“Careful, Seven.” Kieran touches his thumbs and forefingers to form a triangle in front of his chest and I watch in horror as the dragon of energy beside me is turned inside out and then fizzles like a snuffed candle. Seven slumps in his captors’ grasp.
“What did you do to him?” Arden yells.
Kieran approaches her and pinches her chin. “Don’t they teach your age anymore that the king and queen of the fairies have dominion over all fairy powers? I can give them and I can take them.”
“Leave her alone,” Seven grits out beside me.
I try to reach for him but the black hounds hold me firm.
“Oh, your daddy does love you, little leprechaun hybrid.” He brings his face close to hers, and my heart sprints in fear for her. I don’t like the way he’s touching her. I don’t like the way he’s looking at her.
“I am the king, little Larkspur, and you’ve wandered into my realm.”
“You tricked me into coming here.” She says it to Kieran, but her eyes lock on Edmund, who is pouting like someone stole his puppy.
Kieran laughs. “It doesn’t matter how you got here, little girl, only that you are here. And now you are mine, just like your mommy and daddy.”
I glare at Edmund, wondering how he lured Arden here. The lie he must have told her. Lies. Kieran has been playing us this entire time. I close my eyes and steady my breathing. This is a game, and I’m Sophia Larkspur. I could rail against Kieran touching Arden and threatening her with the dungeon, or I could remember what I do best. I can play the game. What cards am I holding? What’s my position at the table? What’s already been played?
“You’re right, Kieran,” I say, shaking my head as if waking up from a deep sleep. “The wall must come down.” My voice is firm and completely convincing. He turns to look at me, eyes narrowing. “I see it now. What you say is true. It’s a gamble but the only way forward for our species.”
“Sophia, you can’t mean that!” Seven cries, and he’s almost as convincing as I am, although I can always tell when Seven is lying.
“I do, Seven.” I look up at Kieran like he’s a juicy hamburger and I haven’t eaten in four days. I use the slightest bit of luck to make myself more enchanting. “Is it possible to take down the wall? How do you plan to do it?”
I don’t look directly at Arden, but as I stare at Kieran, I casually touch the coin around my neck, the dark charm that Seven gave me as protection. It’s my table talk, my signal to her to remind Arden that she has a wish. I can’t tell her how to use it. I barely understand how to use it myself, and knowing exactly what to wish for in this situation has me perplexed. It occurs to me that this is where the rubber hits the road when it comes to all the things I told Seven about parenting. I raised her to be strong. I raised her to make good decisions. I let her make her own mistakes. Now she’s our only way out of this. I have no way to tell her what to do without calling attention to her charm and possibly blowing our best chance out of this. I have to trust that Arden will find a way to save us.
Kieran studies me for a moment and then blessedly leaves Arden’s side to approach me. “I understand now what you see in her, Seven. She does have an unusual fire.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Seven hang his head as if in defeat, but I feel the slightest spark of his luck beside me. He’s readying himself.
I drop my chin, turning my face slightly toward Seven. “It’s the only way we can truly be a family.”
Kieran grins like a shark in bloody waters. “Listen to reason, Seven. Join us. Take your father’s place in the new order.”
Beside me, Seven goes perfectly still. “What do you need us to do?”
“Thousands of years ago, the wall was erected by the Light Bearers, the predecessors to guardians, using Odin’s magic, the magic of the gods. I’ve spent a century studying that magic, preparing a way to take it apart. The gods are fickle, and this ancient magic has an ancient antidote. All it takes is blood sacrifice, one powerful enough to appease the gods.”
“Dark magic,” Seven murmurs.
“Ancient magic was dark.” Kieran looks out over the mine. “When our kind ruled this world, our luck was stronger and our society traded in bargains and blood. We will unlock those secrets again. And the first step is to kill the guardians.”
“What? All of them?” I ask.
“Edmund and I will do that deed,” Alicia says, although sniveling Edmund seems less than enthused about being chosen for the task.
“Excellent.” Kieran turns back to Seven. “You will open the portal. The sacrifice must be made inside it, where the blood will drip through the stars and into the hereafter.”
“Who exactly is being sacrificed?” Seven asks.
I swallow, a nagging suspicion unsettling me.
Kieran lowers his chin. “I think you know the answer to that.” His eyes dart to Arden. “The rarest fairy blood of all our kind resides in that girl. No god would refuse it.”
“No!” Edmund cries, backing away from his mother. “You promised you wouldn’t hurt her!”
“Quiet, boy!” Kieran snaps his fingers and Edmund’s mouth disappears. He claws at his face as his mother tries to calm him down.
