Sparrow perched on the edge of the couch, rubbing Esmeray’s back between the junction of her wings. Esmeray took a deep breath. “After we spoke with my parents and explained what Adara’s fixation of spell work had come to, Keerian and I retired to our room–and that is when he gave me his ring and made me swear to find you both if anything went wrong. Well, everything from then on went wrong. When we woke up the next morning, Adara called the court to thethrone room, and broke the news that my parents were dead. I hadno ideabefore then. I was completely blindsided. The next couple minutes were a blur, but she sat on my mother’s throne and put an invisible protection shield around herself.” Esmeray bared her teeth, her eyes flashing a brighter, venomous green. “When she accusedmeof their murders, I lost it–my magic barreled through her shield and broke it. Unfortunately,thatwas tinder for her fire, and she exiled me right there. I playedrightinto her hands.”
Merrick nodded slowly, as if pieces of a puzzle he didn’t know were missing were finally visible and clicking into place. Taking the small teacup Sparrow wordlessly handed to him, he took a long sip. Lenna accepted her own cup with thanks to the kind fae who had welcomed them into her home. The first taste shot through her, notes of honey, lemon, and something tart and citrus-y warming her belly instantly. A soothing blend after the news Esmeray was currently delivering them.
Laurent, his own tea in hand, hollowly murmured, “Adara banished you, but Keerian is trapped there. With Adara.”
Sparrow looked at her friend, and when Esmeray didn’t–or couldn’t–answer, the fae, in a calm voice, continued where Esmeray left off. “We believe whatever spell she has needs a piece of Keerian to complete. It follows the notion that she isn’t trying to destroy the soul tie. She’s trying to transfer Esmeray’s piece to herself.”
Lenna addressed Sparrow, “Has the…soul tie been transferred?”
“No,” Esmeray said hoarsely. “All the research Keerian, Sparrow and I did the week we were here noted that if it was transferred, or broken, I would endure apain so unbearable that you would wish yourself dead.” And I can feel it–I can feel his soul is still entwined with mine.” She put her tattooed left hand over her heart.
Sparrow gently picked up the teacup again and handed it to the Queen. Esmeray took a small sip of the offering, shooting Sparrow a grateful look. After swallowing, Esmeray added blankly, “The script had been written against me for far longer than I realized. And Adara fed into it, coating it with her own sweet poison. She already turned my parent’s court against me, the Obsidian Palace’s court against me, and named our uncle Regent while my…hoax of a trial was ongoing. When she exiled me to the Obsidian Kingdom, I landed in the throne room of the Palace. Eight soldiers were there, ready to drag me to the dungeon. They did not survive.” She took another sip of tea, her fingers trembling ever so slightly.
“Esmeray waned here after.” Sparrow picked up the story. “I heard through the grapevine that Adara crowned herself Queen Absolute and banished Esmeray. So, I waited for Esmeray to come back here. I built wards around my home, and layered as many protection magics as I knew so she’d be safe here while we figured this out.”
The conversation fell into a lull, Merrick and Laurent both lost in thought. Not wanting to lose her nerve, Lenna blurted out the question she’d been afraid to mention since this story started, especially now that her heart mourned and sympathized with the Queen. “What about the Oracle?”
Chapter twenty-eight
Laurent
Esmeray’snarrativehadstartedin the late evening, but now, as it continued, the three-quarter moon arched closer to its apex in the night sky. The room began to cool, so Laurent politely asked Sparrow if he could light a fire in her fireplace, and she had beamed at him when he lit it with a snap of his fingers. He could light a fire with his eyes closed, but in the presence of this enchanting female, he couldn’t help but show off–just a little.
They had all finally begun to relax a smidge around each other. Until Lenna bought up the one question that once again filled the room with a tang of distrust and unease. Even though Laurent knew for fact now that Esmeray and Keerian had not murdered the late King and Queen, Esmerayhadkilled Lenna’s predecessor. She admitted as much.
Esmeray cut her eyes to Lenna, who seemed to shrink ever so slightly under the all-out attention Esmeray fixed on her.
“I will tell you this, Oracle,” Esmeray’s words were clipped, a slight bite tinting her tone, “If there had been any way,any way at allto save him, I would’ve done it. I searched for him for months after my exile–ask Sparrow. She’s the one who ended up finding out his whereabouts.Adara locked him in the Soul Keeper’s Cell inside the Obsidian Palace–the same place she tried to have those soldiers throw me.”
Laurent sucked in a breath as he instantly understood the issue–and Esmeray’s decision. Esmeray continued, spurred on as she noted the confusion in Lenna’s face. “The Obsidian Palace has one unique caveat to the extensive dungeons in the lowest level of the cavern. There is a flat rock unnervingly named the Soul Keeper’s Cell. There are no doors. The rock itself is keyed to the prisoner’s soul. There’s no escape, only death, once you are thrown onto it. And there is no way out once that hallowed ground marks your soul.”
“Adara put the Oracle in the Soul Keeper’s Cell.” Laurent rubbed his temple with a single long finger. This whole situation was going from bad to worse with each reveal.
Lenna whipped her head to Laurent, her eyes questioning. “So, he couldn’t get out?”
Esmeray answered, her words quickening, as if she wanted this conversation to be over as fast as possible. “Adara locked him down there before Keerian and I returned to the Opal Palace. She was the only one that knew where he was–and when Sparrow used her magic to find whispers of his location, that is where we found him. We also found no indication that any beings knew he was there. I couldn’t get him out no matter what magic I tried. And I knew, going down there, that it was already a hopeless cause but…I had to try. In all the years I knew him, he was always honest and fair and kind. Adara put him in the Soul Keeper’s Cell to slam another nail in my coffin. To frame me for his peril. To imprison an Oracle, a truth seeker, is asinine and fucked up. Not to mentionincrediblyillegal. Oracles are not tied to any specific Kingdom. They are regarded as living gods. Sparrow told me she found him, andI used my illusion magic to visit him without anyone knowing I was there.”
Laurent glanced over at Lenna, who now looked half there half…elsewhere. Her eyes glazed over, the honey-brown becoming darker, muddled. Esmeray, still on the couch, didn’t notice the subtle change in Lenna’s posture. A slight swaying freed a few red curls Lenna had thrown over her shoulder.
Esmeray winced at her admission of magic, and turned to address Merrick and Laurent. “I have the ability to cast illusions, as real as if they were living, breathing beings. I’ve been honing it for years, as it is my own personal magic that hasnevermanifested in any other being in existence. My illusions can ebb and flow, from smoke and mist to solid and unyielding. I channeled my illusion into the Oracle’s cell. He was so far gone already, he’d been imprisoned formonths. The soul bind to his cell was draining his life force at an accelerated rate. When my illusion entered his cell, he was half mad. But he begged me, hebegged meto kill him. To release his soul from the bind so he could go to Minmere in peace.”
Lenna stared blandly at Esmeray,throughEsmeray, as she replied hollowly, distantly, “Dead eyes, golden light, black wings. A death so merciful that the shell smiled as its soul was freed.” A spilt second of silence–then Esmeray shot up, wings flaring wide. Laurent whipped his head to Lenna, mouth agape. Merrick shouted a warning, eyes locked on the Queen, his hand ripping free the dagger sheathed at his belt, pointing it at Esmeray’s heart. Esmeray gave the weapon in Merrick’s hand a miffed glare before plopping back down on the couch, horns cocked as she stared at the Oracle with intrigue.
“You…” Esmeray whispered, “you got activated that night, but yousawme kill him.” The Queen looked, reallylookedat Lenna, stillsitting, half-slumped, on the pouf. Lenna blinked, the lively, honey tint in her eyes becoming clearer, more focused.
“Lenna,” Laurent questioned carefully, “do you know what you just said?”
Lenna started, realizing all eyes were on her.
“N-no?” Brows knitting in confusion, Lenna took in Esmeray’s posture, Merrick’s bright, proud expression. Laurent knew his own face showed the same shock mirrored on Esmeray’s. Only Sparrow, still reclined on the gaudy purple couch, seemed unperturbed. Merrick puffed out his chest, a stupidly cheery grin on his face as he slipped his dagger back into its sheath and shot a gloating look towards Laurent.
“Well. That is unexpected,” Sparrow mused, her voice lilting as she gracefully sipped from her cup, “Not only are you theOracle, but you’re also a seer.”
Merrick cleared his throat, extending his hand towards Laurent as the words sunk in. Laurent shook his head, muttering indecencies under his breath as he reached into his robe, that smugness on the gargoyle’s face reminding him of their bet from Spinella.
Laurent tossed a small felt bag to Merrick, the jingling of gold coins reminding the fae to never bet against the gods.
Or stubborn fucking gargoyles.
