Page 47 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

“Because I wanted to join the Wild Hunt and travel the Four Courts while my parents wanted me to mark Orlaith and settle down to start a family. They were dismissive of my intentions and disappointed in me for going through with them for years.It was only after my grandfather died that they finally came to… understand,” he revealed.

“Really?” I gaped in shock. It was difficult for me to imagine Carrick and Asha being anything less than fully supportive of their son.

“They have learned that success doesn’t look the same for me as it does for Shay. And I learned to find initiative independently of anyone else,” Sage continued, shrugging one shoulder as he crossed his arms. I knew that we were talking about me again even before he said, “I know you have been hurt in the past by people who were supposed to protect you, and you feel like you’re not good at being close to other people. But I intend to make sure that no one hurts you like that ever again,” he assured me softly. “So you are free totry, Summer. And I might get angry or frustrated from time to time, but it is only because I am also learning. It does not mean I don’t care. Alright?”

I nodded as tears abruptly trickled over my lower lids, and then I hissed in annoyance at myself.

“Damn it, Sage,” I growled, wiping them away angrily, but he did not comment on my hysterics. He straightened and used the pads of his thumbs to wipe my tears for me. The tenderness in his touch almost made more fall.

“We need to return to the village before dark to see if the tablets are intact,” he reminded me, and I nodded.

“Help me unload this cart, and then we can go.”

With the two of us, it was not long before the yurt was furnished and the trunks were unpacked. The aes sídhe female that I was assisting, a mother of three children who had lost her mate in the battle, was too busy feeding her young and putting them to bed to unpack. She tried to thank me, tearfully offering to feed us, but I merely shook my head and smiled before making a hasty retreat.

“Will you tell me about the aversion to thankfulness?” Sage asked as he followed me toward the open space where his portal had disappeared.

“You mean youdon’thave me all figured out?”

“Not yet, Summer, but don’t worry, I will,” he retorted with a playful wink that made me snort and roll my eyes. Neither of us spoke as we reached the clearing where Serafin was waiting with Pyrope.

Sage seemed to know I was contemplating my answer, so he did not pester me while he saddled his vargr.

“I have given my all to people before,” I began slowly, leaning against Serafin’s shoulder and stroking his silky black fur as I prepared to give up yet another painful truth to myanam. “I’ve spilled so much blood, so many tears, and I’ve risked burning out my magic. And I’ve learned that regardless of how convincing they are now in their sincerity to me, come the time, they will still sacrifice me without hesitation to save their own.”

Sage’s fingers hesitated on the saddle buckles, and he was quiet for a moment before continuing.

“It was not just your people who did that to you.”

“No,” I admitted, surprising myself again with my own readiness to open up to him. Perhaps I was a fool for even wanting to build trust with someone again, but I pushed through that fear. “You asked where I was trained.”

“Yes, I was looking for evidence that you were a spy sent by the Griffin Queen to infiltrate us,” he revealed.

“Right. No,” I assured him with a shake of my head. “After I fled from my people, I lived among the Foraoise for a long time. Centuries,” I admitted.

“Elves,” he realized aloud, looking impressed with me. “You were trained by forest elves?”

“It was a long time ago. I am very rusty,” I dismissed as he finished with the saddle and began to lead all of us, myself, Pyrope, and Serafin, through the bustling camp.

“And they sacrificed you?”

“It is… a long story. But suffice it to say that when my people finally found me and threatened violence upon the elves for harbouring me. Even after the battles I’d fought for them, all the centuries I spent becoming one of them, many of the Foraoise did not feel I was worth spilling elfin blood over. Most of them abandoned the city well before my father’s army arrived. Some tried to take me hostage and bargain. Too few of the elves stayed to fight, and those who did all died.”

Sage breathed something, probably a curse, as he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Summer.”

“Elves have mortal bodies, did you know?” I found myself asking him. “They are not fully commended to the Tithriall when they die, so instead they lie and rot. I had never walked a battlefield before that was littered with the bodies of the people I knew. Friends. Lovers. All of them were turned into nothing but broken and empty shells.”

Sage did not speak as he reached down to thread our fingers together.

“I did not know that. It sounds… haunting.”

“It is. People will do what they do to survive, and I can hardly fault them for it. I do not expect anything more from them. So I guess I hate when they thank me because I know it is not real. Well. Except with you,” I amended with a glance up at his sombre expression.

He nodded, but I could tell he was deeply unsettled by all that I had revealed.

“Please do not pity—”

“It’s not that, Summer. I just cannot… fathom the life you have lived. Mine has been different,” he explained.

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