Page 83 of Across an Endless Sea

My Guard has done enough damage. I won’t let him hurt my brother too.

Behind me, Bram gasps as Maeve solidifies, becoming real as I grip my bond to Danu tightly in my mind. Power floods the room, sending the chickens clucking in alarm.

Dimly, I realise that this is the first time I’ve ever managed to do this. Every other time I’ve used my powers, I’ve either been so lost to Danu’s emotions that I had no control, or been so scared that I wasn’t able to draw them out. Some primal, stupid part of me refuses to fear Caed, and I’m not furious this time—neither is the Goddess.

Maybe later—when we survive this—I’ll congratulate myself for my control.

So when his blue arm breaks through the entrance, followed by the rest of him, he comes face to face with two queens of the fae.

“Rose,” he whispers, eyes wide. “Wait. I can explain!”

He’s got a tattoo, I realise. A dying rose over his heart, kept prisoner by chains and swords, that ends in knots that run over his arm like chain mail. So that’s where he’s been this whole time? Getting a tattoo to commemorate my imprisonment while I was down here, terrified for my life?

“Explain?” I demand. “What is there to explain, Caed? That you’ve come to slaughter one more fae and drag me back for your father to turn me into his broodmare?”

“I made a mistake,” he says, holding his hands out in the universal gesture of surrender. “Marl isn’t in any danger from me.”

Maeve and I take another step forward. “I will never believe another word you say,” I promise. “And if you think I’m letting a Fomorian try to kill another—”

“I won’t touch him,” Caed swears, glancing between Bram and me. “Marl and I have history.”

History? That sounds ominous… But a sideways glance at my grim-faced, nodding brother proves he’s telling the truth.

“Just go away, Caed. I’m going home. I’m taking him with me, and if you have any glimmer of remorse for all of the shit you just put me through, you’ll make it so I never have to see you again.”

“I can’t do that,” he says.

Then he shocks the hell out of me, dropping to his knees on the dirt, sending the chickens fleeing in all directions.

“What are you doing?” I whisper, feeling a little of my defensiveness slip, replaced by utter confusion.

I expected him to waltz in here, swords at the ready, and drag me back to the surface. This peaceful, surrendering Caed…

Must be a trap. There’s no way this isn’t a ploy.

“I’m asking you—no, begging you—to hear what I have to say.”

I sense, more than see, Bram drawing closer behind me, and I shift protectively to hide him from view. As much as I’m glad to have found him, this is between Caed and me, and I won’t allow my brother to be harmed—especially after what happened with Florian.

I shake my head. “No.”

Caed tenses, visibly working to keep his composure. “Rose…”

“You’ve said and doneenough.” Yes, my voice is sharp, but he must think I’m an idiot if he thinks I’ll listen to him after what he’s done.

I don’t even know what to say to him. When I was younger, I hated that my human mother used silence as a weapon. I thought it was toxic and never understood why she did it.

Now I do.

Sometimes, you’re so angry that words can’t express it. So furious that it seems as if, once you open your mouth, all you’ll be able to do is scream and scream.

I take a deep breath through my nose and squeeze my eyes shut, only to open them as the darkness drags forth the memory of the pile of dead slumped in the pit.

Thirty.

I counted the bodies.

Thirty deaths on my hands. Thirty-two, counting the fae whose wings were ripped off, and the fae who wanted to kill me to save me. Thirty-three when I count Bethani.

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