At the mention of Cillian’s title, the urge to sneer was almost too strong to fight back but I managed, “Ran out of Slykhelm with iron chains wrapped around my body like a whores thong. Passed through pack territory while they were getting ready to battle. Got this feeling, so I followed the pull to an underground cell holding some rare shifters. Met the leader, made a deal to release each other from our chains and then I battled with them. I asked the leader, Kaiya, to join me but she’s got a hot boy-next-door mate who isn’t as pro-war so she declined. A shame really, the beast she has inside would tear through Mab’s army in the most entertaining of ways.”
Puck smiled, “Sounds like you made a friend.”
“No, she ate another shifter’s head. We’re besties.” I corrected him with what I’m sure was a manic grin. I really should make the time to visit Kaiya, something tells me she’d understand my inner turmoil.
Dani scoffed, “She eats one mesily head and suddenly she’s your best friend?”
“She also lassoed someone with an intestine that she ripped out of somebody else.” I deadpanned.
“Psh, anyone can do that.”
“Jealousy, Jealousy, Babes. It’s an ugly trait.”
Puck cleared his throat before she could yell at me, “How does that tie in with Commander Cillian?”
I rolled my eyes, “He tracked my magic to Kaiya’s cabin like the glorified guard dog he is. I was still in the area looking for a doorway back here when I felt his arrival. So, I popped in and stabbed him with a declaration of war. But I did all that before I knew I had no army to actually go to war with.”
Dani’s head tilted, “You felt him in the area?”
“That’s what I said.”
“But how did-”
“Did he do or say anything unusual? Anything at all that could give us an answer as to why he’s keeping it from Mab?” Puck interrupted.
“Maybe because he’s a bag of dicks.” An unbelievably hot bag of dicks but a bag of dicks no less.
He gave me an unimpressed look, “Then why didn’t you kill him?”
All brain activity screeched to a halt at his question,“What?”
“Why didn’t you kill him when you had the chance? It sounds like you could have, so why didn’t you?”
Well...I uh- He-It wasn’t the- Why?-Because I-, I kept my face carefully blank. It had been his idea to put me in that cell to rott for almost eight hundred years, Why the fuck hadn’t I killed him?
“How else was my declaration of war going to get to Mab?” I countered.
His head tilted, throwing golden hair across his forehead but otherwise seemed to accept that as an acceptable answer. Thank Divines. “So, nothing comes to mind?”
I debated on giving an false answer but then gave in, “Before I stabbed him, he opened his mouth to say something but I didn’t give him the chance.”
“Did it look like he was going to say something good or bad?” Dani asked, tapping her spoon against the table.
I took another bite of my porridge before saying, “I don’t know. The man’s face is as expressive as a slab of stone. Whatever it was, was bad though. He’s never had anything good to say to me.”
Growing up beneath Mab’s kingdom in a cell surrounded by actual criminals was a horrible experience in itself. Add to the fact that the Commander’s hot unemotional teenage son could do no wrong in my eyes and knew that? Yea, it made it so much worse. Cillian Grymes had known that I adored the very ground he walked on even when he pissed me off. Every attempt at speaking to the guards when he was there was shut down. Every kind thing the guards offered would be tossed out or rudely knocked away before I could get it. And whenever I yelled at him for it, he’d alway say the same cryptic thing,‘You don’t want those, Cell Bate.’ The only things he allowed to pass my cell bars where the Choco Blasts his father, Dougal, would pass me. And the Bunny Mellows he’d deliver on behalf of his father when he couldn’t make it.
I angrily chewed on another bite of porridge, I’d kick myself for the way I had acted around him but I’d been a child and even then he’d been gorgeous. The only time I got a rise out of him was when I mockingly called him Lilly and even then it had only been a furrowed brow. To him and everyone else but Dougal and Mab, I was the daughter of some random criminal Fae serving out her mother’s term because she died before it ended. He had, and still has, no idea who I truly am. And just like then, I don’t think it’d really matter either way. In his queen’s eyes, I was the enemy so I was his. And after he sent me to Slykhlem, he was mine.
“I forgot you two had history.” Dani frowned trying to gauge my reaction. She didn’t know the setting of my past but she knew the dynamic of me and Cillian’s relationship or lack thereof.
Pushing the anger aside, I grinned, “Nothing a little iron to his heart can’t fix.”
Her frown grew deeper but as always Puck had impeccable timing, “I have a vague plan as to how we’re going to rebuild your kingdom.”
“Let me guess, we’re going to go find my people group by group and give them some big truthful sales speech about why they should fight for me one last time.” I stated dryly.
Golden eyes blinked, “Well, yes and search out other groups sympathetic to the cause.”
“Little simple, don’t you think?”
“Do you have any other ideas?” He smiled broadly.
I narrowed my eyes at the little shit and flashed pointed teeth.
“That’s okay.” Puck replied, cheerily. “Besides it might be easier than you think. You already have a following. We’re going to meet the leader today.”
What? “A following? How? Last night we established that everyone hates me.”
“No, we said the younger generation didn’t know any better but the older ones know the truth. Some are too afraid to speak out but that doesn’t mean all of them are or that their children, who they told the truth to, are. Especially, since they have a trusted temporary leader.”
That is so not what he said last night. I raised a brow in confusion, “Why didn’t you start with this last night?”
“We wanted you to trust me first. So, that when we told you this you wouldn’t think it was a trap.”
Weary, I gave them a look, “Why would I think it’s a trap?”
They exchanged a glance of their own before Dani finally spoke, “Because Dougal Grymes is their leader.”
Excitement and hope rushed through me at a concerning speed but I quickly stomped it down, “No. No matter what he meant to me all those years ago, he was Mab’s right hand man for centuries and now his son is. So, are you really going to sit there and tell me that this isn’t a trap?”
“Macha. Dougal resigned from his position as the Commander of Mab’s elite guard once he heard about her plans to kill you in battle. He couldn’t go through with it. He said he didn’t have it in him to fight against you and then stand by while you died. He’s on your side, Macha. You’ll see that when we see him later.”
I shook my head, “Your trying to tell me Dougal turned his back on Mab and his eldest son for me? No fucking way.”
“It’s not a trap, I promise.” Puck said. “We need to see him, Macha. It’s the only place safe enough for you to hide out in and it’ll house all your troops. If you want to go to war against Mab and win? Then you need to trust us and you need to trust Dougal.”
I eyed them for a long time going over all the different ways this could go to shit. I obviously didn’t trust Puck but I did trust Dani and the little girl in me was screaming that Dougal could never hurt us. I was absolutely terrified that I’d end up in a cell once again but war was all about risk and if I wanted to win I needed to take some. That didn’t mean I had to make it easy for them, though.
“Fine, we go. Tomorrow and if I feel even one inkling of a trap? I’m going to start slicing and dicing until the only thing left around me is body parts, understood?”
“Understood.” They parroted.
And I hope they truly did, because I’d kill anyone including myself before I saw the inside of a cell again.
—————————————————————————
For this book, I’m planning on challenging myself by creating a more complex plot than I did for Feral Born. And lemme tell y’all the things I have planned for Macha give me an insane urge to cackle. Btw, what do y’all think of Macha and Cillians past???
As always, feel free to leave a comment on anything you enjoyed!
Smooches, Verbage💋
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