My lips twisted. Lochlann was not listening to me; in fact he was completely ignoring me. If the fairies took this stance it would only end in bloodshed. The thought of my fellow Disciples clashing with these beings made me sweat. "If revenge is what you're thinking, you're too late," I told him. "The Lady Cleric was killed by-" I stopped and slid my gaze Breandan's way. His only reaction to the topic was a flaring of his nostrils. "She's dead," I said flatly.
"The vampire," Breandan explained through clenched teeth.
Lochlann paced in front of us, his eyes on me. There was little warmth there. "Brother," he said in a tone of quiet command. "Your, female has shown no respect for who and what we are. How do you know she can be trusted?"
"Rae is true to me."
"She kept the truth from you, on more than one occasion. Because of her you nearly lost your life. And this thing with the vampire-"
"Is none of your business," Conall cut in scathingly.
Lochlann barely glanced his way. "Your family is the single greatest disappointment to our race. As the Elder you should be helping her to along her new path, not encouraging her foolishness."
"Elder?" I asked.
"Head of the family," Breandan told me.
Conall stared at Lochlann with thinly veiled hate. There was a niggle in my mind, two dots dancing around each other waiting to be connected. Elder, head of the family, gold eyes.
"She is mine, Lochlann. Let me leave with her, and I swear you a month of peace."
Breandan blanched.
I spun round and glared at the newcomer. When I saw who it was I managed to splutter, "What did you just say?"
"I wasn't speaking to you," Devlin said and let the tent flap drop behind him. "I was addressing the one you refuse to follow."
"I did not say I would not follow him," I objected hotly.
I had remembered too late that not following Lochlann, meant I was in Devlin's Tribe.
"You're not seriously considering" I trailed off at the look on Lochlann's face. It was blank, calculating. Cold.
Sucking a series of shallow gasps I slowly looked at Breandan's face, terrified at what I would find there. He glared at his brother so balefully I was surprised the older fairy could withstand the weight of it.
"One month with no attacks?" Lochlann asked.
Devlin made a big show of lifting his chin, and placing his hand over his heart. "I swear it."
Uttering the oath the air thickened with magic and hung, waiting for acceptance.
"No."
The word was not shouted, or hollered or uttered in any way that could be conceived as emotional. It was a flat out refusal, brooked no argument. It was a command. The magic sighed and dissipated. Breandan slid me behind him and I wrapped my arms around his waist. I couldn't stop my body trembling.
"Do not deny the reason of it," Lochlann said.
"I said no."
"This isn't just about you," Devlin said. "You would continue the death of fairy lives for the sake of one female." He made a scoffing noise and ran his eyes all over me disdainfully. "She is beautiful, and pure though she reeks of another. I promise you take her once and she will lose her appeal."
"That is enough," Conall barked. We all turned to him as he lithely stepped over to stand beside Breandan. "This isn't even a discussion."
"Who are you to interfere?" Devlin sneered.
"You know very well," he hissed back.
"Well then would someone mind letting me know?" I asked in a low voice. "Because I am mighty confused."
Breandan shifted and put his arm around me. "It is not the right time."
I shrugged his arm off and ignored him. I ignored everyone, but Conall. I tapped him on the shoulder and he turned, reluctantly, to look down at me from his lofty height. His eyes, deep gold, shimmered with suppressed feeling. When we had first met he had told me he knew me as a baby. Truth rung inside my head and in a rush my thought's tumbled over one another, fighting for recognition.
