Page 23 of The Shadow Path (Shadowlands #2)

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

N êrys .

She opened her eyes at the sound of his voice. “Cadell?”

Duncan was still sleeping, and the light outside her shuttered window was pearly and pale blue.

She eased out of bed and wrapped herself in a heavy dressing gown that Duncan had placed at the foot of the bed, then walked to the hallway, but when she opened the door, she saw nothing.

Nêrys.

Cadell, where are you?

In the garden. His voice sounded hollow. As empty and grieving as the first time she’d heard him in her mind.

Carys tiptoed down the stairs, nodding at the green-clad soldiers who patrolled the halls, and walked out the back corridor to the kitchen where she borrowed a pair of heavy boots that were sitting near the door.

She found Cadell in human form, sitting on a stone bench and staring at the fountain in the center of the garden.

Carys sat next to him and took his large hand in hers. “I’m sorry.”

“I must believe they are not dead. The fae would be fools to hurt them.” He didn’t break his stare. “But they must be terrified. Dragons that young are never alone. Never away from their clutch.”

“You mean their brothers and sisters?”

He nodded. “Dragon children are raised communally, I have told you this.”

“Yes.”

“They have never been alone. Not for a moment. Not in their entire life. They have never been away from their family group. They are babies.”

“How old?—”

“Only ten years old.”

Okay, Carys wouldn’t classify ten-year-olds as babies, but dragons had much longer lives, so it made sense that the adults still saw them as babies after a decade.

“Have the fae ever stolen dragon children before? I mean, there is story after story in human mythology of the fae stealing children and replacing them with changelings or just stealing them for…”

So many horrible reasons.

“Never,” Cadell said quietly. “Why would you risk the wrath of the dragons to steal a child you cannot control with glamour or magic?” He frowned. “The human children can be lulled into sleep or glamoured to not know that is happening, but the magical children, the dragons and the wolves?—”

“They’ll know they’ve been kidnapped.”

Cadell nodded.

Carys squeezed his hand. “They’ll also know that their horde will come for them.”

“We cannot sense them,” he said. “One of the babes was born of Demelza’s own body, and she cannot feel her. They have used powerful magic to hide them, Nêrys. Very powerful magic.”

“Demelza is bonded with Anwyn?”

“Yes.” His head hung. “She is frantic. And she feels even more guilt than the rest of us, but I should have known?—”

“You should have known that the fae would do something they’ve never done in history at a gate that you didn’t even know was active?” Carys snapped at him. “Don’t be ridiculous, Cadell.”

He raised his face and looked into her eyes. “Tell me the king has a task for us. I know you have never been to war, but?—”

“War isn’t going to get those children back,” Carys said. “Dafydd wants us to survey the south and find as many gates as we can so Harold’s army can surround them and hopefully keep this from spreading further. Since you and Seren had experience surveying, he thought that would be the most immediate use.”

He nodded. “We can do that.” His eyes glinted. “And if we happen to kill any condescending, superior, marauding fae that might be passing through those gates, that cannot be helped.”

“Half the fae—maybe more than half—are in hiding, Cadell. Dru and Naida have disappeared. None of the fae who are normally at the market were there last night. I have a feeling that this was not a plan the majority signed on to. They know this is going to paint a target on their back.”

“Because it should.”

“Why?” Carys blinked. Her steady, levelheaded dragon appeared to have disappeared. “So that the Queens’ Pact crumbles to dust? So there’s another fae war where half the human population dies?” Carys stood. “We need to get those babies back, but killing every fae on sight is not going to accomplish that.”

He looked up, and his eyes flashed. “Do you forbid me from killing the fae as my nêrys?”

As his nêrys? As his commander?

“You’re like a knight.”

“Your knight. I answer only to you, Lady Carys.”

“Please just call me Carys.”

“I answer to you, but you do not command me.”

Carys had never seen Cadell so cold. “I am asking you to think of the greater good and not just revenge.” She poked at his mind, trying to speak to his mind and his heart, but it was like a wall had slammed down between them.

Cadell said nothing, but his eyes locked her in place.

“I will never keep you from rescuing your children or protecting the vulnerable,” she said. “I will never forbid you from protecting me, but we will not take part in the death of random fae who had nothing to do with this.”

He held her gaze for a long moment, and Carys refused to look away.

“I will take your suggestion under advisement.” The dragon stood and walked toward the house. “Be ready to fly in an hour.”

Carys leaned out of the coracle, speaking mentally to Cadell as she and the dragon flew over the gently rolling landscape of Southern Anglia. Where is it?

Four o’clock, Cadell said. Do you see it?

She looked and saw a shimmering light over a dark green spot on the hills. Got it. “Duncan, fae fort at four o’clock—do you see it?” The high walls of the coracle protected them from wind, but Carys still had to shout.

“I see it,” he yelled. “Marking.”

Since sunrise, they’d spotted five fae forts that were not on any of Dafydd’s maps. They were eerily quiet, but the land around them was rich with magic. Forests had grown up overnight where there had been pastureland before, and the trees seemed wilder, the animals more bold.

Magic was reasserting its dominance over the Anglian landscape, and Carys was desperate to know what else was changing, but this was the Shadowlands and there was no national news.

Ravens and dragons were the fastest form of communication in times like this, but dragons had congregated in the Cymric Mountains to guard their young, and ravens were fae-friendly creatures with minds of their own.

Carys pulled her head inside the war coracle and looked across at Duncan. “We should land somewhere,” she said. “I hate to be the human here, but I really need to pee.”

Duncan snorted. “Things they don’t include in the fantasy movies, right?”

“I’m pretty flexible, but an isolated bush would be appreciated.”

Duncan looked up with a raised eyebrow. “You know every single bush or tree here has some kind of nymph of sprite, right?”

“If a sprite wants to stare at my bare butt, that’s on the sprite,” Carys said. “But we need to land.” Cadell?

The dragon was still being standoffish and cold, but at least he wasn’t shutting her out.

I heard you.

Seconds later, they were wheeling down in slow circles, aiming for a meadow on the edge of a wooded hilltop where sheep were grazing and two white-coated sheepdogs stood guard.

The canines stood at alert and let out a few barks as the dragon landed, but other than that, there was no one in sight as Carys ran for the edge of the forest, Duncan on her tail.

“I do not need an escort to pee!” she hissed.

“That’s what people say right before they get kidnapped by fae,” the surly blacksmith grumbled. “It’s not like I haven’t seen your pretty arse before, darling.”

“Seeing me in sexy context versus seeing me pee in the woods are two very different things.” She ducked into the middle of a thick bramble, keeping Duncan in sight as he stood near the edge of the trees with his sword drawn.

Carys did her business as quickly as possible, then stood to tie the laces on her woolen trousers, her back to Duncan and her eyes adjusting to the heavy shade of the forest.

It took her a moment to realize what she was seeing in the shadows.

Hidden between the trees and crouched in the bushes was a small group of fae, staring at her with wide eyes. A man and a woman stood on either side of an oak tree with bows drawn and arrows pointed right at her.

She opened her mouth to shout for Duncan, and they pulled their bows taut.

Carys sucked in a breath, and her heart raced until she noticed a small pair of eyes duck out from behind a pair of legs.

There was a fae child with silver hair and bright blue eyes peering between the legs of one of the archers. His golden-brown skin blended into the woods, but that silver hair was impossible to miss, as were his sharply pointed ears, still devoid of the gold rings that would mark him as an adult.

If he was human, Carys would say he looked no more than four or five, but he could be decades old as a fae.

A woman lunged forward, grabbing the child and pulling a dark hat over his silver hair. Her eyes weren’t on Carys, they were on the dragon just past the tree line, standing in the meadow.

“Do you want to kill us all?” the woman hissed to the two archers. “We should run while we can. The moment that dragon sees us, the entire wood will be up in flames, and we promised the trees?—”

“These woods are our home.” The fae man stared at Carys, never moving an inch. “We have lived here for centuries.”

Carys raised her hands. “I don’t want to harm you.”

Nêrys, what is wrong?

For the first time ever, she lied to Cadell. My drawstring has a knot. I’m fine.

“Carys, that dragon—” Duncan turned and walked into the trees, halting when he saw the fae archers. “Fae.” Duncan raised his sword, and the fae turned their arrows on him.

“They’re a family!” Carys stumbled out of the bushes and between the fae archers and Duncan. “There’s only four of them, and they have a child.”

“Aye, they’re right to be worried,” Duncan growled. “More than one parent is missing a child today.”

“We had nothing to do with that,” the female archer said. “If the prince would claim his seat?—”

“Eldra, be quiet,” the male archer said. “We want no trouble. We’re making for the fae gate near Lewes.”

“We don’t know éire at all,” the woman said. “But it’s safer than Anglia now.”

Three fae and one fae child, and they’d probably be shot on sight by Harold’s soldiers. Carys stared at the small child with bright blue eyes. “Don’t go to the fae forts,” she blurted. “They’re not going to be safe. By now all of them are surrounded by the king’s soldiers.”

Duncan’s voice was low. “Carys?—”

“He’s a child.” She pointed at the little one. “They’re a family. They’re not a threat.”

Duncan narrowed his eyes at the archers, who had still not lowered their weapons.

“They’re running away, Duncan.”

“Eldra.” The fae woman on the ground met Carys’s eyes and nodded. “Desmond. Lower your arrows.”

Slowly they both lowered their bows, and Duncan lowered his sword.

“She’s right,” Duncan said. “The king’s armies and the wolf clans are surrounding the gates and the forts. You won’t be able to get through.”

“We can go underground,” the female archer said. “My sister speaks to the earth.”

“Maybe.” Duncan nodded. “That’s a possibility. But Harold has sorcerers too. The gates might be warded, and they might know when you try to break through.”

The man’s shoulders slumped. “What are we supposed to do?”

“Stay here.” Duncan’s voice had softened. “Stay hidden for now. If you have friends among any local unicorns, they might be able to keep you safe.”

The fae woman named Eldra nodded. “We know the chief of the local blessing. She might hide us.”

There was no one more trusted in Briton than the unicorns. Even royal soldiers would think hard before they violated the sanctity of unicorn territory. If unicorns were willing to hide these fae, they likely had nothing to do with Cian and Orla’s plans.

“Go,” Carys said. “Find the unicorns. These woods won’t be safe for long.”

After they finished their surveying run, Cadell flew Carys and Duncan back to Dafydd’s estate where Laura greeted them in the courtyard.

“I just got an update from the castle,” she said. “Dafydd told me to wait here for you, but it wasn’t like I had plans to go anywhere anyway.”

Cadell shifted into his human form and approached her. “What did the letter say?”

“It was from Dafydd. He flew over to meet with King Harold and Godrik at the castle,” Laura said. “Dylan is in Alba, but I didn’t get an update on stuff up there. And Anwyn and Demelza are in Caernarfon, overseeing the fae gates and forts in Cymru.”

Carys asked, “With Eamer?”

Laura shrugged. “I would assume so? She’s the queen, but her mother is also the one who… you know.”

Carys nodded. “Right.”

Queen Eamer was in a difficult position. Her loyalty was to the Cymric throne where she was queen, but it was her own mother who had initiated this attack on the rest of Briton.

“Has anyone heard from Lachlan?” Carys asked.

Duncan shot her a look, but she ignored him.

“Dafydd said he’s at the castle, but that was all.”

No sooner had Laura finished her update than Cadell shifted into his beast form again and took to the sky. I hear Mared.

“Mared is returning,” Carys told Laura. “That means Dafydd is on his way back.” She handed the rolled-up map with the new fae positions to Laura. “Can you make sure he gets this? I need to go clean up.”

“Of course. Go.” Laura’s eyes were fixed on Cadell as he circled the estate in his dragon form. “How is he?”

Carys sighed. “Angry.”

Just like the burly man towering over her, but Carys was emotionally tapped out.

The missing children.

The furious dragon.

The terrified fae in the woods.

Added to all that, a day of riding in a coracle had made Carys’s hair a bird’s nest, and her skin felt crusty and dry.

She passed a maid on the way up to her room and asked for a hot bath to be brought up when it was possible. She hadn’t had a bath since her night in Duncan’s room, and she was aching all over.

Halfway up the stairs, Duncan caught up with her. “Lachlan is doing his duty.”

“Okay.” She glanced to the side. “And I’m allowed to ask about him.”

He was silent until they arrived at her room and the door was shut behind them.

“Perhaps this isn’t the best time,” Duncan said. “But maybe I’d like to know if you have plans to continue… seeing my Shadowkin while you’re fucking me.”

Carys’s mouth dropped open. “You’re right. This is a really bad time.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’d still like an answer.”

“Wow.” She was honestly gobsmacked. “So you think I had plans to just… jump between beds maybe? Enjoy the Murray-brothers buffet for a while?”

He cursed low and under his breath. “Don’t act like I’m being unreasonable.”

“I was with Lachlan and you knew that.” She pointed to the bed. “Before we ever?—”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it!” he shouted. “And that doesn’t mean I’m willing to share.”

“I didn’t have any plan to share !”

That took the wind out of his sails, and he had the grace to look abashed. “Carys?—”

“No, I’d like you to leave.” Her face was burning up. “I realize that this is not a situation either of us has ever been in, but…” Carys realized that actually, she had been in this situation. In fact, she knew exactly how Duncan was feeling. “Do you think I was jealous of Seren?”

Duncan had started toward the door, but he stopped in his tracks. “What?”

“Even before I knew anything about this place or this parallel world or who Seren really was, do you think I was jealous of her?”

Duncan frowned. “I have no idea.”

“I knew Lachlan had a dead wife. I knew that there was someone he loved deeply, long before he met me. Someone who had been his first love. Someone he still loved, in fact.”

“It’s not the same thing.”

“No, it’s not, but if you’re going to keep bringing up my past with Lachlan when we’re together, that is going to be a problem.”

Duncan stepped toward her. “Well, it’s not exactly a settled issue, is it?”

“And you think this is the way to settle it?” She marched over to him and glared up at his stubborn, handsome face. “I had a life before I met you. In fact, that’s the life that led me to you. So if you cannot handle that, if you’re going to always doubt me because somewhere in the world there is a man that I loved before I met you?—”

“He’s still here!” Duncan pointed toward the door. “There’s more than half a chance he’ll be in this house before nightfall.”

“And you think that means I’m going to sleep with him?” There was a hot ball of anger in her chest, and she felt like punching him in the stomach, but that was far more likely to break her hand than him. “If you think I’m the kind of person who will just?—”

“I’m fucking in love with you, Carys!”

Dead silence in the room when a timid knock came at the door. “Lady Carys, your bath is ready.”

Carys felt frozen as she walked to the door, highly conscious of the effort it took to heat water in the castle. Sending the chambermaid away when she’d asked for a bath would be impossibly rude.

She let the maid in, then stood back as two stewards carried in a wooden bath. The maid walked to the pipe mounted to the wall, whistled out the window, and pulled down the spout, aiming it over the bath before she pulled the bronze chain that controlled the water.

Duncan murmured, “I’m going to?—”

“Don’t you dare leave,” she hissed.

Carys felt like two dragons were battling in her chest.

One was ridiculously happy and spinning circles.

The other one was slightly terrified and breathing fire.

And neither of those dragons was willing to let Duncan Murray leave her room after he’d said that he loved her.

Did she love him?

Yes.

Oh fuck.

Yes. She did.

Did that mean she didn’t love Lachlan anymore?

That was more complicated.

Duncan’s shouted declaration hung in the silent air as the maid finished with the hot water. She cleared her throat and looked at Carys. “If you’ll just give it a few moments to cool, Lady Carys, the temperature should be perfect. Do you need any help washing your hair?”

“No, thank you.”

“Very well.” The maid gathered her things, closed the window, and folded the pipe back up against the wall.

It was possible to love two people at the same time, but was it possible to love them in the same way? The love she’d felt for Lachlan felt so rooted in her heart that it made her cross a world to find him.

And the love she felt for Duncan was a bright, burning, wild thing that couldn’t be tamed.

And definitely could not be denied.

All the servants slipped out of the room, and Carys turned to Duncan, taking his hand and looking up into his eyes. “I love you too.”