Arran’s feelings blurred with my own. He wanted her to fail. Because if Mya was the Ethereal Queen, there was no more reason to delay the sacrifice that would bar the succubus from Annwyn forever.Oh, Arran.
But the Aquarian queen had no reason to lie to us. No one would claim a power whose inevitable conclusion was death. But even depleted, Arran’s hope was a constant white flame, burning the same color as my hair and his beast. I was suddenly glad I hadn’t gorged myself on croissants. They would no doubt be trying to make a reappearance now.
Mya approached Mordred but did not reach for him. “May I touch you?”
His face was an eerie mirror of Arran’s, his jaw ticking in an identical motion that could only be inherited. But he was not as good at masking his emotions. Terrestrials valued truth. Strength. They were not schooled to dissemble the way elementals were. Trepidation took up residence in the crinkle of his brow, discomfort in the pucker of his lips.
But he nodded.
The Aquarian queen lifted her hand to cup his face. I watched for some outward sign of her magic.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 heartbeat of her subjects and she will unlock the secrets they guard within. But all I saw was the contrast of her pale blue fingertips against the deepened bronze of his cheek.
Mya spoke softly. “Assured in his prowess as a warrior; perhaps a bit cocky. Determined to prove his loyalty. He fears that he will not be able to escape the reputation of his mother. Your son.” She dropped her hand as she turned back to look at Arran, eyes searching. Then they came to me. “But not yours.”
I stifled my sharp inhale. Clever, brilliant mate of mine. By challenging Mya to use her ethereal powers on Mordred, he’d verified two vital truths at once—Mordred’s loyalty and Evander’s veracity.
But those realizations dimmed in comparison to the other. Mya was the Ethereal Queen.
A light inside of me flickered out.
Arran’s son shook his head, dislodging Mya’s hand. “Mordred. My mother is Morgause, of the Terrestrial Dyad in Cayltay.”
A flash of a golden cape, and he no longer stood alone.
“Lyrena Lancelot. Goldstone Guard and Knight of the Round Table. Try that trick on my queen and I’ll cut your hand off.” She punctuated her threat with a wink.Oh, Lyrena.
The Aquarian warrior was at Mya’s side in a flash. “Try it, and I’ll show you what real water power feels like,”
Fire flared to life at Lyrena’s fingertips.
“General Ache,” Mya said, giving Mordred space and coming back to address me and Arran. “Commands my small army.”
Arran’s onyx eyes narrowed. “How small?”
“About a third the size of your terrestrial forces, if my scouts were correct in their estimations based on what they observed yesterday,” General Ache said with a bite that immediately had Arran’s beast growling. Thank the Ancestors I was the only one who could hear him.
A sarcastic remark played across my mind, but if Arran heard it he showed no sign. He only nodded, then looked over Mya’s shoulder to Agravayn and Gaheris. “And your force of elementals?”
“A quarter of that,” Agravayn said.
Arran nodded again. “More troops are coming from north of the Spine. The commanding general of the elemental army is rounding up what remains after the siege of Baylaur, and Guinevere seeks to build a human coalition.”
We do not know if we can trust them, I hissed at the feral beast. But the wolf was already off and running in the opposite direction.
“Even with these reinforcements coming, it would only take a horde twice the size of what we faced yesterday to destroy us. I cannot overstate the importance of your forces joining with ours. The need could not be any direr than it is in this moment,” Arran said, dividing his attention between Agravayn and General Ache, commander to commander.
“Ancestors,” I breathed, realization slamming into me.
Even at a whisper, all eyes swung to me.
“She is the Siege Perilous,”
Arran tensed beside me. I knew Lyrena and Mordred would understand. The latter had just fought for his position at the Round Table based on that same prophecy. But our new allies stared at me openly.
“Another prophecy, this one made by Merlin, the priestess in my court. It speaks of the Round Table, gifted to me by Guinevere, and the Knights who will sit around it,” I explained, hating that I remembered it so well. “The last is the Siege Perilous. It is death to all but the one for which it is made—the best of them all—the one who shall come at the moment of direst need.”
I exhaled, letting the words of the prophecy settle. “It cannot be a coincidence that Queen Mya and the Aquarian Fae have appeared now, after seven thousand years in hiding, at what can only be described as the moment of direst need—driving the succubus from Annwyn.”
“She is a queen in her own right, not a knight to be seated at your table,” Evander snarled.
