Selina nodded. “There are extra steps now, different… threads that might be torn, snipped, or woven into your future. But that thread was as unbreakable as the strongest rope.”
Kyla leveled me with a hard stare. “So Danica blaming herself is a waste of time and energy?”
Selina grinned. “Exactly. If not that bargain, something else would have happened to ensure you learned of the importance of stealing the sword. Leave the rest of the dishes and go give the sword to the seelie king,” she said. “I need to get ready for a date.”
I opened my mouth, warring with the urge to interrogate Selina all about this date. But I snapped my mouth shut at the thought of how much time we’d spent here. It hadn’t been wasted, but I needed to get the sword to the king and get the counter spell before it was too late.
20
DANICA
“He’s not here,” one of the guards told us when we arrived at Taraghlan’s castle.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“He will be returning soon. But for now, you’ll need to wait.”
Son of a bitch. I didn’t havetimeto wait.
“This is a power play,” I muttered as the guard showed us where to wait—a padded bench outside of the throne room. “I bet heishere, and he’s just proving a point.”
Kyla growled. The guards standing by the throne room door both stiffened, watching her with narrowed, assessing eyes.
We waited for hours. I paced back and forth, slowly growing more and more incensed. Next to me, Kyla’s eyes were all wolf. The guards were as tense as we were, and two more had joined their ranks while we’d been waiting.
Finally, a look of concentration came across one of their faces, and he nodded at us, clearly listening to his king. “You may wait in the throne room.”
The guards opened the door to the throne room—empty except for two more guards positioned on either side of the throne.
I ignored them and paced some more.
Finally, the scent of ozone drifted through the air. We both froze. The hair on my arms stood at attention, and aCRACKsounded.
My hand tightened around the golden sword.
The seelie king had appeared. Cellen stood beside him, panting.
“Now that’s a dramatic entrance,” I said. “Should I clap?”
Cellen narrowed his eyes at me. Meanwhile, the seelie king’s gaze was glued to the sword in my hand.
To say that I’d shocked him was an understatement.
“You did it,” he breathed. Next to him, Cellen’s mouth dropped open as he realized what I held. I was pretty sure the smile I shot him was dripping with smug satisfaction.
The king turned and strode to his throne. Cellen took up his place next to him, and one of the guards stepped forward, his hands outstretched for the sword. Kyla stepped in front of me and bared her teeth at him.
“The counter spell,” I said. Cellen leaned over and whispered something in the seelie king’s ear, and I had a pretty good feeling he was encouraging him to have his guards take the sword from me.
I smiled at both men.
“The merfolk told me something interesting about this sword,” I murmured, my voice light. The seelie king narrowed his eyes at my tone and I continued. “It turns out, the whole blade-melting thing was built into the spell that created the sword. It wasn’t the blood of Grendel’s mother that made it melt. In fact, it can be melted with nothing more than the will of the sword’s current owner. Honestly, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I was impressed with that level of pettiness.”
My smile widened as the king leaned forward on his throne. “You wouldn’t.”
“Try me,” I invited. “Or go ahead and watch me destroy this sword. Oh, don’t worry, the blade will grow back in a few hundred years. But I’m not so sure you’ve got that amount of time to waste.”
Kyla nodded. “Turns out, the unseelie king hates you. It was practically dripping from him. And while Finvarra may be a bastard, I know who I’d put my money on if it came down to it.”
