He’d utterly lost himself for a moment, adrift in bottomless azure depths framed by long, sooty lashes. His impression of the rest of her was disjointed at best—too swept up in the pandemonium of everything else to have catalogued her every feature—but that split-second gaze they’d shared, the way it had snatched the words from his mouth and made his heart turn over…
Brand needed answers, not the least of which was how the fuck Thad even knew such a creature.
“I’ve delivered Lunara’s things to her chamber,” Thad said, swiping up a cold, half-eaten sausage and shoving the remnant into his mouth.
Lunara.
Why his greater half seemed to preen at the piddling scrap of knowledge was beyond him.
“Then you can sit down and tell us everything you know about her, and why you seemed so damned certain she was capable of this task,” Brand said. “Now.”
“Aye, well.” Thad swallowed, the flush draining from his cheeks and leaving him pale. “Fuck, Da’s going to kill me.”
“Out with it, lad,” Mag said gently. “Go on.”
“She’s, uh… She’s the lass that tried to save Mam.”
Weeping, fucking shite.
“This isthe least we can do. Lunara’s strength will be waning, if it hasn’t abandoned her already.”
Brand silently followed Thad down the corridor, eyeing the tray in his cousin’s hands—and the oozing slash on his arm, wrapped in a haphazard length of gauze.
The goblet perched there among an array of finger foods sent a shudder down Brand’s spine. The last thing he needed was to see more fucking blood.
Thaddeus hadn’t given them much to go on regarding the female he’d brought back. Her name was Lunara. She lived and worked alone, was relatively young—younger, even, than Araxis—and Thad swore to the Sisters that she would be discreet when all was said and done.
She also allegedly charged next to nothing for her services because she didn’tbelievein money, whatever the fuck that meant.
Nachthelliae was a realm of endless night, Sorcerit reliant on the cosmos to fuel their power. It had never made sense to Brand that they would shun daylight so completely, Solyrian just another celestial rock for them to feed from as far as he could tell, but they couldn’t stand it.
Fortunately for the rest of Bordoroth, they loved showing off, looking down on everyone, andgetting paidmore than they hated the sunstar.
Sorcerit famously charged exorbitant fees for their help, taking full advantage of the fact that they were the only creatures outside of the Imperial Line who could use their powers beyond the borders of their realm.
The smug looks and passive aggressive superiority usually came free with service.
So, whatever was going on, Brand wasn’t buying it.
Especially since his cousin had flat-out refused to go into detail about Lunara’s individual skillset, or how she’d been the one selected to care for an Imperial Son’s mate when she wasn’t even part of the Elder Tier. Thad’s claim of having ‘no idea’ had been obvious dragonshite.
“I still can’t fathom why you have so much confidence in a nameless Sorcerit who failed in the end,” Brand finally said as they rounded the final bend and came to the first door. “Your mother died, Thaddeus. That’s not exactly a point in Lunara’s favor. How can you trust her?”
Thad growled, flashing his canines, and pinned Brand with a look that would have felled a lesser creature. “The only reason I am not punching you in your ignorant fucking face is because my hands are full. Wait here.”
Brand recoiled, rooted to the spot as Thad pushed into Bal’s sick room and went about seeing to Lunara’s needs.
Well, then. That was unexpected.
He was just moving to follow when his ears locked on to soft, lilting murmurs, and a wave of power washed over him.
Incandescent, life-giving power.
It hit Brand like a gasp of fresh air in drowning lungs. Gentle and shocking at once in its strength. She may not have been able to save his Aunt Meliora, but shite. He’d met his fair share of Sorcerit over the years, and not a single one of them had magic that felt quite like hers.
He was still standing there, trying to pinpoint the thing within that seemed to be rearranging itself, when Thad returned.
The scowl on his face was not at all promising.
