Page 87 of The Red Woman and the White Bear

“Hush,” he soothed before running his fingers through her hair once more. “Go back to sleep.” She let her head drop back onto the pillow and resumed her steady breathing.

Rodney was waiting for Kael by the front door, so the king straightened his disheveled clothes and followed him onto the porch. The cold mid-morning air was bracing and cleared his head the moment he drew in a deep breath.

“Tell me what you know,” Rodney demanded. There was no humor in his voice, nor was there any attempt to manipulate or hide his intentions. He was forthright, for once, and angry.

“I know a great many things,” Kael said, “you will have to be more specific.” He was goading the púca, he knew he was, but he was unprepared to slide from the knife’s edge he balanced on. Once he spoke the truth out loud, there would be no taking it back. The universe would know what he knew.

“There’s something more to all of this, and I daresay you’re well aware of it, even if Aisling isn’t.” Rodney stepped forward, seemingly ready to force the truth from Kael if he needed to.

Kael looked skyward, where gray clouds were gathering on the horizon. They were blowing in from the sea; he could smell the salt and taste its tang on the wind. Rodney waited impatientlyfor his answer, but it took Kael several moments to pull the words from where he’d hidden them in the depths of his heart before he could speak them out loud.

“You mustn’t tell her,” he finished. “Swear it to me. I know you owe me no allegiance but swear it all the same. For her.”

“I swear it.” Sobered by Kael’s admission, Rodney leaned his elbows onto the porch railing and pushed his hands back through his unruly hair, gripping it at the roots.

“She will need you, after. As reluctant as she will be to admit it.” Kael’s throat tightened, but he swallowed past that feeling. Pushed all of it back down even deeper than before.

Rodney snorted. “So you’ve noticed.”

“She does not seem overly fond of asking for help.” It was Aisling’s independence that had endeared her to him from the very beginning, when she’d stepped up on the dais on Nocturne and taken charge. Then, as his prisoner, when she insisted time and again on bathing herself, on walking the halls unguided and unaided. And now, as she seized control over her own fate. But he knew the damage she could do to herself with such a trait. In that way, he saw much of himself in her.

“She’s gotten better at it, I think. Either way, I’ll be here,” Rodney promised.

The púca left then, shaken and likely eager for the excuse to avoid Aisling for a while. When he returned later on with Lyre, both wore the same pale, drawn expression.

“What is it?” Aisling noticed Rodney’s face first and sprang up off the couch to greet him. Kael followed close behind, taking careto keep a healthy distance between himself and Briar. It was difficult given the small footprint of the trailer, but he’d managed to keep at least one piece of furniture between them throughout most of the morning.

“Lyre?” Kael demanded.

“The Seelie army is marching on the Undercastle.” Lyre’s yellow eyes scanned the trailer, cataloging the space and its contents shrewdly. The heavy cloak he wore concealed his robe, but not well enough to avoid a harsh look from Aisling. No doubt she was imagining the possibility that he’d been spotted by any number of Rodney’s neighbors, particularly the short, unpleasant man who seemed always to be lurking outside.

Aisling sank into a kitchen chair and Kael moved to stand behind her. “How did they find out already?” she asked.

“They had an additional guard posted outside, waiting,” Lyre explained tightly. “He saw the bodies as they were removed.”

Kael gripped the back of Aisling’s chair, grinding his teeth back and forth until he could speak again without losing his temper over the sheer carelessness with which they’d cleaned up the mess.His mess.“How far out are they?”

“Raif has already recalled the Fifth Company; he is readying the others now.”

Not far at all, then, if preparations were already underway. And for Raif to have recalled their last company afield meant he anticipated the Seelie army to be moving in at full strength. Kael’s mind raced ahead, plotting battle order and strategy. Where thedefensive units would be placed, and which of the companies he would reserve for the counter-offensive.

“Is Laure with them?” Aisling’s quiet voice pulled him from his thoughts and he looked down at her. She was staring straight ahead at Lyre. Though he couldn’t see her face, he could picture the determined expression there.

“The changeling spoke to me about your plan to kill the queen,” Lyre said. His mouth curled into a devilish grin. “It would be my honor to assist. I am, as ever, at the service of the Red Woman.”

Aisling twisted around in her chair to look up at Kael. The hope he had so missed seeing in her eyes was back for the first time since they’d met with the Diviner. It glowed there, a steady burning ember, and he wished he could have looked away from it.

“This could be our best shot. It would give us more of an advantage to do it in your court, anyway, rather than trying to get into hers.” She chewed her lip, anxious for his response.

“You are not wrong,” Kael acknowledged. The hope burned brighter. He looked back at Lyre, then, and asked, “You believe you can design the rite?”

“I can design it, build it, and conduct it better than anyone else in your court, Highness. As it was, I have been crafting rituals for the High Prelate for years.” He winked at Aisling conspiratorially. Kael was taken aback by this; Werryn had never given the impression that any of the Lesser Prelates were competent enough in Rhedelas to craft anything more than low-level rituals. Certainly, he hadn’t ever mentioned that one of them was designing the rites for him entirely.

“What’s in it for you?” Rodney challenged. They were two sides of the same coin, Lyre and the púca, though the former more malevolent in his intentions than the latter. Rodney played the game for his own amusement; Lyre did so for personal gain.

Lyre’s grin widened further and his catlike eyes flickered over Kael. “The Red Woman has already promised me her protection. What might the Unseelie King have to offer?”

“If you are successful, I will see you made High Prelate,” Kael said.

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