I slow my chewing, her words snagging my curiosity. “Niko wasn’t born here?”
Her eyes are like pools of molten silver when she turns them to me. “Of course not. The Aeternalis stole him away from your world when he was a boy, just as he did so many others.”
I freeze in disbelief, a bite of bread stalled in my hand halfway to my mouth. “Are you saying—Niko used to be aStrayed?”
Adira hums lightly. “Sam and Tiernan as well.”
My eyes widen, the bread now entirely forgotten. “So, heknewthe Aeternalis? He lived under his rule?”
When Niko had told me about the cruelty of the previous king, it had been straightforward and impersonal. But now, realizing the horrors he spoke of wereintimate,the interaction is framed differently. Like maybe, he’d seen my greatest fears come to life and instead of allowing me to drown in them alone, had gifted me with his own worst memories.
I startle, as Adira suddenly begins humming so loudly, the will-o-wisps shoot from her hair, finding solace back in the leaves. She shoots me a conciliatory grin. “The noise helps me mind my own business.”
I laugh softly.
The princess gives a shuddering sigh, like mentioning the Aeternalis has chilled her to the bone. And maybe it’s my overactive imagination, but the airfeelsicier.
“The Aeternalis was a barbaric leader, brutal and selfish. But he was the only authority figure Niko ever knew, and children are so desperate in their need for attention. It’s how Pan garnered so much loyalty, in the beginning. Fear and love are a powerful combination. So yes, Niko not only knew the Aeternalis, but loved him deeply.”
“Is that why you hate Niko so much?”
Adira stares out at her forest-city, though she appears to be someone far from here even as she takes in the lush sprawl of her kingdom. She goes quiet for so long, I’m sure she won’t answer, when she finally says, “No.”
Agony swirls in the depths of her irises, there and just as quickly gone. “I am the Princess of the Wilds. It runs throughmy blood, through my brain. I hold every creature, every bloom, every root in my heart and soul. No matter how small.”
“I don’t understand. What does that have to do with Niko?”
Adira goes silent for another long moment, picking at the skin around her fingernails like she’s weighing her words. “Do you know why the kingdom is called Letum?”
I shake my head. “He told me it used to be called something else.”
“It was Somnya, the land of dreams.” Adira’s eyes darken furiously. “Now, we reside in Letum, land of death.”
“Niko said killing the Aeternalis untethered the island’s magic,” I say slowly, something close to dread unfurling in the pit of my stomach. “But he was horrible and ruining the magic between the worlds long before he was killed. Would keeping him alive really have been better?”
Adira mouth twists in a grimace. “There was another way…a peaceful transfer of power that would have required great sacrifice, but ultimately would have returned Somnya and the mainland to their former glory. But Niko’s heart got too tangled.”
I think I’ve stopped breathing, that my lungs might burst from the pressure of the trepidation winding between my ribs. A familiar anxiety, one I felt before my father had sold me—before my entire world crumbled from my naïvely placed trust.
“Don’t you see, Willa? Niko is the villain in every story you’ve ever heard. He is death, shadows, violence. Niko selfishly saved one person that was important to him, and in turn, damned the entire kingdom.”
Blood rushes loudly in my ears, a harrowing clash of the past and present. Adira’s jaw goes tight, and her small body tenses with the memory. “I feel the pain of his decision every day in the slow death of the wild, in the stasis of the island. It is agony for nature to remain so stagnant, to die a slow death. And thoughNiko has been a good friend to me in many ways, I can never forget what he’s done. Never forgive the pain he’s caused. Not when I feel it so acutely.”
“Are you saying…” I trail off, anger threading through me like blinding flashes of heat. Anger at myself for being stupid enough to believe that one moment of vulnerability meant the King of Carrion, of death itself, was being honest with me. Niko never wanted to empower me—he only wanted to fix his own mistakes.
“Niko is the one who killed the Aeternalis. He is responsible for the plague, for the devastation of so many here and on the mainland.” Adira finishes sadly. “Niko is the one who ruined us all.”
Chapter twenty-five
My death writhes furiously around my wrists, flaying through my skin and to the bone beneath like shards of glass. After all these years, I somehow still expect to glance down and see physical evidence of my pain—for muscle and sinew and blood to spill out from me—but I keep my eyes trained on the door of the Pixie’s Hollow as I enter the small tavern.
Chrys looks up from her place behind the bar, her cotton-candy hair winking in the soft light. “Your Majesty,” she greets with a saucy wink.
I don’t respond, even as she pushes a tumbler of rum toward me. I down the measure in one large gulp, setting it back on the worn wooden counter with a ringingclink.The spirit burns on the way down, but it does nothing to soothe the pain raking through me, or the anxiety prickling at my chest.
“Is Marina here?”
Chrys’ small wings flutter nervously as she watches me slump onto the only empty stool. The two occupants on either side, amale pixie with pale blue hair and a farmer, both leap up, giving my ribbons a wide berth.
