She’d gone to the succubus realm.
She’d been there once before, when she fell through the realms after our Joining. Then, we had not known what it was.But now, I could fully envision the cold, dank dark of that place. The vile smell and clawing to get inside, to reach her soul and claim it. To kill her.
And she had gone there—willingly, purposefully, taking the succubus with her. Her power had grown. She’d claimed it, just as I’d always known she could.
Pride burned hot in my chest, along with worry and a dozen other terrible, debilitating feelings—all cut off as a scream rent the air. A scream I knew. That had haunted my dreams for three hundred years.
Mother.
I was fast, but Veyka was faster. She had the void.
But I was not thinking of that as I shoved other terrestrials out of the way, clawing my way toward the sound of her shrieks. My mother would not—could not pick up a weapon. Even to defend herself. She would not be able to deflect the succubus, even for a second.
I burst through the panicked throng. My father was on the ground, not moving. My mother shrank down, away, covering her face. I threw my dagger—
Veyka caught it.
Tossed it back in my direction, grabbed the succubus, and disappeared again.
101
CYARA
“The elemental and terrestrial kingdoms were at war, just as we were taught. Accolon and Nimue were Joined, just as we were taught. That ended the conflict between the two kingdoms and created Annwyn. But all of that was before the succubus appeared,” Lyrena summarized.
She was just repeated Cyara’s words from a few moments before, but Cyara was not annoyed. She understood the need to speak, to process this monumental shift in reality.
Because it was monumental. It confirmed everything they had learned so far about the truth of the Great War, and more.
“These whorls,” Diana said, voice still soft. She had not spoken above a whisper since they had entered the clearing. “These whorls seem to be coming from Nimue herself.”
Percival peered over her shoulder. “Then they coalesce—into the misshapen things. You have seen these before?” he asked.
“Yes. Both in Baylaur and on the monolith about the faerie caves. Those must be the succubus,” Cyara confirmed.
Lyrena’s feet crunched it the dirt behind them. “These all show battles between the succubus and the fae,” she said, pointing to three of the stones as she passed them by. “But thisone… I don’t know what in the Ancestors’ names is going on here.”
Cyara moved to look closer. Percival did as well, only pausing when he realized that Diana had not moved. She was tracing the whorls again and again with her finger. Cyara’s heart hurt for him—for the sister he cared so deeply to protect. She could understand it. But she could not offer Diana comfort now.
Lyrena stood before the monolith with her hands on each hip. “There is a sun, and what look like rays of light shining down, but then it is blocked by a cloud. And there is the moon, but actually its two moons with a star in between them.” She shook her head. “It looks like a child’s drawing.”
Understanding clicked into place in Cyara’s mind. It was like a child’s drawing—symbolic. Simplified. But like a child’s drawing, there was more behind it than the carver could convey.
“It is the prophecy,” Cyara breathed.
She lifted her fingers and traced over each symbol as she spoke. “Then comes a queen in the age of uncertainty, when shadows cast doubt upon the realm. Born under a double moon and marked by a radiant star, a faerie queen shall rise to command the depths of the voids of darkness.”
Lyrena’s eyes went wide. She was already moving closer to see the next set of carvings that began at waist-height. “This looks like Annwyn.”
Cyara leaned down. Indeed—there were the outlines of the continent, stretched across from one side of the standing stone to the other. The land was marked with mountains, the bodies of water—the Northern Way, the Southern Way, and the Split Sea—with waves.
“The next part of the prophecy says,Twice blessed, the realm of shift and mist, when comes the awaited queen who shall possess ethereal might. With a touch, she will feel the heartbeatof her subjects and she will unlock the secrets they guard within,”Cyara recited.
“So this second queen will come from somewhere in Annwyn? How is that possible?”
Cyara shook her head. “I do not know. Maybe it is not Annwyn at all. Maybe it is another realm entirely, and that is where she will hail from.”
She knelt down, scraping her thumbnail across the stone. There—a bit of moss gave way. Those whorls again, just like the ones Diana was tracing. But smaller, and dotting what should have been the Split Sea, if the continent truly was Annwyn.
