Kaye looked up as the tent opened, ready to bite and kick her way out if need be, but it was only Pike. Despite her loathing she would much prefer little Jor Bayn to any of the Obsidians.

"My sister hasn't killed you yet?"

Pike smirked, but his gaze left her face for a moment. “What makes you think your sister is still alive?”

“Eoin would never let you kill a warrior of his line. He’s proved that before.”

The back of his hand bit across her mouth, splitting Kaye’s lip. “Your sister is dead.”

“I’d know if that was true.” She glared at him.

"And so is everyone of power in Fie Eoin." Pike yanked her closer to face him, their eyes of equal height. "If you want to save what is left of your precious tribe you will do as I say."

"Fie Eoin isn't my home anymore." She glared into his eyes in an attempt to make him back down. Where was the strength of Eoin now, when she needed Him most? Where was the power of Aleda to protect Her daughter?

Pike sneered. "Then you won't mind leaving it behind."

"You…you want me to leave?" Kaye was surprised. She didn't think it would be that easy. "You'll spare Fie Eoin if I go?"

He pulled her closer and she could smell wine on his breath. "I want you to leave with me."

She recoiled. "No."

He grabbed her chin so she couldn't turn away from the stink of his breath and the look in his eyes. "You come with me, willingly, and I will leave Fie Eoin for good. No one else has to die."

Kaye wanted to scream no again. Wanted to kick him until he released her, and she could run to the safety of the mountains and the Faye.

"Otherwise," he whispered and gripped her chin tighter, "The rest of the deaths are on your head. And I'll let you go back to your man on the coast to live the rest of your life with that knowledge."

Pike smiled and relaxed his grip. "I only ask for you in exchange for all of them. The priestess sacrifice. You were willing to make it before."

The priestess sacrifice. If Kaye didn't know better, she would think Celeste set this up. But no, Aleda sent Pike, just as she had after the avalanche. "I was a priestess then," she whispered, in answer to Pike or the Mother she did not know.

"I'll let you think it over," Pike said and released her. "I want an answer by sundown." He walked to the door and snapped his fingers, and a woman was thrown into the tent. "You can discuss it together."

Kaye crouched although her arms were tied behind her. Despite everything, there was still an aura of power about the woman that Kaye recognized as soon as she got close. "Priestess?"

When the woman looked up, her normal calm had been shattered. Her eyes were rimmed with tears, her face puffy and blotched. "I knew they would kill him, but not like that." She looked at the door and Kaye wondered who they already killed.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Priestess?"

She faced Kaye. "You must take his offer."

Kaye took a step back and shook her head. "I can't. I'm not a priestess any longer. I'm Faye now, and you cannot command me." Her fingers found the bracelet around her wrist, but tracing the symbols brought no relief. They all spoke of her inheritance—the circlet now sitting in disarray around the other woman's temple.

"It’s not a command," the High Priestess said. "It’s a plea. A plea for their lives. Half of the warriors are dead, your sister missing. Pike killed…” She stopped and closed her eyes. "Oak is dead, and Petoskey. Monkey will be next, then the Wains, the Ronnans..." She opened her eyes, and they were clearer, no longer clouded by emotion but taking on the mantle of her station again. "Pike will continue until everyone of power is dead and only the weak remain to be taken over by the Obsidians. You remember the Starving Winter? This will be worse. If you refuse Pike, the Seven Tribes will be no more."

It would be on Kaye's head. She already had enough deaths on her conscience—could she take that many more? And where was Kindra? If Kaye knew her sister at all, Kindra would not take to being beaten, especially by Pike. She would return and kill him with her bare hands if she had to. Unless she really had died, and their bond was stretched so thin Kaye couldn't even feel it.

She licked her bloodied lips and finally looked at the High Priestess. "What of Gar?"

"He is alive, but not for long. If he survives, he will not fight again." It was the same thing the High Priestess told Loria once—if Fennec lived, which was unlikely, he would not fight again. It was probably what made him give up.

Kaye wanted to scream. She wasn't a priestess—she shouldn't have to make this choice. Celeste was wrong.

"You must decide soon." The High Priestess looked to the door where the light was fading. It would last for some time still, but evenings snuck up quick in the mountains.

Kaye looked from the tent door to the disheveled priestess, and all of the woman's secrets and betrayals hung heavy between them. "Before—it was a test, right?"

The priestess nodded. "As real as this, but a test."

"And you took a similar test? You found the Faye?"

"I did."

Kaye was silent for a long moment, thinking of Bryant's pained eyes whenever he thought she wasn't looking. The look on his face when he asked who her mother was. She licked her lips again. "Why did you leave your son? What could possibly make you return to Fie Eoin?"

The High Priestess' features were hard to discern, and when she spoke it was with a weak voice, not the strong, emotionless tone Kaye was used to.

"I returned because I was in love with your father. I could not make myself leave him, even for a son, and although I could never have Fennec, I could choose his daughter as my heir and raise her as my own."

Kaye reeled and sat heavily on the cot. She wasn't chosen for her wings or her abilities. She was chosen for her lineage. "My father? But...what about Gabe?"

The priestess looked towards the baskets of herbs and jugs of wine, arranged carefully along the wall of the tent, and shook her head. "I was never in love with Gabe. I gave him a son because his wife could not. I wasn't even allowed to hold Bryant when he was born. Thank you for bringing him to me."

Part of Kaye wanted to scream at this woman who so effortlessly gave away her son in exchange for a daughter that was not her own. She wanted to break down and cry for Bryant, who had lost his parents and would now lose Kaye, no matter what she decided. Celeste really was the only one who had always, and would always, stay with him.

Finally, Kaye spoke through the threatening tears. "How did you know Fennec would have a girl?"

At that the High Priestess smiled, although it was full of regret. "That was my test. I was sent a vision, and I had to choose between a son of my own or a Daughter of Aleda."

"And what if you chose wrong?"

"I did not. My vision was of an eagle and a horse. They fell into the ocean, fighting, and came out as one—a horse with wings."

Kaye's fingers found the winged horse on the bracelet. "Am I the winged horse?"

Kaye Conal's sad smile grew. "You are the wings, your sister the horse. She will not be missing long. Trust in Aleda, Kaye, and the choice becomes Her's alone. You only speak Her words so others can hear."

Aleda would demand the priestess sacrifice—her life for the tribe. Still, Kaye wasn't sure she could speak those words to Pike.