“I’m afraid she might be the only one who can release it. She controls it, remember? It’s a part of her. If she wants it gone, then she has to let it go.”
“You’re right,” he said through gritted teeth. “That isn’t what I want to hear at all. She’ll never let it go, Nollaig. She’d let it kill her first.”
Nollaig sighed. “I know. The only way she’d ever let it go is if we find a way to destroy it once it leaves her body.”
Lorcan’s heart twisted in his chest. “Any ideas on how we can do that?”
“My only idea is to search Findius for answers. That’s where the Ruin was made. And that’s where Seelie said it must be undone.”
Lorcan growled, his hands fisting. “There has to be a way to stop this. Reyna Darragh does not have todiein order to save this godforsaken world.”
He could not see Nollaig’s eyes, but he swore he could feel the sadness in them. “Forgive me, Your Highness, but maybe she does.”
* * *
“We’ll send our warriors back to Findius with you,” Lord Maddox announced at the breakfast table the next morning. Lorcan had gotten very little sleep while he held Reyna tightly against his chest. She’d felt as hot as flames until waking. Now, she could do nothing more than poke at her fried fish, her eyes rimmed in red.
But she perked up at the lord’s words. With a smile, she flicked her gaze toward Lorcan. The pure joy on her face melted through his fear at losing her to the gods forever. “Well, that’s a relief to hear. Isn’t it, Lorcan?”
“On one condition,” Lord Maddox cut in, dousing all the sudden hope in the packed room full of lords, warriors, and eager courtiers.
Lorcan frowned. “Let me guess. You wish to be appointed a new title of some sort. Some more land? You know I can’t promise you a damn thing until this war is won. I don’t know what we’ll have by the end of this thing.”
“All I want is a seat on your council,” the lord said with a tight smile. “And for the warriors from Shademore to join us on the battlefield. They have a thousand trained fighters there. Combined with ours, we stand a much better chance of our warriors surviving the war.”
Shademore? That was unexpected. He hadn’t even been aware the town had survived through the long, dead years. It sat so close to Findius, he’d assumed the air fae had taken them out at some point during the war.
“Good.” He nodded. “That I can agree with. We’ll send a bird to let them know when to advance.”
“We have no birds.” The lord’s eyes cut toward Reyna. “We’ll need to use the owl.”
Reyna stiffened, reaching up to stroke Wingallock’s feathers.
“No,” Lorcan said in a low growl that did not welcome disagreement. “The owl is Reyna’s familiar. It stays with her.”
Beside him, the princess shifted uncomfortably on the wooden bench. He knew what she was thinking. Every bloody word of it. Hell, if she wasn’t, he’d leap off a cliff and dive into the open mouth of a great, mythical beast. She wanted to agree to send her owl. Even if it shattered her completely.
“He won’t be going, Princess Reyna” Lorcan said in a voice lined with steel, using her title in front of the lords, even though he hated how formal it sounded. “You know you can’t survive his absence. Not anymore.”
She pressed her lips together. He expected her to argue, but instead, she crushed up some herbs and threw them into her mouth. Her complexion seemed to brighten instantly.
“I know I can’t send him,” she admitted after she’d swallowed the herbs. “But I also refuse to sit around and be helpless. I’ll go to Shademore and gather their warriors.”
Lorcan glared at her. “Absolutely not.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to order me around?”
“Yes, Princess Reyna. I am. I only just found you again.”
“I want to help you,” she said fiercely, her eyes flashing in the way that only Reyna Darragh’s eyes could flash. “Ineedto help you.”
Lorcan huffed. She was doing it again. That maddening, infuriating Reyna thing that made him love her with the ferocity of a thousand burning suns. But it also made him want to shout at the skies and beg the gods to save his soul from utter destruction.
“You’re not feeling like yourself,” he said, trying to keep a handle on his frustration. “You’re not at full strength, like it or not. I know you hate hearing that, but it’s the truth.”
“I know it is.” She stabbed the fish, and then popped a piece of it into her mouth. “Which is why I’m going to gather the army. Right now, I don’t know how well I’d fare in a fight, so I won’t be much help when we reach Findius. This is something I can actually do, Lorcan. And I won’t take no for an answer.”
A low growl rumbled in Lorcan’s throat.
