Page 37 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

“I would prefer that too. But this is not working, Rian. These attempts not to feel anything have never worked in the past, so I want you to try things my way this time.”

Anger flashed through the void like lightning in the darkness, and I felt an urge to remind him that I was not his project. I was dangerous. To him and to everyone else. But then I closed my eyes and suppressed the emotion. Stifled it at the root until it was reclaimed by that secret cabin somewhere in the mountains that smelled of coming rain and lavender. Where the evening sky rumbled with an approaching storm and hollowed, wooden wind chimes clinked harmoniously on the front porch. I could feel the presence of that woman who hummed between sips of tea as she watched the clouds rolling in…

“If you cannot talk about your mother, then perhaps you can tell me about negotiations in the Winter Court,” suggested Carrick.

The cabin and the woman faded into my subconscious as I carefully considered his recommendation to see if there were any volatile emotions connected to that topic. Anything that my power could use to wrench free again.

“The Jötunn who have joined our cause still have not managed to find the hiding place of King Ymir,” I said, relieved when the words did not cause any reaction.

“You would think a primordial being whose very body was used to create their court would be… easier to find,” Carrick commented with a smirk in his voice.

“We have not yet been able to locate our Draugr Queen or the Spring King, so I am unsurprised the Winter King is proving equally intangible.”

“Mhmm,” mumbled Carrick thoughtfully. “And you’re sure that you will be able to forcibly absorb the power of the fey kings and queens once you have located them?”

“I am perhaps the only remaining source of the power that the Destroyer gifted our ancestors. I have to try.”

“And still no more information on the reincarnation of the Summer Queen?” he confirmed.

I opened my mouth to tell him the shocking news that brought me back early from the Winter Court, but then I hesitated in guilt. I had come seeking my brothers only to find their tents empty. It was unlike Darragh to leave our encampment, so I had known then that something horrible must have happened. When I was unable to reach any of them using our telepathic bond, I’d realized they must be immersed in battle. Sometimes when we coordinated to defeat a foe, the riders of the Wild Hunt could become like a single-minded unit. I had been absent when they formed that focus together to fight the Fuath, so naturally, I’dbeen excluded. I could not forcefully interrupt to find out what was happening, it risked distracting them if they were fighting, so I portalled to them immediately.

The news I had come to share had been long forgotten in the events that followed.

Carrick was not a part of the Wild Hunt, I should have been waiting to talk to the other riders, but he had been my loyal confidant since before Ciaran and Sage joined. Darragh was keeping an eye on the army encampment, Ciaran kept me apprised from afar of our efforts to get the Aes Suri villagers to safety, and Sage was…

I could not bear to look at Sage yet.

“No. But a Summer druid has reappeared,” I revealed, and Carrick scooted away from me so he could turn and meet my eyes.

“I thought they were killed with the Summer Queen?”

“I thought so too, but this one was different from all the others. He was taken instead to Uile Breithà,” I hinted, and Carrick’s eyes widened immediately in recognition.

“O’Duinn escaped the Destroyer’s prison? How do you know this? Did you see O’Duinn in the Winter Court?”

“I did not need to see him. Someone dismantled the wards around a temple in Kaldthjem and slaughtered all the priests,” I explained. “I was asked to attend the scene, and I would know his magic and his violence anywhere. They are now going through all their texts and supplies to determine what he took. It will take weeks.”

Carrick sighed, tilting his head back as he processed this latest development.

“It has been a hundred years since he led that revolt, but in Uile Breithà, where he was imprisoned, it has been a millennium,” he mused with the same concern I had.

“He was never friendly, and I expect being entombed at the bottom of an ocean for so long will have made him even less so,” I assured my uncle who nodded.

“Ornella may have been in the Summer Court when he was gathering his army,” he pointed out, and I felt an icy hostility creeping up from my gut as I averted my eyes. “Rian, she could be every bit the asset to you that Aodhan would have been,” he insisted, acknowledging the truth that I had also deduced concerning our new rider.

“Aodhan was more than an asset!” I hissed at him.

“Certainly, but we were trying not to discuss anything too personal for now,” he pointed out, and I turned away.

“Very well, Carrick, since I know you have things you desperately want to say on the matter, please tell me what you know of the Summer dryad.”

I could tell he was pleased by my reluctant invitation to speak about one of the topics he’d been trying to broach since we left the village.

“Ornella is like Aodhan in many ways. She presents as flippant and calloused, even cruel at times, but like him, there is more to her. I believe she suffered as he indicated, but rather than seeking retribution for it, she has opted to ostracize herself.”

“Then how will she serve my purposes? Aodhan was prepared to take his place among the Ruadhán and deliver them into my army.”

“She may do the same,” Carrick pointed out.

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