Keeper of Storms (The Fallen Fae #3) - Jenna Wolfhart Page 0,19

He betrayed you, Thane. Isn’t that how he got into this mess to begin with?” She shook her head. “I know he’s tried to make amends, but that doesn’t change what he did. At the end of the day, he is not our priority. Tairngire is. And Reyna should not have turned her back on us like she did.”

Thane hadn’t yet brought up the rest of it. He hadn’t dared after seeing Iona’s reaction to Reyna’s disappearance. His aunt was livid. A bit of an overreaction, really.

If he tried suggesting they turn south after winning Tairngire back…well, he knew what the answer would be. The only option was to wait. When she got her hands around Aengus’s neck, she would feel a lot better about things.

Or so he hoped.

The truth was, Thane did not think he had the time to stage a siege on Tairngire, not if he had any hope of getting to Lorcan by Beltane. If Reyna did not manage to kill the wood king, Lorcan’s city would fall within weeks. The sooner he could make the move south, the better.

But he would never be able to live with himself if he attacked his own people, if he took their blood from their veins and splashed it on his sword.

He had to convince the castle to surrender.

“You never answered my question, Thane. And you know you can’t avoid it forever.”

The wind rustled Thane’s golden hair away from his face. “You want to know how we should attack.”

“You know this place better than anyone. You understand its defenses. Its weaknesses. The chink in its armor.” Iona glanced up at him and smiled. “You are the city’s worst enemy, because you know everything about it. I heard the stories, same as everyone else. You sneaked out of the castle almost nightly to prowl the streets and revel with the low fae.”

And there it was. The truth, hidden behind so many twisted words. Princess Iona, and likely the rest of the family, did not care one lick about putting Thane back on that throne. They wanted Aengus. Hell, they probably wanted Tairngire for themselves.

Thane was the one who could get it for them. He’d always been the key to their plan. He could get them inside the castle, and then they’d do the rest.

He cast his aunt a furtive sidelong glance. Would she stoop to tossing him in with the rest of her enemies’ corpses? Had this all been some elaborate trick? A way for them to claim his kingdom for their own? They spoke of uniting their two courts…but how? With familial ties and smiles or with blood and betrayal?

Had they only brought him here so that they could kill him in the end?

He would have to be careful of her, even if she was his own mother’s blood.

“Well, as you know, there is always the Bay of Wind approach,” he said slowly. “Pull our ships into the waters there. It’s not entirely ideal, however.” Which was part of the reason why Tairngire had been built on the bay. Its location was ideal for protecting the castle—and the royal family—from situations just like this.

“Because the Air Court’s ships are there. Surely we have more than them.”

“We do. But the bay is too small. The Air Court’s ships crowd the waters, choking us out. It would be next to impossible to get to the castle that way. We could approach from the east, outside of the bay. We’d either have to trek through the Witchlight Woods or go through the mountains.”

She tsked. “The mountains are a terrible idea. That’s how we get our warriors killed. But what’s wrong with the woods?”

“The woods are not what they seem,” he said quietly. “They protect the castle. They always have.”

“Magic?” she asked with a raised brow. “But the Fall—”

“Took our magic,” he said firmly. “But it did not take the magic of the Witchlight Woods. There’s something in there. Something old. Something that feels like death.”

Iona huffed. “So, that’s it then? Three options. Bay of Wind, mountains, or creepy forest.”

“There’s a fourth,” he said. “We could sail north, up around the tip of the Ice Court, and then sail down south again. From there, we would have an easy march through the western grasslands.”

“And how long would that take?”

“Weeks.”

“That is far too long.”

“I agree.”

She glanced up at him, surprise in the widening of her eyes. “You do? I thought you weren’t eager to attack.”

Adding weeks onto their journey surely meant that Thane would never