“Kalen.”
“Hmm?”
“Are you certain I’m not a threat? That I’m not the one the vow was talking about?”
And that was when he opened his eyes, a fierceness returning to his expression. He took me by the shoulders and turned me to face him, his eyes sweeping across every inch of my face. “Listen to me. You did nothing wrong, and I will not listen to anyone who says differently.”
“Tell me the vow again. The exact words she said.”
He sucked in a breath, and for a moment, I didn’t think he would tell me. But then he said, “If you see a comet in the sky, it means a god is returning. You need to kill whoever caused that to happen. That person must die.”
I started to speak, but he pressed a finger to my lips.
“You didn’t cause it. Oberon did.”
I moved his hand aside. “This is a loophole and nothing more.”
“No,” he growled. “I will not harm you. I will not letanyone elseharm you, do you hear me? Oberon caused it, and he is dead. My vow has been fulfilled. Do you really think I would be able to stand here and hold you like this if it weren’t?”
He had a point, but something did not sit right with me. It seemed too easy when it came to something as terrifying and world-changing as the return of the gods. To prophecies and centuries-long vows. To gemstone necklaces hidden in vaults, and a comet hurtling through night-drenched skies. It was all so impossiblybig.
How could it come down to an accident as easily solved as this?
“I hope you’re right,” was all I said. “Either way, it’s clearly not over. That comet is still in the sky.”
He palmed my cheek and smiled. “It’s not over, but nothing is going to happen to you. I won’t let it. We’ve beaten Oberon. We’ll find a way to fight what’s next.” His words stirred hope in my chest. Maybe he was right. Maybe I couldn’t see past the darkness inside me to accept that the worst of it was over.
But then angry shouts rang in the courtyard, and all that hope fell to my feet.
Five
Ruari
Afew days ago, a little mouse walked into a trap. It wasn’t a trap I set, mind you, but I happily cast the net the moment I saw the lost brunette wandering through the mists. She was the answer to all the light fae troubles, including mine. I had done my part, according to the instructions the mortals of Talaven had given me, and now it was time for my reward.
Nellie Baran would get me my city back.
Only a few hundred light fae had escaped from the smoldering ruins of Albyria. Many members of our court had been caught in the initial blast, and the commoners had not fared much better. The screaming, the chaos, the flames licking the sky…that had been terrible on its own. But then the shadowfiends had come.
I’d gone for my brothers and sisters first, and then the many guards who were more family to me than my mother and father ever had been. Eventually, we’d reached the base of the mountain and set up camp. And I’d wondered if we would ever find a home again. Night after night passed—days did, too, but we no longer knew what time it was. Up was down and down was up and everything was covered in a blanket of heavy darkness.
I’d been warned of this, of course, and I’d made preparations for it by squirrelling supplies away in a nearby cave, but experiencing it was far different than anything my imagination had conjured.
Not long after two of our horses had vanished from camp, I’d spotted a slip of a girl creeping along the wooden wall that stood between the light fae camp and Teine. I’d recognized her, even though her form was nothing more than a smudge of shadows. For years, I’d kept an eye on her and her sister for my father—and for the mortals of Talaven.
“Tessa and Nellie Baran are the descendants of a god,” my father had told me at least two decades ago, his eyes burning as bright as his flames. “Keep a close watch on them.”
“Of a god? Which god?” But I’d already known the answer to that, of course.
“The God of Death.”
“How?” I had glanced at the onyx necklace he or my mother always carried. As his eldest son, I was one of the few who knew everything that gemstone represented and what might happen if the god’s power ever escaped. Still, he’d continued to use it, despite the risks. All to keep my wicked mother alive.
“I do not know.”
“Do the sisters have powers? And what of the other humans? If Tessa and Nellie are descendants, surely that means there’s more of them in that village. They’ve been trapped here for hundreds of years, just as we have.”
I had already known the answers to these questions, but I’d needed to find out how much my father knew, how much he suspected. It could have affected everything.
