I’d tried contacting the mortals, of course, to ask them. As always, they ignored me. I was to never summon them—only the other way around. So for one of the first times in my life, I truly did not know what to do. It was my choice, I supposed. I wasn’t used to that.
I could go down there and end this, take my dagger and plunge it into her ever-beating heart. But that was just it, wasn’t it? That heart was not hers to beat. She’d stolen it from someone else, someone my father had enslaved for centuries. And even then, whoever she’d been before—Bellicent Denare, the queen who had loved her people, loved her sons—was gone now. The magic of Andromeda had corrupted her until she was nothing but a twisted version of that woman.
She was not my mother, not truly. And judging by the keen glint I’d seen in her eye when I’d visited her in the dungeon, she had something else planned. I needed to stop her. Or Kalen did.
I hated that I could not bring myself to do it.
A knock sounded on my door. I stopped pacing, as if whoever stood on the other side of the door would be able to read my mind by my hurried footsteps. Sucking in a sharp breath, I pressed down the front of my orange tunic, strode to the door, and flung it open.
Gaven stood on the other side with his silver hair pulled back into a bun. Arms folded, he leaned against the doorframe, a slight smile curving his lips. “Are you quite all right in here, Ruari?”
“Fine,” I snapped. “Are your men ready to march?”
“They’re preparing. As you should be.”
“I’m prepared.”
“Have you ever faced a pooka?” he asked, cocking his head.
“As a matter of fact, I have.” For years, I’d sneaked in and out of Albyria to hide supplies in one of the caves near the base of the western mountains, knowing one day, I would need them. I’d tried to be as stealthy as possible, but even then, those creatures had far more of a heightened sense of smell than I’d given them credit for at first. I’d been forced to fight them on more than one occasion. Luckily, my father had made certain I knew how to wield a sword.
One of the few things he’d ever done right, at least where his sons were concerned.
Gaven had the nerve to look surprised. “Good. Perhaps you’ll make it to Dubnos after all. Unless you betray us, of course.”
“Well, I have no other choice but to fight by your side, do I? I made a vow.”
“And that’s a problem?”
“I see what you’re trying to do. You want to catch me out in some kind of lie, or you want to get me to admit I have plans to move against you.”
“Do you blame me?” Gaven looked me up and down, noting my orange tunic—my father’s color. “You have been our enemy for a very long time, and your father was a fucking bastard who fell under Andromeda’s thrall. For all I know, you have, too.”
“My father never let me anywhere near that necklace unless he was wearing it. Even then, he hardly paid attention to me, to any of my brothers or sisters. He didn’t like…” I snapped my mouth shut.
Gaven’s eyes flashed across my face. I didn’t like the way he was staring at me now, like he could read my every thought. Like he knewexactlywhat I’d been about to say.He didn’t like that we didn’t look like Bellicent Denare. We looked like the human women who had birthed us.
“I’m sure it must have been difficult,” he said more softly than I’d expected.
I shook my head and turned away. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”
“Then tell me what Morgan wanted.”
Ah, so there it was. The real reason for his visit. Before we left to battle our way to Dubnos, Gaven wanted to know what his prized prisoner had said to me. I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. If I told him, what would he do with her?
“Let me ask you a question,” he said when a few moments of silence had passed. “Whatever she said, did it have anything to do with what we might face? Is there anything we need to know, Ruari? Are we walking into something we can’t survive?”
I relaxed just a bit. That, I could answer honestly. “She just wanted me to let her out.”
“And can you control her, like your father could?”
“No.”
“All right.” He nodded, as if satisfied by my answers, though I wouldn’t have been if I were him. But then a wolfish smile crossed his face, so achingly familiar, I almost flinched. My father often got that look on his face before he said something he knew someone wouldn’t like. “That’s too bad. I would have been curious to find out if Oberon’s power over her still worked, even though she’s not Morgan in there now.”
I started.Fuck.
“How did you find out?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady even as my heart pounded against my ribs. I had known it would only be a matter of time before the truth slipped out or someone would piece it all together. Of course it had been Gaven. Quiet, calculating Gaven. And even though I was not sure I wanted to protect her, to keep her safe after everything she’d done…she was still my mother. My horrible, brutal mother.
