The king nodded. “When the star fell, King Ovalis Hinde took some of his men to investigate. One of his men—an astronomer named Marrk—knelt before the black dust and brushed his fingers against it. It gave him a vision, a powerful one at that. It showed him the near future and a future thousands of years later. Since then, others have continued to touch the comet, though the power of it has faded over the years. Now our visions are quite murky. For example, we did not see you coming here. But I sent a few Druids to the comet to ask about you and Alastair. They saw you will not become a threat to us. We can share the truth with you now.”
I drew back, my eyes flashing across his face. “You can see visions of us? Our future?”
“Not exactly. It’s not that clear these days,” he said with a sad smile. “It’s only a feeling now. Less of a vision, more of a…sensation. We just know you are on our side and that you had nothing to do with the coming of the Second Fell. So we’ll share our knowledge with you, and I apologize for our paranoia.”
Alastair folded his massive arms over his chest, his attention shifting from Val’s books to my conversation with King Duncan Hinde. “We came in peace from a kingdom that is not your enemy. Some might believe the way you’ve treated us is an act of war.”
The King of Talaven did not flinch, not even when confronted with a towering fae who scowled down at him. I couldn’t help the flicker of appreciation that went through me at that. “And will you see it that way? Will your king?”
Alastair huffed out a breath. “I suppose not, but you’d better fucking make it up to us. After you tell us all you know about this prophecy, you need to ready your army, put them on ships, and sail with us back to Aesir. We can fight these gods side by side. Together.”
The king started to turn away.
Frowning, I shifted to block his path, and the guards just beside us dropped their hands to their swords, but they made no move against us.
“There’s something more you’re not saying,” I said to him, narrowing my eyes. “You’re not going to send your ships, are you?”
“There are certain events that must come to pass first, and until they do, we cannot make a move.”
I pointed up at the ceiling, at the sky beyond the castle roof. “The gods—”
“They are creatures who call themselves our gods,” the king said. “But they are not true gods, not in the least.”
“What in the name of the moon are they, then?”
“The word we’ve heard from the comet isLamiae. They are eternal, but they need man’s flesh and blood to thrive. They can even survive among the stars. And we cannot make a move against them until the only one who can destroy them finds the power within her to fight. The one who was born to fulfill an ancient promise to a fae king. One whose own blood flows with the Lamiae’s magic.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “You mean a descendent. Are you talking about Tessa Baran?”
His eyes were pools of glass, as if his mind had drifted far away. “Tessa Baran has not yet spread her wings. Until she does, she is not the Daughter of Stars, and we cannot help her. If we go too soon, we risk everything.”
Thirty-Four
Niamh
“You need to explain everything to us,” I told the king. “We came all the way here for answers about how to stop these creatures. And we can’t do that if you keep talking in riddles and hiding things from us. How did you banish them the last time? Is there a way to kill them? And what, in the name of the moon, does Tessa Baran have to do with all this? She’s just a mortal girl.”
Months ago, Kal had told me a mortal girl from Teine had called out to him in a dream. The moment I heard that, I knew there was something special about her. Somethingdifferent. But this? This was something else.
The king nodded and motioned to the table where Val waited. “You might want to sit down.”
“We’re fine standing, thanks,” Alastair said with narrowed eyes. “And stop stalling.”
The king turned to his guards and motioned for them to go. “Wait for me in the hallway. Close the door behind you.”
“Your Majesty,” one of the guards said with a frown.
“They will not harm me. Now go.”
When the door closed, the king paced the floor, and then he began. “When these creatures first arrived in our lands, we quickly discovered they could twist the minds of men, fae and mortal alike. They have some kind of power of manipulation. If you listen to them speak for long enough, you begin to see things as they do. And they carry with them this vicious rage. It can infect you.”
I exchanged a glance with Val. “That tracks with everything we know about them.”
He nodded. “You’ll be thinking of King Oberon and his descent into cruelty. He held out far better than most others have. His will was strong. It’s a shame Andromeda still broke him in the end.”
“It’s not a shame,” Val cut in. “He tortured us. He had innocents killed. He was amonster.”
“The Lamiae are the monsters,” the king countered. “And you’ll do well to remember that. They can twist the souls of even the brightest and kindest among us. But the comet showed us there was one thing in our world, one element, that could protect us against them. Onyx gemstones.”
