A Fire Endless (Elements of Cadence, #2)

by Rebecca Ross

When Iagan sang for a piece of her crown, she had no choice but to kneel and give him a portion of it.

tearing away pieces of shell from her skin to lay them down beside Hinder’s wings and Whin’s gorse.

He gave up his scepter, laying it beside the wings, the gorse, and the shells.

Then all the pieces the spirits had surrendered began to rise.

Iagan had never died.

He had become Bane.

😮

If Iagan had turned himself into a king of the spirits through music, then surely music could dethrone him.

Should anyone seek to harm her or them, they will be met with immediate death.”

Her breath turned ragged when Blair’s blood hardened into the telltale blue jewels. So did Keiren’s.

Someone had poisoned Sidra’s cup, as well as Jack’s.

It made sense now that the Breccans had failed to find an antidote to the poison that often plagued them.

What does Innes plan to do?

She is not messing around her husband is dying

“Rab Pierce did.”

“You didn’t say that last night when you were in my bed talking about how much you hate Cora,” the woman replied calmly. “Or when you set the poison in my hands. When you told me all the ways you’d hurt me if I didn’t do as you said and keep my mouth shut about it.”

“Laird! You would take the word of this servant over us?” “I would and I do,” Innes said. “Now kneel.”

“We are dying, stricken by a blight. We are starving, beholden to the wind. The west cannot go on like this. And when I brought one who could help us, you poisoned her cup.” Adaira stared at Rab, who had closed his eyes in relief. “I stand here and ask myself ‘why?’ Why did you want to kill the Tamerlaines, who trusted us after centuries of strife? Why, if not for your own fear and ignorance? You look to the past, where there is nothing but bloodshed. You chart your present by what has been done and what has happened, as if you can never rise and break away from it.”

One of the thanes had surrendered her blade. Then came another, and another, until the remaining twelve thanes and their heirs had disarmed themselves and knelt before her.

Adaira stood with every sword in the Breccans’ hall shining at her feet.

“You want me to be your heiress, and yet you are choosing to overlook the fact that I wasn’t raised as you were. I’m far more Tamerlaine than Breccan in my sensibilities, and for that, I am only destined to disappoint you and this clan.”

“To live your life you have forged yourself to be as strong as possible,” Adaira said. “You have made yourself like a blade that is hammered over fire and quenched in water. Day after day. But there is nothing weak in being soft, in being gentle.”

“I cannot change what I am,” Adaira whispered, “no more than you can, Mother.”

Mother

“And your hand is like ice, Jack.” “Perhaps you can warm it for me.”

“Come with me, Jack.” He could hear her whisper on the water, in the steam. “Come into the darkness, come into the deep with me.”

Ummmmm

“The torch never burns out,”

“Give your fear a name,” Jack said, remembering that Adaira had once said this very thing to Torin. “Once it is named, it is understood, and it loses its power over you.”

He marveled at how his own heart could exist outside his body. “You don’t know what you do to me,” he whispered. “By you alone I could be undone.”

I could live for a cold, dark eternity and never forget this night.

I am hers tonight, and you must burn until then. Burn until dawn when I can sing for you.

“I’ll be there with you, Jack. No matter what comes, I’ll be at your side when you sing.”

If Adaira was with him, he would choose her. His heart belonged to her, and the fire needed his undivided attention.

Yours eternally,

“Drink,” her mother said, putting a cup of wine in her hand.

What?

“The fire went out this morning,”

“In all our hearths, even the crofters’. Most people are sheltering at home, waiting for the worst of the storm to pass. Others are here. We left the gates open in case anyone needed to take refuge in the castle.”

He watched as the light gradually chased away the last of the illness, and when Ian’s blood ran red, cheers resounded in the hall.

his eyes were fixed on her and her alone, as though no one else was in the hall. No one else in the realm apart from her.

“You have been so brave, Sidra. You have been so strong without me, holding the clan and the east together. Let me help you now, love. Let me carry it with you again.”

“Let me heal you, Sid,”

“Do you trust me?” he asked. “Yes,” she said.

“I need to be healed.” Sidra turned to see that David Breccan had stepped forward.

“Tell me what I can do,” Niall gently interrupted. “How can I shield you? What do you need?”

“But I cannot let you go without telling you that I was proud to call you mine then,” Niall whispered, “even if only your mother and the spirits could stand witness. And I am proud to call you mine now.”

“You stole my song,” Bane said. “You stole my song and remade it, and so you have stolen my crown.”

Jack watched as the northern wind died at last.

Frae blinked and stepped back in fear, but then she realized she had seen this man before.

Wait but she’s seen Elspeth before too

“My name is Elspeth,” the woman said. “My house isn’t far from yours.”

Wait… didn’t she meet her already????

“Half of me and half of you,” Sidra insisted. “Until they become their own person.”

“He sang to end the storm,” Adaira explained, “and it required his mortality. The spirits took him.”

“Spirits,” Sidra whispered, suddenly realizing what it was. “The river . . .” “Is gone,”

“This was where Maisie was held, isn’t it?” he said. “And the other lasses, when Moray was stealing them.”

Being held there? But Elspeth was there, so why was Frae acting like she didn’t know her, especially after she said Elspeth loved stories