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He knew it was coming. Knew and still he wasn’t fast enough to dodge. The High Lady of Brónach slammed into him like a mountain and Rion gasped for breath when his body collided with the hard wall across the room. His head bounced off the stone and stars shot across his vision, but Rion lifted his arm, using the metal of his cuffs to block her teeth.

She grabbed his arm and twisted it hard enough that they tumbled to the ground. Gods, she’d just tried to break it. Rion scrambled for purchase, but before he could right himself, Eimear snatched the chain attached to his wrist and pulled it up beneath his chin.

Rion barely had enough time to slide his hand between the chain and his throat as she tugged up and dug one knee into his back. He gasped, struggling for breath. He kicked his feet, searching for a wall or crack in the floor that might give him leverage, but she dragged him toward the middle of the cell, her grip firm.

He tried dropping his weight, but she’d already prepared for the movement and pulled tighter.

He fought to no avail.

She was going to kill him. His own mother was going to kill him right here in this dirty cell. He could almost hear Niall’s laughter at the irony.

“Don’t hurt him,” a timid voice said from the shadow of the door. Eimear paused, but his vision was already blurring from the way she’d twisted the chain. “He’s not like the others.” The voice said again. Kaylee. The half-breed walked forward, wringing her hands in her shirt as she always did, and stopped before the small lantern.

Eimear studied her for what felt like an eternity, then Kaylee added, “He wants to help us escape.”

Another pause, then the chain fell and his mother leapt back, putting as much distance between herself and Rion as she could. Rion scrambled toward the opposite wall, coughing and wheezing while he rubbed his throat. He leaned his head against the stone, swallowing down lungfuls of air. Black spots flickered across his vision, then disappeared.

Rion watched his mother as she regarded first him then the little girl who stood at the doorway with her fists clenched.

“Thank you,” he rasped. She nodded and Rion took an extra moment to steady himself before forcing his body to rise. They might be free from their chains, but they still had a long way to go.

“Lead the way,” he said to Kaylee.

“What about the others?” Eimear asked. Her voice. He’d forgotten that musical tone. It carried an air of roughness now, but his heart still yearned to hear it. Just one more time. A hello. A goodbye.

“We can send for them once we’re safe.”

“And where is safe?” she asked again.

“Ruadhán,” he answered.

Eimear shook her head. “I won’t go anywhere near that place. Not while Niall rules it.”

Did she expect them to flee all the way to Brónach? They wouldn’t survive in their present condition, not that long of a trip, and not to mention the monsters that prowled the roads at night. The sooner he got his mother in the royal city, the sooner she’d be safe, at least with Arianna at her side.

So Rion said the only thing he could think of to convince her. “The Divine resides there now. She’ll protect you.” As would Talon and Saoirse and everyone else who’d heard the tale of his mother’s disappearance. Once the council discovered what Niall had done to Brónach’s High Lady, they’d be forced to act.

“The Divine,” his mother whispered, tasting the words. “It is time, then.” Rion didn’t know what she meant. “Fine, to Ruadhán. Show us the way out, little one.”

Chapter Seventy-three

Arianna

Boney fingers wrapped around Arianna’s throat and the creature used its magic to catapult them deeper into the river’s cold depths. Arianna’s back slammed against the stones at the bottom and she gasped, only to suck in dirty water. It tasted foul and stung her lungs and Arianna thrashed against the creature’s powerful grip.

It leaned closer and Arianna swore she could already feel its fangs against her throat. Something told her this thing, whatever it was, didn’t need air like normal creatures, and that it was more than willing to take its time with her right there rather than share with its kin.

The calm pocket of water Arianna had carved for herself vanished and the current tore the gangly hand from around her neck and sent them both spiraling through the raging current.

Air. She needed air. Her mind and body reacted without thought and Arianna shot up, up, up until she broke the surface, gasping for breath only to have the tossing waves throw her back under. She spun again, no longer able to tell up from down. Arianna fought, frantically waving her arms before propelling herself toward what she prayed was the surface. She gasped for breath again.

With searing lungs, Arianna spun in a circle, taking quick stock of her surroundings. She checked the bank and frantically searched the endlessly twisting surface for any signs of Talon. Nothing. She knew he’d jumped in, she’d heard the splash, but where had he gone? He had to be close. He had to be.

A log came barreling down the river, tossed like nothing more than a twig by the water’s roaring swell. Arianna grabbed a branch in passing and hauled herself just a little higher above the surface. Nothing. She couldn’t see him anywhere in the darkness.

Two more dark figures darted from the trees, then plunged into the river without pausing.

Arianna’s blood ran cold.