side, walking me back into the room. Introductions were made all around before I finally came face to face with his immediate family. Brylanna stood there, proud and tall, smirking at me as if she was in on some dirty little secret that I wasn’t going to like. Next to her was a younger man who, with the exception of the dark blue eyes and his brother’s extra height, was clearly the spitting image of the woman seated in front of him. This had to be Aiden. Which meant the woman in front of him was his mother, Bahlin’s mother. She stood and I was shocked to see she was a petite little thing with light brown hair and dark brown eyes. She was nothing in size like the gargantuan children she’d given birth to. She smiled at Bahlin and wrapped him in a hug as only a mother could, clearly adoring him and embarrassing him in one economical movement. The man seated next to her at the head of the table was a behemoth of a man. Bahlin looked exactly like him in every way—dark blue eyes, burnished hair, high cheekbones, full mouth, broad shoulders, roughly the size of a small country.
“Maddy, allow me to introduce my da, Leith, and my ma, Adelle. The young lizard behind them is my little brother, Aiden. My da is the ruling Glaaca, or head of the wyvern.”
Bahlin’s parents took turns shaking my hand, and his mother encouraged me to fix myself a quick meal while she busied herself loading a up a small trough for Bahlin. Leith looked me over very thoroughly, giving nothing away.
“Da?” Bahlin asked, his tone cool and careful.
“So she’s our new Niteclif?” Leith asked in an insolent tone.
“She is,” Bahlin answered, his voice hardening just a bit. If I hadn’t seen his mother’s hand jerk as she lifted a spoon of mashed potatoes from the sideboard I wouldn’t have realized anything was wrong. Thankfully I had that small bit of warning, otherwise I would have likely fallen over at Leith’s next comment.
“So you’ve taken to sporting with her already, son? Awfully quick, even for you.” His tone was cold. Adelle looked from one man to another, clearly shocked at her husband’s rudeness but unsure what to do with herself. She finally pulled out a chair at the table and dropped her head in her hands, not in a defeated manner but more a frustrated one. Behind Leith, Brylanna paled a bit.
“Maddy, I’m going to ask you to step outside for a moment,” Bahlin said, his tone so cold I drew my hand from his instinctively. He turned to look at Brylanna and said, “Why, piuthar?”
Brylanna lifted her chin and said, “You know why and she should too. You have been sporting with her, but have you been honest with her, Bahlin?”
I’m not sure what the final straw was, whether it was Leith’s rudeness or Brylanna’s, but between the fae, the dragons and the murder-minded magicians, I’d had enough with the cloak and dagger shit. I rounded on Brylanna and said, “All right already. You’ve hinted again and again that there’s something I need to know. Here’s your opportunity. Give it your best shot, you fire-breathing, scale-sporting, knobby-spined bitch.”
She stared at me for a split second and then laughed with wicked glee as if I hadn’t spoken. “So you’ve truly not told her then?” The look of pale fear on Bahlin’s face was her answer. “Fine. I will. Madeleine Dylis Niteclif, I had a vision about you before you arrived. You would be a woman fair of face, sharp of mind, with fresh grief your heaviest burden. You would be vulnerable to empathy, despise sympathy and be so hungry for a sense of belonging that you would be willing to accept your lot as Niteclif with only limited explanation and minor manipulation. Better yet, you were predestined to fall in love with a male member of the High Council and forsake yourself for the opportunity to be loved. That member of the High Council would gain in power and influence for being in your bed and would end up being the first individual ever to lead the Council. This meant there would be a competition to get you on your back. And the man that first won the right to rut with you would break your heart.” Brylanna’s grin faltered as she watched my face, stepping back from me as I processed her prediction.