“Everly,” my mother’s hands were on my shoulders, but Batty hissed at her.
I shook off her grip, panic paralyzing my lungs. The ring was pulsating with solid, unrelenting ice.
Draven!I reached for him, finding him after several stilted heartbeats.
They have a shards-damned barrier up, but I will break through it. Stay in our rooms.
I wanted to ask him about Wynnie, to tell him about my mother, but he couldn’t afford a distraction if they had him trapped. Over and over, I saw the memory of the arrow sailing into his skin.
Wynnie had the soldiers to protect her, but how many had gone? Had they reached the village?
Or had they run into the Unseelie, wherever in the shards-blasted-hells they had come from.
I swallowed my panic and sent Draven back an affirmation, focusing my entire furious gaze on my mother.
“What has Vaerin done to Draven?” I hissed.
A shadow passed over my mother’s features, digging like an icicle into my chest.
“They were waiting for him to leave the palace. That was their signal to come here.”
Somewhere beneath the frost that settled over my insides was an even deeper sense of unease. It didn’t make sense thatthey would find a way to trap Draven, then take the palace they couldn’t possibly want.
There was a reason that most fae kept to their borders, where their mana was strongest. Taking the palace after they slayed the king would gain them nothing.
There was something she wasn’t saying.
“Why would they bother to come here if they already have him trapped somewhere else?” I demanded, even as the fear curdling my insides formed a hazy answer.
She squeezed her eyes shut. “For the Heartstone.”
My stomach dropped so violently it felt like the world tilted beneath me. Shadows rippled under my skin, answering the fear before my mind could catch up.
Batty trilled in my ear, and Lumen leaned against my leg, but for once, they did nothing at all to comfort me.
If the Heartstone was destroyed… A choked sound escaped me, my mind refusing to finish the thought.
“Then take me to him. You can… overpower them, and then Draven can protect the palace.” It was a flimsy hope. I knew that even before she shook her head, but desperation made me ask anyway.
“Even I could not take on entire armies alone,” she said with all the calm I didn’t feel. “You cannot save him now, but I can still save you. I’ve seen enough to know that’s what he would want.”
Fury blossomed from somewhere deep in my soul, spreading like cracks in the ice of all the understanding I had tried to hold on to.
“No,” I spat. “You wouldn’t have had to take on entire armies if you hadn’t been so busy trying to play both sides. We might have had a real chance to prevent this war instead of just running from the destruction of it.”
I read the truth on her face before she could say it, the answer to all the questions I had asked myself. “But you didn’t care about that.”
“They are our enemy,” she said simply.
A huff of air escaped me. That was what it always came down to.They. Enemy.
“Iamthem!” I gestured to my navy locks and my pale blue eyes.
“No,” she shook her head for emphasis, panic widening her gaze. “You’re a Skaldwing, whether you try to hide from that or not.”
Skaldwing enough to live after the Heartstone died, she meant.
“And why did I have to hide, Mother?” I demanded. “For the sake of the Thane you still playstellarito, even after everything he’s done.”
