Shadows and Light

you.”
    “Not just for me,” Lyrra protested.
    “So I’m not doing anything ... special... to show my appreciation for Dianna’s sacrifice. And she resents that the other Fae in the Clan ask me what Ari was like. They want to know anything I can remember about her and about the night we were at the cottage to celebrate the Summer Solstice. I’m not a bard,”
    he added quickly, “and I’m not trying to tell a tale. Truly I’m not. But...”
    “But everyone is so unhappy because Dianna is acting like a selfish fool that they’ve begun to wonder about the witches, about Ari, about how things might have been if they’d tried to know her before it was too late,” Lyrra finished for him. And that’s exactly the kind of wondering that could change the Fae
    ’s attitude about truly helping the witches. If Lucian and Dianna are determined to have the rest of the Fae continue to believe that the witches are supposed to be some kind of servants to us, they’d be especially displeased about a shift in attitude in their home Clan.
    Falco nodded. “And Lucian is furious because Dianna gave him a cold welcome when he came back to Brightwood to see her. He can go anywhere he pleases. He isn’t chained to the human world. So Dianna resents her twin for all the things he can still do, and Lucian is bitter about her reaction to him as well as losing Ari.”
    A twinge of guilt pushed at Lyrra. She couldn’t give Lucian any hint that she knew what really happened to Ari. She couldn‘t. But if his heart ached for the loss of someone dear to him... “Did he truly care so much for Ari?”
    “Don’t waste your sympathy on Lucian,” Falco said harshly. “I’ve heard the Lightbringer rarely sleeps alone, and rarely spends more than two nights in the same bed. The only reason he still thinks about Ari at all is because he didn’t have her until he was ready to walk away—and because she’d chosen to wed a human instead of being his mistress until he tired of her. Well, she would have wed the man if the Inquisitors hadn’t gotten to her first,” he added in a sad voice.
    Lyrra sighed. An hour spent talking to her own kind made her feel as weary as spending a day traveling over a hard road in the human world.
    “They both resent you and Aiden,” Falco said. “You know that, don’t you?”
    “Because I chose to go with Aiden instead of remaining at the Old Place so that Dianna wouldn’t be inconvenienced. Yes, I know.”
    “Because of that, yes. But more because you supported Morag when she refused to bring Ari back from the Summerland instead of siding with them. That’s really why both of them will deny anything you say about the witches.”
    “Morag is the Gatherer,” Lyrra said angrily. “She did what she had to do.”
    “I know. But they exiled her because of it, Lyrra, and if you’re not careful, they’ll do the same to Aiden and you.”
    Would it make any difference? Lyrra wondered. We’re hardly welcome as it is.
    “What can I do?” Falco asked.
    Lyrra shook her head. “You’ve done all that you could, Falco.”
    Now he shook his head. “I believe you and Aiden. I believe the witches deserve whatever help the Fae can give them. What can I do?”
    “The Fae are already keeping watch over the Old Place this Clan’s territory is anchored to,” Lyrra said carefully.
    Falco snorted. “They go down the shining road, find one of the Small Folk, and demand to know what the witches are doing. That’s hardly keeping watch. They never actually go close enough to see anything.
    ”
    Something in his voice. Something beneath the annoyance. Wistfulness?
    Suddenly, Lyrra understood exactly what Falco was asking—and why. He wanted a way to justify getting close enough to become acquainted with the witches who lived at Willowsbrook.
    “Well,” she said cautiously, “the witches who live at that Old Place aren’t very pleased with the Fae upsetting the Small Folk.” And Breanna threatened to shoot any Fae she found trespassing on her family’s land. Having met Breanna, she didn’t think it was so idle a threat as it might have been coming from someone else.
    “You’ve met them?” Falco asked eagerly.
    Lyrra winced. Mother’s tits. Today she was as bad as Falco usually was about speaking without thinking. But she had to say something now, and she simply couldn’t he to him. “Yes, they gave us shelter last night.”
    “You stayed with them? What was it like? Did you tell them you were