They had to be talking about me and my father. It was impossible to imagine some other girl had been thrown over a wall like I had. But how? And why? And where in the name of light was I?
The Druids continued speaking as if they hadn’t heard me.
“Nevertheless, it is done now, and the path remains true,” the woman said with a sigh. “Her power has sparked to life. Now we wait.”
“How long?” the other asked.
“Twenty more years.” She pressed her lips together. “And then ittrulybegins. The knife edge awaits us all.”
The world shuddered beneath me, the dream twisting and turning and spinning me around. When the land stilled, I now stood on the bridge between Albyria and the Kingdom of Shadow. In the distance, I spotted a girl in an orange wedding dress with fear in her eyes. She was running toward the bridge, and her golden hair whipped the air behind her.
I swallowed and stepped to the side, waiting for her—me—to make the crossing that would change her life—change everything.
And then I spotted him.Ruari.The horned son of Oberon hunkered behind a boulder along the edge of the chasm, watching me flee. He did nothing to stop me.
After the girl—me—vanished into the mists where she would run into Kalen Denare’s waiting arms, Oberon’s guards tried to charge after me. Eventually, they gave up and vanished back up to the hill to their city. But Ruari remained. When he was certain they were gone, he finally stood and walked to the edge of the chasm. The wind ruffled his orange hair around his pinched face.
“Run, Tessa. Run as fast as you can. You’re the only one who can save us,” he whispered.
And then he seemed to look right at me.
A moment later, he was gone.
The world twisted around me once more. I didn’t understand what was happening or why my mind was showing me these things, these memories. These glimpses into the past.
Everything stopped once more.
I gazed around the mist-shrouded woods. Again, a past version of myself appeared. This time, I was running from a storm fae with my braided hair bouncing on my back. My heart shuddered. This was no long-forgotten memory of the past. This moment had happened only days ago, when Kalen and I had scouted ahead to save Dubnos. As I watched myself facing off against the storm fae, I couldn’t help but gape. Dirt stained my cheeks, and there was a wild look in my eye. I looked…powerful.
And strong. The armor hugging my curves highlighted the strength in my arms and the power in my legs. And then the past me—the wild, powerful me—whispered the word, “Death.”
Dust billowed through the mist as the storm fae died by my touch.
I shook my head and glanced around, half-expecting Ruari to appear again or one of those Druids. I didn’t understand why my mind had picked out these moments to show me right now. It was just like that time the god had played with Kalen’s memories in my dream, only this time…I was alone.
“What is it?” I called up to the sky. “What are you trying to make me see?”
As if in answer, the world shifted around me. I landed on the battlement stones that stretched around Dubnos, and the sweat-soaked scent of war thickened the air. Kalen paced while the army—including me—waited for his orders. Blood stained the ground, and several chunks of crenel were missing. This moment was even more recent than the last. This was today, after the first wave of the attack. I’d been speaking with Fenella then, too far from Kalen to hear his words.
But now I stood beside him, and I heard every one.
“I never thought I would miss my power,” he muttered. “If I had it, I would blast these creatures off this mountain before they could touch even one more of my people.”
His power.
I took a step back as a strange, ridiculous thought sprang into my mind. It couldn’t be possible. Could it? For so long, I’d been focused on my own powers…but more than once, I’d drawn upon Kalen’s strength by using our bond. I’d used his strength and his healing—his magic-enhanced fae strength. Nothing had muted it in me, even if it had been muted in him.
Because I had Andromeda’s magic in my blood.
Heart pounding, I whirled to face my past self, where I stood readied for the creatures that would come crashing over the wall any second now.
She had no idea what was coming for her. A grim determination lit her eye, but there was something else in her expression. Something she didn’t want the others to see. Fear and guilt, still so heavy it weighed down her shoulders—myshoulders. It was the belief I hadn’t yet shaken. That all of this was because of me.
It was the belief that if I hadn’t stabbed Oberon or even fled the wedding that day by running across the bridge, none of this would be happening.
I’ve brought doom upon us all, but…if these memories were real, if I wasn’t making all of this up, there was far more to it than I could have ever dreamed. None of it excused my past actions, but if I’d been influenced, if I’d been manipulated…
I’d been shown that moment with the Druids for a reason. They had started this. Not me.
