll speak on it later,” Rylahn replied, weary.

“We’ll speak on it now.” Erran laced a hand in Mariel’s, and together they returned to the sitting area. “She stays with me. That wasn’t a question, nor is one coming.”

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