Tarrah stared at Reyna, her heart in her throat.
“No,” Tarrah mumbled. “No, I won’t. Teutas—”
Teutas was a test. One you failed. If you’d passed, I would have returned him to you. The hiss grew louder in her mind, so loud that she had to clamp her hands over her ears. I will give you one more chance because I am a gentle, kind god. Teutas will be returned to you if you kill Reyna Darragh. If you do not, she will destroy the world. And you will never see Teutas again.
This was it, Tarrah realized as she gazed across the forest at Reyna. This was Tarrah’s choice, her test. She had chosen wrong before. She had trusted those she shouldn’t have. She had listened to sweet words and smiled at false smiles. She had been tricked and used and tempted to stray from the truth.
Unseelie whispered all of this into her ears, and Tarrah knew. Teutas would give her the seed for the babe who would cross the impassible sea and conquer the Fomorians. It would all happen just as Unseelie had said. But she had to prove her faith.
“You chose wrong!” she shouted at Reyna, trembling as she grabbed her bow and drew an arrow from her back. In an instant, she had her aim. Her arrow was pointed right at Reyna’s heart.
“What the hell, Tarrah?” Nollaig asked, shocked.
“Reyna Darragh chose wrong. She chose Seelie. The god of blood and death.”
42
Reyna
Reyna stared down the center of the iron arrowhead. “Tarrah, you know I can dodge those. You’ve seen me do it.”
“What are you doing, Tarrah?” Nollaig hissed angrily.
Tarrah shifted on her feet, swallowing hard. Reyna ought to be angry that the shadow fae was pointing an arrow at her heart, but she wasn’t. Instead, she just felt sad for her. All these years, she’d been living with the constant hum of Unseelie in her blood. Tarrah’s mother had given a part of her soul for his power. It had twisted her, and in turn, it had twisted Tarrah, too.
No one could survive that and come out whole.
“Tarrah,” Reyna said softly. “If you want to shoot that arrow at me, then go on and do it. And then let’s put down that bow and try to talk things through.”
Lorcan let out a low growl, a verbal display of exactly how he felt about that plan. He’d seen her dodge plenty of arrows and yet he held onto his protective instinct like a shield. It had pained her to see his face when she’d climbed out of the pit. His dark eyes had sparked with love and concern. The strength of his arms around her had been so familiar and so wrong. She did not know how to tell him what she’d given up.
He would never forgive her.
The power of Seelie felt like lightning in her veins, filling her up with life. Everything was clearer now. Colors glowed brighter and deeper, and the sounds of the forest were loud in her ears. She swore she could hear the crackle of a branch from miles away. It felt as if she had been born anew.
“Go on then,” Reyna said to Tarrah, knowing that nothing she could do would harm her.
Tarrah roared and loosed. Reyna ducked without even focusing on what she was doing, and the arrow splashed into the pool behind them. She distantly wondered what would happen to it now. Would the gods snatch it into their grasp and use it on an unsuspecting passerby? Would they stab it into someone else’s heart?
Trembling, Tarrah nocked another arrow.
“Tarrah, honestly, this is ridiculous!” Nollaig threw up her hands and stalked toward Tarrah. “I’m going to put a stop to this right here and now.”
Tarrah shifted her aim toward Nollaig’s heart. Without hesitation, Reyna threw herself to the side, slamming Nollaig hard into the ground just as the arrow whizzed passed the cloaked fae’s head. Reyna rolled off of her at once and jumped to her feet, leaping in front of Lorcan in case Tarrah decided to turn her attentions onto him.
But she was fumbling with the third arrow, clearly growing flustered. Tarrah had never been fond of battle.
Nollaig brushed off her cloak and stood. “Tarrah, I cannot believe what you have just done. After everything I have done for you. I am not your enemy, and neither is the princess. Stop this nonsense now!”
“She can’t,” Reyna whispered, watching Tarrah’s every movement like a hawk and motioning for Wingallock to do the same. She’d finally gotten another arrow nocked, and Reyna did not doubt she would try to kill Nollaig again. She was past seeing reason now. “It’s Unseelie. This isn’t her fault.”
“How can we stop this?” Lorcan asked in a low voice, pressing a firm, steady hand against her back. She wanted to lean into him, to give in to the strength she felt when he was near. But she couldn’t. Not anymore. She had thrown their future away, and it wasn’t right to let him believe that nothing had changed when everything had.
“We need to dig it out of her,” Nollaig said. “Just like we dug the mark out of Lorcan’s skin.”
“Tarrah doesn’t have a mark, and making her bleed out the poison will only leave her dead,” Reyna said sadly, while still keeping her eye locked firmly on Tarrah’s fingers.
Nollaig leaned in close and whispered into Reyna’s ear, bringing with her a whiff of fire and smoke. “You said Unseelie’s power is in her blood. But what’s in your blood, Shieldmaiden? If you took Seelie’s power, could you pass it onto her by giving her some of yours?”
Reyna cocked her head, considering.
“You cannot expect Reyna to cut herself open like that,” Lorcan said in a low growl. “We’re in the middle of a bloody forest with no help in sight. If we’re unable to staunch the wound, she could die.”
Reyna did not know how to tell him how very wrong he was. All she could say was, “That won’t kill me. Few things can now.” She turned to Nollaig to avoid the shock in Lorcan’s eyes. “Even if we try this, there’s no guarantee this will work, or if she’ll even let me close enough to do it.”
Nollaig spoke with enough strength to bring down an entire mountain. “We will make her take it. I don’t care if she fights us or not. It is time to release this god’s grip on her mind. Look at what it has done to her.”
Reyna pressed her lips together. She did not disagree, but she did not believe it would be as simple as that. Unseelie would not want to relinquish his hold on Tarrah. She’d been a loyal servant for years, always pushing his agenda one step forward. Unseelie wasn’t done with her yet.
“I know what you’re saying!” Tarrah trembled, the arrow quivering in her tense hands. “You’re going to kill me. The three of you are plotting my death.”
“We don’t want to kill you, Tarrah,” Nollaig said gently. “We want to help you.”
“You don’t. Your minds are being bent by the Seelie servant’s whispered words.” Tarrah swallowed thickly, her eyes darting from Reyna to Nollaig and back to Reyna again. “She wishes me dead. That way, you will never know the truth about her power.”
Reyna’s heart twinged. In truth, Tarrah was partly right. She didn’t want the others to know what she’d been forced to give up. It was just as she’d guessed. There was always an undercurrent of truth in Unseelie’s lies. He’d done it to Tarrah over the years, showing her visions that would come to pass so that lies were less noticeable when he needed to use them. Now, when it mattered the most, his words were impossible to resist.