I bit down my sadness. If I had any hope of getting that warmth and safety back, I needed to focus. “So how the hell are Ganora and Fraleigh sisters—?”
Daigen grabbed my cheeks and silenced me. “First rule of our partnership—no direct questions. You have to gain knowledge at the right times.”
He had just dropped world-shattering information into my lap and would not even give me the satisfaction of an explanation. Fraleigh had sold herself to the Hytons and Ganora was angry about it. How was I expected to trust him if those were the only clues he was going to give me?
Though the logical side of my mind screamed that I should not just quietly accept what Daigen told me, I had no other way to win Riyan’s freedom. I was still unsure if I ever loved him, but he did not deserve whatever the Queen of the Giants wanted him for.
So I held my tongue and obeyed.
Satisfied with my silence, he released my face without so much as another word. He turned and walked to the healing spring, whistling a bouncing tune as his hooves clacked against the smooth rocks.
Although I wished I could have asked him why the hell he had started whistling, I recognized the melody—the song of the Man of the Mountain and how he lost his love. Despite the upbeat tune, the song was damn depressing.
“Stop that.” I squeezed my arms—the request had come out much harsher than I had meant.
Daigen sat on the edge of the spring and dipped his furry legs into the steaming water. He did not need the spring to heal, but he looked ragged enough that a bath was a logical choice.
“So curious a moment ago,” he said with a smirk, “yet you don’t want to know the source of your magic?”
My hand pressed against the center of my chest. “I know where my magic comes from. The Man of the—”
“Wrong.” Daigen splashed the water with his hoof. “He is the arbiter of magic and the judge of when and how we can alter reality, but he’s not the source. She is.”
The little white flame in the center of my chest sparked. She?
Daigen looked up, his golden eyes reflecting the cerulean glow of the spring. “The lost bride from the song. She was the first sorceress.”
Thefirstsorceress?
“Not much is known about her, sadly.” Daigen rested on his elbows and looked up at the dancing bands of green light in the sky. “Over time, at least through the centuries I’ve been alive in, the legend has shifted to center around the poor man who lost his bride and how he grieves her.”
I stepped closer to him, though my eyes traced the small stream that led into the mouth of the cave. “And the clever monster of the mountaincertainlyknows the real story…”
“The real story starts out the same as you know it.” He shot me a smile. “Man falls in love with the sorceress who lives in his village. They run to the top of Nordingaard so they can bind together under an enchantment.”
“Then she dies before they get there, I know.”
“No,” Daigen said. “Hedoes.”
That made no sense. The Man of the Mountain had taken me to the place West of the Moon and East of the Sun and held me in his arms.
“He was dead as could be, but the heartbroken sorceress dragged him to the top of the mountain anyway.” Daigen’s voice grew softer. “Used every scrap of her power to bind herself to him, hoping it would bring him back.”
I flipped my left hand to reveal the faint pink scar across my palm. “She blood-bonded with him. Just like I did with Riyan,and like every noble man and woman in Lycaster has done for centuries.”
He scoffed. “What she did was much bigger than Fraleigh’s bond that lets you fuck whomever you want without consequences. The first sorceress’s bond was so powerful that she summoned Death herself.”
A chill ran through my arms and I closed my palm. “I suppose Death was not too happy to be summoned…”
Daigen’s eyes met mine as he pushed himself deeper into the water. “Death is never happy, not really. She demands balance, as is the law of life and nature. The sorceress obliged Death’s rules and made the first sacrifice…her life for his.”
A bitterness coated my tongue. Riyan had done that for me.
I had felt a shift in the air and my magic had quieted when it happened. I could not fight against it. Riyan’s agreement with Ganora to give his life for mine was seemingly unbreakable.
I walked around the healing spring and stood in the mouth of the cave. The trickling of the thin stream echoed around the rock as I took in the beauty of hundreds of Nordingaard crystals casting their cerulean glow in the cave’s walls.
Just hours ago, I slept on top of Riyan’s chest. He had guarded me for two days while my mind was with the Man of the Mountain. When I woke up, I felt so wonderful that I wanted to…
