“I see. Unfortunately, we don’t share the prophecy with fae.”
A low growl rumbled from Alastair’s throat, but I held up a hand to shut him up. “You already told one of us. Her name was Bellicent Denare. I realize you weren’t alive back then. It was…what?” I glanced at Alastair. “Close to four hundred years ago now.”
“Ah, yes.” The king’s voice went hard. “QueenBellicent Denare. And you’re the Queen’s Shadow, are you not?”
How did he…?
“I am theKing’sShadow now,” I corrected him. “Though Kalen doesn’t really like that term. He doesn’t think his people should stand in the shadow of anyone.”
The King of Talaven arched a brow. “And this king of yours? He has great power, yes?”
“That’s right.”
He folded his arms over his robe and nodded. “He is the son of Queen Bellicent Denare, and we didnotshare our prophecy with her. We turned her down and then made the mistake of offering her hospitality, as we would any ruler visiting our great kingdom. And then she sneaked into our library, stole a book, and ran.” He gave us a wan smile. “The thing is, she only got half the story and half the prophecy. And I bet the half she told you is about that comet up there.”
My stomach twisted into knots. “She wouldn’t have done that. My queen was many things, but a thief was not one of them.”
“Your loyalty is admirable.” The king shifted his eyes to Alastair, who was practically humming with annoyance, and then he moved on to Val. “Tell me, what stories has Bellicent Denare been spreading through the fae lands?”
As much as I wanted to answer, I kept my mouth shut. He’d asked Val, and I knew we’d get nowhere if I interjected when I hadn’t been addressed.
Val stared at the king for a long moment before she spoke. “She only told one person the full story. Her son.”
“Interesting,” the king murmured.
“She said the gods would soon return and to look out for a white comet streaking through the sky. That would signal their imminent arrival. That’s why we’re here.”
He pursed his lips. “And that’s all? Nothing else?”
Val hesitated, and I understood why. If the king found out Tessa was involved, would he put the blame on her rather than on Oberon? According to him, we didn’t know the full story. Perhaps the details he shared would point the finger right at Val’s best friend, at the woman my king was surely falling in love with. And if that were the case, it would destroy them both.
Finally, Val found her voice, though her face had gone a shade paler. “She said a specific person would be behind the gods’ return, and whoever it was needed to die if we wanted to have any chance of survival.”
The king tapped his chin and nodded. “And did she say who?”
Val exchanged a nervous glance with me. “No.”
Bellicent had never told Kalen who it was. But she must have had some idea—an inkling, at least. She’d insisted Kalen bind his will to hers when she’d never made a single vow in her life before that—not even to her idiot husband.
“Of course she didn’t,” the king murmured. “She realized just what we did, although it was too late on our part, you see. If we’d put the pieces together a little sooner, we never would have let her go.”
Unease prickled the back of my neck. “What are you saying?”
But I already had a hunch. Before we’d left Endir to track down Oberon when he was hiding out in the cave, Kalen had confided in me. He’d been tormented when he’d learned his mother’s fate and what she had been doing to stay alive. And so he’d suspected…maybe she was the one. Maybe she had made him vow to killher. Since then, he’d dismissed the idea. She was dead now, after all.
The king’s eyes sparked as he leaned forward, draping an arm across his robed knee. “The person we need to kill is Bellicent Denare herself. She brought this upon us all when she made a deal with a god.”
Val started, and I felt my breath lodge in my throat.
“Well, there you’re wrong. Bellicent Denare is dead,” Alastair said.
Shaking his head, the King of Talaven pointed up—up at the ceiling, up at the sky beyond. “The comet says otherwise. She serves as Andromeda’s anchor, and as long as she lives, death will come for us all.”
Twenty-One
Kalen
The guard led us out of the Great Hall without offering up her name or any conversation at all, but I took the brief moment to assess our would-be opponent, if it came to that. Her silver hair was twisted on top of her head, revealing the points of her ears lined with black earrings. Onyx, I couldn’t help but note, like the gemstone necklace her queen wore. She carried a broadsword on her back and two daggers at her hips, and she was tall and broad, much like Morgan.
