“What do you remember?” Ember asked. The fae’s body was slim. She carried her shoulders pulled back, and her spine was so straight it made Kara want to stop slouching.
“What do you mean?” Kara asked.
“Before he put on those.” She pointed to the markings encircling Kara’s wrists. “How much do you remember of your life before?”
Kara bit her lip. She focused on what she could recall of her life before she was taken by the Order. She frowned when she realized she couldn’t even remember what she’d been doing when she’d been kidnapped. When she’d seen Nick in her mind, he’d said something about her needing some space from him. Had she gone somewhere?
“You obviously remember some things about the supernatural world,” Ember pointed out. “You didn’t scream. And you know that Ludcarab is the elf king, or at least he was at one time.”
Kara nodded.
“Do you know what you are?”
“A gypsy healer,” she answered.
Ember nodded. “And what about the other gypsy healers? Do you remember them?”
Kara’s mind immediately pictured the faces of the four girls she’d thought of earlier. “Stella, Anna, Heather, and Jewel,” she said. “Yes, I remember them. We went through hell together. We fought a psycho high fae and lived to tell about it.”
“There seems to be a common thread with you fae,” Coya said, “going crazy and attempting to take over the world.”
Ember shrugged. “Why do you think I live in the human world, away from the supernaturals? People in power, no matter how pure their intentions might start out, always grow to want more power. It is the nature of any race.”
“The prince of our race has been on the throne for a very long time, and he has not become a tyrant,” Dyna said.
Ember shrugged. “Maybe he will be the exception to the rule.” Then she looked back at Kara. “Those markings on your wrists.” She motioned to Kara’s lap where her hands rested. “Alston put them there using a pair of bracelets?”
“Yes,” Kara answered, lifting one hand to rub the other wrist. She glanced at the three female elves. “They have them as well.”
“Ours are different,” Dyna said.
“They haven’t caused us to forget,” Coya added.
“Their purpose is so wedon’tforget,” Reena said, seeming to finish the thought of her two comrades.
“Alston, as you have figured out, is very powerful. He uses dark magic and blood magic. No doubt, he has figured out that using the blood of an ancient power such as Ludcarab could create things like those bracelets.” Ember looked up and around the room, as if seeing something the rest of them couldn’t. “If this was Alston’s castle, I wouldn’t have been able to ward this room. And if Ludcarab returns while it is warded, he will sense the magic. So we need to get on with this.”
She reached down, slipped her hand into her knee-high boot, and pulled out a dagger. The blade gleamed and then glowed a soft blue light as Ember spoke again in a language that Kara had heard before. It was the language of the fae, she presumed, considering Ember was fae. Why was it familiar?Peri, she thought, as the name she’d spoken earlier floated through her mind. Kara felt in her gut that this is where she’d heard the fae language spoken before, even though she still couldn’t place the woman thanks to her altered memories.
As Kara watched the blade’s light grow, she saw engravings begin to etch themselves into the blade, as if an invisible pen were writing on it. When Ember finished speaking, the light faded, but the etchings remained.
“This is a fae blade,” Ember began.
Kara raised a brow. “Not to point out the obvious, but you’re a fae and you just pulled it from your boot.”
Ember’s lips raised slightly. “So he hasn’t broken you.”
Kara frowned. “Sometimes I feel he has. And then I remember only I can give him the power to break me. My emotions are my own, and no one else controls them except me.”
“Good.” Ember gave her a sharp nod. “You’re going to need that control if you are to succeed.”
“Succeed at what?” Kara asked, her heart rate picking up a beat as the four women stared intensely at her.
“At killing Ludcarab,” Dyna answered.
Kara wouldn’t deny for a second that every part of her being practically screamed a resounding “Hell yes” at the elf’s words. Did that make her evil? That she was so willing to take a person’s life and actually look forward to seeing the light fade from his malevolent eyes? She inwardly shrugged. Kara couldn’t bring herself to care at the moment. What she cared about was knowing exactly what she needed to do in order to remove Ludcarab from the land of the living. “When?” Evensheheard the eagerness in her voice. She wiped her mouth, wondering if the women could see her practically salivating for the opportunity.
“Tomorrow night, when he calls for you once again.” Dyna’s eyes softened as she met Kara’s. Kara saw apprehension in the she-elf’s face.
