“He’s alive and well and marching here with an army as we speak.” Reyna leaned as close to the bars as she could. Their gazes locked. “Do not lose hope. He is coming here to save you all.”
Duana’s eyes widened, but then she slumped back down, like a puppet whose strings had been slashed. “It’s no use. Ulaid Molt is far too strong. Magic burns in his blood. There is no way to stop him. Not with the largest army. Not with the best sword. Only magic can take him down. It’s the only thing that can stop him.”
Reyna pursed her lips and opened her mouth to argue. But then she stopped, sinking back onto her heels. Duana was right. She’d fought the wood king herself, and she’d seen what his warriors could do now that they’d begun feasting on blood themselves. He was an unstoppable force. His magic-fuelled fighters were worth five or ten normal fae. Without magic, they would fall.
Just like the air fae army had on the fields beneath the shadow of the Findius wall.
“What day is it?” Reyna asked. “I’ve lost track of time.”
“It’s the day before Beltane,” Duana said with a sigh. “Not that it matters. There will be no celebrations this year. No feasting and singing. No dancing as we clink our tankards full of mead and wine. Beltane will bring us nothing but death.”
“Oh, thank the Dagda,” she muttered. When Duana cast her a curious glance, Reyna elaborated. “The High King of the Air Court is coming, along with warriors from Sea and Ice. My father…” Hope bloomed in her chest at the thought of her father, but that hope deflated just as quickly. She would never get to see him again. Him, Eislyn, Glencora. By the time they’d won the city, it would be too late. For her, at least.
Duana shook her head. “I don’t think he’s coming. I was up on the wall when I got caught. I didn’t see an army for miles. Besides, you don’t understand, princess. It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. Unless they have magic, they will not beat this king. All these armies will fall, and then there will be no one left to stop him. The entire continent will be destroyed. He’s the enemy of us all.”
The enemy of us all.A wild thought suddenly sprang into her mind. Her heart pounded against her ribs.
“What if he’s the Namhaid?” Reyna whispered.
“The what?” Duana frowned.
“The Namhaid. It’s…” How could she explain it? “There’s a prophecy. It goes back to when the Dagda first walked these lands. It speaks of a time when an enemy will rise up, emboldened by Unseelie. She will be the end of everything.”
Duana arched a brow. “She?”
“Yeah, the prophecy said there would be an ice princess involved,” Reyna admitted.
Yes, the Ruin whispered.Because you are the Namhaid, Reyna Darragh. No one else.
“Shut up,” she said through gritted teeth before remembering that she was locked up in a cage next to someone else, someone who would no doubt think of her as mad.
Duana pressed up against the bars. “Who are you talking to?”
“Nothing, it doesn’t matter.” Reyna glanced away.
Be ashamed, Reyna Darragh. What will she think of you? The very last person who will ever hear your voice will think you’ve gone mad!
She squeezed her eyes tight, and a tear slipped down her cheek.
“It’s that magic, isn’t it?” Duana asked, cutting through Reyna’s dark thoughts. Or was it the Ruin’s thoughts? It was difficult to tell now. They’d become so blended together in her mind that she scarcely knew the difference anymore.
Reyna sighed, turning back toward Duana’s dirt-caked face. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You don’t need to hide it, princess,” she said in a tone of voice much softer than Reyna had expected. “I know all about it. Laoise told us. She called it your storm, but…it’s that magic, isn’t it? The one that destroyed our army. The one that swept across the ice fae lands. The Ruin.”
Reyna’s heart pulsed. She had not realized that Laoise had known exactly what lived inside of her. With a shuddering breath, she nodded. “I pulled it into my body that day in the Fomorian Square. It was the only way to stop it from destroying the entire city. Ever since then, it has been tearing me apart, piece by piece.”
Gods, it was a relief to speak it out loud.
“Do you know what it is? Where it came from?” Duana peered at her with watery eyes as a scream rang out in the distance. Reyna focused on Duana, understanding at once what that scream meant. The Wood Court had killed another shadow fae, sacrificing their life to Unseelie.
“The Dagda created it when he first came to these lands. He had visions of a future enemy, someone who used Unseelie’s powers for her own aims.” Reyna swallowed hard, knowing that when she spoke of the enemy, she was speaking of herself. She was the dark thing the world should fear. “The Ruin was put here to destroy that enemy…I’ve only been able to withstand it because of a gift I got from another god…it’s a long story. But basically, the magic I used in Fomorian Square was a gift given to me, a power and a strength to survive even with the Ruin inside of me. But now that power has run out.” Her gaze drifted to the left, toward the back of the erected gallows. They could only see a wooden wall from where their cages sat, but Reyna knew all too well what would sit on the other side. Ropes. Axes. Death.
Duana furrowed her eyebrows. “Can you use the Ruin yourself? Let it out of you and use it like a weapon?”
Yes, can you use me, Reyna Darragh?The Ruin laughed in her ears. Even after all this time, even with her death hanging before them, he wanted her to let him go so that he might sweep across the realm.
“I could, but I’m not strong enough to control it,” Reyna whispered. “It will kill everyone it touches.”
