Val stood and moved to my side. “Oberon’s necklace. It was made of onyx.”
“That’s right. But even with the gemstone protecting him and his bride, Bellicent, they spent far too much time in Andromeda’s presence. Centuries, in fact. And the onyx weakened every time he used the power to save his wife.”
“That explains a lot,” Alastair said with a nod.
“The onyx can alsotrapthe Lamiae. We were able to do it once, using the comet to guide us on the right path. We caught them unawares and locked them inside sarcophaguses we’d embedded with powerful onyx. It worked. Temporarily, of course, and it was only meant to last as long as Andromeda, in her full form, was not here. But the comet is no longer in the sky, and they gain their strength from her presence. Her return will mean the others have managed to escape.”
“Wait.” Alastair frowned. “I thought the fae and mortals banished them all.”
“That was nothing but lies meant to hide the truth. The gods have been here all this time,” the king said quietly. “There was only enough power to banish one of them, and even then, we could only get rid of her physical form, not her essence. As you well know, Andromeda’s essence has been here all these years, split in two and trapped in onyx.”
“Wait, you mentioned a power. What power?” Val asked in a hushed voice. And I knew what she was thinking. The king had called Tessa the Daughter of Stars. Did he meanherpower? Couldshebanish the gods?
“Ironically, the power to banish them came with the very fallen star that brought them here. There was a gemstone hidden among the comet’s remains. We call it Dochas. It is not of this world, and it is strong enough to banish a Lamiae. Or rip a chasm in the earth.”
I sucked in a sharp breath and stepped back. Achasm. Like Kalen’s chasm. “What are you saying?”
“My ancestors discovered mortals were not strong enough to use the power of the Dochas. If they held the gemstone, it killed them,” the king continued, his face unreadable. “And so we called upon the aid of a fae king. Aodhan Grenat, who at the time ruled over all of Aesir, back before the kingdoms were split into three. Ovalis, the King of Talaven, showed Aodhan everything that would come to be and everything they needed to do to save the future world. And they saw there was only one way this would work. Aodhan, as a fae and strong enough to wield the gemstone’s power, would use it to split Andromeda in two and send her body back to the stars, where it would remain for thousands of years. But Ovalis and Aodhan knew she would one day return and that she would not be caught unawares a second time. She can mute any power a fae wields, you see, but even if she couldn’t, she found a way to protect herself from the Dochas. Andromeda is very good at adapting. An attack against her only works once. Never a second time.”
“Why didn’t they just banish all of the bitch back then?” Alastair demanded. “They had one shot at this, and you’re telling me they fucked it up?”
“The power of the Dochas came with the gods. It’s foreign to these lands. Mortals cannot use it at all, and while fae can, they still cannot call upon its full strength. King Aodhan did his best. It just wasn’t enough.”
“So then what is enough?” Val whispered.
“We carved the gemstone into pieces. There’s enough left for another attempt. A fae must be the one to hold the Dochas, but that person will not be able to wield it against the gods. Not this time. Someone else must channel the powerthroughthe fae who carries it. Someone powerful enough to call upon the full force of its magic. Someone neither fae nor fully mortal. She must be a descendent of Andromeda. The Daughter of Stars.”
My voice had left me. I needed to sit down.
“The gemstone,” Alastair said, his face paling, as if realizing the same thing I had. There was only one person with enough power to rip a chasm in the earth. “What color is it?”
“A deep sapphire blue,” the king said.
The color of Kal’s eyes.
I stumbled sideways, and Val grabbed my arm to hold me steady.
The king continued. “Kalen Denare was born with ice-blue eyes. We asked Druid Balfor to perform the surgery when he was only a year old, when Bellicent was called away on an urgent mission to deal with some fires in Star Isles. She had no idea why his eyes had changed during her absence, not until she came to visit us all those years later, demanding answers.”
Druid Balfor?He’d known all this time? All I could do was stare. The roaring in my ears grew louder.
“You fucking bastards,” Alastair breathed. “You ripped out a child’s eyes and replaced them withfucking gemstones?”
I pressed my hand to my throat.His eyes. Kalen had mentioned that for a while, his eyes had appeared as ice-blue in his dreams with Tessa, though he’d made a conscious effort to change them back to sapphire once he knew.
But he hadn’t understood what it meant. Kalen did not know about any of this.
“It was the only way. The bearer has to be fae,” Duncan Hinde said without a hint of remorse in his voice. “The power bonded with him, grew with him. It became bigger and stronger. Now Tessa Baran can channel it through her own body, as long as he is near her side. Andromeda cannot mute it because Tessa is not fae. This willsaveus. It’s the only way to defeat the Lamiae.”
Alastair let out a low growl. “You’ve used Kalen like a puppet. You’ve used us all.”
The king lifted his chin. “I will not apologize for any of this. None of it was my decision. It started thousands of years ago and—”
“But you kept it secret all this time,” Alastair cut in, striding up to the king. He towered over him, a bundle of muscle-bound power. “You’ve been moving your little pieces around the board, sitting here in the safety of your castle whilereal livesare being affected. People have died because of this.”
The King of Talaven lifted his eyes to Alastair’s face, and he did not back down. “And if I had not done that, far more lives would end in the coming war. King Ovalis Hinde began this by making a promise to a fae king, and that promise will be the thing that ends it. So long as Tessa Baran chooses right.”
“What was the promise?” Val whispered.
