Fires of War (War and Deceit #4) - Erin O'Kane Page 0,77
him to become allies with his enemy.
Merrin sighs and speaks up. “He wants protection from the elf queen, and in return, he will lend his forces in the battle,” he answers, looking sympathetically towards me. “You are the better of two evils.”
“We don’t need them,” I reply automatically, fear driving me. My aunt frowns, taking a step towards me, while chief Ragnar cries out in outrage. I haven’t consulted them, I know I should have, but it’s not them the king is playing with. I turn to face my aunt, and I don’t know what she sees in my expression, but she stops in her tracks, her eyes hard as they flick over my face. “I’m not going back there.” My voice cracks with emotion, and I feel Vaeril fighting against his feral fae nature. Tor’s bond is pulsing with concern and frustration, hating that he can’t be here with me and that he’s left out of the conversation.
“Clarissa, there’s more,” Grayson calls softly, and when I look at him, I know whatever he’s going to say next is going to hurt. He doesn’t want to tell me, I can feel his regret. “I only just found out about this before this meeting took place,” he urges in a low voice, needing me to know he hadn’t been keeping this information from me last night.
True fear pulses through me now. What has Grayson so worried that he’s justifying himself to me? My mind plays over all of the terrible things that could have happened, all of the awful things the king might have done or demanded, each one worse than the last. The longer the silence stretches, the more my nausea grows. Glancing at Vaeril with wide eyes, I turn back to the mage, reaching out and taking his hand, unable to wait any longer. “Grayson, what is it?”
“The king is threatening to kill Jacob if you don’t attend.” Although he says it as softly as possible, it still feels like I’ve been hit with a physical blow.
It takes me a few seconds before I can put my thoughts into words, my complex feelings for Jacob, the king, and returning to Arhaven making it difficult. But ultimately, I know I couldn’t live with myself if I allowed anything to happen to Jacob. My gaze has fallen to my goddess mark, which is glowing softly, as if the Mother herself is reassuring she is with me. Lifting my eyes, I look first at Grayson and then to Vaeril. “I can’t let that happen.” My words are a whisper. The journey will be hard for me, but it would be worse for him. I can’t, and won’t, expect him to come with me, not after he was a captive there for over a hundred years, it wouldn’t be fair of me to ask him.
“I know,” he replies, cupping my cheek as he sifts through my emotions down the bond. Taking a deep breath, he drops his hand and tangles it with mine, squeezing it tightly. “When do we leave?”
The lush greenery of the perfectly manicured gardens is peaceful and helps calm me. Each petal, stem, and leaf is immaculate. Not so much as a single blade of grass is out of place as the tall, twisting spires of the magicians’ guild tower above me. It’s exquisite here, but I do miss the magic of the forest. It may not be perfect, but it has its own beauty and rawness that a pruned garden could never possess.
Tor, Vaeril, Eldrin, and Naril follow behind me, giving me the space I need. I know they want to be close, reassuring me with their touch, but right now, I need to clear my head, and being in nature has always helped that. Unfortunately, the magicians’ guild is about as far away from the forest as you can get. Set on the northern cliffs of Morrowmer, the guild is at the opposite end of the continent to the forest I love so much. So in the meantime, this garden is the closest thing.
The last couple of days since the meeting in the forest have been a blur of discussions and travelling. The chiefs, mainly Ragnar, were not happy with the new revelations, but it was decided that we did not need the king’s forces and he would be an unreliable ally. Blackmail was not a good way to start a partnership. The tribes didn’t want me to go, and the elves spoke up and surprised me by