Keeper of Storms (The Fallen Fae #3) - Jenna Wolfhart Page 0,11
so are you. Though it won’t be the journey you’ve imagined.” His eyes flicked up and down the length of her. “You know the Fomorians don’t take very kindly to fae. Don’t you lot have a treaty? You can’t step foot on their shores. You have no idea what you’ve just done to yourself.”
“So, you will take me to Fomor then,” she said, hands clenching and unclenching by her sides.
His smile stretched wide. “Oh yes. We’ll be taking you alright, boy. As our prisoner. And do you know what the Fomorians do to fae who dare break the treaty? They chop off your ugly little heads.”
4
Reyna
That night, Thane came to her again.
A harsh wind swept across the midnight sea, rustling the silver strands that hung in loose waves around her shoulders. She pressed her sweaty palms against the stone parapet, watching a distant seagull dart toward a school of fish. The white feathers of the bird flared bright against her eyes, even in the darkness, almost overwhelming her with its intensity. She still had not grown accustomed to her newly-enhanced senses. Seelie’s power sang as it rushed through her veins. It had awakened her ears and her eyes and her nose in ways she had only once dreamt of. Even the rough stone beneath her fingers was like the scraping of a knife against her skin.
And, in a dark corner of her mind, the Ruin sat on its haunches, ready to pounce. She shivered.
“I’m not surprised to find you out here again,” Thane said quietly as he joined her on the balcony. Moonlight curled around his strong jaw as he gazed across the blanket of rippling water. “One might think you’re allergic to being indoors.”
“I can’t think inside that room. It feels claustrophobic in there.” Reyna kept the rest of the truth to herself. In that room, the steady pulse of the Ruin was almost overwhelming. Outdoors, she felt she had space to breathe. “And I certainly can’t sleep. Not tonight.”
“I can’t sleep either.” Thane grabbed the parapet and leaned forward, sucking in a deep breath of salty air. “I wish Aunt Iona wasn’t so stubborn about this.”
“She’s thinking of her sister,” Reyna said, her words nearly drowned out by the rush of the waves. “To be honest, Thane, I won’t lie and say I’d do things differently if I were in her place. If it had been Eislyn instead.”
Reyna shuddered at the thought. It could have been Eislyn, and she had no idea how her sister had been able to escape Aengus’s wrath. Her heart ached imagining the fear on her face as she fled. The flutter of her fingers as she clutched her shirt, the tiny gasps as her feet carried her away from Tairngire. But she was safe now, according to Thane’s spies. And that was all that mattered.
Aengus couldn’t get to Reyna’s sister now.
Thane ground his teeth together as his brows pinched tight. “And yet I’m the one who is in far more pain than they could possibly imagine. She was my mother. My...” His voice cracked.
Reyna settled a comforting hand on his shoulder. Ever since she’d arrived in Gorias City, Thane had been nothing but the strong, stoic High King he’d been born to become. He had not wavered. His shoulders had not stooped. Only the dark circles beneath his eyes gave him away. He was bleeding inside, even as he grew in strength.
“I’m sorry, Thane,” she said gently. “I know I didn’t make things very easy on you or your mother, but I hate what happened to her.”
“But you did do something for her, Reyna. Something important. And I will never, ever forget that.” He turned to her and took her hands in his, holding them tight to his chest. Through the gold-dyed armor, she could feel his heart almost burst out of his chest. “She asked you to go in search of me, and you did. She died knowing that you would one day find me. And get me back to where I belong. In Tairngire, on that throne.”
She gave him a sad smile. “Ah, Thane. Unfortunately, I didn’t do a very good job of that, did I? I got myself captured before I even stepped outside of Dalais Castle.”
He smiled back. “You got to me in the end.”
“And now I’m leaving, Thane.” The words rushed out of her before she could stop them. “Tonight. I can’t sail north and leave Lorcan to fight the wood king alone.”