Page 131 of The Savage Queen

That was why Dagfin had shoved Aisling aside. Had spared her from the onslaught, taking the death himself. One last form of self-sacrifice. A debt paid for his crimes against her when she’d been traded to the fae. A debt paid to thedraiochtafter fleeing his union with Peitho.

Aisling’s legs grew numb. Her face drained of blood as she processed everything. As her vision clouded with smoke intended to be fire.

“Touch her and I’ll have your heart in my fist before you can flinch,” Lir growled from behind Aisling, Fjallnorr’s forests, whipping in the distance at the sound of his rage.

Yet Starn smiled, amused.

“The Lady said you’d make things difficult.”

“The Lady?” Aisling repeated, every word broken from a throat stripped raw.

“Aye, it appears magic and mortals are not so at odds after all.” Starn raised his hands, his iron sword unsheathing from his belt as though drawn by a phantom hand. “You see, the Lady and mankind’s goals align: we both want you dead.”

“Starn—” Iarbonel warned, face streaked with tears, but one glance from their eldest brother and he quieted.

Aisling balled her hands into fists at her sides. Planting her feet against the stone.

“Are you so afraid of me?” Aisling asked, tilting her head to the side. Gathering every inch of her sorrow, of her despair, of her endless anguish into rage, into wrath, into fury. Into vengeance.

Starn laughed. “Afraid ofyou? You’re a mistake, Sister, just as capable of setting yourself on fire as the world. In fact, I’ve come to realize, it never should’ve been you who happened upon this magic.” Starn grinned at his floating blade. “Rather I. Power was meant for sons, for men who lead battles, for kings. Not princesses traded to the fae.”

Aisling narrowed her eyes and smiled through the tears.

“So, this is what it’s come to? Begging the Lady for magic so that you might obtain the curse breaker and steal whatever she’s lent you?”

Starn shook his head. “No begging necessary. The Lady rather hates the two of you.”

“Tell me, how long till those ‘tricks’ wear off, brother? Till you can no longer pretend to be me?”

Starn bristled, rolling back his shoulders.

“The only thing I wish to glean from you is the power that should’ve rightfully been mine. Should’ve been Father’s.”

“You always were such an insufferable child. Always begging for Nemed’s approval, even at the cost of your own soul. That’s why you’re here, convincing yourself this is for your own benefit and not another task he’s set for you to prove yourself. One you’ll never quite live up to. So, was it he or you who made the deal with the Lady?”

Starn hesitated, opening his mouth to speak but stopping short. An answer in and of itself. Aisling had assumed as much. Nemed had orchestrated all this, Starn nothing more than his puppet goaded by the fire hand on lies Starn was somehow a cherished part of his plan. No, Starn as well as all of Nemed’s children were pieces to be slid across a chessboard. Not one spared from his ambition.

“Either way, Sister, your adventure ends today.” Starn commanded his blade, pointing in Aisling’s direction. Lir stepped beside Aisling, white-knuckled on Hiraeth.

“Listen to him, Aisling. Concede and we can spare your life,” Iarbonel said. “It’s better this way.”

“Fergus, remove his body,” Starn commanded their brother, jerking his chin in Dagfin’s direction.

“Don’t touch him!” Aisling growled without thinking, taking another step forward. Fergus flinched, unaware Aisling couldn’t wield herdraiochtsince her most recent encounter with Fionn.

“Don’t look at me like that, Sister,” Starn said in mocking. “Dagfin was living on borrowed time as it was. The Ocras was eating him alive from the inside out and even if he’d lived to return to Roktling, he would’ve been hung as a traitor.”

Aisling ground her teeth.

“You killed a brother,” she said. “All of you. You killed him in cold blood.”

Killian’s brows furrowed, unable to look down at Dagfin’s body. Fergus, Iarbonel, and Annind exchanged glances, desperately clinging to the guise of indifference Starn had mastered. A glimmer of guilt creeping into the edge of the high prince’s mouth, the posture of his shoulders, the tension in his arms.

“The moment you wed your fae king, you died, Aisling. And the moment Dagfin chose to follow you from Oighir is the moment he died to me as well.”

I wish to summon the fire, Aisling asked thedraiocht. Fionn’s collar choking her, but she didn’t care.

Starn stepped forward, his floating blade following his direction.

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