Then he looked at Morag, saw a bleak fury in her dark eyes, and felt something wash through him that was so cold it bit down to the bone. Before he could decide if he should say something, Ashk linked arms with the Gatherer and walked toward the Clan house.

Someone touched his arm.

“Aiden?” Lyrra said, her eyes filled with concern.

He put his arms around her, needing her warmth. Would Ashk be angry with him for meeting privately with Lucian? Would Morag?

But this wasn’t about the Lightbringer and the Bard. This was a meeting between two men who were kin. Surely they would understand that—and appreciate the difference.

Nevertheless, he would keep his meeting with Lucian as private as possible—and hope Ashk and Morag didn’t find out about it until they were all long gone from this place.

“They’re bitches, both of them,” Lucian said, staring fiercely at the wood carefully arranged in the fireplace.

That was true enough, Aiden thought wearily, since Ashk and Selena were shadow hounds in their other form. At another time, he might have tried to play with words to make bitch mean other than what Lucian intended. But the truth was, he was exhausted. The Clan, taking courage from the Lightbringer’s presence, hadn’t quite told Ashk that they wouldn’t heed her command to send huntsmen down to Sylvalan to help in the fight that was coming; they’d simply insisted that they were keeping careful watch on the witches to make sure the women came to no harm. He would never know how Ashk would have responded because Morag had stood up then and said in a voice that was far too calm and too quiet that if anything happened to the witches, the Fae had better hope that the shining road closed quickly, because if there was any way for her to reach them, there would be no one left but the dead.

There was no argument Ashk could make after that, even after Morphia led her sister from the room. He didn’t know what was pushing Morag to the edge of sanity, but he was certain he didn’t want to be around her when she finally lost control.

And now, having pushed Lyrra out of their room with no more explanation than a request for an hour’s privacy, he was sitting on the bed listening to Lucian’s complaints.

“They’re going to destroy the Fae, you know that, don’t you?” Lucian said, still staring at the fireplace. “Maybe I am selfish, but I’ve never terrified my people into obedience. That’s what they’re doing, Aiden. One threatens our home, the other threatens an essential part of our nature. They’re ruthless, cruel bitches who used tricks to gain the power they have, and now the rest of us will have to pay for it.”