Page 38 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

“She is an outcast who seems to have spent her life running from who she is. Aodhanwantedhis birthright. There is also the matter of her sex. The dryads will not want to follow a female,” I pointed out reluctantly.

“They were once a matriarchy,” Carrick reminded me.

“Not anymore. Not for a very long time.”

Carrick was thoughtful while I worked up the courage to broach the subject on a more personal level. “Does she know about him?” I asked finally.

“I don’t believe so. She only asked about him once,” Carrick admitted, and I nodded.

“Sage refuses to demand answers from her,” I advised my uncle. Ciaran had been shouting in my head about his frustrations all morning.

“Ornella is cautious and defensive, but she is learning to trust my son. It would be better to allow him to coax the information from her,” Carrick cautioned me.

“You know I do not have time for that. She is a rider, whether I want it now or not since she is evidently also my cousin’s mate. But I need to know I can trust her.”

Carrick frowned at me, and I knew Sage must have told him about our plan to deduce the dryad’s secrets and then have her killed and replaced at the first opportunity. He did not approve, but that was not remotely surprising to me. Carrick was a great advisor, knowledgeable and a good judge of character, but he was too gentle to acknowledge when unsavoury things needed to be done.

I’d never had such qualms.

“There has never been a mated pair in the Wild Hunt,” I insisted in exasperation with his disapproval. “How can I trust Sage to follow my orders if she is not willing?”

“Ornella is loyal,” Carrick tried to reassure me.

“Then there is no reason not to suspect she will have loyalties to the Vale,” I dismissed.

“She knows and understands all about the blight, Rian. She will want to help, especially now because of Sage,” Carrick persisted logically. “Discover the source of her purpose and find a way to make it your own.”

“Perhaps,” I uttered, unconvinced, and turned my face back to the sea as I contemplated the odds before me.

We sat on top of Tràigh Tùr, the coastal watchtower on the border between Feura and Nabeene, the two biggest kingdoms in all the Autumn Court. Nations that had been at war with one another over petty political squabbles that wasted valuable fey lives. Lives that helped concentrate the essence of the Tithriall in our court and staved off the decomposition that human pollution was causing. I had been unable to force the leaders to see reason and cease their quarrelling. So I’d brought my army between them and was now camped on their border. Neither side dared to oppose us. Not after Darragh had taken his dragon form and flown over their armies and both of their capitals in a blatant threat. But it was safe to say that neither nation appreciated my efforts to preserve fey life, and they would attack me if given the opportunity to do so safely. Which was why Darragh tried not to leave the army.

Now the Fuath were sweeping across Ahnnaòin as they had done once before. Cian O’Duinn somehow escaped imprisonment, and I had no doubt that whatever mischief he was up to would impact my efforts to unify the courts. He had been so fiercely loyal to his queen before she was killed that I did not believe for a moment he would not attempt to seek revenge.

“Enemies converge on all sides, and we do not have the time or might to contend with all of them,” I uttered. “And now our inner ranks are in turmoil. Ornella is the bane of the Wild Hunt.”

“There need notbeturmoil, Rian. You are their leader. Bring order to your warriors,” Carrick compelled me.

I decided to change the subject.

“The Sua are adamant that Darragh and I should not contend with the Fuath our way?”

“They do not want you to burn everything south of the Raveina Mountains,” he clarified.

“And yet, we cannot afford to lose so many fey lives fighting in an open war. Especially not when I have the power to end it before it begins,” I maintained, rising to my feet abruptly and striding over to the wall.

I needed a drink and a smoke. I needed someone to distract me. Ideally a pretty stranger in whom I could drown all my whirling thoughts for a time.

Not something I wanted my uncle to witness.

“I need to sleep,” I told him in another effort to get him to leave me to my depravities. My old coping methods. “It’s been a long night.”

“Yes, agreed,” he said thoughtfully. “I will watch over you until you wish to—”

“No, Carrick,” I sighed in aggravation, pinching the bridge of my nose hard between my thumb and forefinger. “I’ll be fine. You need to return to your family.”

“Rian, look at me,” he ordered so sternly that my brows rose before I turned to face him. “I don’t care that you are the Autumn Prince. I don’t care that you lead the Wild Hunt, or that you have an army at your command in the plains beneath this tower. I don’t care that you wield death, or that you seem to feel the need to take on the whole world all by yourself,” Carrick listed, making my brows rise higher with each proclamation. “What I care about is that you are my nephew. I care that yourteineand lover were just killed. I care that you feel betrayed by your cousin, and you are overwhelmed by enemies. So I am coming with you, and I will not be leaving you until you and Sage make amends,” Carrick declared, his voice leaving absolutely no room for debate.

I stood before him, dumbfounded for a few moments, but also strangely thankful for him.

---