Page 28 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

“She has Verin, my mother, a healer, and a midwife there to assist her, Summer. Rest your magic.”

“But she must be in pain—”

“And you are drained. I can feel it,” Sage maintained, his voice deepening more sternly as he tightened his arms around me. His chin rested on my shoulder so his mouth was closer to my ear. “You have done enough, Summer,” he added much more gently. “Now rest.”

I closed my eyes and melted compliantly into him, grateful for him beyond words. I could not recall the last time anyone had put my needs before others. When was the last time someone had prioritizedmeandmyneeds? Sage had every fucking right to demand answers from me about my magic, but instead, he was giving me space to process things and make the decision to come to him all on my own. He was respecting me, catering to the fragile, tentative trust that I had begun to feel in him.

And it made me want to cry in appreciation for him.

“Sleep more if you want,” he offered, his voice still pitched low so it was just for me.

“I slept all day. You need to sleep.”

“I… took a great deal of power from Rian. But I will lay down with you to keep you warm.”

“You took power from him?” I asked, turning my head a little toward him so his breath warmed my cheek.

“I did. It is the only reason I was able to get us here,” Sage revealed.

“What happened exactly after I passed out?”

Sage was quiet for a while, the crackle and pop of the fire drowning out the quiet murmur of the people at all the fires around us.

“There is not much to say. I syphoned enough magic from him to weaken him,” Sage said finally.

“But I thought you said that everything is consensual about the bond between riders,” I reminded him in alarm.

“It is. Usually,” he amended.

“So youcanoverride one another’s shields. I doubt he just let you take his power. So consent is just a nicety.”

Sage was quiet for another long time.

“Yes,” he said finally, and then paused again as if he were searching for more words. “The possibility never… It never occurred to me that it could be done. Not until you were dying, and Rian would have…” He trailed off.

These fucking fey. Howrespectfulthey would have to be of autonomy that such transgressions of molestation and abuse did not even occur as a possibility to them. Sage trusted his brothers so implicitly that the concept of their given consent was not merely an illusion of the concession of power, the granting of permission, but was like alaw of natureto their people. It had taken a threat against my life for him to even consider abusing the bond in that way to stop his cousin.

“You… betrayed him,” I realized a little belatedly once I was able to look at the situation beyond its implications for me being a rider. Beyond this new knowledge that my power could be hijacked by another rider.

“Yes,” Sage confirmed, and I could hear the shame in his voice now that I was listening more closely.

For me. He broke that trust between brothersfor me.

Fuck.Fuck.

I had sat up a little in alarm after his disclosure about overriding the consent of other riders. Now I leaned into him again and squeezed his fingers threaded with mine in an acknowledgement of what he had done. Sage merely lowered his head to rest his forehead against the back of my shoulder without a word, and I swallowed another sudden urge to cry.

How the fuck was I supposed to choose between this male and my duty to protect Amira if it came to that?

“I will hold the portal tomorrow,” Sage spoke up more loudly for Ciaran to hear. “Once everyone is made safe up the mountain, perhaps we should return to the village to see if there is anything left to salvage.”

“But what if the Fuath army is still there?” I asked.

“It’s unlikely. Rian’s fury probably sent them scurrying back into their holes,” Ciaran snorted.

“They do not tend to linger above ground in daylight,” Sage added more soberly.

“But they had a mage who conjured darkness for them to hide in,” I reminded them.

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