Page 79 of The Red Woman and the White Bear

“You will ride with me, then.” While Kael adjusted the saddle, Aisling turned away from the mare’s unnerving, milky eyes to Rodney.

“Take Briar and go home,” she told him. “There’s no sense in you waiting here for me.”

“You’ll only be gone overnight, Ash, I’m sure I can find some way to keep myself entertained,” Rodney insisted playfully. “There’s plenty of trouble I can get myself into while you’re away.”

Though she knew she wouldn’t be able to convince him otherwise, Aisling felt guilty for him staying. She felt guilty for wanting him to stay. But before she could argue further, Kael was at her side, helping her onto his horse. He mounted behind her, far moregracefully than she had. When he reached for the reins, holding her tightly against him, the press of his body made her blush fiercely.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather take your own horse?” Raif’s mare cantered around them in a wide circle, warming up for the ride. It seemed as eager as Kael’s to get moving.

“We will get there quicker this way,” Kael said. He pulled Aisling in even closer and purred in her ear, “I prefer this anyhow.”

His breath, warm against her icy skin, made her shiver.

The ride was long and the wind harsh and biting as the horses flew northward through the forest. Aisling spent much of it with her chin tucked and eyes closed. When they slowed occasionally to let the horses walk, Kael would sweep his cloak forward to cocoon her inside with him, keeping one hand loose on the reins and the other arm encircling her waist. The rhythmic movement of his hips against hers might have set her blood boiling again if it hadn’t been so cold.

As they drew nearer to their destination, Raif rode ahead at a canter while Kael pulled his horse into a more leisurely pace.

“I never asked you whether you learned anything about your mother during your time in the Seelie Court.”

Aisling didn’t answer right away; instead, she took in their surroundings. The forest had thinned significantly, enough so that the moon, directly above them now, illuminated their path. A lock of Kael’s hair had fallen forward onto her shoulder, and its silver cast shone an even brighter shade of white in the moonlight. She had to tamp down the urge to turn in the saddle to take in all of him, glowingthis way.

“I don’t think they were as kind to her as her memory made her believe,” she said finally. Her mother had died defending it: her memory of the Fae. But those memories had all been false, implanted into her mind so that her body could be used to entertain.

“A great many things can be concealed beneath a beautiful exterior,” Kael supplied. “I hope that you will not let it tarnish your memory of her.”

Aisling considered this for a moment before shaking her head. If anything, it had softened her memory of her mother. She’d been magicked into believing the Fae’s illusion, and that same magic had held her there in the Wild. After all of these years, Aisling no longer blamed her mother for willingly leaving her family for days at a time; the will had never truly been hers alone. More than that, if it hadn’t been for her mother, Aisling may not have understood as quickly the hidden cruelty of the Seelie Fae. Maybe she’d still be there, preparing with Laure to kill Kael. Maybe the tea and gowns and wildflowers and pretty words would have fooled her, too.

Rather than pushing her to speak further on the topic, Kael let Aisling reflect to herself, merely pressing a kiss to the crown of her head and riding on in silence. She was so deep in her thoughts that she didn’t realize when they drew to a stop beside Raif.

“Hello, Red Woman.” A familiar voice pulled Aisling out of her head. The Shadowwood Mother stood hunched in the center of the trail, wizened hands bracing her weight against a walking stick taller than her head. “I had hoped you would find your way here eventually.

“And you,” she turned her attention to Kael then, who’d slid from the saddle and was standing with his shoulder against Aisling’s knee. The Shadowwood Mother looked at him with that same soul-searching gaze she’d fixed on Aisling once before. “You’ve had quite a journey, as well.”

“How are you here?” Aisling breathed. It felt like a lifetime had passed since they’d met. She was almost a different person entirely now—at least, she felt that way. She was braver, maybe. Less willing to be cowed by others. By fate.

“I am not confined to that thicket, girl. I consort with The Diviner often.”

“Will she see us?” Kael asked, voice soft and deferential.

The Shadowwood Mother was unmoved by his tone but nodded tersely and countered, “Are you so sure she’s not already expecting you?”

Without another word, she turned and hobbled slowly up the trail. Raif split off to take up guard somewhere unseen while Kael led his mare by the reins after the Shadowwood Mother. Aisling dug her fingers into its mane to hide their trembling.

Turning the corner, the Shadowwood Mother led them to a rocky outcropping that would have seemed out of place in this part of the forest, had the giant boulders that formed it not been covered in a thick layer of moss camouflaging it against the trees. There was an opening there, low to the ground, that looked far too small for either of them to pass through. The Shadowwood Mother gestured towards it with her walking stick.

“In you go,” sheordered.

Kael helped Aisling down from the saddle and guided her with a hand on the small of her back to the entrance. The steady pressure there steeled her.

Aisling crouched down low, inching forward uncomfortably through the gap between mossy boulders. But just as she braced herself to feel the rocks scrape against her body, she’d already passed through to the other side where it opened into a tunnel.

“Glamoured to look smaller than it is,” Kael said from behind her once he emerged, straightening back up to stand at his full height.

Aisling’s sarcastic comeback died in her throat as she stepped forward, turning around in a full circle to take in the space. Crystals—hundreds of them, in different sizes and configurations—protruded like spikes from every surface. There was a narrow path down the center, but most of it had been eroded away by a tiny stream that trickled from some unseen source beneath their feet. It ran the length of the tunnel, disappearing around the curve ahead of them. The water glowed a soft white, as pure as the moonlight outside, and that glow lit the cave system as it refracted off of the crystal clusters.

Kael’s hand again on her back urged Aisling to move, and so she followed the stream toward the tunnel’s curve. A low hum reverberated around them, a quiet chord that Aisling thought might be emanating from within the crystals themselves. And when she touched a finger to the tip of a large formation that rose nearly to hip height, she felt that chord’s vibration there. The whole space was singing with magic.

The hum grew louder as they rounded the curve, where the tunnel spilled into a wide cavern. It, too, was covered in those samesinging crystals. The stream traversed between them and dumped into a small pool in the center, on the far side of which sat a faerie whose beauty was so pure and blinding Aisling nearly had to look away.

---