Lach stared at his sister. “Gillian, why would she have that thought in her head? Bronwyn is a princess. She doesn’t know how to fight.”
Gillian snorted. “I assure you, she does, and so do I. What was I supposed to do, Lach? Was I supposed to hire servants and continue to live as a royal? We were on the run and we had nothing but the jewels I managed to smuggle out. We worked for our food, and I wasn’t about to be at the mercy of any man. Before Torin started killing non-sidhe, I paid a couple of goblins to train us how to fight. They were the first. Wherever we would go, we would find someone to teach us. She’s quite good with a staff and knives and a bow. She needs work with a sword.”
“She needs to get to a place where she doesn’t have to defend herself,” Lach said. He turned back to his brother. “Why didn’t we know any of this?”
They had been in her dreams for years, and she’d never given a hint of the horrors she was facing.
“They were her dreams, Lach. She was exactly who she wanted to be in those dreams. You should know that.”
In his dreams, he was whole. Bron had never seen the real him until earlier this day. She’d seemed all right with his lack of beauty, but it couldn’t have helped.
Bron had been on her own with only Gillian to help her survive. And now she didn’t even have Gillian with her. How much had she heard of his sister’s little speech? “Do you think she heard you, Gilly?”
Tears squeezed from her eyes. “I do. I think she’ll never trust me again, and it’s my own damn fault. If she dies out there, it will be on my head because I’m so bloody arrogant.”
“You’re a princess, Your Highness. You are everything you need to be, including arrogant. If you didn’t believe in yourself and your mission, you and Bronwyn would be dead. You did everything right.” Roan watched her intently. “Now let us do our job and get you all to safety. We need to get to Aoibhneas, and then we can have all the fights and recriminations you like. And we can all decide what to do from there.”
Gillian watched him warily. “I thought you’re being paid to get Bron and me back to the Dark Palace?”
“I’m being paid to take care of you and to do what’s in your best interest. Your father hired me to find a child. I’m in the presence of a woman with a mind I admire. You and Princess Bronwyn have survived here for a very long time. I will listen to any plan the two of you have so long as you allow me to listen to it from a safe location. I don’t intend to drag either of you kicking and screaming off the plane. You’re smart women. You have a say in your future. That’s something Princess Bronwyn’s husbands should remember when they’re dealing with her.”
“You’re a dangerous man, Roan.” Gillian said the words with a small sniffle, but it was plain to Lach that his sister was taking the vampire seriously.
“Don’t you forget it for a second, Princess.”
Gillian stared at him for a moment. “Don’t think flattery will work with me.”
A smile tugged that vampire’s lips up, revealing just a hint of fangs. “I wouldn’t imagine it. I suspect rope and long days of training will work on you.
”
“Roan, you go too far.” Lach wasn’t about to let his sister be abused. Though he was thinking about tanning his mate’s ass red. It made him a horrible hypocrite, but it felt odd to listen to the vampire talk about his sister in such a fashion. She was his sister. She wasn’t supposed to do things like get tied up. That was sexual, and he just didn’t see it happening.
Gillian laughed a little. “I think I can handle one vampire, though he is overly large. Roan will discover soon enough the depth of my training. And the lengths I’ve gone to. I assure you, he’ll find another consort.”
Dellacourt started walking to the north. “Kaja is this way. I put a locator device under her skin a long time ago. That sweet little shanimal isn’t getting away from me. I recommend you all put locators on your women. They walk off all too often. Now, can we stop the whole sexual tension thing between the princess and the mercenary? Either fuck each other or let it drop. I have a cousin and a wife to find.”
Roan’s men gathered around, the big lieutenant stopping and staring at Gillian with unabashed interest. Was this the vampire Roan intended to share Lach’s sister with?
Was he going to have to kill two vampires? Or should he do exactly what Roan had said and assume that Gillian had a brain and could handle herself? Roan wouldn’t rape her. He might tie her up and attempt to persuade her, but he wouldn’t rape her.
He was just about to follow Dellacourt when there was a popping sound and the sky darkened. He looked overhead and clutched his sword. He couldn’t mistake that cloud. It was an eddy cloud.
“Is that what I think it is, Lach?” Shim asked. He tried to walk out, but his eyes closed. The light was too much for him.
First blood was supposed to give him strength, and it seemed it had. Shim was stronger than he’d been in thirteen years, but it also seemed to have enhanced his vampire half. Shim closed his eyes and tried to step out. Lach shoved him back.
“You’re no good if you can’t see.” Lach could see. It was irritating, but he could keep his eyes open.
Roan had a sonic charger in his hands. It sent pulses of sound waves that incapacitated or killed its victims if the setting was high enough. “Let’s see who’s come to greet us. They could be friendly.”
But Lach was pretty damn sure they wouldn’t be. And now he was glad Bron was gone. He would find her. Kaja would protect her, and according to Gillian, she wasn’t bad at protecting herself. But whatever was about to drop from that cloud was bad. Lach could feel it.
“Stay inside.” Lach looked back to where Duffy and Shim stood. He could protect them both. “Duffy, you stay here and guard Shim. Gillian, please.”
Dark eyes narrowed on him, letting him know she wasn’t pleased with being relegated to the house. “I’ll stay here. For now.”
The air around them cracked and sizzled. Lach looked up. It was hard, but he could see Fae dropping from the cloud. An eddy wind was difficult to locate and harder to catch. He counted ten and then twenty and then thirty soldiers drop from the savage-looking cloud.