AllFreeNovel
Share Us
One Isolde and I stewed on, though we weren’t sure it would be the right course of action.
Clearly, it is.
I’m going to piss her off.
I need Nesta to attack me so we can gauge her limits while angry. Then we can multiply that by two or three and alter the way Madigan and I move forward.
Elemental math, if you will…
The biggest issue I’m going to run into will be Ecearis and Talodus.
If they don’t trust me, this won’t work. If they don’t believe me to be as resilient as Spiran claims, they’ll ruin this one chance to get inside knowledge on Nesta’s reflexive power—that move she feels the most confident in making without thought.
“If you were an ally, none of this would be happening right now,” I inform her.
It’s slightly cryptic, but it’s enough to get my point across. We both know more than we’re telling the other.
Nesta shrugs a prim shoulder. “If you don’t stand with me and my cause, then you stand against me.”
I glance at Ecaeris and Talodus on my left. The former touches my lower back, his fingertips digging into my skin as a warning to tread carefully. The latter gives me a perplexed brow raise, hand poised and flexing toward his sword’s hilt.
I turn to Garben on my right, and I can only call his expression a fuck you smirk. Though I doubt he has any clue what’s really happening, he appears entertained and ready for action.
I hope that’s the case.
Because I’m about to make this situation worse.
And I need to know that he’s light on his feet and ready to move.
“It is what it is, huh?” I smile at Nesta, my voice as calm as a resting pond on a chilly winter morning. “Then so be it. I will not blindly follow anyone.”
21
ECAERIS
DAY SEVENTY-ONE
My insides rage like a storm floating over a warm ocean. Nesta can’t come any closer to the village. She won’t walk in and try to take her son back to the Shades’ territory. She’s here for my mother, and then she’ll seek out Madigan. Lyell will stand in Nesta’s way, and then war will decimate our unsuspecting tribe.
We have to be careful with our words.
Nesta shrugs, like keeping up her lies has finally become exhausting. “If you don’t stand with me and my cause, then you stand against me.”
I dig my fingertips into the skin of Ada’s lower back, begging her to speak delicately until we know how Nesta will react to the rejection she’s going to receive. Talodus is ready to pull his sword and swing the very moment the unstable Shade queen gets too close to our Mongrel menace.
The way Ada looks at us tells me she’s going to be just that… A menace.
And I have no way of stopping her without undermining the authority she has just presented to Nesta.
Garben’s fingers twitch as he prepares to defend his queen. He is as loyal as they come, but I can’t predict his reaction. Will he grab Ada and remove her from the situation to keep her safe? Or will he attack Nesta to protect Ada?
“It is what it is, huh?” Ada gives Nesta an uncharacteristically dark smile, her voice holding layers of icy shards. “Then so be it. I will not blindly follow anyone.”
“You would choose to stand against me?” Nesta chuckles in disbelief. “You do know water has historically been the weaker element?”
Ada glances at the sky, and panic creeps along my spine at the familiar movement of exasperation. She’s going to pass the point of no return. That’s an Earthly saying Will uses all the time…
But I never quite understood it until now.
