Chapter Nineteen
Ash
The Midsith fell utterly silent when I pushed open the door and stepped inside the cold circular room.
Guards on both sides drew their blades but didn’t move. The two courts were standing at opposite ends of the room, and I realised—thiswasFir Bolg’s skull. I could see the eye holes, packed with dirt. The nose cavity opposite me, the giant yellowed teeth with vines growing between them.
The blade of the First God’s mammoth sword sliced down the middle of the vast room, still gleaming as if it had been forged yesterday, its tip buried deep in the earth beneath us.
My eyes fell on the Brid first. She was staring at me in shock, her fingers clenched in the fur of the King of Boars, whose beady eyes watched me carefully.
“You… you are my son,” she said faintly.
I nodded, then shifted my eyes over to the other side of the room. The Carlin was trembling with rage, her one eye murderous as she stared at me with bronze teeth on display in a furious snarl. I smirked at her, then flicked my gaze over her sons.
Balor’s cobalt eyes were wide as he stared at me, so I raised my branch arm in salute. He hissed, his hands clenching into fists by his sides.
Cethlen was totally still, his hand poised over the head of the hellhound in his arms. Bres was staring at me, and so was a black-haired fae on the other side of Balor. His dark eyes were wide with horror. I stared back at him for a moment before looking away. My eye caught Belial’s, and he gave me a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.
“Your mortal skin is gone.” The Brid was approaching me, which made me stiffen. “You are full fae. How?”
I slid my gaze back over to the Carlin, trying to ignore how hard my heart was pounding in my chest.Don’t show them any weakness. Any of them.
“She scraped it off me.” I nodded at her, managing to keep my voice emotionless. “She stole me and kept me on her land. She killed me to get it off so she could steal my power.”
The Brid froze, then whirled round to face the Carlin.
“You tried to stealmypower from him?” she roared. “You stole myson to try and beat me?”
The Carlin said nothing, her eye still fixed on me and filled with the murderous rage I knew I reflected back when I stared at her.
“I will destroy you, you vile hag,” the Brid seethed.
The Carlin looked unsure of how to respond at first, and I grinned widely as I witnessed all her plans come crashing down around her.
She schooled her face into a cold sneer. “If only you could, you rotting corpse.Sucha shame your halfling son chose to show his face here. On the one day and in the one place where you can do nothing.”
“But neither can you,” I said with a smirk.
She bared her bronze teeth at me in a furious snarl, her chest heaving.
“Come, my son.” A gentle, warm hand touched my shoulder, making me jump. “Come and join me. Come and stand with your people.”
“I…” I was suddenly doubting my reckless entrance into this place. “I don’t—”
“Where have you been, my dear?”
I stared at the Brid, into her deep green eyes. Something small and weak twisted in my stomach.
“Hiding in the forest?” Her lip curled, eyes flashing over to the Carlin. “My spies told me that her guards have been scouring the woods. For you, I assume. You don’t need to hide any longer.”
She palmed my cheek, gazing at me with kind eyes. “You should be with me. On seelie land.”
“I…” My heart was racing. For some reason, my eyes darted back over to the unseelie Folk gathered on the left side of the room, watching silently.
“Where else would you go?” the Brid asked softly, and my gut clenched with fear.
This was getting too close to putting Nua and Gillie in danger. Regret sank into the pit of my stomach like a lead ball. I’d been so stupid. So reckless and arrogant assuming I could just walk in here and laugh in the Carlin’s face with no consequences.