Page 78 of The Black Witch

“Thank you,” I tell him, rubbing at the bark, the tree strong at my back. “You’ve...you’ve been a good friend to me.”

He looks me over boldly, then smirks. “Yes, well. I have ulterior motives.”

I roll my eyes at this and sigh. He lets out a short laugh, and I can’t help but smile.

But a lingering unease tugs at me.

“Lukas?” I hesitantly ask.

Lukas leans into the tree’s strong trunk, his sword’s hilt reflecting some nearby lamplight.

“Hmm?” He looks down at me, his face unreadable, a faint shimmer to his skin in this dark.

“Was it...was it necessary to threaten the child?”

He narrows his eyes. “I just did them a favor, Elloren.” He gives a quick look around to check if we’re mostly alone, then, seeing that we are, he turns back to me, his voice going low. “The child’s here illegally. They need to do a better job of hiding her.”

“Oh,” I say, chastened. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

But what about when he threatened Iris’s family and Bleddyn’s sick mother? He certainly wasn’t doing anyone any favors there.

“Elloren, you have to choose what side you’re on,” he says, shaking his head. “It’s always been that way. It will always be that way. Dominate, or be dominated. Those are your choices. You saw what happened to you when everyone thought you wouldn’t fight back, that you couldn’t fight back. How much compassion did they show you?”

He’s right. Of course he’s right. But I just can’t shake the image of little Fern crying.

“She was just so scared of being sent back to the Fae Islands.”

They’ve been part of Gardneria since the Realm Wars. We let the Urisk settle there and provide them with homes and work to do. So why was little Fern so scared?

Shame tugs at me over the part I played in her terror. Yvan’s sharp, accusatory glare flashes to mind.

Unsettled, I wrap my arms around myself for warmth, the chill of encroaching autumn creeping into the air.

Lukas eyes me thoughtfully. “The Fae Islands are a work colony, Elloren. And the Urisk are expected to work. Quite hard. But you need to keep things in perspective. The Urisk women are better off now than they were when their own men were in charge, or when the Sidhe Fae ruled them, for that matter.”

“Still, it seems as if they must be treated...harshly.”

Lukas looks slightly irritated by my observation. “And how did the Urisk or the Fae or the Kelts treatuswhentheywere the major power in the region?”

I already know the answer to that. Worse. They treated us much worse.

The Fae subdued the Urisk, and later, the Kelts subdued the Fae in what seemed like an endless cycle of warfare and violence. And throughout it all, my people were oppressed and abused by all three.

Until recent history.

“Maybe you or I wouldn’t want to work in the Fae Islands’ labor camps,” Lukas goes on, “but believe me, it’s a step up for them.”

“I guess I don’t know enough to make sense of it all,” I admit.

I have so much to learn about these different cultures. About how the world works.

“You’ll learn,” he assures me. “In time.” He glances around at the gathering darkness. “It’s getting late.” He turns back to me. “Andyouneed to confront some Icarals.”

My stomach clenches at the thought of yet more confrontation. “Lukas?” I ask tentatively, looking up at him.

He raises a brow questioningly.

“Are you still relieved that you don’t need to wandfast to me?”

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