Page 184 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

“It would be better for you not to get so close to him, Nuala. He is not a pet,” I told the witch once I felt calm enough to speak to her again.

“Nor is he a beast to be spurned as though neither of you have any feelings,” she retorted, sounding furious.

Her unexpected words, and the audacity behind them, struck a nerve, and I hesitated. My own fury rippled down my spine, a highly dangerous sensation, so I tried to stay as calm as I could and stepped away from the vargr.

I walked all the way around him to his other shoulder where the witch hugged Éadrom with his head lowered over her body. Almost as if he were hugging her back.

Nuala tilted her head sideways against him so that she could still glare up at me with one eye. The vivid blue of it appeared brighter against the white fur of my vargr.

“I do not know what your gift has allowed you to see, but you do not know of what you speak,” I assured her.

I reached for her, meaning to move her away from the vargr who could kill her at any second, but Éadrom made a forbidding chuff at me.

I stared at him in alarm since he had never, not once in all the centuries I had been riding with the Wild Hunt, made such a sound at me.

“You are at war with yourself, Rian DorTìodhlac,” Nuala warned me, and I glowered at her.

“You do not know me, witch.”

“I do,” she insisted softly, her voice almost pleading.

“You donot!” I snapped furiously, the anger getting the better of me for just a moment, but it was enough for wafts of shadow to escape and steam out my hands.

Nuala lifted her head as the air vibrated from the force of my exertion to pull the power back quickly before it could harm her. The canvas walls of the tent undulated, the curtains fluttered at the entrance to my bedchamber, but she was focused on the shadows. She watched them weave around my arms until I forced them to disperse.

The witch was unimpressed and cocked an eyebrow at me like I was nothing but a small child having a tantrum. Perhaps she had simply known too much horror in her life to hold space for fear in her heart anymore, but her lack of a reaction was unsettling to me. Not even my uncle—who seemed to fear my power the least—could have stood so calmly before me while it slipped my control.

Unsure how to respond, I tried to turn away from her, only for her to put her hand on my arm to stop me.

“I am not afraid of you, Rian. Allow me to show you,” she beseeched in earnest as she faced me directly.

“What?” I blurted, watching as Éadrom turned to press his head against her back as if seeking more of her touch.

“Your power,” she urged me, nodding her head toward my hands, and I blurted a laugh of disbelief at her.

“No. However foolish you are for it, I do believe that you are not afraid. You need not prove anything to me.”

“I am not foolish,” she asserted, shocking me with the fire in her voice and eyes as she glared at me in offense.

I was genuinely impressed. I was a thousand-year-old fire fey with the gift of destruction flowing in my veins, and this mortal witch wasgloweringup at me.

“What are you going to do, Nuala? My shadows would flay the skin from your bones if you tried to touch them, so what would that prove?”

She merely raised her brows at me with a look of utter exasperation. Something I usually only ever experienced from my uncle Carrick. There were very few people that I tolerated making demands of me, and yet, I found myself preparing to humour her as I raised a hand between us.

“Very well, but donottouch.”

I allowed just a small tendril of my power to slither out of my veins through my wrist so she could prove that she was not afraid to be close to it. I had told her exactly what the magic would do to her if she touched it, so I was not expecting her toimmediatelyreach for it.

“Don’t—” I gasped, attempting to yank away from her. She expected it and caught my elbow with her other hand, holding me still long enough for her to intertwine her fingers with mine. Fusing our hands together.

The horror of what she was doing paralyzed me totally, and even more of my shadows began pouring out of my pores and swirled around our arms. I was so shocked that it took me a second to realize that my magic that could boil her blood, flay her flesh, and suck the marrow from her bones… was drifting harmlessly over her hand…

I stared at it, eyes narrowing with even more horror.

“I don’t understand,” I murmured thoughtlessly.

“I told you. I am not afraid of you,” she asserted as if she were frustrated with me for not understanding.

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