Page 66 of A Courage of the Chosen

She shakes her head. “He said darkness is coming.” She lifts up to look at me. “And that your end comes with it.”

Chapter 19

Elsie

The girl’s name is Erin. It was the last thing she told us before her little body gave out. Finneus arrived with the healer just as she went limp against me, pushed beyond her limits. Erin still clung to me, though, like I was a lifeline in a moment of true terror.

There was something so raw in her eyes, so much hurt, that it made me strangely protective. I have no siblings, and the time I’ve spent around babies and children has been severely limited. So I wouldn’t say I’m the most maternal woman. But Erin’s tears, and the desperate way she threw herself in my direction, unlocked a fierceness in me that I’ve never experienced.

Perhaps it’s because in her, I saw a version of myself, scared and unsure what her future holds, and I wanted her to know some kind of comfort amongst the pain she couldn’t be protected from.

I stayed by Erin’s side as she was taken to the healers’ wing, in a part of the palace I haven’t been to before, holding the too-small hand while they tended to her wounds.

Seelie children don’t heal the same way as adults, their bodies still growing into the senses and abilities that make us different to humans. Something I learned when I asked the healer why Erin’s cuts and scrapes hadn’t disappeared.

Callahan stood silently by the whole time, mask in place, a storm brewing beneath the surface.

In the early hours of the morning, I’m persuaded to get some rest, only by the promise that Erin won’t be awake anytime soon as she heals, and that I’ll be notified if anything changes.

I trace the nonexistent patterns on the ceiling of my room with the curtains open a crack, moonlight spilling through so I’m not tormented by the darkness.

“You should get some sleep, Elsie. You need rest for tomorrow.” Callahan’s breath dusts across my neck where he’s nestled in with an arm over my waist.

I wish it were that easy to switch off my thoughts. Not only will I declare myself as queen, but we’ll also set things in motion to find out who might be informing the enemy of our plans. We agreed to pause the sending of more wagons for the time being, setting us up perfectly for what we needed to do next.

Weaving my fingers through his on my stomach, I use his touch to ground me. “I thought you were sleeping.”

“I could hear your brain working.”

I release a heavy sigh.

“She’s going to be okay,” he says, knowing exactly where my mind is.

“Where are her parents?” I muse.

He doesn’t reply, but his silence speaks louder than his words ever could.

The utter terror as she relayed Raghnall’s message rolls across my mind again. “We need to protect her.”

Callahan kisses the back of my shoulder blade as his large hand spans over my stomach in reassurance. “We will.”

We fall quiet for a while, and he gently reaches for me using the threads of our bond.

I’m almost afraid to ask, but I need to know. “Does it happen a lot?”

Callahan nods stiffly.

I’m once again in awe of how he’s still standing when he’s witnessed so much devastation. The dream village I saw in ruins, and Erin’s state, were more than enough for me. He must have seen so many children like her, parentless and fragile. It honestly makes me glad that I had the chance to grow up away from all this. By comparison, my childhood was a dream.

“Can’t say Raghnall’s message was all that interesting, to be honest.” The thought emerges on a whim.

Callahan scoffs. “He’s not very imaginative is he? He’s coming for us anyway.”

My next confession comes out as a whisper, spoken under the blanket of night and in the safety of Callahan’s arms. “Truthfully, it’s not him I’m worried about.”

“Tavish won’t get near you,” he growls.

Those dark threads hum at the sound of his name. Tavish doesn’t say anything, but I can feel him there, waiting for the moment I’ll let him in, like it’s an inevitability, and he’s quite happy to allow me to come to terms with it.