Page 159 of A Song of Air
Arlo scoffed and looked up then. There was anger and hatred oozing from his pores. “No,” he spat. “You’ll be a slave to the Resistance, though.”
Bryson shook her head sadly at him. “That’s where you’re wrong. See, I’ve been locked within the iron camps. I’ve watched my family die. I’ve been chained and forced to do the humans’ bidding for years. I know what the difference between slavery and free will is, Arlo. But I didn’t come to argue with you. I came to say thank you. And goodbye.”
He grunted and looked back down. “Farewell then, Bryson Varik.”
Bryson started to turn around but hesitated. “Will you tell Everette goodbye for me? And that I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what? For breaking his heart? For being unfaithful?”
“For letting us go on for far longer than I should have.”
She didn’t wait for Arlo’s response then. She merely turned and walked right back out, nodding to Malika as she passed. Her friend would say her goodbyes, and then they’d leave with the Resistance. The Resistance was packing their things now, getting their party ready.
Bryson had a bag already on her shoulder and she was eager to get going. She’d said every goodbye she needed to say and now she was ready to get back to Weylyn’s side and—
She stopped in her tracks as she stepped beside Kerrigan’s tent. A pulse of power and magic came from within.
His tent had always felt rife with magic, but this was different. This was something that felt far too familiar. Something she recognized, had come to know only recently.
She stepped inside the tent without announcing herself and found Kerrigan there.
“Bryson,” he greeted, his long tendril-like hair flowing over his shoulders.
A pulse of familiar power came from him as he waved her inside, and her eyes zeroed in on his hands and the rings adorning his fingers.
The Unseelie Queen’s words came back to her when a single, iron ring caught her eyes.
“We have an array of relics with incredible power holstered here. Rings of iron that can glamor you into anything you wish. Weapons disguised as jewelry. Swords that can shrink to the size of a quill. Mirrors that can portal you anywhere you desire.”
“Kerrigan.” Bryson’s heart beat faster and she prayed he couldn’t hear it. “I—I’ve come to say goodbye.”
His eyebrows rose. “How kind of you, but very unnecessary.”
“You know I have a fondness for your masks.”
He smiled. “No one has appreciated those quite like you.”
Bryson held out her hands for him to reach. They met in the middle and she grasped his fingers with her own, squeezing tightly and passing her fingers over the iron ring. Power flowed through her the moment she came into contact with it.
“It was nice knowing you, Bryson Varik,” he smiled.
“And it was nice to know you, Kerrigan.”
She slid her hands away and stepped backwards. She nodded once and turned away, exiting his tent as she clenched her fists tightly at her sides. She took a breath, and it wasn’t until she was far enough away from him that she brought her hand up to her face.
Kerrigan’s iron ring sat on the palm of her hand. It thrummed, the Unseelie magic flowing through it strong enough to make a shiver glide down her back.
A relic of the Unseelie Court, sitting in the palm of her hand.
“We have an array of relics with incredible power holstered here. Rings of iron that can glamor you into anything you wish. Weapons disguised as jewelry. Swords that can shrink to the size of a quill. Mirrors that can portal you anywhere you desire.”
She closed her fingers around it, and when she looked up, Bryson smiled.
