Everspell: The Kindred by Donna Grant

Author:Donna Grant [Grant, Donna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

19

Runa didn’t get far before Gira surrounded her. She stared at the nymphs, daring them to attack her. But they didn’t. They just stood there, watching her.

“What do you want?” she demanded.

As one, the Gira went down on their knees in the thick snow and bowed their heads. “Our queen,” they said in unison.

Runa shook her head. She hadn’t wanted to believe Asrail’s words because they had seemed too preposterous. Now, she realized she should’ve heeded her grandmother. “I’m not your queen.”

Five of the Gira got to their feet and came to stand before her. The number of nymphs around her was staggering, but she had a feeling this was only a fraction of them. She steeled herself as the five blinked back at her. Four of them were women. There were very few male Gira. She didn’t want to think about the reasons for that at the moment. Not when there was so much more to fill her head.

“We’ve been waiting for you,” the male said.

Runa lifted her chin. “The Gira murdered my parents and tried to kill me and my sister. You’ve not been waiting for me to claim a throne. You’ve been lying in wait to finally take the life you sought to end so many years ago.”

“Maybe,” one of the four females said. “It would’ve been our mistake.”

Runa didn’t believe that at all. “You killed my parents,” she stated again.

The female on the end shrugged. “It isn’t allowed.”

“What? A human and a Gira?” Runa asked.

The male nodded. “That’s right.”

“But I’m a product of that. How does that make me your queen?”

“You were chosen,” another female said.

Runa wanted to laugh at the irony. “If you had succeeded in killing me, you would find another queen.”

“Synne,” the entire Gira crowd said in unison.

Runa’s blood went cold. “Neither of us will be your queen.”

The female on the end smiled. “One of you will. You were chosen.”

“Why?” Runa demanded. “Tell me.”

“Do you really need to ask?”

Runa’s hands itched to hold her swords. “I’ve killed your kind.”

“Which makes you perfect,” another female said. “You are feared for your skills at tracking nymphs down.”

“I’ve killed you because of what you did to my parents.”

The male smiled. “You’ve shown every Gira your courage and triumph and power. We were beginning to think we’d never have another queen until the bones of the First Witch were found. It was her magic that allowed us to find you.”

Unease rippled through Runa. “Any of you could’ve come to me at any time. I just recently accepted a mission to hunt one of you down. Why wait?”

“We were waiting on something,” a female said with a smirk.

The more Runa spoke to them, the more uncomfortable and nervous she became. Something was going on. Asrail had warned her to get away, and now, it was too late.

“Get your hands off me!” a woman shouted.

Runa peered into the darkness through the trees to try and see who it was. The Gira parted as a group of nymphs held a woman by her arms and legs as they carried her.

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