Dance of the Gods (24 page)

Then she saw the arrow whizz by, and strike its heart.

Moira whirled, the rage of betrayal ripping through her. But it wasn't Blair who held the bow. It was Cian.

He tossed it down. “Enough,” was all he said before he walked away.

M
oira didn't think, she didn't wait. She didn't
take her place back in the royal box to speak to her people again. As she rushed away, she could hear Larkin's voice lifted, strong and clear. He would stand in for her, and that would have to do.

She still carried her bloody sword as she sprinted after Cian.

“How dare you! How dare you interfere!”

He continued, reaching the courtyard now, moving across it. “I don't take orders from you. I'm not one of your subjects, not one of your people.”

“You had no right.” She spun ahead of him to block him from entering the castle. And seeing his face, saw cold rage.

“I'm not concerned about rights.”

“Couldn't you stand it? Watching me fight one of them, torment it, destroy it. You couldn't stand by and see me beat down a second.”

“If you like.”

He didn't push past her but changed direction to continue across the courtyard and through an archway.

“You will not turn from me.” This time when she rounded him, she laid the flat of her sword on his chest. Her rage wasn't cold, but hot, bubbling through her like the wrath of gods. “You're here because I wish it, because I permit it. You aren't master here.”

“Didn't take long, did it, for you to drape on the mantle. But understand this, princess, I'm here because I wish it, and your
permission
is less than nothing to the likes of me. Now either use that sword or lower it.”

She threw it aside so it clattered on the stones. “It was for
me
to do.”

“For you to die in front of a roaring crowd? You're a bit small for the gladiator title.”

“I would—”

“Have given a hungry vampire his last meal,” Cian snapped. “You couldn't have bested the second of them. Maybe, just maybe, you'd have stood a small chance against him if you were fresh and not wounded. But Blair chose the smaller of them to begin with because it was your best chance at proving your point. And so you did, be satisfied with that.”

“You think you know what I can do?”

He simply squeezed a hand to the cut on her side, releasing it when she went dead white and swayed back against the wall. “Yes. And so did he. He'd have known exactly where to come at you.” Cian lifted the bottom edge of her tunic, wiped the blood from his hand. “You wouldn't have lasted above two minutes before you were as dead as the mother you're so hell-bound to avenge.”

Her eyes went from fog to smoke. “Don't speak of her.”

“Then stop using her.”

Her lips trembled once before she firmed them. “I would have beaten him because I had to.”

“Bollocks. You were done, and too proud, too stupid to admit it.”

“We can't know, can we, because you ended it.”

“You think you could have stopped him from sinking his teeth into this?” Cian skimmed a finger down the side of her throat, barely lifting an eyebrow when she slapped his hand aside. “Stop me then. You'll need more than a peevish slap to manage it.”

He stepped back, picked up the sword she'd tossed down. Smiled grimly when she winced at the pull in her side as he threw it to her. “There, you have a sword, I don't. Stop me.”

“I've no intention of—”

“Stop me,” he repeated, and moved quickly to give her a light shove back against the wall.

“You won't put your hands on me.”

“Stop me.” He shoved her again, then simply batted the sword aside.

She slapped him, hard across the face before he gripped her shoulders, pressed her back against the wall. She felt something that might have been fear, that might have been, as his eyes held hers transfixed.

“For God's sake, stop me.”

When his mouth crushed down on hers, she felt everything. Too much. It was dark and it was bright, it was hard, and unbearably soft. All that was inside her rushed toward it, reckless and crazed.

Then he was standing aside, a foot away from her, and it seemed all the breath had left her body.

“That's not the way he'd have tasted you.”

Cian left her trembling against the wall before he compounded an already enormous mistake.

He scented rather than saw Glenna. “She needs to be seen to,” he said and continued away.

 

I
nside, Blair sat in front of the fire in the family
parlor, trying to get her bearings. “Just don't start on me,” she warned Larkin. “She wheedled my word out of me, and the fact is, I understood why she needed to do it.”

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“Because you weren't
there
. Because she left it for the last minute. Ambushed me. Which was damn good strategy, if you want my opinion. I argued with her, and maybe I could have argued harder, but she was right. Mostly right. And, Jesus, she made her point, didn't she? In spades.”

He handed her a cup of wine, crouched in front of her. “You think I'm angry with you. I'm not. With her, a bit. With her because she didn't trust me with this. Because it wasn't just her mother those things killed, but my aunt. And I loved her. It wasn't just her people she sought to rally with this business tonight, but mine. And I can promise you, Moira and I will speak of it.”

“Okay. Okay.” She drank, looked at Hoyt. “Have you got two cents to put into this?”

“If you're meaning do I have an opinion on it, I do. She shouldn't have taken this on herself. She's too valuable to risk, and we're meant to be a circle. No one of us should make such important decisions without the others.”

“Well, if you're going to be logical.” Blair sighed. “You're not wrong, and if there'd been time, I'd have insisted she bring everyone in on it. We wouldn't have stopped her, but we'd have all been prepared. She went all queen on me.” Sighing again, Blair rubbed at the tension at the base of her neck. “Man, she took some hits.”

“And Glenna will tend to her,” Hoyt answered. “She would have taken more if Cian hadn't acted.”

“I wouldn't have let it happen. I'm not going to kick at him for jumping in, grabbing the crossbow out of my hands, but I wouldn't have let her take on number two. She was finished.” She drank again. “But I'm not sorry she's tearing the skin off his hide instead of mine.”

“His is thick enough.” Idly Hoyt poked at the fire. “We'll have our army now.”

“We will,” Larkin agreed. “None can doubt what we'll come to face. We're not a people of war, but we're not cowards. We'll have an army come Samhain.”

“Lilith will be here any day,” Blair pointed out. “We've got a lot of work ahead of us. We'd better get some sleep, get an early start on it tomorrow.”

But as she started to get up, Dervil came to the doorway. “I beg your pardon, but I'm sent for the lady Blair. My mistress wishes to speak with her.”

“Another command performance,” Blair muttered.

“I'll wait in your chambers.” Larkin laid a hand on her arm. “You'll come, tell me how she is.”

“I'll let you know.” Blair started out, glanced at Dervil. “I know the way now.”

“I'm asked to bring you.”

At the door of Moira's chambers, Dervil knocked. It was Glenna who answered, let out a breath of relief when she saw Blair. “Good, thanks for coming.”

“My lady.” When Glenna lifted a brow, Dervil cleared her throat. “I would apologize for my poor behavior today, and ask at what time you wish to have the women gathered for instruction.”

“An hour past dawn.”

“Can you teach me to fight?”

“I will teach you,” Glenna corrected.

Dervil's smile was hard and tight. “We'll be ready.”

“Something I missed?” Blair asked Glenna when Dervil left them.

“Just part of a very long day. Something else you missed.” She kept her voice low. “I found Moira arguing with Cian at the edge of the courtyard.”

“Not a big surprise.”

“It was when he finished the argument with his lips.”

“Come again?”

“He kissed her. Hard, steamy, passionate.”

“Ho boy.”

“She was pretty shaken.” Glenna glanced over her shoulder. “And not, in my opinion, due to insult and outrage.”

“I repeat: Ho boy.”

“I'm telling you because I don't want to be worried about this all by myself.”

“Thanks for sharing.”

“What are friends for?” Glenna stepped back. “Finish that potion, Moira,” she said, lifting her voice now to conversational level. “I mean it.”

“I am. I will. You've fussed enough.”

Moira sat near the fire. She wore robes now, with her hair loose down her back. The bruising on her face stood out against her pallor. “Blair, thank you for coming. I know you must be tired, but I didn't want you to go to bed before I thanked you.”

“How are you holding up?”

“Glenna's fussed and tended and dosed me.” She held up the cup, drank the contents down. “I feel well enough.”

“It was a good fight. You had some nice moves out there.”

“I toyed with him too long.” Moira lifted her shoulders, then winced as the wound in her side objected to the movement. “That was foolish and prideful. More foolish, more prideful to tell you to release the second. You were right not to.”

“Yeah, I was.” Blair came over to sit on the hassock at Moira's feet. “I'm not going to tell you I know anything about being a queen. But I do know that being a leader doesn't mean doing it all yourself. Being a warrior doesn't mean fighting when the fight isn't necessary.”

“I let my needs cloud my judgment. I know that. I won't do so again.”

“Well, all's well that ends.” She patted Moira's knee.

“You're the best friends I've known, save Larkin. And the closest women to me but my mother. I saw by your faces when you stood in the door that Glenna told you what she saw between me and Cian.”

Unsure how to answer, Blair rubbed her hands on her thighs. “Okay.”

“I think we might have some wine.” When Moira started to rise, Glenna laid a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

“I'll get it. I didn't tell Blair to talk behind your back, or gossip.”

“I know that as well. It was concern, as a friend, as another woman. There's no need for concern. I was angry. No, enraged,” Moira corrected as Glenna came back with the wine. “That he would take it upon himself to end what I wanted to do.”

“He only beat me to it by a couple seconds,” Blair told her.

“Well. Well. I went after him when it was my duty to stay, to speak to my people. But I went after him, and I deviled him. He'd done what he did to stop me from making a foolish and perhaps fatal mistake. And he told me as much, but I wasn't ready to listen, to accept. He showed me as much, and it's all of a piece, what happened at the end of it. He only showed me that I wasn't strong enough to stop any sort of attack. It meant nothing more than that.”

“Okay…” Blair searched for words. “If you're satisfied with that.”

“It's difficult for a woman to be satisfied when she's kissed in such a way, then coldly rejected.” Still Moira lifted a shoulder. “But it was done in anger on both sides. I won't apologize to him, nor do I expect he will to me. We'll simply go on, remembering there are more important things than pride and temper.”

“Moira.” Glenna stroked a hand over Moira's hair. “Do you have feelings for him?”

As if to search inside herself, Moira closed her eyes. “There are times it seems I'm nothing but feelings. But I know where my duty lies. I've agreed to go to the stone, take hold of the sword. Not tomorrow. There's much to do tomorrow. But by week's end. I've shown my people they have a warrior in me. Soon, if the gods' will it, I'll show them a queen.”

When they stepped out, Moira remained in the chair, watching the fire.

“What I gave her will help her sleep, and soon, I hope.” Blowing out a breath, Glenna dug her hands into her pockets.

“This could get complicated.”

“What
isn't
? I should have seen something like this coming.”

“Time to turn in your crystal ball on a newer model?”

“Oh well.” They walked together toward their own rooms. “Should we talk to Cian about this?”

“Sure. You go first.”

With a half laugh, Glenna shook her head. “Okay, we leave it alone. Stay out of it—at least for now. You know, I'm a firm believer in full disclosure in relationships. But I'm not going to say anything to Hoyt about this.”

“If you think I'm going to blab to Larkin, think again. We've all got enough on our minds.”

 

T
he morning was soggy and cold, but there were a
flock of women on the gaming field. Most of them wore pants—what the locals called
braes
—and tunics.

“More than twice the turnout I had yesterday,” Glenna told Blair. “That's Moira's doing.”

“She sure as hell drove the point home last night. Look, I'll give you an hour, get them started. Then I'm going to want to get my pet dragon up in the air.”

Whether it was the gloom of the morning or the dregs of the tension from the night before, Blair was antsy. “I want to check out the battlefield firsthand, make sure those settlements near it are cleared out. And I want to swing by, make sure the traps are up and running.”

“Just another day in paradise. Well, I guess we ought to move this indoors.” Hands on hips, Glenna turned a circle. “See if there's a space we can work with.”

“Why?”

“In case you haven't noticed, it's raining.”

“Yeah, I got that with all the water dripping off my hair. Point is, we don't know what conditions will be like on
Samhain. For that matter, we don't know what they'll be like if any of these women have to tangle with a vamp before that. Might as well get used to fighting dirty, so to speak.”