Page 287 of The Edge of Darkness

I swatted at his arm. “Yes! And part of me didn’t want to believe him.” I half-laughed. “And so . . . what? You stole his weapon for fun?”

“No . . .” He dragged the word out. “I made him and Killian disarm themselves in front of me. Disarming is very different from stealing.”

Made . . .

“Niall! You compelled them!?”

This time, when he looked up at me, he grinned. “I will admit, I did get a little carried away with my antics.”

I laughed fully this time. “And you thought I was dramatic? Now I see why Breck didn’t like you.”

He laughed as well. “Thankfully, we’re far past that now.”

Yes. Thankfully.

“I don’t know how to repay him for risking his life for you,” Niall said, his voice sobering to a more solemn tone.

The mood between us shifted.

The queen could have handed over the amulet and saved her husband, but she didn’t. She could have given it up to save Liam too. But she’d held off and bartered it for my life. And in return, I’d let Killian’s mind games get the best of me, and it had put Breck’s life, as well as Saxon, Weston, and the queen’s in danger.

I pinched the blanket with my fingers, picking at the hem as I said, “It was my fault that he almost died. When Killian . . . did what he did . . . I saw red and slipped into a blind rage. If I hadn’t been so intent on revenge, I wouldn’t have lost focus on the other threat.”

His hand slid over mine, halting my nervous fiddling. “There is nothing for you to blame yourself for.”

“But I should have known Killian wasn’t going to let Liam go. And when I crossed The Veil, the Aether’s voice told me to turn around. I should have listened. I shouldn’t have trusted so easily. You tried to warn me. If I hadn’t gone, maybe the king would still be alive . . . Maybe Liam⁠—”

“Auren, look at me.” He lifted my chin with a gentle finger. “Don’t go down that road. Trust me, nothing good can come of it.”

I let out a heavy sigh. “I know, I know. I just . . . If that iron hadn’t broken off in my chest, I’d⁠—”

“What iron?”

“The arrow that killed Liam . . .”

“You didn’t mention that earlier.”

“I didn’t?”

He shook his head.

“Oh.” My mind had been a mess earlier. I couldn’t really recall what I’d said, or to whom. “It went through him and struck me. A piece of it broke off in my chest. I wasn’t aware that any of it was in me until I tried to summon my power and couldn’t.”

I touched the spot where the hole had been. “Weston had to cut the iron out with the queen’s dagger.” Just the thought of that burning pain made me shift uncomfortably. “The water in the cave healed it. It healed everything.”

Niall stared at the area of my chest that I’d indicated. “And the wraith didn’t require anything from you in exchange for using the water? No bargains or promises?”

“No. Nothing. We didn’t really give her a choice, though. We kind of just showed up.”

Niall shifted his weight back on his hands, clearly disturbed by where this conversation had gone. “Good. Better to not be in the debt of a creature we know nothing about.”

“I wouldn’t say we know nothing about her,” I countered.

“Regardless, entering into a bargain with any sort of being—fae, creature, or god—is not something to be taken lightly. The way something is worded can mean many different things, and the words are binding once spoken.”

A sudden realization dawned on me. I had completely forgotten about the bargain I’d made with Æbon, the god of death. I hadn’t told anyone about it. Not even Niall. No one even knew it was the god of death that had answered my summons and not Nephira, the goddess of healing.

“And what happens if someone doesn’t uphold their half of a bargain?” I asked.