“Come now, just another lovely whimper. I relish your pain so.” He placed his other hand on her belly, pressing the small lump. “Oh, I see you’re with child. Now that’s an interesting development.”
“Get away from me!” Clíodhna shoved her body against him, but he held her fast, almost embracing her with one arm behind her. His breath, hot against her cheek, smelled of woodsmoke and the sickly sweet of rotting fruit. He placed his mouth on hers, though she drew back to avoid it. She hit her head on the stone behind her, unable to pull back further.
His kiss made her body thrum with desire, despite her revulsion of him. Her flesh desired his with every fiber, pushing up against his body. Her nether region tingled with need, urging her to open her legs and welcome him.
Bodach’s free hand roamed over her belly and around her hip. Then he stroked her buttocks, pressing her hips against his. She squirmed with both horror and pleasure.
“Ah, yes, exactly like that.”
Aileran grabbed Bodach’s lip and pulled hard.
“Tominn! Take the brat. It’s time to complete this one’s initiation.”
“No!” The sensual compulsion fled as Clíodhna clutched her baby tight, resisting the attempts of Bodach’s guard to extract him. Tominn grunted as she resisted his tugs at the child.
“Fool! I’ll do it.” Bodach released her arm and reached for the child. She swung her arm around and, with all the panic and fright of the day, punched him in the eye.
He jumped back with a yell. “Daughter of a pig! For that, your spawn will pay!”
Clíodhna sprinted from the circle, past the startled guard, Tominn, past the guardian stones, and down the sparkling path. She didn’t look back despite the hoofbeats gaining on her.
She couldn’t concentrate enough while running to call on her full air power or to aim, but she threw a few lightning bolts behind her, felling trees to impede their progress. As a result, she made it all the way to her roundhouse before her pursuers arrived.
Nothing lay in the clearing before the house, not even the smoking corpse of her husband.
Confused, she scanned the clearing, looking for some trace of Oisinne, but nothing remained. Had she imagined the attack?
Clíodhna couldn’t bother with it now. She must escape Bodach. Adhna, where are you?
Wishing she had the time to stop for provisions, she kept running down the path to the village. While it never seemed a sanctuary in the past, with a host of Fae warriors running her down, it seemed her only option. They wouldn’t dare ride into a village full of mortals, would they? Abbot Pátraic would sooner banish her than hide her. Perhaps she ran straight toward her own doom.
The river. She should get to the river. Running water might stop the Faeries. But the river wended far away from her spot on the path, and would involve tramping through the forest, which would slow her down.
A voice hissed from the trees on her right. “Clíodhna! This way!”
Relief washed over her. “Adhna? Is that you?”
“Of course it is. You called, didn’t you? Come, quickly now!”
Adhna led her through a rhododendron bramble, the thorns scratching both her and Aileran. When the latter cried out, she tried to shush him. In desperation, she stuck a breast in his mouth. He whimpered, but much more quietly.
Frowning at the baby, Adhna turned while still walking. “We may have to leave him here, Clíodhna.”
She halted, aghast. “What? What do you mean, leave him? He’s my son! I can’t abandon him!”
“Not so loud! Bodach and his lackeys are still searching for you. I left a false trail, but that won’t fool him long. And I don’t mean abandon him. You have a friend, Ita, right? We might have to leave him to her care.”
“I can’t leave my son, Adhna.”
He tugged on her arm, urging her forward. “The passage to Faerie is dangerous for a mortal child. He’d be safer there, and we will escape more easily.”
Clíodhna hugged Aileran to her chest as he dribbled milk. She mopped it up awkwardly as she resumed walking behind Adhna.
He led her through the bracken and down a deer trail toward the village, in a roundabout way. When they emerged from the woods, Ita’s farm lay on the next hill. Clíodhna panicked and backed up, clutching her baby tight and shaking her head. “No, no, I won’t leave my last child!”
Adhna placed a gentle hand on her belly. “You have another coming. Our child. He will be much better suited for life in Faerie, being of the blood himself.”
“I thought you said I had Fae blood already? That means Aileran has some.”
“Not enough, love. Not enough to shield him from the temptations and dangers of the land itself.”
Clíodhna had no tears left, not after the trials of the day. With numb acceptance, she followed Adhna as he pulled her toward Ita’s house.
Chapter Eight
Adhna’s cottage, on the edge of the Faerie marshlands
Clíodhna had to admit, Adhna hadn’t lied about the peace of his home. She sat next to the pond, watching insects which looked almost like butterflies dance on the surface, wheeling and diving in all the colors of the rainbow. The cozy cottage they lived in remained in excellent repair and sported a delightfully carved wooden lintel. Images of wolfhounds entwined with hares along the edge and over the door.
Bees buzzed around them, but Adhna admitted he couldn’t cultivate them here in Faerie like he did in the mortal world. This
