Page 51 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

“I’ve been in love too, you know. The kind that leaves scars on you forever,” I informed him sharply.

Sage was quiet for a moment, and I could not be sure what he was thinking, but I was too agitated to ask.

“It is not that I think you won’t understand. It is that I am ashamed of my actions,” Sage clarified more calmly.

“Ashamed?” I repeated in shock. “Why?”

“Do you not have things of which you are ashamed? Do you want to tell me all about them?”

“Sage, you probably could have been an absolute monster to her, and I’d still…”

I trailed off in uncertainty of whether I really wanted to voice those feelings out loud to him, but I had already said enough that he understood my sentiment.

“I would rather you condemn me for my actions when it is necessary,” he told me, but I was not sure I could make that promise. He’d offered me unconditional safety and acceptance, and I wanted to offer him the same.

There were several moments of silence before his hand tightened on me as if to garner my attention again.

“Were they an elf? The person you loved,” he clarified, and my heart shot into my throat. It was some time before I could decide whether to share with him. Whether I even could manage it without becoming too emotional.

“My first love was another dryad in my first century. But my second was an elf,” I began tentatively.

“A female dryad?” Sage guessed.

“No. His name was… Cathal,” I said, whispering the name I had not spoken aloud in four hundred years.

“You fell in love with a male dryad?” Sage verified in confusion. I understood his doubt after the conversations we’d had about how male dryads treated females.

“He was not like the others, Sage. He was… a slave.”

Sage was silent, waiting for me to go on, but I shook my head when an unbearable anguish threatened to rise.

I will not allow them to do that to you.

I could no longer recall the exact cadence of his voice, the sound that had once been the most comforting thing in my world, but his words still haunted me nonetheless.

I will not allow them to do that to you.

“I’m sorry, but I really can’t talk about him,” I blurted, fidgeting in agitation when the emotional turmoil evolved into a physical discomfort. The same as it had on the day I’d marked Sage accidentally and memories surfaced.

“It’s okay, Summer,” Sage reassured me immediately. “What about the elf?” he redirected the conversation with a gentle and encouraging squeeze around my midriff.

“Phiala. She made these bracelets,” I told him as I lifted my arm to show him. “Only this one was originally meant for me,” I said as I touched the faded red silk band. “She was supposed to wear the purple one, but I… I took it off her body when I found her on the battlefield.”

Sage squeezed me again, leaning against my back as if to hug me from behind. “They are beautiful. Are they made from moon moth silk?” he guessed, and I nodded.

“I helped her and her brother, Finnavar, to collect it. Did you know that moon moths canbite?”

Sage snorted a soft laugh as he shook his head.

“No, I didn’t know that,” he admitted, and then he was quiet for a moment while I stared down at the bracelets. “Will you tell me why your father wanted to kill you so badly that he slaughtered the elves?” he asked.

“He didn’t want to kill me,” I corrected before I could censor myself. “He just wanted my power,” I explained. “Eldar Riona was a renowned warrior among the Foraoise who took me in andtrained me herself. She knew what my father wanted, and she was willing to doom her own people to ensure he never got it.”

Sage hummed. “But I thought you were exiled?”

“I was sentenced to death by my… By someone else. But my father would have hidden me until he figured out how to take my power for himself. It is a lot of history.”

“It’s alright. When you are ready,” he assured me.

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