The Clash of Yesterday (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 0.5)

I shudder, the image too gruesome to even comprehend.

And then… she’s gone.

Having bent distance so quickly that Ronan never had a chance to shove the dagger into her. And despite her threats just now, I’m grateful.

“Son of a fucking bitch,” he barks in frustration. Wheeling on me, he demands, “You made me hesitate.”

“She’s my sister,” I implore.

“She’s a nutjob is what she is,” he grumbles, the dagger disappearing from his hand, which then goes to his hair to rake through it in irritation. “You’re not safe here now. She can come back at any time to kill you.”

“I can handle myself,” I retort.

“Yeah, well fuck that,” he snarls back. “I’m taking care of you now. You, me, and our baby are leaving. Going somewhere safe until we can figure out what to do.”

Part of me hates his high-handedness, but most of my being is charmed and warmed by his protectiveness of our baby and me.

How can I not love him?

I nod in agreement, and he jerks a chin toward the bedroom. “Let’s get you packed. We won’t stay in my condo as I don’t know if Rishka knows about it. I’m thinking a trip to Paris sounds good tonight. What do you think?”

There’s no stopping the smile that comes to my face. Even though my sister just tried to kill me, and most likely my family will want the same, a romantic trip to Paris to hide out until we can figure out what to do sounds like heaven to me.

CHAPTER 11

Ronan

This is either going to work or Eliana and I will die today. It’s a gamble I wasn’t willing to take, but Eliana wanted a permanent resolution.

We stayed in Paris for a few days, trying to figure out what to do. My suggestion—and I still think the best idea—is to disappear into the world together and leave Brevala and our families far behind. They won’t come looking for us, but it will mean we could never return. We’d be banished and shunned forever.

I pointed out to Eliana that this was the best idea because we didn’t go to Brevala that much anyway. She and I—independent of each other—had committed ourselves to living in the Earth realm centuries ago. We could remain here, moving around as we age out of our societal circles. We’ve each traveled the world a hundred times over, but now we could do it together.

And we could do it with our child.

We would be a fae family living among humans and it was not only workable, but it was also the safest.

To my surprise, Eliana wanted to try to make amends. I didn’t understand it because even though Rishka wants to kill her now, she’d never been that close to her anyway. It wasn’t like she was losing an important relationship.

Her father, Arnus, I wasn’t sure of. He didn’t like that Eliana left Brevala, but I watched him cheer her on at the games in Faere, and he clearly has pride and affection for her.

I suspect the real reason Eliana isn’t ready to give up on our home is, Rishka and Arnus aside, she has a great relationship with many in her extended family in Faere. Those ties are obviously important to her.

They’re important to me, too. I’m incredibly close to my uncle Geseph, who has never begrudged me wanting to travel outside our realm. I enjoy visiting and being around my family because we’re a pretty easy-going clan outside of the feud.

Yeah, I’d be giving up a lot to leave Brevala behind forever, but the way I see it, I was gaining so much more. A woman I’ve fallen in love with who will bear our miracle child.

But as I said, Eliana prevailed and convinced me to try.

She called for an official Summit, something I had never heard of. Apparently, there’s an old-standing tradition between the feuding Meadowlanders and Bluff Dwellers that if there is an issue that could affect both sides equally, a truce against violence would be agreed upon and a meeting held at the borderlands.

Eliana dispatched messages to Arnus requesting the Summit but did not explain other than important information needed to be discussed. Of course, Arnus would know all about what had happened from Rishka.

I dispatched a message to Geseph to let him know exactly what was going on so he’d at least have a heads-up and wouldn’t be so shocked to learn that Rishka was in a killing mood. I knew my uncle well enough to realize that while he was going to be disappointed I was with a Meadowlander, he would never banish me from the family.

To Eliana’s delight and my disappointment, both sides agreed to a Summit. While the agreement is to a non-violent truce, we have no clue if it will hold and I’m worried what will happen if violence breaks out. While I’ll go down fighting to the death to defend Eliana and our child, my immediate plan isn’t to even stick around and engage. If I sense anything bad, I’m bending distance and flashing our asses out of there to a far, faraway place, and we’re never going back.