Page 89 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

Nuala complied without question, allowing me to look into her mouth. Many of her teeth were missing, I had no doubt they had been knocked out from the blows that had bruised and scarred the rest of her face. Others were black and her gums were already bleeding from chewing.

She needed to be healed as soon as possible.

I need an update,I advised Ciaran mentally as I moved the softer food from my plate onto Nuala’s and scooped all of her harder food onto mine.

“You will tell me if anything hurts, even when it is something I have asked you to do,” I told her, and the witch nodded in agreement.

Aes Suri is completely destroyed. We were ambushed,Ciaran advised me. He sent me a quick mental recap of his memory of the battle including a glimpse of a Fuath mage, the ward, Ornella, and Sage being injured.

The dryad was terribly weak after depleting her magic, so healing Nuala would have to wait until she recovered, but I knew I still needed to recall all my riders. I was uneasy about confronting Sage, and I did not wish to be more indebted to the female who killed Aodhan by asking her to heal my Seer, but Carrick was right. I needed to consolidate the Wild Hunt and bring us back into order.

But there was no doubt I was beholden to Ornella.

I did not want to consider what would have happened if she had not been taken captive by the Wild Hunt and been in Aes Suri to help defend the village. Nor did I wish to dwell on how many more villages might have been lost to the Fuath while we were across the continent.

And it was not just the aes sídhe indebted to Ornella.

The entirety of the Four Courts owed her everything for risking her life to protect my family, because if I had killed them last night, there would have been no recourse. There would have been nothing to prevent me from truly plunging into hopeless desolation. The Rot would spread, and the Four Courts would surely collapse.

So I simply could not allow my personal anguish for one person to interfere with my duty to protect Ahnnaòin. Besides, although Aodhan would have obviously still been furious, I had a feeling he would not want her dead if I could somehow tell him now who she was. He would want me to support her when theirpeople inevitably came to collect her for the infamous Díothú Mór.

Bring them to me tonight, I told Ciaran and felt him balk under the command because he sensed what it meant. He did not like or remotely trust the female dryad which was not surprising; Ciaran did not like anything that he did not totally understand. He was afraid of her power, afraid of her ability to counter me, but he had felt exactly the same about Aodhan, and they still became close.

“Better?” I asked Nuala, refocusing my attention on my little Seer who had almost finished her plate.

“My stomach is full,” she admitted, resting a twisted hand over her tummy, and I nodded.

“Good girl. Thank Carrick. He is the one who got you the food,” I advised her.

Nuala was not used to thanking anyone, I could tell by the tension that crept into her shoulders when she looked up at Carrick across the table from us.

“Thank you for the food,” she said softly.

“Of course,” he reassured her with all due gentleness, but there was an unmistakable disapproval in his eyes as soon as he looked back at me.

“You need sleep. I’ll make you a draught that will help make it deep and dreamless,” I told Nuala who inclined her head in agreement.

I left her sitting on the couch and walked around the table to the kettle hanging on a spit over the fire. A brush of my fingers alit with fire magic had the copper pot boiling almost instantly. I retrieved Aodhan’s sleeping draught and a cup to brew tea for Nuala. All the while, feeling both her eyes and Carrick’s on me as I worked.

“I know you are full, but this will help you,” I told her once I had returned to her side with the hot cup of tea.

“It will make you sleepdeeply, Nuala. It is a drug,” Carrick could not help informing her because he firmly believed in full and informed consent.

But Nuala looked at me for my thoughts. And perhaps it made me a horrible monster, considering what had been done to her, but there was no denying a spark of pleasure that her deference and trust ignited in me.

“It is alright. I will stay right here in the tent while you are sleeping,” I reassured her, and that was all she needed to hear before she began to sip the tea.

“There were matters which Darragh insisted required your attention,” Carrick reminded me.

“I remember,” I reassured him, still watching Nuala sip the hot draught as quickly as she could. It was entirely possible she was already exhausted, especially with a belly full of food, but she faded fast.

She finished the tea, and I set the cup aside for her just as she started to tip sideways, her head lolling against my shoulder. I scooped her up again and carried her back into the bedchamber, single-handedly stripping the top sheet that she had first laid down on off the bed and burning it with my magic. Then I deposited her on the mattress, making sure her dress was not knotted around her legs or bunched underneath her. I unearthed a blanket that my mother had made me from the trunk at the foot of the bed and spread it over the witch. It was far too hot for me to sleep under in the warmer climate, but she was so thin that I knew it would be comfortable for her.

I did not want to think too much about it; to think too much would be dangerous. But I could not help hesitating as my thumb ran over the stitches my mother had lovingly knitted with me in mind. I could still see her at the fire, cross-legged and surrounded by a myriad of freshly dyed wool balls. Her needles would frantically click together, and her laughter was loud andunbridled. She was so full of joy before my father died that I would sometimes be compelled to stop and just watch her.

I closed my eyes, savouring the warmth of the memory before it threatened to turn vicious and rip me open with its anguish, and then I pushed it back down into the void.

I dropped the corner of my mother’s knitted blanket and turned away from Nuala, striding into the main room where Carrick was waiting for me with a frown.

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