Page 59 of The Savage Queen

“Once I’ve escaped Oighir, I continue on my own, lest you smite my chances of discovering the answers I need.”

Lir’s attention darted to the right, something catching his eye.

Without hesitation, Lir pulled Aisling against him once more, sinking further into the shadows. A group of more sentinels rushed past, their armor clinking together as they shouted to one another in Rún.

Lir pressed his hands flat against her abdomen, curling his fingers into the fabric of her dress the tighter he held her.

“Don’t move,” he said against her ear. Aisling heated, her heart in her throat even as seven or so boars gathered just outside their alcove. They babbled back and forth in Rún, but by the tone and cadence of their voices, Aisling knew they were arguing over which direction she’d wandered.

“Fionn asked them to trail you back to your quarters,” Lir translated as quiet as a wolf in the wood. Aisling’s body moved of its own accord tilting toward the deep curve of the fae king’s voice. Lir stiffened in surprise, swiftly recovering and pulling her closer still.

The boars squabbled back and forth until one paused, doing a double take at their shadowy alcove.

“Hold your breath,ellwyn,” Lir commanded. Aisling hesitated before the boar stalked a pace closer, eyes narrowing in suspicion. Then the pressure of the air shifted, Aisling’s ears popped, and magic filled the air.

The boar drew his mace, moving closer still. So, Aisling held her breath as the boar met her eyes. There was a moment of pause, a stilling of everything as Lir’s arms hardened around her, the firm edge of his chest scarcely rising or falling so as not to be discovered. A foil to the thudding of Aisling’s heart, the heating of her flesh, or the murder of silver-eyed ravens taking flight in her stomach. Until, at last, the boar withdrew, turning back to his partner.

“There’s no one,” he said.

Lir had glamoured them. What the boar saw, Aisling knew not. Only that Lir had somehow cloaked their presence.

And even after they’d passed, Lir continued stepping back, drawing them both into a new room entirely. A chamber clouded in steam till Aisling could scarcely see her own hand raised before her. They were in a public bathing chamber, snug against a wall decorated in polished pebbles, lest they fall into the baths to their left. The taste of winterberry soaps dappled her tongue.

“What are you doing?!” she asked, trying to look past Lir and further into the bathing chamber. It was futile. The steam was a dense veil, obscuring any and all vision.

“I needed to see you,” he said, releasing her and dipping his head to look into her eyes.

“You’ll see me this evening at the second test.”

His eyes narrowed, searching Aisling for something. The intensity of his eyes, his undiluted attention, curling her toes.

“It isn’t enough. The thread that binds us needs more. Will always need more. Mydraiochtresponds to your own, Aisling.”

“That’s what this is about? Power?”

“What else is there?”

Aisling ground her teeth, pushing Lir back. He gave in to her touch, as though weak to it. And yet, he drove her mad, speaking words that magicked her heart, only to stake it with his true intentions. The fae king wasn’t capable of whatever he made Aisling feel. Despite everything Aisling had misunderstood, ignored, was lied to about, the fae king was still the nightmare muse of blood-soaked legends. The villain she was taught to fear all her life. His only role in Aisling’s life would only ever be a pursuit of strength and might.

Aisling bit down the darkening of her heart, pulling from her skirts the parchment she’d stolen from Fionn’s chamber.

“Here,” she said, offering it to Lir. “For tonight’s test.”

Her aid, offered in the name of escape and nothing more.

Nothing more, she repeated to herself.

Lir accepted the paper, unfolding it and reading its contents.

“Where did you find this?” he asked, considering her with a combination of confusion and amazement.

“In Fionn’s chamber.”

Immediately, whatever joy the contents had aroused in him burnt to a crisp the moment Aisling spoke the words.

“He gave it to you?”

Aisling tore her eyes away. “How I obtained it isn’t important, only that you have it now.”

---