Page 48 of Atop the Faerie Throne
Of course she knew. She’s the High Priestess.
Sixteen
Rhoswyn
“My daughter, I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this.”
The Goddess’s mellifluous voice draws me from the dark depths of death with a sigh.
I really, really didn’t want to be in this position. I don’t even have the energy to be angry at myself for dying. At least, for all that went wrong, I managed to do something useful before dying this time.
“What the fuck?”
Caed’s voice echoes through the dark space, and my heart sinks like a stone. I can’t see him, but I can feel him in the blackness, close and yet oddly far away. Like he’s on the other side of a pane of glass.
“It wasn’t his fault,” I promise Danu.
“I warned him,” the Goddess replies. “And he took you there, did he not? He led you into that city and then abandoned you.”
I didn’t think my Fomorian could hear what was being said, but I’m proved wrong when he objects, “I was trying to end him! If he takes that medallion back to Fellgotha and uses it, he’llcome for Rose. He still has my name, all because of your bullshit decision to?—”
Caed’s words cut off, and I can’t tell if the Goddess has silenced him or if he’s thought better of raging at her.
“He’s not wrong,” I dare to whisper, struggling to ignore the way that the darkness blazes with the strength of her displeasure. “Elatha is more of a threat now than ever. If the bàsron come through that portal, how are we supposed to stop them?”
Prae said they had metal-based magic. If one of those metals is iron, then we’re screwed. My limitations were laid embarrassingly bare in Elfhame City.
I’m not capable of fighting anyone when that stuff is around. It fogged my brain until I forgot I had wings, for Goddess’s sake.
Danu’s presence surrounds me, her faith radiating through the darkness like a ribbon of warmth. “Never be ashamed of your victories. You retook your home at great personal cost, and I have never been prouder.”
Turning her attention onto my Guard, she continues, “You left your Nicnevin unprotected to follow your father in the hopes that you might gain the trust of your fellow Guards. You put your own well-being above hers?—”
“Except he didn’t,” I whisper. “He went after the threat. Caed is a warrior, not a shield. You gave me Jaro and Bree for that.”
I’ve seen them work together now. My unseelie mates—and I count Caed among them—carve through our enemies, while my seelie mates focus on my protection above all else. It isn’t just about their powers, either. Jaro and Bree don’t enjoy fighting in the way that the others do. They’re not competitive about it, and they don’t glory in the bloodshed.
Caed might’ve gone after Elatha, but I wholeheartedly believe it was only because offence is the only defence he knows. Lore is no different, nor is Drystan, really.
Maybe he was driven by wanting this over with and to be secure in his place in my Guard, but that doesn’t change the fact that he would never have left if he didn’t think I was safe.
As far as he was concerned, I was connected to Danu, had four protectors, and limitless power to offer them. In going after Balor’s medallion, he was defending me from a future threat.
It wasn’t his fault that things went so wrong.
The silence between the two of them is angry and absolute until Caed surprises us both.
“I’m sorry, Goddess.” Danu stays silent. “I’ve failed as Rose’s Guard from the day I swore the oath until you cursed me, and then I failed again.”
“Caed—” I try to interrupt.
“I apologised to you,” he reminds me. “But I owe her one, too.” There’s a pause, like he’s trying to find the words, and when he speaks again, he’s surprisingly solemn. “When you summoned me to give my oath, I was too young and stupid to realise that you were giving me a way out from under my father’s thumb. I only thought about how being Rose’s Guard could benefit me.”
“You were selfish,” Danu admits, eerily calm now. “But you were a child. Such is the nature of youth.”
“But I didn’t grow out of it. I didn’t stop seeing my mate as a thing I could use to help me survive. It wasn’t until after you cursed me that I realised it could be different.”
Danu humphs in annoyance. “I gave you that vision, did I not?”
