“Shall I leave you two alone?” Cyara hummed through the crystal.
I focused all of my attention on the glowing white crystal, refusing to note Arran’s movements in the periphery of my vision. “Tell us what you have found out from the priestess.”
Cyara reported like the observant, competent sentinel she was quickly becoming. “Percival is the most useful he’s ever been. He knows a lot of human history and can match up events with the histories of Annwyn here in Eilean Gayl. They haveseveral legends about the Nightwalkers, but we are still trying to figure out how those fit with Annwyn. If they do at all.
“The priestess and her acolyte have taken to Diana. Most of the time I only understand half of what they are saying. There are several mentions of a book calledThe Travelers, but it is not in the collection here at Eilean Gayl.”
Percival being helpful. I almost snorted again. But if there was one thing to motivate him, it was his sister. And Diana was moldable; Cyara had proved as much. Maybe it made me ruthless to use the two human prisoners like this. Or maybe it just made me a queen.
“So... not much progress,” I said after I’d finished digesting.
“Nothing that changes our course of action,” Cyara agreed. She did not sigh—she was much too practice for that. She did add, “Diana has an idea, but…” Another long pause, “We can discuss it when you return.”
If I had looked up, I would have seen Arran’s jaw ticking. I felt certain. Not being able to see was sharpening all of my other senses. I could hear the subtle inhales and exhales he tried to modulate. He had not missed Cyara’s implication.
Cyara, ever faithful, spared me from having to defend myself either way.
“Did you get the amorite?” she asked.
I nodded, even though she could not see it. “Yes.”
Vera and Kay were already preparing the first shipment. When we arrived back in Eilean Gayl, we would send back more terrestrials to help with the transport. In the meantime, we each carried bags full of as much amorite as we could carry without impeding our movements.
“Thank the Ancestors,” Cyara said through the crystal.
“We should be able to outfit all of the males at Eilean Gayl with amorite amulets or earrings. But beyond that, we shall have to decide who and what. There will not be enough.”
The weight of that thought had settled upon my shoulders with each step away from Castle Chariot. How would we allocate the amorite? Who would be most important? Guards and warriors would be the most dangerous if vulnerable to the succubus, but fathers and brothers living across Annwyn could decimate their entire families in the span of a few minutes. The memory of the burning human village seared through my mind. It might have already begun in Annwyn. If word had been sent to Baylaur, or if citizens had petitioned there, I would have no way of knowing, sequestered as I was in Eilean Gayl above the Spine.
The guilt turned my stomach.
Arran cleared his throat. “Especially once we start making weapons.”
Now the guilt threatened to choke me.
“I did not agree to that,” I said sharply.
Hell—it was hell to be pressed together like this and unable to move. Unable to glare at him or bare my teeth.
“War is coming, whether you can acknowledge it or not. There is not enough amorite to protect all the males in Annwyn. We must be able to kill the succubus who do come,” Arran said. He was not even being cruel, no disdain or superiority in his voice. Just a battle commander stating the facts of the enemy at hand.
It made me want to vomit.
“It will not get to war,” I said. I would not let it. That was the reason Cyara was searching with Diana and Percival. We had to find a way to stop the succubus before it came to war—a war we could not possibly win. A war that would mean the death of thousands of fae to the succubus, both in possession and murder.
Seven thousand years later, we still called it The Great War. I would not allow history to repeat itself.
“This argument is immaterial at the moment. You are trapped in a cave,” Cyara said through the crystal, her voice flaring around us. Chastising us like children.
Itwasabout to become an argument. I could feel the tightness of Arran’s arm where it curved around me. The fingers, which had held my arm with soft possession, were now stiff.
“We will be back at Eilean Gayl in a few days,” I said. Cyara had given me an out—I would take it.
“Good,” she said, voice already fading. “Contact me again if you need help.”
The crystal went dark.
I wondered how long we would sit in silent darkness, both of us too stubborn or afraid to breach the chasm that had opened between us. We’d made no progress on this argument—defensive or offensive. Protect or prepare. We had no round table to sit around and hash it out. That should not have mattered, we should have been able to discuss it anywhere.
