Page 123 of A Courage of the Chosen

Yeah, I’m glad Brodie didn’t tell us about this before we got here. I’m not sure Elsie is handling it all that well, and neither am I.

I move closer to her, grabbing her wrist tightly as I address the Druids raptly watching us together. “We have been told the answers to defeating the Dorche lie in this village.”

Their heads snap in my direction, and goosebumps skitter down my arms with their gazes honed on me. Elsie relaxes in my periphery now the focus is off her.

“You will find no answers here, boy.” It’s just the tall one in the middle that speaks to us now.

I bristle at his condescension. “Then what’s in these caves? If not the answers we seek?”

“What lies in these caves belongs to no one but The Chosen. She may lay claim to it when she has claimed what was always hers to begin with.”

I fight the growl sitting at the base of my throat. I don’t know what he’s talking about, but it’s stirring something inside the woman next to me. Her hand starts to tremble in my grip.

Rachel senses the same thing, and moves so Elsie is shielded on both sides. “It would be helpful if you stopped speaking in riddles,” she snaps, gripping Elsie’s other hand.

There are a lot of things my twin and I haven’t agreed on in the past, but there’s a shared, innate need to shelter the Seelie between us, and the snarl starting to curl Rachel’s mouth makes me happy that she’s here with Elsie for this.

“Your queen fears what she is. Her fear has no place here. Until she accepts her truth, she has no place here.”

Brodie joins the conversation, his dark brows slanted over fathomless eyes that aren’t quite looking at the Druids fully. “This is her kingdom. You have no right to tell her where she can and can’t go.”

The energy weaving around the Druids turns threatening, and the tall one breaks out of the neat lines. “Do not test us, child.”

I don’t think Brodie has been referred to as a child since he was approximately thirteen. He’s a mountain of a man, and fucking fearsome in a fight, but the air about them makes Brodie stand down, something I’ve never once seen him do.

“Please.” The broken plea from Elsie clenches brutally in my chest.

“All that is, belongs to you, an taghadh. What you seek will not be found here.” He softens when he addresses her.

Elsie closes her eyes and leans her weight into me as though every hope she’s held onto is slipping away. I thread my arm around her waist, keeping her steady.

“What do you mean you will not allow someone else to corrupt?” I ask, not expecting them to answer.

“There was another who claimed to be of Her blood. And when we denied them entry with their lies, they sought their vengeance and took what was not theirs, turning it into something that should not exist.”

“The Dorche?” Rachel points out the obvious.

The Druid’s non-answer tells us everything we need to know.

“You must go now.” All thirty pairs of eyes lock on Elsie, speaking as one again.

“No,” I say defiantly. “We’re not leaving until we get what we need.”

Whatever feeling of gentility that was there before is gone in an instant, and they bunch together into a tight formation.

“Don’t, Callahan,” Elsie whispers. She’s not fighting this, not fighting them, and my confusion only deepens.

They close in on us, and I angle my body so they’d have to go through me to get to Elsie.

“We will not ask you again. Leave. Do not return until balance has been restored, and The Chosen has found her courage.”

◆◆◆

I waste zero fucking time getting Elsie away from the Druids as fast as her legs are able. If it wasn’t for the narrow path, and the fact I’m carrying her pack now as well as my own, I’d sweep her into my arms and sprint down this Dhia-forsaken mountain.

She trudges behind me in a daze under the cover of darkness. We could do with stopping for the night, but we’re too exposed up here, and whatever is going on with Elsie, she needs a proper bed to sleep in.

There’s nothing in my chest where our bond lives, as though she’s severed the link between us entirely.