“Wait—”
But Arden is gone, leaving me inside the hollowed-out tree. When I reach out, my fingers finally hit the trunk. I turn, and the opening to the hollow is a foot away. I step back into the daylight, feeling even more confused than I did before.
My friends surround me with expectant eyes.
“I just saw Queen Arden.”
40
SERENA
“You just saw the dead witch queen inside that tree?” Kai sputters. “Are you sure you didn’t hit your head, precious?”
I smack his arm.
“What did she say?” Mar asks, ignoring Mr. Wise Guy over here.
“Did she tell you how to close the portal?” Eaton presses.
“No. Nothing she said made any sense. She told me Vod is not our enemy, that Kylian will be High King, and I’ll?—”
“What?”
Be his queen.
The words lodge in my throat. My eyes link with Zadyn’s.
Tell me,he entreats.
Unable to voice it, I let him peer into the memory of my conversation with Arden and hear her message firsthand. He gives me a long look, his brows threading together.
“What?” Mar repeats.
I shake my head, at a loss. “I don’t know. I’m just as confused as you are.”
Kai’s face hardens, his posture going rigid. “We can’t let that happen. Kylian cannot be High King.”
As the words leave his mouth, I feel a twinge of panic latch onto my chest. “She said that if we fight against him, all of us will die.”
A tense silence falls.
“I think we can all agree that letting Kylian conquer the world would be a fate worse than death,” Dover says, his voice subdued.
“Which is why we are not going to let that happen.” Zadyn glances around at each of us, saving me for last. “Any of it.”
I know he’s talking about the part in the story where I marry our enemy.A shudder ripples through me as I force Arden’s warning from my mind.
She’s wrong. She just has to be.
“Come on. Let’s walk and talk. We need to find somewhere to camp before the sun sets. I don’t like being out in the open like this,” Zadyn says, scanning the expansive flat land.
“It’s all desert for miles,” Kai protests.
“I sent Furi off. She needed a break. We’ve been pushing her hard these last few days, and this place was making her edgy.”
“Let’s head north,” Eaton says. “There’s a small river there. We can make camp and start back in the morning.”
The walk is going smoothly until I hear Mar scream.
