Thirty-four – 01

It took every ounce of my strength and control not to put an arrow in her eye. If not for Thom’s restraining hand on my arm, I might have done it.

Revenge. Revenge on who, you crazy bitch? I swallowed bile and tried to tamp down my rage. Seamus had wanted us here to back him up, but at some point, this was all going to become too much and I was going to take matters into my own hands.

I was sure of that.

Seamus spread his arms. “If you want to take your vengeance, Thesan, then do it. Have your pound of flesh from me and have done with it. You don’t need to involve poor Phelan in this. He’s been through more than enough trying to shoulder the burdens I foisted onto him when I was called to wed your mother. Leave off and return him to himself.”

“You mistake me,” Thesan said.  “I don’t want revenge on you. I want revenge on everyone else. I want revenge on all the ones who wronged you—Mother, Grandfather, your brother, your father, all of them. I want vengeance on those who kept me from being happy.”

His brother. Teague. What the hell does Teague have to do with—oh shit. Shit.

Seamus’s voice hitched. “My father is beyond revenge now, Thesan, and you have no quarrel with my brother unless he’s wronged you in a way I’m not aware of. They left the shores of this world long ago and have only recently returned.”

“He was meant for the Wild Hunt,” Thesan snapped. “Don’t you see? Don’t you know that? Had she had him to hand over, all would have been well.”

My fingers ached from gripping the shaft of my bow too tightly. “Idiot,” I snapped, my tongue no longer my own. “Your mother was a lying bitch, that much you know well. Teague or Seamus, it made no difference to her which went to the Hunt. She thought to break the Hunt, to bend it to no will but her own. She failed in that and cost you a father in the doing. The only vengeance you should seek is on her. Now return to us the Taliesin and have done with this foolishness!”

Thom’s hand was like iron around my arm. My fingers itched to feel an arrow’s fletching between them. There was a strange haze at the edges of my vision, silver and green haloing my sight.

“Mar,” he whispered, “get a hold of yourself. You’re speaking in tongues.”

I looked at him and tried to jerk free of his grasp. The eyes I saw weren’t his and yet at the same time they were.

He’s not my husband and yet he is.

The words echoed like a hammer’s blow inside my skull.

Thesan was laughing at me.

“Oh dear,” she cackled. “Seems I’ve stumbled upon even better prey than I could have hoped! I see the Archer’s soul. Does that mean the Ridden Druid is near, too?”

In an eyeblink she was gone and I was sagging into Thom’s arms, heart hammering at three times its speed.

“What happened?” I asked in a weak whisper. My head pounded like there was a small fairy inside my skull hammering away at an oak log.

“You said something in old Erse to her,” Thom said. “I don’t know what.”

“You told her that she’s an idiot,” Seamus said, his face gray as he stared at me. “You’ve shown too many cards, child. You’re Brighid of the Imbolg come again, aren’t you?”

“What does that matter?” I asked, squeezing my eyes shut. My eyes stung. Something wasn’t right—nothing was right. “We’re wasting time. We need to figure out where she’s holding Phelan’s anima and what it’s in while she’s distracted.”

“Marin, you don’t understand,” Thordin said hoarsely. “She’s going after your brother. Right now.”

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