Page 195 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

Riordan, I called my mate mentally, and he looked up at me.What is that?

He turned to look at what we’d noticed. A black cloud that seemed to be getting darker the longer I watched it.

Riordan opened his mouth to ask Balor about it when the darkness seemed torupture. The sky simply split open like a magical barrier had abruptly grown too thin, and all that darkness came pouring down in the distance. It was still very far away from our portal, but it must have shaken their whole world, because I saw the crowd of fey stumbling. They all turned to look and started screaming, although we could not hear it from through the portal.

“What isthat?” shouted Riordan at Balor who merely tipped his head upward with a sort of resignation.

“The Wild Hunt,” he said simply.

Riordan’s eyes flared in disbelief and confusion at the composure of the Spring King as his court was consumed before our very eyes. Then my mate turned determinedly to widen the portal to make more space for fey running through from the other side. Their screams only audible once they had passed into our world. But the portal was open as far as it could go, and I could see it start to warble at the edges when Riordan tried to stretch it again.

I ran closer to him, and I could almost hear it all then, and it was the most harrowing sound…

Of a whole world screaming in fear and horror.

Was this really Rian? Devouring as Balor had feared he would in retaliation for our unification against him?

“Keep the portal open as long as you can,” I pleaded to Riordan when I reached his side.

“Will it come through?” asked Orion behind me.

Riordan would not risk finding out. I could tell he was poised to close the portal at the last second. All we could do was watch the sea of horrified and frightened faces. Mothers too far from the portal to make it tried to toss their children. The elderly shoved their younger family members to go on and leave them behind.

“My god,” I whispered, my hands covering my mouth as tears filled my eyes. I did not understand what kind of monster could do something like this. Consume a world.

My trepidations about handing the Light Wraith over to the Sylvan suddenly seemed foolish. The elves could do whatever they wanted with him after this atrocity that was easily the most evil thing I’d ever witnessed.

The Wild Hunt would deserve retribution for this.

Chapter fifty-two

I WANT YOU AS YOU ARE

Sage

Iwoke gradually to the thrilling sensation of Summer’s teeth tugging on my earlobe, her soft breath on my neck, and her hand sliding across my stomach. That gorgeous body that I’d been drooling over was completely naked and pressed up against the side of me. Her peaked nipples and ample breasts teased my bare chest, and one of her shapely legs had slipped over my hips.

I groaned, the sound wrenching out of me like I was in pain as I turned my head into her neck and gripped a handful of her ass. I traced my hand along her silky thigh slung across me and breathed in her scent like a drug.

I was already hard and straining desperately against the pants I’d insisted on wearing to bed for this exact reason.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself,” she mewled when I reached up to thread my fingers through her loosened hair. “You looked way too fucking sexy not to touch.”

And I was not complaining.

“Summer, you can wake me up like that every morning for the rest of my life if you want,” I assured her, but she snorted as herhand slid leisurely up my chest. I could feel her mapping me, learning my body the way I was aching to begin learning hers.

“I doubt I’ll ever be awake before you again.”

She had a point. I did not usually sleep past the rising of the sun, but I could tell by the colour of the tent canvas that it was likely late morning. It had been a long night of moving Aes Mirr to the settlement with my people, but I suspected that sleeping late had more to do with the naked female in my bed.

Especially since my father had had plans to go with Rian and Nuala to Mionlach in the early morning, so he was not in the tent with us. Rian was replenishing all the medicinal stores of my village since a lot of their supplies were depleted or lost during the attack. And some of those medicines took Ivie months or years to make. Once he had all that they needed, I would take my father home where he would be staying from now on with ourteine.

As much as I was looking forward to having a tent to myself with Summer so we might begin to explore our relationship in new ways, I was going to miss him too.

Rian’s only expectation of us for the day was to regain our strength to move the Aes Rurrinn, and for Summer to write a letter to her witch friend in the Vale. The task of convincing King Riordan to meet with us and to pause all endeavours to form alliances with the traitorous fey kings and queens fell to my mate.

She had not seemed intimidated by it. She had absolute faith in her friend and the king to at least meet with us at which point it would be up to Rian to negotiate.

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