☽ -Doranelle, Camp two days before- ☾
Armed with nothing more then her sweet smile and secrets Brielle strode straight through the camp surrounding the city walls.
"You sure this is going to work?" Connall was taking relaxed strides to stay at her side, hands stuffed into the warmth in the pockets of the breeches he wore.
"Nope." She popped the 'p' with all the enthusiasm she willed herself to have in hopes it may salvage some of her sanity.
Connall looked almost perplexed at the mere sound of her amusements. "If you don't believe this will work, why are we doing it?" His expression contorted as his brow pinched
Brielle wouldn't stop to answer him. Just kept walking unable to hide the excitement in her grin. Despite her efforts to get ahead she couldn't get away from him, his longer legs and strides making an easy task of the distance she covered with extra effort.
"Eh.. Because why not?" She allowed herself to relax. This was going to work, It had to.
"Maeve might kill us if she finds out about this" The lack of enthusiasm in his tone struck her. It was that fact that so often parted him from his brother, Brielle sighed heavily at the memory of her mate, her powers prickling at the rage she fought to keep contained.
"All the more reason to" Conall was watching, ready to meet her stare when she looked back at him to speak, They both strolled around a group of soldiers that were playing a card game atop an old wooden ale barrel.
The pair fell into a comfortable silence making their way to the camps central war tent. The captains often held their meetings within. The perfect place for a female to stir up shit and create devilish amount of pure unhinged chaos. The best sort in her opinion.
Flashing a warm smile at Connall, she could sense his attention lingering on her face, pulling away she moved to the entrance of the meeting tent.
Throwing back the material door, Brielle slowed her approach whistling lowly. The inside of the tent was huge and as warm as the air outside. A large round table sat in its centre atop a raised platform. It was at this table the Captains of Maeve's army now sat. A perfect sort of peaceful she relished to destroy.
Brielle moved. Conall following her towards the table. An innocent smile plastered her lips, or at least the most innocent smile she could muster.
The group of captains frowned at her approach flowing up the steps with all the grace a fae female possessed, moving around the platform Brielle turned sightly, gesturing for her mates brother to follow.
"We didn't request any of her majesty's Commanders to this meeting." Brielle narrowed her eyes on the group, noting how some of them winced at his words. Not that many of Maeve's Cadre of warriors remained, many of them lost to a foreign queen.
"I think my presence will prove vital to this meeting."
"I'm not so sure we can agree on that... Commander "
That voice. Brielle tried to not let is grate her nerves, Turning she rested her full attention on the smirking Lord Zakurio.
He stayed unmoving an image of Captains's prowess, Captain Zakurio had been one of the first captains to face her that night before the beach, amongst Maeve's armada. Before the queen had found her and Vera on those ships, persuading the captains to fight against their loyalties to Maeve. Before Maeve had encased Aelin inside that metal box.
Her power rose to the surfaces, tightening her skin in response of those memories. Brushing her sweat slicked palms off on her thigh, Brielle met Zakurio's gaze across the table, he shifted as the thrum of her magic warmed the air, a wild feral thing puling at the leash to be released.
It wasn't just the one captain that moved, half of the table sat straighter, eyeing the female before them passing wary glances to one another. Brielle maintained the stagnant attention to Zakurio.
Connall shuffled forward half a step to softly brush a hand along Brielle's arm. Tried to conceal the expression of worry creasing his brow, Understood the important of hiding such weakness from these people.
Brielle had already told her mates brother everything, from the fights in the marshes all the way to the coast where the blood oaths were ripped from their souls. An aching that despite her distain for the bond left her feeling astoundingly empty.
She felt the featherlight touch of Connall's knuckles, he soothed it down the skin above her elbow. She tethered herself to the sensation, the touch, a lifeline of rope wrapped tightly around her torso to ground her in this meeting.
As Connall swirled a finger against the skin, Brielle's breath hitched. It was a comfort that Fenrys had adapted to using for years, subtly letting her become aware of his presence, Rolling both shoulders back with a sigh, Brielle pushed away Connall's touch.
She heard him shuffled back away from her and couldn't pass a look to him, but from the corner of her eyes she saw him bow his head in silence, standing behind her still
Pulling out a chair she slid her body into the empty space at the table. Glancing around and could only hope the vacated seats were once warmed by the captains she had successfully managed to convert that night. Hope filled her chest, perhaps it wasn't all for nothing.
And by the expression now souring Zakurio's face, Brielle knew she was right. Some of those captains had followed through with her words, whether out of blackmail or perhaps they too hoped and wished for a better world; she couldn't bring herself to ponder it.
Connall stayed stationary behind the chair she had occupied, the ever silent watcher.
Once relaxed into her position at the meeting, Brielle fed into the resting silence, casting an expecting look across the table to the Captains that warily sat. They should ignore her presence, should convene as they normally would. It was clear that whatever unease her presence had brought had made them hesitate, her delighted smile made many of them unfocused and fumbling to regrasp the point of this gathering.
She sat listening, playing into the act of a bored female, picking at the jagged edge of her nail. Making sure to look as though she wasn't paying that much attention, her appointed disinterest seemed to ease them enough to start talking about solider numbers, positioning and training strategies.
Despite her uninvolved demeanor she took everything in, despite the captains subtly censoring each answer then provided, some being met with silence entirely. Perhaps Brielle should be giving them more credit then they were worth, the intelligence to not mention key fact unknowingly to the leader of the Pride.
The meeting was quieting down with many of the Captains relaxing in Brielle's presence, silent across the table; A fools mistake.
For the near three hours that they worked through information Captain Zakurio had sat glowering at Brielle. Some demented part of her wanted to blow a kiss in his direction, her amused smile at the image it ignited in her mind seemed to do the trick well enough.
Even now some thirty minutes on from then, the Captain did once not let up on his staring.
"Is there something you wish to say to me Captain. Beyond complimenting my good looks?" Her words pierced through the conversation that had already began to blanket the group. "You haven't stopped staring at me since my arrival." She spoke the facts as plain and simple as they were.
Zakurio's stare darkened with anger, rising from the chair "You wench-"
Brielle leaned backwards the chair groaning, the sound drew every pair of eyes in the room to her. "I'd be careful. Captain, otherwise we might have to give a demonstration to your fellow males of how you kneeled for me the last time we spoke ."
The insinuation would rip into his ego and she knew it, and she would keep clawing away until she got what she needed from these males. There was a muffled choke of laughter behind her and the others around seemed to hide their own amusement. Zakurio glanced around as though he now saw the judgment on the expressions, judging a male for so easily crumbling to the wills of a female.
With a flick of her wrist, Zakurio lowered himself, bowing to the snickering of the others around him. His expression only got darker the more the air filled with his humiliation.
"Now. I lied before." Brielle rose up, Connall pulling the chair out for her. She thanked him with a nod, his eyes shining with excitement as she prowled.
Standing above these males would allow her the power and intimidation to get her point across. For she understood the power of gaining their attention, no full blooded fae male would give up his position so easily. Never submitting to a female. She would make them, whether they fought fangs and nails all the way.
"I do want something from this meeting." She picked at a nail, ignoring the stare of just any one captain,
"If you think we will commit treason for your cause you're wrong." Zakurio's tone and smirk mirrors her own, on a level that would have made her stomach plummet. Brielle could detect the amusement in his own voice, believing he had finally won the upper hand.
"I already told them of your deceptions." Despite his words, many of the Captains continued to watch her. Not giving Zakurio a second glance.
"Well then I'm rather grateful, that will shorten my whole speech." Brielle tapped a hand to the base of her neck, "My throat is rather sore this morning, I can finally spare my breath."
"Sucking too many males off in your free time Commander?" The Captain sneered, leveling his attention at her. Brielle stilled her movement around the table, those other eyes following his.
"Yes." she met his stare, unblinking with conviction, "In fact, Your father was quite delighted to indulge me last night."
His nostrils flared. Enraged as the threw himself forward to leap from the chair the Captains on either side of his position, grabbed for his arm and yanked Zakurio to sit back into the seat.
"If you can't act your age Zakurio, we can always continue without you" A male from two seats down spoke directing a pointed glare to the other captain.
"Thank you" Brielle made sure to warm his blood with a slither of her magic, shallow enough so they wouldn't notice, enticing those willing to pay full attention.
"Now as I'm sure he has informed you all so kindly of how this works. Let's just get right to it"
"How do we know the information you have is true?" A light haired captain from the further end of the table muttered in a low, unsure of his own words or perhaps where they might get him.
"I'm so glad you would ask." Brielle gave a soft nod to Connall who slipped from the room without the Captains noticing, a benefit of having a silent presence, an invisible that often people didn't give two thoughts to. She snagged a glass from the table, lifting it to her lips "Because I sourced the information from outwith my own units."
Swallowing a gulp from the glass, she let it settle in her stomach before filling the silence once more, "I contacted the Pride a number of weeks ago. I'm sure you are all aware of their particular affinity for secrets. If you think I can't get to your families and connections you're wrong. I would hunt everyone you love after revealing your secrets until you are the only ones left and I'll let those secrets take you to the ground."
"Enough with the empty threats commander, What do you want from us?"
Her entire presence stilled. A predator calculating, Death planning her next victim. Empty threats; the thought almost made her laugh.
"You see. I don't really do threats" She pulled a dagger free, the one always tucked beneath her left breast, closest to her heart. The first gift from Fenrys with his initials and carvings etched into the hilt. She began to drag its edge along the expanse of the table. Some of the Captains were smart enough to shift so their hands no longer lay rested on the surface.
There was a scuffle outside the material door of the tent. A hushed noise of voices snagged the attention of the Captains, Brielle continued to circle them. Her footsteps being the only sound not drowned by the sounds beyond the thin walls.
Bound between curiosity and a predator, the captains eyes darted back and fourth between the door and Lioness.
"I only do promises" she raised her chin, stroking the pad of her finger across the blade, feeling the heat in its tip when it cut flesh. She met the gaze of a young captain, He barely looked older than settling age. He also looked about ready to piss himself at the sight as Brielle sucked the blood from her own finger. Turning to continue her prowl around the table.
There was a sudden noise of a slap thrown and shouting outside the tent, a growing sound of chaos awakened in the air.
"I asked the Pride for help. They gave me all the information I needed." Many of them blinked in blind confusion, rising slowly as the screaming grew louder.
"VANCE!" A females panicked voice broke through the rising ruckus that thundered around the tent like a living storm.
Brielle smiled slowly as Captain Vance Brilloc leapt from his chair, large legs eating up the distance as he raced for the entrance way.
Slowly as though they too now recognised the voices outside the other captains began moving from the table. Ushering for the door. Until Brielle was the only one left in the meeting tent, Even Zakurio's face had gone a pale shade of ashen as he ran off the raised platform.
Brielle revelled in the sound as one by one the Captains bore witness to the display she had organised for them outside.
Connall pushed back into the tent, a splatter of blood coated his cheek, just below his eyes. Brielle squinted at it, not blood splatter she realised. But blood that bloomed from his own flesh. When she raised her brow in question, Connall shook his head eyes closing with a sigh.
"Did one of those females get a hit on you Connall?" Brielle couldn't even attempt to hide her amusement now,
"We will not speak of this." he folded his arms across his chest. Brielle's jaw fell open as she struggled to stifle a laugh.
"She did, didn't she?" Connall's response of a low grumble was cut off by the tent door flying open, Slapping him across the face.
Brielle hide her smile with her hand, she couldn't poke fun of her friend much longer once the first of the Captains stormed back through the tent. Turning her attention from Connall, she noticed as he shifted to wipe the blood away from his face.
Second later more of the Captains began to flood back into the tent,
"Nice of you to all rejoin this meeting." She sucked her tongue against her own teeth, "It is quite rude to abandon one whilst its in the middle of convening"
"You bitch. Let them go. Now" The barking orders of a male excited the very lineage of her blood. The exhilaration that flooded her at riling them up never failed for amusement. Brielle often did the same to Gavriel and had done so to their other brothers and father before they left their family.
"Empty threats, remember?" Brielle knew the display outside was anything but that. "Why don't you all sit?" She brushed her body to the side, Gesturing with one arm to the table at her back.
Obediently many of them moved to retake their seats around the table, others made quick work of collecting the furniture that had been thrown from the platform when they had bucked from their places in such a haste.
"Now.." She clasped her hands together in picture perfect diligence.
"Just let them go." A captain growled, his frame was stocky and well built. Years of Muscles packed anew atop itself. His elbows rested on the table top, fists clenching and unclenching.
"Let who go?" Brielle blinked innocently to meet their stares across the table-front, holding each stare for at least a second to spy that anger and panic in them, not that she couldn't already scent the change.
"Don't play dumb, Our mates, mothers, sisters and wives" He could have easily just said their biggest weaknesses for shorter terms.
"Ah, yes." Brielle tapped a finger to her temple, Contemplating their requests. "No."
The ripple of low sounds reverberated from their chest made the hairs arise on the back of her neck. A reminder that these were no mere mortal human men. Many were full blooded raw Fae males, who's biggest weakens was just dangled in front of them like a beast to a slab of meat. By a female no less. It was their nature to protect their mates, and she had so easily gotten to them, A females friendly pleasantries to one another often did go a long way.
Perhaps it was the only shred of guilt she now beheld, those females outside had given her so much trust. A lifelong mistake they shall never forget from this day going forward. It was a lesson Brielle herself had to learn and learnt it she had, the fucking hard way. It had lost her a friend- a sister.
Connall moved into the side of her peripheral view, Breaking through the ever barreling thoughts and memories that fought their way to the surface. The way he stood was beckoning for her attention but she couldn't give him what he sought. For she had put herself in the wolves den and couldn't afford to look away, not even for a second.
"Just tell us what you want." There was an essence of defeat on this males face, that was so inheritably familiar to her that Brielle almost let her resolve slip. Gripping tightly with the grit of her teeth she sighed deeply. She could so easily recognise that bleeding pain on his expression, it was the type that hammered down on your every sense. A battering ram of force that often left oneself blindly grasping for any lifeline. A blazing panic which Brielle herself had battled since being brought back to Doranelle. Waking in cold sweats with memories and images of Fenrys plaguing her every thought.
"What I want is for you all to do nothing. Pay no attention, turn a blind eye. If you interfere you will see just how 'empty' my threats can become"
The group shifted nervously at the thrum of her magic which swirled and slithered towards the door where the sounds of their loves ones drew quiet.
"I have the Pride as an ally now. You do anything to break this agreement and your secrets and lives will become fair game."
These males would possible never find out just how much of an ally the Pride was to her, Her salvation and very reason to keep going. Didn't know they harboured its leader in this very tent where they all shared breath.
"Done." Zakurio was the first to agree, Brielle tried everything in her to not gape at his outward extended hand, which shook slightly in mid air.
Clasping it tightly Brielle shook it. Once her grip loosened, Zakurio nodded once and crept from the tent. Reeling her magic back in, Brielle released the females from her death grip, at the sound of their movement outside, the Captains began to retreat back outside.
Once more she was left alone with Connall. Sighing deeply Brielle turned to face him, peeling the mask she wore off.
"It would have been wrong to kill all of them."
Brielle for once didn't feed into this silence, blinking at Connall.
"There might have been other ways to persuade them." He sounded optimistic. Oh how the tables had turned. At the beginning of this meeting she had been the enthusiastic one out of them both,
"The only people those males would willingly bend their knees for is the females in their lives, I would do whatever necessary." There was no lie in her voice, she had no reason to.
Stalking down from the platform on slow steps, Offering Connall a soft smile.
"I still think you would have thought of something else." He was right. With time Brielle would have came up with something else. But she was running out of options and a cornered animal only had so many instincts. Flight or fight. And with limited time, She knew what had to be done.
Stalking past him, Brielle threw a final retort over her shoulder,
"You be moral, I'll be realistic"
☽⋆❈⋆☾
☽ -Doranelle, Present time- ☾
Connall thrashed forward in Isaiah's hold, widened eyes watching Cairn stalk closer to Brielle still frozen by the door. She kept her eyes trained on the battle reports in the males hands, gaze darting to see the piles throw across the floorboards.
"Don't touch her!" Cairn ignored Connall's pleading. Her friend jerked his shoulders trying effortlessly to dislodge the other males hold on him.
Brielle's gaze snapped to Connall, Isaiah had yanked back his head, exposing more of his throat to the edge of his knife, the air stuttered from her chest when he pushed in further into Connall's throat. An ache snowballing in her chest. Watching Isaiah. It didn't get any easier seeing him this way— feeling at fault. Heart hammering faster Brielle blinked her attention back to the male before her.
Cairn was assessing her, circling slowly, Brielle forced the air to flow through her, tumbling down into herself she pulled a shell of power to coat her skin.
"I've informed her majesty of your. . ." Cairn took a quiet second to scan the document in hand "Sneaking around." His head dipped to her own, "Your deceptions." Goose skin rippled, He rounded to be before her once more. Magic thrummed beneath every inch of her skin, Brielle couldn't move. Fearful he might sense that dreg of power.
"It's not uncommon for Commanders to review battle reports" Her words were clear, but she fought to keep her tone steady. It only took half a step for Cairn to be a breath from her,
"I outrank you." A smile graced his features, a smugness she could only assume he had been waiting decades to wield, "You command nothing. You are nothing."
She lifted her gaze to meet his own from beneath the shadow of her lashes, voice a low whisper, loud enough for him to hear her unrivaled conviction. "I am more then you will ever be."
Brielle flinches as she caught the movement of his hand swinging up to grab her, she feels the brush of his fingertips, Cairn swore beneath his breath reeling his hand backwards, clasping it as though her touch had burned him.
An expression of horror plagued him, Brielle froze as Isaiah and Connall drew quiet breaths bodies gone deathly still behind them. Cairn glared down at the searing flesh on his palm, nostril flaring. He must of caught the scent of her magic
Brielle fought to keep herself still, "Do not touch me." She allowed that shell of magic to ripple around her, a barrier, Cairn's lip had pulled back over his teeth, eyes darkened when he looked up in her direction.
She hadn't expected the next hit until her head snapped to the other side, Pain launched through her, blooming from where the backside of Cairn's hand collided with her cheek. He stepped closer, dangerously close. Cautious to not touch any other part of her.
His voice was feral with a predatory hiss, "I am the Commander here. I do as I please!"
She spat the blood from her mouth, rising she schooled her features into neutrality.
Cairn had backed up a step, smirking, "Let's go to the cells."
She couldn't bring herself to move, some voice screaming in her head. Brielle knew what awaited her down the stairs. That dark cold room, if only she closed her eyes she could still feel the cool breeze that had graced across her cheek. The scars on her skin began to itch across every mile of her body.
There was a low hiss, Brielle turned to watch Isaiah draw the dagger closer to Connall's throat. She balled a fist at her side, to stop them from shaking. She couldn't lose Connall not when he had become the only thing tethering her sanity to her own mind.
Wordlessly she took a step to follow Cairn. Brielle ignored all sights and sounds as they moved from the sleeping quarters to the steps that led down deep into the earth below the castle.
Cairn led her down that stairwell now, keys jangling when he rounded that last corner. Apprehension could have snapped her bones and when that door opened Brielle almost wept.
Fenrys lifted his head off his paw, He was blinking quickly at Brielle, Her vision was so blurry, she couldn't count or translate what he was trying to tell her in the unspoken form of communication.
As Cairn ventured further in Brielle slowed stopping her stride short in the centre of the room. It was pure darkness surrounding them and it took a second for her heart to stop jack-hammering and calm enough to allow her vision to adjust. The shadows surrounding them watched their every move.
When the door slammed shut behind them, Brielle spun eyes following the shadows, Fenrys was still laid beside the frame of the door, his usually pristine coat turned a dull off white. A layer of dust and grim covering him. It was a blessing Conall and Isaiah hadn't followed them into the room, she couldn't allow them to see the expression on her face splinter at the sight of her mate, eyes near breaking at the sight of her, that closeness and still so much distance lay between them.
There was a breeze coming in from under the door, it blew around her ankles. The cold climbing the very bones inside her. It was a grounding she was grateful for as Cairn stepped away.
Chains rattled from the wall at the far offside of the room, Brielle allowed a sidelong glance at Vera. Her friend's usually healthy curved body had become a shell of its former self, shadows filled the newly formed hollows of her eyes. Cheeks sunken and skin tired.
Despite all she had endured, Cairn had been unable to break that burning look of hope in Vera's eye. It was with sorrow and that same hope that she now looked to her commander, Forever ready to follow. A fatal fault of each member of the Pride.
Brielle slowly breathed around the lump in her chest, She couldn't rip her attention from her spy laying on that cold stone floor, chained alone on that side of the room not a hint of that alive energy that so often thrummed through her like an extra pulse. Cairn grew closer but Brielle locked eyes with her friend one final time, her magic began to swell as her throat tightened clamping around the emotion that caused the tears to prick the edges of her vision.
A sudden otherworldly anger began to bubble, the heat and roar of its presence grew louder the longer she watched Vera. Slowly turning her attention to Cairn,
Having turned around Cairn grew oblivious to the burning rage that now course through her, unable to bear witness to the expression on her face, an expression that had Vera shooting a panicked look to the wolf by the door, the wolf twitched in his place, a low whin building within him, a pleading.
Brielle caught the plead within the sound, a begging for his mate to think rationally.
Every bit of sense in her was fraying. How easy it would be to end Cairn now and free them. It was a temptation that was slowly winning the fight for her resolve and reasoning. Damning all the consequences Brielle tumbled into her power dragging every drop she could to the surface.
She went further
further...
Until..
A sickening feeling dropped in her stomach like rocks. A form of barrier stopped her from reaching any further, the remainder of that power inches from her hand yet dormant to her touch.
Cairn stayed standing with his back to her, "One might have though the Great Lioness might have been able to detect the Iron shavings in her food." He didn't move beyond continuing to inspect the array of tools laid across that velvet piece of cloth.
The realisation crashed into the silence of the cell. By putting doses of iron into her food. He would be limiting the access she had to that power.
As though it had its own sentient mind, she could feel the pressure of that remaining power pushed against the other side of that shield, fighting to meet her at the surface. It didn't break through.
Cairn had continued to smile when Brielle leveled her glare at him. He was beside that stone coffin now, pivoting on one foot to lean a shoulder into it. The breath stuttered from her as he began to unlatched the locks, each one falling away with a clatter.
Even Vera's failing figure shifted from the wall when Cairn dragged the body out from within. The iron gauntlet wrapping Aelin's hands hit the stone first, the sound reverberated across the room and walls around them.
Brielle could hear Aelin's panting breath as it blew through the gaps of the mask. The iron mask which they had clamped across her face. That diminishing pool of power within her bubbled as Aelin finally glanced up.
The Queen of Terrasen. Rowan's mate — her brother's mate. Aelin. Her friend was kneeling at her feet no better then a common dog kicked across the street.
She couldn't.
Cairn stopped behind her now, watching Aelin over Brielle's shoulder with an eery fascination.
"Now, kitty" She resisted the urge to reel her fist back into his face. He moved brushing a finger down the outer side of her arm. Stopping at her wrist to draw her hand up, palm facing Aelin. Who's breathing began to rapidly rise.
A sob broke through from deep in her own chest, she could have startled at the sound, unsure of where it had come from had it not been couples with a whimper from Aelin. Balling her fist she tied to rip her hand free, refusing to yield as Cairn's nail bit into her wrist.
"It's simple." Cairn whispered the words into the shell of her ear. The tears were warm as they slide down her cheeks. Trying to recoil away from his body he held firm. Leaning closer still the more force she put into pulling away.
"You do this or the girl dies" She couldn't focus through the roaring. Her body had begun to shake, Vera was crying from the other side as Cairn's stare settled on her. The spy huddles into herself as his attention racked every inch of her.
Cairn noticed Brielle stare now on her spy, "You don't have enough power to heal her as well, I will kill her" his taunt was clear, full of venom and content to do just what his words promised.
She slide her attention back to Aelin. Cairn jerked her body closer after a second where the world stood still. Aelin had begun crying softly, nodding to the Lioness, understanding the situation to an otherworldly extent.
Out of nothing but sheer respect for the female before her, Brielle would refuse to adorn the mask of the lioness. Condemning her soul to this shredding however much it would rip from her. She was going to endure every second of this suffering with Aelin. She needed to remember every second of this pain. Her decision. A fucking losing battle. A cage of her own making.
"Please forgive me" She whispered the words to herself. To Aelin. To Rowan and to any god who might still be listening.
Letting that little amount of power reign free. Focussing it towards Aelin. It was slow moving and pure pain. Nothing specific, just pain. Muscle contracting, nerve burning pain.
Through the iron mask Aelin screamed, Brielle braced swallowing each of her screams with an agonising amount of guilt. The queen's whole body arched into the scream, her voice already raw.
Brielle winced, each time that head splitting noise cracked through Aelin. There really wasn't a lot of magic in her reserve, she could feel Cairn smirking, relishing in the sight and sound of the queen's pain. A form of torture he himself had never managed to achieve with such ease.
Forgive me
Forgive me
Forgive me
A voice had been repeating the mantra in her head, a broken loop that drilled its very essence into her mind. She must had nicked a particular nerve as Aelin's screaming peaked, her voice giving up and cracking half way through the sound. She would have been better setting her own power against herself as Brielle felt her resolve snap.
Fuck this.
Retracting all the magic at once and rallying it to herself, Brielle ripped her body forward in one movement. Cairn staggered his own balance thrown from its axis at the shift in weight.
Turning with all that wilting power she had left Brielle slammed what remained straight into Cairn.
If there was any gods still listening Brielle prayed they were somewhere, bearing witness as she clawed a scream from the male's throat, The power within reigning free, wild and strong rallying behind her rage, packing its full might into ripping the male in two.