Page 141 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

The witch coven had not had time since my last visit to erect their wards again. I imagined that magic had been ancient and not something that the current members of the coven would be able to replicate easily.

Not that their wards would have stopped me.

We landed in the hallway right at the mouth of the hole that I’d drilled into the coven. It had been boarded up in a patheticattempt to keep out invaders. The familiar stench of the place made me grimace but Nuala trembled.

“You need not be afraid. You will never again be kept in this place. That is a promise,” I assured her, and she relaxed as she nodded.

This is where she was kept,Darragh verified in shock, and I gave him the equivalent of a mental nod.

I’d had no intention of taking Nuala anywhere near her old prison cell, but we heard shouting coming from that direction in the hallway. Shouting that made Nuala tense up again with a fresh flood of fear in her scent.

“It’s them,” she whispered.

“Behind me,” I commanded her. I did not need to tell Darragh to take up a position at her back. The dragon had already moved so she was walking safely between us as we moved down the hall.

“—said she would burn the entire coven!”

“Who gives a fuck about the coven? We all need to get the hell out of here! It promised to come back for us!”

“Don’t you think it will find us if we run? We stand a better chance of fighting it here amongst our people.”

“Are you all really this afraid of a stupid little bitch?” snarled a new voice. This one was harsher than the others, and it made Nuala hesitate a step behind me.

Her brother, I had no doubt, and I slipped my hand behind me in offering. She was too primed with terror for me to touch her presumptively, I knew it would only be triggering for her, but she accepted my hand. Her fingers were too crooked to thread between mine, but she let me hold onto her.

“She always swore that it would come for her, and it fuckingdidcome, Luke!”

“Maybe… Maybe we should have left her alone.”

“She was chosen by the Dagda. We all saw it. Why the fuck did we listen to you?” shouted another of the men.

“Shut up! All of you, just shut up! She is nothing but a fire-toucheddóite,and don’t pretend like you didn’t love every second of fucking her,” Luke shouted at the others.

Thankfully we had reached the entrance to the torture chamber because I could not listen to another second of this poison. Nuala certainly did not deserve to hear it.

Take her for me,I instructed Darragh.

I turned to place Nuala’s hand deliberately in the grip of the dragon shifter, meeting her wide eyes so she knew that my fellow rider had my full permission to touch her.

Then I turned and strode down the steps and into the room where the witches were arguing.

They all cursed, jumping as if they had been merely startled by an unexpected interruption. But then the one that I’d encountered earlier, the one that I had threatened, started pointing and fumbling over his words.

“Who the fuck are you?” demanded one of the men.

I recognized Luke’s voice, although I may have known he was Nuala’s vile brother from his dark hair and eyes the same blue as her eye that was swollen closed.

“It’s the fey,” was all the frightened one could manage to squeak, but all the men drew back with recognition. Even Luke was fearful, although he tried to hide it more than the others.

“I’m flattered my reputation precedes me,” I drawled, breathing in the sweet scent of their rising fear greedily as I strolled into the chamber. Cornering them against the furthermost stone wall where their backs pressed against the torture devices hanging there. I saw their eyes darting around me, looking for a way to escape me, so I allowed my shadows to bleed into the air and drift across the floor. Forming an ominous wall. The frightened one recognized them and even more delicious fear flooded the air.

“Where is Nuala?” demanded Luke, raising his head in determination to maintain his composure.

I was going to enjoy making him quake in terror before Nuala cut him.

“Where she belongs. With me,” I replied.

She wants to come down,Darragh warned, and I gave him my permission to escort her.

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