Free Darach by RJ Scott Page A

begin to formulate an answer. Nothing inside him told him to go to the prison. It was only luck that allowed him to evade Guardian's watch. And the all-seeing, all-knowing Council? They could have seen him at any time, stopped him at any time, yet nothing had stopped him. He had even considered the fact that deep at the root of it he had some kind of death wish. He'd just been so alone since Kian had gone, and the nightmares he had been having of Kian in an alleyway, blood all around him, his green Fire dying… "I just want to bring Kian home."
    "Bring him home? Or just be with him?"
    W hat was Ceithin implying? He wanted to bond with Kian physically, sexually? Is that what he thought? " Not be with him . H e is my blood brother , and I miss him so much. "
    "So much you chanced so many different deaths?" Ceithin moved his fingers, tracing unknown patterns on the palm of Darach's hand, and Darach shivered.
    "I didn't even consider being caught." Ceithin realized he was telling the truth, and it startled him. "I just knew I had to follow what Kian wrote in his journal. Besides, death isn't something I am scared of." Darach tried to sound brave and confident, but his Fire told otherwise as it receded back into him.
    "What you heard tonight, between myself and my father… I chanced death to find my brother. In my heart, I thought maybe the Council would find me and want my Fire. Still, I know the Council had something to do with my brother, Trystyn, disappearing."
    "Do you have proof it was them?"
    " No, not tangible evidence, " he hastened to add , " I just know . Trystyn had the same amber as Father, stronger than Father , though. He was impossibly strong . T here was no way he was going to avoid the Council ' s considering gaze. "
    "The members of the Council say the Cariad are impure. Why would they go against their own rules and come anywhere near you?"
    "Amber is so rare; it's the strongest of the Fires and gives longer life, plus a connection to all the elements. It is power, and it isn't always passed from parent to child. There may be one or two in an entire generation, and often they appear to die in the Fire when it is born. It is too much for their physical form."
    "Like Eoin."
    "Like your Eoin…"
    At least Ceithin acknowledged the loss with compassion, and Darach half closed his eyes as images of the burning bit him hard.
    "Are you okay?"
    "Fine—go on." Darach pushed the memories back where they belonged.
    " It ' s dying , you know . I sensed it when I was there. The Fire in the Council members, Sulien, the others, their amber is dying . It ' s little more than ashes of brown and mud. If they are going to live any longer , they need new Fire. They tried to take mine . I t ' s not as strong as amber , but it is healing Fire, and it has the Ancient s ' power twisted into it. It could have maintained them for a while. "
    "If Eoin had lived… do you think they would they have taken him for his Fire?" Realization coursed through Darach as he spoke. Somewhere between wanting to use Cariad Fire for his own purposes, hating the Cariad as leeches on normal society, meeting Ceithin, and the last few minutes, something fundamental had changed inside him.
    Unspoken was the fact he had accepted as truth the Council had taken Trystyn, stolen the brother and son for their own use. It unnerved him to think his formerly unshakeable faith in the Council was being rocked by the things he was learning from Ceithin. H e had spent so many years fearing the Cariad, hating them, thinking they were aberrations and here he was, forgetting it all. What about this man shook his faith so cleanly?
    Ceithin had taken a moment to consider Darach's question, and Darach held his breath. Temper began to climb inside him, temper and not a small amount of thinking the Council he trusted had betrayed him.
    "Maybe. I don't know. Council members need amber Fire."
    "And you have never found Trystyn?"
    "No. I had no sense of him in the City when I was