I glanced over my shoulder at him. Even now, contending with the absolute insanity of what he was saying, hope rose in me. “That’s impossible.”
He shook his head, water and blood dripping from his black hair to the cave floor. “Not for a fae.”
He wasn’t just fuckingwith me—he was being cruel. Anger flared in me, hot and cheek-warming. “Stop it.”
His eyes moved up the length of my body and met mine. There wasn’t a hint of humor on his face. In fact, he looked almost forlorn. “It’s undeniable, Eury. The Wild Hunt proclaimed it.”
Worthy.
And yet.
I was no fae. I was Eurydice Waters of the Kingdom of Storms. I was born there, a child of scorn from the moment I could form memory. I was my mother’s daughter; all my life people had told me how I had her flaxen hair and eyes and nose. We were the same height, and we had been people of the southern district for generationsback. The Waters name, cursed as it was, was an ancient name in our kingdom.
Most of all, I knew I couldn’t be fae because I wasweak. I was frail by human standards, and I’d spent my whole life trying to overcome my petite frame and small bones.
And now here I was, alive in Feyreign—the fae realm—and I’d gotten this far as a human. Not a fae. Not with magic, but as the human I was and had always been.
I felt the strange impulse to run Dorian through with my blade. My lips still felt kiss-bruised, and he was fucking with me.
Dorian knelt and picked up the small purple crystal I’d dropped during the fight. He approached, placed his hand under mine, and set the crystal into my palm with the other. He closed my fingers over it. “You’ll need this.”
My fingers tightened on the crystal. “You told me fae could see at night. But I can’t.”
“Your eyes aren’t trained yet, is all.” His good hand came up to my face, thumb swiping a hot tear away. “I know you felt it,” he said, low and soft. “You felt the magic move through you.”
I didn’t feel anything but fury and fear. I felt it even now, running through my veins and heating my cheeks. I felt it in the rawness of my throat after I’d screamed. But magic? I didn’t know what magic was.
Yes you do, a small voice said inside me.You know he’s right.
Did I? I didn’t know.
But it was a hell of a coincidence for the waterfall to change its course at the moment that scream had erupted from my throat.
I moved my gaze up to his face, to those lips I’d just kissed. “I’m not fae.”
I wasn’t, couldn’t be,didn’t wantto be.
But you do want magic, that voice said.
It was my own voice, the girl who’d knelt in the grove in front of the spiritstag and been offered power. The girl who’d watched Rhiannon bring a court to heel in her throne room. The girl who’descaped the thornstalkers because of Dorian’s command of flora and air.
He stroked my cheek with his thumb and carefully pressed my hair from my forehead. “Very well. You aren’t fae. But you’re still leaving Feyreign.”
I swallowed hard. “We’ll die for that.” I didn’t know everything about Sylvanwild, but I knew that much.
“We’ll die if you stay.” Dorian’s hand slid down my arm, and he took my hand. “Rhiannon won’t let you live. Not unless you’re under her control.”
“Even if I did have magic,” I said, “so does every other fae. I saw Faun’s power, and Rhiannon’s.”
He stepped closer, voice lowering. “Neither of them could so much as touch the Wild Hunt. Do you understand what I’m saying, Eury?”
My eyes narrowed on him. I was beginning to understand his fear; it was even more insane than the idea that I was fae. “You think I’m a threat to her.”
“Not as you are. But if you were trained…” His Adam’s apple shifted in his throat. “You’re not pliant. She knows that, after what you did to free the others from the Eldermaze. And she’ll know by morning what you did here. She’ll find a way to destroy you. If not by death, then something worse.”
Not pliant.Wasn’t that exactly what these fae valued? Not pliancy but strength. Not waifishness but ruthlessness.
“She doesn’t need pliant. She needs a champion.”
