Page 91 of Fae Reckoning

“Huh?”

“She’s fearedyousince you first arrived in Embermere. Even though now I’m certain bringing you here must have been her plan all along.”

“Why?” I heard myself asking in a soft tone that betrayed how much I still wanted answers about my existence I was unlikely to ever get. “Why would sheinfluence the king to bring me here if she’s been trying to kill me ever since? Surely she could have asked that asshole Dougal to kill me in Nightguard and be done with it.”

“Thank sunshine she didn’t,” Xeno said, his blue-green eyes tumultuous as a churning, stormy ocean.

“I can’t be sure, Elowyn,” Ivar said, my name seeming to vibrate from his lips; it was the first time he’d ever uttered it without an accompanying sneer of disdain. “But I’d guess her plans for you didn’t end with your death.” He cast a meaningful look at the undead standing between us and the dragons. “If Talisa stole power from all four of her sisters, fromour sisters”—he glanced at Rush—“and you are the heir the land has chosen to rule the Mirror World, what might she have done to you?”

Rush’s body tightened so suddenly and furiously that his wompa fighting leathers actually creaked.

Without my consent, fear skittered across my flesh leaving behind goose pimples. When we’d first arrived at the palace, the dulling to my senses, had that been Talisa trying to somehow affect my autonomy? Was I at her mercy even now? If I were to fall to her thrall in any way… I bit my lip against the thought. There might be no one left to ever free me.

I glanced at the dead who’d once had hopes, joys, and also fears of their own. Who’d had lives with paths uniquely theirs.

Untilshehad come along.

Resolve skittered down my spine. “Reed, will you try to corral the dragons with the others?”

“Not sure it’ll work, but yeah, I’ll try.”

While he did that, I closed my eyes to shut out the grim sights and reached for Einar.

An entire minute passed before I received an answer. It was long enough for sweat to bead along my hairline with a litany of possibilities, all of them hideous.

he growled in a deep bass, like a large stone tumbling along a riverbed.

He waited for more. His mounting rage bridged our connection.

More long seconds passed before he said,

I whispered along our bond.

His question was a curt command.

I asked Rush, then relayed: Rush added details.

I looked at Reed. Though the dragons were illuminated from his magic, when he pointed at them and signaled that they should enter his corral, they resisted with a defiant strength that rattled the windows and floors.

I asked Einar.

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