Page 131 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

“No, Sage,” she whined at me an hour later when I returned to the chamber to wake her.

“I took your vargr out with Serafin to feed her.”

Her eyes sprung open, and she turned her head on the pillow toward me. I tried to keep my eyes on her face and not on the way her voluptuous body was sprawled across my bed in her thin dress. She had been about to undress and climb into the bed completely naked the night before, but my expression had made her rethink those intentions. Thankfully, she hadn’t wanted to fight about it any more than I did and collapsed next to me to pass out.

“You did?” she gaped.

“I did. And come see what else,” I suggested before ducking back through the curtains to my bedchamber.

I could hear her muttering complaints about how early it was as she got out of bed to follow me. But when she emerged with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and saw my mother sitting on my father’s bedroll with him, her smile was infectious.

“Asha!”

“Good morning,” my mother greeted her, returning the smile brightly. “I have brought you some warmer clothes for the flight to Aes Mirr,” she added as she rose from my father’s side to carry a large satchel to Summer.

“Thank you!” exclaimed the dryad as she accepted the offering and a gentle touch of affection on her cheek from my mother. Something I knew that she would not have tolerated from many other people.

“Something else,” I advised Summer who looked at me in surprise before turning when my head tilted toward Pyrope standing proudly next to Serafin.

Both vargr were fully saddled.

“You got my… Rian gave it to you?” she guessed as she moved toward her mount.

“He wants the Wild Hunt to fly into Aes Mirr on their own vargr,” I explained. But I had not missed it when she stopped herself from claiming the saddle as hers.

Pyrope was positively bursting with pride, but Summer was hesitant as she touched the saddle. I could not recall what it looked like when it belonged to Aodhan, but I knew that it had changed in the same way Pyrope had to reflect Summer. The leather was the honey-red colour of sequoia wood with the engravings of honeysuckle vines, hummingbirds, and thorns etched into the pommel swell, fenders, and skirt. The velvety seat was much more plush than mine with a higher cantle that was formed from bone at the rear like the rest of our saddles.The stirrups, horn, conchos, and rigging were all a combination of bone and thorn, but there were living flowers growing all over hers in a morbidly beautiful fusion of life and death.

“It belonged to Aodhan?” she verified in uncertainty.

“It belongs to Pyrope and changes to accommodate her as she evolves for her rider. But it did reflect him in the same way she did and does now for you,” I confirmed.

Summer nodded as she lifted her hand up to hover over the pommel where her brother would have rested his hands. For the first time since the night she’d asked me if Aodhan was anything like me, I could see curiosity and a hint of uncertainty in her eyes regarding the rider she had killed. She had not only learned that he was her brother, but that they had shared a great deal in common with one another. I myself had learned rather a lot about Aodhan the night before and was still trying to reconcile it with how I’d always viewed the male dryad. So I could not imagine the impact it was having on her to try and adjust her perceptions of her brother. To take his place as she had once perceived him to be taking hers.

I glanced discreetly at my parents who understood the silent request immediately.

“I am famished! I will get us all some food,” my father announced. “Come see the camp, my love,” he invited my mother, who accepted his suggestion with a sad glance back at Summer. I had explained the relationship we had confirmed between myanamand Aodhan when I’d gone back to the village to get her that morning.

“Are you alright?” I asked once my parents had gone.

“I don’t know,” Summer admitted, tilting her head as if to consider the question. “I feel… conflicted.”

Aodhan always said dryads did not feel complicated emotions, but I no longer believed that. I was confident that they were simply forced to bottle everything.

I moved toward Summer but refrained from touching her in case she did not want me to. I trusted, with her new confidence being near me, that she would seek physical comfort if she wanted or needed it from me.

“It was easy to blame him for what happened. I think perhaps it helped me make sense of something that felt so monstrous and unfair,” she confided. “And I still feel that I wronged her when I killed him, and I have no right to her loyalty,” she added with even more difficulty.

I looked at Pyrope who had lowered her head with her ears pressing back. Her eyes were lidded with sadness.

“She was proud for you to see the saddle,” I informed Summer as I stroked Pyrope’s neck in gentle consolation. “Vargr do not often allow others to be near them, but she permitted me to saddle her because she wanted you to see her like this. She wanted you to want to ride her.”

“Howcouldshe? And if she does, then it is because she either does not have a choice in this magic or she is an innocent animal who does not know any better.”

“Summer, look at me,” I ordered, my voice deepening, but she still trustingly tipped her head to meet my eyes. “Pyrope, the armour, the saddle, and the rider you have inherited is all justoneentity that chose you,” I explained. “And I believe it chose you because it knew somehow that you would be needed to defeat the Fuath. Perhaps it also knows that you must negotiate with the Vale and make our people safe. But regardless of its exact reasons, Pyrope craves your affection. She desires your approval.”

Summer snorted softly as if this were ridiculous, but I could see that my words had made a positive impact when she looked back at the saddle.

“I am not sure I am the nurturing type,” she admitted, finally reaching up to stroke her vargr who made a deep purring sound in response.

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