He released me from his grasp and rested his hands on my shoulders. “There is something I need to tell you. We’ve been working to discover who betrayed us. With the portals destroyed we knew it was someone from within the Consortium. Only one Mage was unaccounted for in the final headcount.” He stareddown at the space between us, and I felt my chest clench. “Luelle.”
I took an instinctive step back, my fingers tightening into fists against my thighs. Luelle, who had been my friend and had attempted to grow closer to me from the moment I arrived…. Nothing had been real. The pain of her betrayal shifted to an anger so blindingly hot, and so quickly, it surprised me.
Alandris continued, “Though I never encountered her at any of the Divine Council’s meetings, it was possible she either remained silent during them, or stayed in the shadows as a spy. Regardless, she infiltrated the Consortium long before you ever arrived. She joined us shortly after I took over as Grand Arch Magus.”
“Why join then?”
“They were likely suspicious of me as a new member. My bringing you here was supposed to protect you from them. I hoped to hide you right under their noses.” His frown deepened. “I suppose they were always one step ahead.”
I took his hand in mine. “I practically gave her everything she needed to prove I was what they were looking for.”
He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
“My nightmares. My strange disappearances.” I shook my head. “I’m not sure what I did or said in my sleep, either. Zaelos’s influence over me those last few weeks was overpowering. I felt less and less like myself.”
“It was always our game to lose. We were only biding our time. What matters is we are all alive, and you are now fully your own. Now, we can fight back,” he said, a fresh resolve in his eyes. “Is that what you want?”
I clenched my jaw tight. I wanted nothing more. “Yes, I want to fight.”
I’d once dreamed of a life of peaceful nothingness. I’d wanted to live with Alandris at my side in the middle of nowhere. Eachday the same, from morning to night, free of responsibility. Whether it was my naivety or just a simple pipe dream, that future was the one I craved most of all. Maybe I could still have it one day… but not now….
Now, I craved revenge.
For everything they’d taken from me. For the future I could have had. For the girl, who’d never deserved to be hunted like a monster.
“There’s someone I need to speak with first,” I told him. “Can you ask everyone to meet us here tonight so we can come up with a plan?”
“Of course.”
There was one final person I needed to determine a friend or foe. I would not be a pawn for anyone’s schemes any longer.
I pressed into the forest surrounding the Consortium, the Towering Wilds—deeper and deeper—listening for the song. It started softly, a haunting melody guiding me towards the center of the wood. In the past, I’d felt possessed by the sound—unable to fight against it—but no longer. With Fae magic of my own, I recognized the spell for what it was—an illusion. I was not following the song against my will anymore.
The dark green of the forest transformed to a stranger hue, as familiar flora and fauna shifted to something wilder and wholly unnatural. At the center of an open clearing—perched on a stump and surrounded by a kaleidoscope of butterflies—sat the wildest of them all—Amorphael.
“I knew you would come for me, child,” she hummed, as her lips curled into a saccharine smile. “Your soul is no longer fractured, I see. Surrounded by the shadows of the Winter Queen, but one.”
“I kept her power.”
“A wise decision or a grave mistake… only time will tell.” She held her finger out and a butterfly landed upon it, fluttering its wings. “Ask me what you must.”
Fae riddles and trickery. I hated how it felt as though I was playing into her hand with every move I made. Would she even give me a straight answer? Or just another question?
“Why did you trick me into consuming the lost parts of Zaelos’s soul?” I began. “The flower that you made Alandris find all those years ago. Was your intention for Zaelos to take over my body as a vessel all along?”
She tilted her head, not at all surprised by my inquiry. “I didn’t trick you. I gave you exactly what you needed to silence him. Each time you took the potion, a piece of him returned, and it neutralized him for some time. Did it not?”
I gave a spiteful laugh. “Right… and in doing so you strengthened him, too.”
Her bright green and gold-flecked eyes met mine with burning intensity. “Your plan with the Soulseer would not have succeeded unless you fought Zaelos’s fully mended soul. A piece of him would have always lingered. It was not a risk I could take.” She rose from the stump and strode toward me. “Would your lover have agreed to the risk if he knew?”
No. He would not have.
It wasn’t a lie Amorphael had told. Never. Omission definitely, but never a lie. It didn’t make me resent her any less—given that she’d played us like puppets at her whim—but it did let me know where she stood. She was not and had never been my enemy. She’d always wanted me to succeed.But what about now?
“The Divine Council will not rest until I’m dead. Can I count on your support?”
Amorphael dragged a finger along my jaw, and I flinched at the touch. “I am fond of you,faylin, but I do not involve myself in the wars of Mortals. I will, however, assist Jyuri with assuringthe Winter Queen does not come to collect the piece of her power you’ve stolen. Consider it a debt paid for a bargain that was never in your favor.”
