I wanted to tell her not to argue. If this was what Ruari wanted, then so be it. I would gladly hand this city over to him if it meant he’d let her go…but I also knew it wasn’t my call. Heart pounding, I turned to Kalen to try to get a read on his thoughts, but his face was a mask. Surely he would agree to this. If not, he’d have to move fast to kill Ruari, and that would put Nellie in too much danger.
“Kalen,” I whispered.
“You can have your city back,” the King of Shadow began. I sagged in relief until he continued. “If you release Nellieandmake a vow to me.”
My breath stuck in my throat.
Ruari scowled and tightened his hold on my sister. “I don’t make vows.”
“You say you’re against the gods. Prove it. Make a vow to fight beside us when the time comes.” Kalen glanced up at the skies. “And it will not be long from now.”
My heart pounded as Ruari stared and stared and stared at Kalen. With my eyes locked on my sister, all I could do was pull in desperate breaths, readying myself to spring into action if need be. And if Ruari tightened his grip on her even a little bit more, I didn’t think I could hold myself back. The anger raging through me whispered in my ears.
Stab him, stab him, stab him.
“All right,” Ruari finally said, and all my breath whooshed out of me. “I vow to fight beside you against the gods if you vow to give me my city and never again try to take it from the light fae.”
Kalen’s hands tightened into fists. I knew he hated vows—they’d haunted him his entire life. But he was willing to do this to gain another army. We would need it, I realized. Desperately. I didn’t know exactly what the gods were capable of, but we needed all the fighters we could find. The shadow fae numbers were low. Even after centuries, they’d struggled to rebuild their army after the war against Oberon.
“I vow it.” Kalen did not lower his sword. “Now release your hold on Nellie.”
At long last, Ruari whisked his blade away and gave my sister a little push. It was all I could do to keep standing as the overwhelming relief crashed over me like a tidal wave. But she did not run into my open arms. She whirled on her feet and stabbed a finger into Ruari’s chest. “You’re an absolute monster, just like your father. One day, I’ll repay you for this.”
And then she sliced her sharp nail across his cheek. A small line of blood dribbled down his face, and I couldn’t help but smile.
Seven
Tessa
While Kalen rounded up his warriors to prepare for the trek back to Endir, I wrapped my arms around my sister and pulled her close. She hugged me fiercely, her body trembling, but when I pulled back to look into her face, I saw no fear in her eyes. Only anger.
“What happened?” I asked her over the steady thumping of boots as the warriors made their way to the city gates. “How are you even here in Albyria?”
She winced and glanced away. “When Toryn left Endir, he said you all were in trouble. I wanted to help for once.”
I blinked. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”
She held up her hand, the nails still sharp and long. “I’m strong, too, you know. Claws and fangs, you said.”
I took in the sight of her claws, finally understanding. I’d spent a long time in the darkness of my mind but no more. “When I spoke those words, I didn’t actually understand what I was saying. I just meant you should fight like an animal, if you had to. Deep down, I must have had an inkling there was more to it than that. The truth about you—and me—was in my subconscious all along.”
“And you remember now?” she asked in a soft whisper. “All of it?”
I swallowed. “Yes. Everything, I think. What Father did to me, to you. And about the power he wanted to harness. I remember it now…It’s just so hard to reconcile it with the image I’ve had of him all this time. When he left all those years ago, to go into the mists, he said it was to protect us. He said he’d do anything for us, even go up against a fae king.”
“I know,” she said, a tear slipping down her cheek. “I think, eventually, he regretted what he did. He wasn’t all bad, Tessa. He just wasn’t all good, either. At the end, I think he loved us in his own way. And I think he stopped seeing us as tools.” She huffed out a breath and took my hands in hers, searching my eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. Well, I mean, I tried to a few times, but you…you would get so upset and shut me out and run off into the woods. The way your mind locked it all up…I worried if I forced you to face your trauma before you were ready, it would only make it worse. I’m just so sorry.”
I squeezed her hand and pressed my forehead against hers. The scent of apples surrounded me like an old, familiar hug. “Don’t be sorry. You did the right thing. I needed to remember on my own…but…” I pulled back and lifted her hands—the claws were gone now. “More importantly, you actually haveclaws and fangs.”
Her cheeks turned red, and she shoved her hands into her trousers as if to whisk them out of sight. “Not inside Oberon’s barrier. I saw them once, when Father took me outside the barrier, back before you stepped in and volunteered yourself instead. Twenty years passed without them. And now that Oberon’s barrier isn’t numbing that power anymore, they’re back.”
“And you can call them on command?”
“Eh,” she said, scrunching up her nose. “My control of them comes and goes. But I’ve never had what you have. The power to kill by touch, I—”
I sucked in a breath and stepped back. “No. I did that once, but never again. Being inside the barrier muted all that until I lost the power completely. I don’t kill by touch. I can’t. All right?”
“Tessa,” she said softly.
