I froze, my eyes locked on that stone. It was the same color as the amulet I used to wear, the stone that had kept my powers suppressed for decades.
But why would Lady Mossi be wearing one? Surely the head of House Ithir would have full access and control of her magic, wouldn’t she?
“A blood tie?” she repeated, lips thinning as she took us in. I knew what she saw—an earth fae who looked like a low-born savage, bare chested and long-haired, and me, with my obvious water fae features. “It must be a very distant one.”
Hastily, I bowed, remembering my manners, my place. Einar followed suit, though judging by the set of his jaw and the stiffness of his movements, I could tell he did so begrudgingly. It must chafe, having to bow to someone who was undoubtedly responsible for many of the deaths of his people, but I couldn’t feel sympathy for him. He had to play this part if he wanted to survive.
“My apologies, Lady Mossi,” I said, straightening. My skin prickled with nerves, and I knew I only had one shot to convince her. “I didn’t mean to imply that my companion and I are related to House Ithir. That honor belongs to my best friend, Mavlyn Edendown. She gave her bracelet to me and told me that if I showed it to you, you would help me.”
“Edendown.” Lady Mossi straightened in her seat, some of the suspicion clearing from her face. She extended a fine-boned hand. “Let me see this bracelet.”
I handed it to the captain, who approached the throne and set it in Lady Mossi’s hand. She turned it over, fingertips brushing over the sigil, long-lashed eyes drifting shut. A soft, golden light hummed briefly from the carved piece of antler, then faded away.
“Yes,” she finally said, opening her eyes. “Edendown is a distant branch, founded from my cousin’s illegitimate child. Despite his status, he did our house a great favor once, and so we gifted him with this token.” She handed the bracelet back to the captain, who returned it to me. It felt warm against my skin as I re-clasped it around my wrist, as if it had been sitting on a rock, absorbing the rays of the late afternoon sun. “I can sense that it was given to you freely, so I will hear your request. What can I do to help you?”
I cleared my throat. “My mother, Chaya Greenwood, was taken by General Slaugh and his men. I need your help to get her back.”
A silence fell over the room, like a blanket of freshly fallen snow, smothering the peaceful greenery of this place and leaving a chill in its wake. “General Slaugh?” she repeated. “He is the King’s right hand, the head of his military. If he has taken your mother, there is nothing I can do.”
“Please, Lady Mossi.” I dropped to my knees, desperation clawing at me like a griffin’s talons. “My mother did nothing wrong. The general took her because he was searching for me. She didn’t deserve to be ripped from her home.”
Lady Mossi’s eyes narrowed. “Searching for you? Why?”
Einar shot me a warning look, but I ignored him. “Because of my magic,” I explained, holding out my right hand.
I drew on the incandescent core of power within me, so different from the cool flow of ice magic that had been stoppered up inside me all my life. A flame flickered to life above my palm, and Einar cursed, but Lady Mossi’s gasp drowned his voice out.
“Fire magic?” Her lips parted, wide amber eyes flickering as they reflected the firelight emanating from my palm. “But…you are a water fae. How is this possible?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “My mother never explained it to me. She made me wear a stone similar to yours—” I pointed to the blue-white stone around her neck— “and told me it was a protection amulet, but the moment it was taken off me, my fire magic came out of nowhere. I think I probably had it all my life, but the stone suppressed it, so I could never use any of my powers. Fire or water.”
The fire in my hand started to dance, flames branching and twining up my fingers in response to my agitated emotions. Quickly, I snapped my fingers closed into a fist, snuffing out the flames. The last thing I needed to do was lose control in front of such a powerful earth fae. We stood in the heart of her power, where she was at her strongest—she would crush us both without blinking if she perceived either of us as a threat.
“That’s very interesting,” Lady Mossi murmured. “She must have given you a primal stone to wear.”
“A primal stone?” Dune had mentioned the term before, but I hadn’t had a chance to ask anyone about it.
“Yes.” Her fingers drifted to the necklace, and the stone seemed to glow brighter as she touched it. “Primal stones are used to store magic—fae use it to keep reserves of elemental magic, so we can draw on it when needed. But there are some that contain old spells, placed there by witchlings long ago. Your friend there seems to be in possession of one.”
She pointed at Einar, who automatically touched the cuff at his wrist. Now that I looked at it, I saw a faint, starry light shimmering from within the ruby stone set into the piece of gold jewelry.
“Witchling magic?” I repeated, turning my attention back to Lady Mossi. “I thought witchlings were just a myth.” I’d read about them in stories—an ancient race that could call upon both shadow and light magic without the aid of the spirits, casting spells that could bend reality to their whim.
“A legend, more like, and one lost to time. I don’t believe anyone has seen a witchling, not in at least a thousand years.” Lady Mossi’s eyes glittered as she assessed me again, and I wished I could get a read on the emotions swirling in their depths. “You say your mother never explained your powers to you? You were never aware of your fire magic?”
I shook my head, putting all thoughts of witchlings aside for the moment. “No. That’s one of the reasons I need to find her. I need her to tell me what this all means, why the king wants me, what this proph—”
“Adara,” Einar growled, cutting me off before I could finish the sentence. A muscle ticced in his jaw, his golden eyes blazing with ire.
Lady Mossi raised a sage-colored eyebrow at him. “Is there a problem, Einar?” she asked. Her tone was light, like sunlight rippling across a lake, and yet there was a thread of steel underneath, a warning.
My cheeks flushed as I looked back and forth between the two of them, dragon and fae, locked in a staring contest. I knew why Einar had snapped at me—he thought I was getting carried away, revealing too much.
And perhaps I was. I didn’t actuallyknowLady Mossi, after all. And just because she was an authority figure, in a position of power, didn’t mean I could trust her. After all, my encounter with General Slaugh was proof enough of that.
But then again, Mavlyn had trusted her enough to send me to her. And this bracelet around my wrist meant she was honor-bound to help me. That had to be enough. Right?
Einar shrugged. “I apologize, but Adara talks too much sometimes. You’re a very busy person, and I’m sure you have better things to do than listen to us prattle on.”
