Not suggesting. Ordering.
Brina said softly, “YouknowTzader and I have been practically betrothed since childhood. He is theonlyman I want.”
The only man she’d ever loved.
“I’m sorry, but I cannot deliver you Tzader,” Macha said with such heartfelt sadness that Brina was tempted to believe her.
But facing the loss of the only person she wanted, the one person she lived for, caused her to speak without guarding her words. “Who can? Is there one more powerful than you?”
The air crackled with sparks of electricity, a prelude to real anger from Macha that could make the heavens plead for peace. “Stop longing for what you cannot have and act as an adult! As an immortal, Tzader can never pass through this warding.”
“He could if you would help us.”
“I gave my promise to uphold the warding around this castleandto assure Tzader’s immortality indefinitely. You expect me to break vows to both of your fathers?”
Brina should tone down her words, but she couldn’t. “I’m asking why you can’t right a wrong. Or won’t. Our fathers had no idea what they were doing to us. My da wouldneverhave created a ward that barred Tzader from the castle. He didn’t know Tzader’s father was going to ask you to pass his immortality to his son if he died fighting alongside my father and his men. Andnobodyexpected our families would be wiped from the earth that day.”
Except maybe Macha.
Had she helped her da place this ward?
Brina hoped to never find out any of that was true.
Macha shrugged her indifference. “True, but it changes nothing. You will produce an heir in one year—”
Wait a minute. How had this gotten so far off course? “Or what? I do believe killing me would defeat the purpose.”
“Spare me the melodrama and the sarcasm.” A mild reaction flowed over Macha’s face that shouldn’t be mistaken as encouraging. She was a female, and a deity, at her best when she had everyone who served her squirming. “I will do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of all Treoir heirs as well as protect my warriors from losing their powers. This castle can never fall to the Medb. The human world would face destruction like never seen before if the Beladors are conquered.”
That was well understood. But Beladors around the world weren’t the only ones at risk if the Medb killed Brina and took control of Treoir.
Macha drew power from the Beladors loyal to her. Take out the Belador power base and Macha became vulnerable. She’d always been a fair and compassionate goddess, but where was her compassion now?
When the goddess angled her head in a show of patience, her hair lifted, darkened to a deep chestnut color, and adjusted back into place around her shoulders of its own volition. “You don’t understand, do you?”
That might be possible if Brina could get an unclouded answer from Macha, but gods and goddesses spoke in circles. Doing so allowed them to wiggle out of a tight spot verbally.
Brina tried to sound sincere and open-minded when she said, “Please enlighten me, Goddess.”
It must not have sounded as sincere to Macha, who shot her a testy look. “I have been remiss in allowing you to wait so long to produce an heir, but . . . I could not ask that of one so young as you were when your family was killed. But you’ve indicated you’re ready and will take a mate.”
“Not unless it’s Tzader.”
“Why do you make this so difficult, Brina? You will either willingly choose a mate who can pass through this ward, or you will no longer leave this castle in any form and I will not allow Tzader to speak with you again.”
What? “I’ll go mad if I can’t at least travel in hologram or never see Tzader again.”
“Must you always think only of yourself?”
An unfair accusation, but it still nicked Brina’s pride. “I have done my duty as a Treoir descendant since birth. How can you accuse me of being selfish?”
“Oh, you have never failed your tribe, but what of Tzader? Do you expect him to wait forever on a woman he can never have?”
Yes. No.Brina didn’t know.I dream of him every night, holding me and making me laugh, just like when we were teens.She missed his smile, hadn’t seen it in a long time.
That gave her pause.
Was his unhappiness her fault for holding him to a teenage vow?Wasshe being selfish, expecting him to live alone in the mortal world just because she was stuck in this grand prison?
