The children began to cry as Reyna dropped to her sister’s side. Her knees dug into the cold snow, but she did not feel the chill. Ice fae never did. Reyna gathered Glencora into her arms, pulling her head into her lap. Glencora stared up at the sky, horror flickering across her face. A few grains of black fell onto her face. Her eyes widened. And then a single fleck pierced her gaze.
Screaming, Glencora clawed at her eyes.
Reyna curled over her sister’s face, blocking the Ruin. She glanced up and caught the gaze of the children who had huddled together in the snow. They held their rags over their faces. The youngest boy cried.
“Don’t look up at the sky,” Reyna whispered to them. “Keep your eyes shut tight.”
The children squeezed their eyes shut, tears leaking down their cheeks.
Reyna reached back and flicked up her hood, shielding her own face from the onslaught of the Ruin. She twisted to Wingallock, who had settled on her shoulder, his claws piercing her skin. “Fly ahead. Warn Father.”
Wingallock gave a hoot and took off through a sky full of dark soot. She prayed to her forsaken god that the snow owl would make it out of the Ruin alive. Reyna did not know how she could survive without her familiar. Their souls were as linked as her heart to her veins.
Glencora still screamed, a high-pitched noise that cut through the terrible silence.
Reyna gave a whistle, and their two grey-speckled mares galloped out of the forest. She wrapped her arms tight around Glencora, shushing her screams. “Sister, listen to me. I’ve got you, but I need you to calm down. None of us will make it out of this alive unless you swear that you will trust me.”
Glencora’s sharp breaths shook her body, but she quieted and clung tightly to Reyna’s arms. With eyes wide and unseeing, she gave a quick nod. Reyna pulled her sister to her feet, thankful for her training. If she had not spent so much time wielding a sword, she would not be able to bear her sister’s weight, even as slight as she was. Slowly, she helped Glencora onto her horse’s back. All the while her sister was silent, her eyes shut tight.
“Go on then,” she whispered into Mannin’s ear, slapping the horse’s rump. The horse took off through the forest, snow spraying up from the ground.
Reyna turned to the children. “You’re next.”
She lifted them onto her own mare’s back in turn. They were small enough that all three fit. “Enbarr knows the way. Just hold on tight.”
The children disappeared into the forest on Enbarr’s back. With one last glance behind her, Reyna shook her head. Even she would not risk a continued search of the village. It would not take long for the Ruin to seep through her cloak and eat the flesh off her bones.
Specks of black clung to Reyna’s cloak as she took off through the forest. She ran toward the Rowan Road, her pace slow as she struggled to find purchase in the snow. When the thick canopy of trees finally twisted together overhead to shield her from the falling Ruin, she unclasped the brooch and tossed her mother’s cloak off her shoulders, leaving it behind on the ground.
She continued on, but risked a single glance over her bare shoulder. Where the cloak had fallen, the crisp snow had transformed into a pile of pulsing soot.
Reyna shook her head and carried on. She did not know how she had survived, but that did not matter to her now. She had to get home to her sister.
* * *
Father’s expression was grim as he stepped out of Glencora’s bedchamber. “Alchemist Naal says she may survive, but it will be a long fight. And she may never regain use of her eyes. She may be blinded. Permanently.”
Reyna steadied herself on the slick stone wall, sconces of glowing ice casting a blue haze onto her Father’s lined face. She had done this to her sister. Glencora had wanted to turn back. Tears filled Reyna’s eyes, hot and full of nettles.“I am so sorry, Father.”
He clicked his tongue. “The Air Court is on the Rowan Road. When they arrive, they will reject our proposed alliance. There will be no betrothal. The future High Queen of the Air Court cannot be blind. It is against their laws.”
Even now, in the depths of his grief, Father could not forget the political alliance with the Air Court. Reyna could not blame him, in a way. It would end the skirmishes, and help keep their people safe. Together, they would be far stronger against their common enemies, the Wood and Sea Courts. Together, they could perhaps beat the Ruin.
But Reyna did not want to think about that now. Not while Glencora roiled in her bed, her eyes burning from a powerful darkness that had somehow survived even after the Dagda had drained most magic out of Tir Na Nog.
“They will be angry,” Reyna said.
“Only if we fail to provide them with an alternative,” he said. “We have promised an alliance, a betrothal. We shall give them one.”
Reyna’s eyes widened as she stumbled back against the wall. If Father meant to fulfill their promise, then it would be Eislyn betrothed to the High King’s only living son. He was not agreeable at all. Cunning, wicked, and revelrous, the rumours said. He’d fought in battles against the Ice Court, slicing his sword through ice fae necks. Reyna had fought against him herself. When Glencora had agreed to wed Prince Thane, it had turned Reyna’s stomach, but she had known her sister would be strong enough to survive. Surely her father could not expect Eislyn to take up this quest, not in her current state. He must not be speaking of her younger sister at all.
Reyna shook her head. “But I formally withdrew myself from the line of succession. I am an unsworn Shieldmaiden, not a future High Queen.”
“So then it will be your sister.”
Eislyn.Reyna closed her eyes. Eislyn was still wounded from that night so long ago. Her father could not send her into the arms of a lethal prince, who had killed so many of their kind.
Reyna swallowed hard. “Eislyn is not the right choice for Thane.”
