Page 115 of The Savage Queen

Aisling tipped her head entirely up, finding his verdant gaze.

“Is this necessary?” Aisling frowned.

“Depends,” he said. “Would you rather be disemboweled by the fangs of millennia-old spirits? Or stay this close to me?” Lir’s lips split into a hot-blooded grin.

Already, the spirits’ attention was wandering toward them, raising a brow at the stillness of their legs.

“Both bear unfathomable consequences.”

“I’m flattered.”

“That wasn’t a compliment,” Aisling bit, but Lir was already plunging them both into the crush of spirits.

The flowers hanging above their heads danced, nodding their bulbs to the music. Sprites bathed and leapt between the punch bowls. And the billowing smoke puffed from the bears’ pipes traveled above and through the flying dancers in countless characters. Three of the six were wispydragúns.

Racat, Muirdris, and Aengus.

Among the others were an owl, a stag, a badger, a fox, and a white bear.

Animals symbolic of the fae monarchies across the mortal realm. Aisling knew many of them but not all.

Ina, the queen of Iod, the owl. Bres, the king of Annwyn, the stag. Delbaeth, king of Oighir, the white bear.

“They narrate the Wild Hunt,” Lir said, spinning in pace with the music. “The twelve Sidhe kingdoms battling for Racat, Muirdris, and Aengus. Each desperate for either power, prosperity, or immortality.”

Aisling had seen this tale portrayed in smoke before. Around a campfire after hers and Lir’s union, told by Rian. But never had she seen the part of the story where Ina was besotted with Delbaeth, Fionn’s father. A story Fionn mentioned; perhaps this particular chapter was often excluded when chronicled in Annwyn.

The smoke moved to the rhythm of the melody, increasing its speed as the beat rose in tempo. The owl not lunging for Racat with the intent to hunt, but rather twirling around it, finding a pattern of flight till they flew together. Both the stag and the white bear, chasing shortly behind.

“Did Ina learn before or after Delbaeth hercaerawas Bres?” Aisling asked, watching as the stag and the bear battled one another, growing dizzy with every furthering step.

Lir hesitated. “Before.”

Aisling twirled in a circle, clasping hands with a spirit before the dance returned her to Lir. This spirit appeared like any otherfae, though made of forest fog and dappled in mist. A bygone glint in its opalescent eyes that forced a shudder from Aisling’s bones.

“She despised my father at first,” the fae king continued. “Intended to wed Delbaeth instead.”

“A union that would’ve left one or the other dead considering they weren’tcaera. Bres and Ina were.”

Lir nodded his head. “In the Old Age, there was no mention ofcaeras. Ina and Bres were the first. So, there would be no way of knowing until some years later when magic reared its head at an un-fated union.”

“Then Fionn was spared the loss of a father as a result of Ina’s change of heart.”

“An inevitability delayed only by a handful of days,” Lir said. “Delbaeth, believing both Ina and her victory during the Wild Hunt—Racat—to be rightfully his, sieged war on Ina and Bres the day they were to be handfasted atop Lofgren’s Rise. And so, Ina unleashed Racat, slumbering atop her mountain in the Linn of Wanting, and burned Delbaeth alive as well as his legions.”

A drunken toad bumped into Aisling’s knee, almost knocking her off balance. So as the toad leapt away, Lir sprouted a root from the floor, tripping the little beast.

“Your questions, are they born of interest for Racat or Fionn’s motives?”

“Both,” Aisling answered honestly. “Why is it that mydraiochtis manifested by Racat? A question worsened by the involvement of the Winter Court. Delbaeth felt cheated for having lost Ina and, by default Racat, and now his son wishes to truly bind with me? It takes no stretch of the imagination to realize Fionn is under the impression Racat and I are in some way, one. Binding with me, a form of achieving what his father never could and avenging Delbaeth’s death. And if his beliefs aretrue,why? What reason is there for mydraiochttaking Racat’s shape?”

Aisling spun, facing Lir. His expression taut with rage.

“Fionn wished to truly bind with you?” he repeated, woodland storms brewing behind his dark lashes. Made electric by the flecks of fae light reflected in his eyes. Aisling was aware Lir had known Fionn wished to unbind he and Aisling. But there’d been no mention of a true binding between Aisling and Fionn whilst in Lir’s presence.

Aisling didn’t need to respond. The truth hung in the air between them.

“Aye,” Lir forced himself to continue, his voice nearly a growl. “Fionn believes not only Racat to be rightfully Delbaeth’s, but that he is the rightful heir to thedragún. You see, Fionn was born of both Delbaeth and Ina before Bres ever became involved. Yet, Ina chose to bequeath Racat to Annwyn and to me. In which case, not only did Ina kill his father, but Ina also circumvented her firstborn’s inheritance for my sake. And so, Fionn is of the opinion that everything I am, and have, is his. Including you.”

---