My chest tightened. “That’s why you came to me. Not to find out what I know but to convince me to find out whatsheknows.”
“Do you object?”
“I do if you want me to go down there and pretend you don’t plan on killing her.”
“Then don’t pretend. Tell her whatever you like, just as long as you get some answers for us. You have until morning, and then we leave for Dubnos.”
Gaven left my room while a dozen different emotions warred within me. None of this was right, or fair. Not that I knew what fairness would even be in this situation. On one hand, the clever fae was right. If anyone had information about Andromeda’s plans or what it might take to beat her, it was my mother, who had been powered by the god’s magic for hundreds of years. Through that gemstone necklace, Bellicent Denare had spoken to Andromeda’s spirit, that essence stripped away and trapped there. There was no doubt in my mind she had told my mother wondrous and terrible things. But that did not mean she would share those things with me, or that I could look into her face and ask her to tell me when I knew her coming fate.
Permanent death.
I moved to the window and gazed out at the night-drenched realm. A moon burned through the dense fog, basking the city in a faint silvery glow. Over the past few hours, the mists had thinned so I could see the winding streets, the rust-colored rooftops, and the stone bridges that connected one hilly neighborhood to the next. Fae and humans alike strolled along the paths, clustering in squares with market stalls or wandering in and out of a bustling pub.
My heart ached at the sight of it. Once, Albyria’s streets had been just like this. I’d only been a small child, running barefoot through the courtyard, laughing as the sun gifted us with its warming beams. My mother had chased me with her arms open wide. Then, she’d looked nothing like she did now. Her eyes had been bright, and I could have sworn there’d been a flicker of the human woman there…
But that was impossible. My mother was Bellicent Denare, not the poor woman whose life she’d stolen.
And I needed to find out what she knew. It was the only way to protect those people out there—the only way to protect Albyria, too.
With a heavy heart, I left my room and headed to the dungeons. The guards at the top of the stairwell leading down into the gloom were nowhere to be seen. Had Gaven told them to stand down to give me some privacy? Perhaps he thought she wouldn’t speak unless she knew we were alone.
Still, a strange unease prickled the back of my neck.
The sensation only grew worse when I found a guard liberated of his head at the bottom of the stairs. I sidestepped his body and the pool of glistening blood to follow the path to my mother’s prison.
The cell doors were wide open, and a key dangled in the lock. And of course, she was long, long gone. Bellicent Denare was free.
* * *
Ifound Gaven in the courtyard where he was directing warriors to the stables. His face remained blank as I stepped up beside him, though I could have sworn there was a slight hitch in his jaw. The courtyard was teeming with fae, warriors packing steel into sheaths and fitting bracers and gloves for the dangerous journey ahead of us.
“She’s gone,” I said in a low voice, careful to keep my words as vague as possible. I didn’t want to raise alarm right before we were due to set off.
“Explain.”
“There were keys in the cell door and a dead guard in the hallway.”
He slid his sharp silver eyes my way. “And I’m to believe you weren’t involved?”
“I have human blood. Scent me.”
“Nice try, but you already told me that doesn’t work. Any reason you aren’t more alarmed by this?”
“I could ask you the same question.”
“Iamalarmed. But there’s little I can do other than send some of our men into the mist to look for her. Perhaps she won’t make it far.”
“One thing I’ve learned over the years is to never underestimate Bellicent Denare.” Even so, the thought of her out there by herself facing down countless beasts made me shiver. In Morgan’s form, she would be strong and skilled at fighting. She’d have the ability to heal if she got into a bind. But she wasn’t invincible, and those creatures knew how to kill fae.
I hated that I still cared.
“Well, there’s nothing more we can do,” Gaven said with a frown. “Continue your preparations. We ride for Dubnos at dawn.”
Thirty-Eight
Tessa
Kalen’s grand plan was to descend a dangerous mountain rather than taking the easier route through the Gaoth Pass. That was the way, he’d insisted, the gods would expect us to go. All the scouts had taken that path, and they’d vanished once they crossed the border. So instead of risking our lives that way, we were rappelling down a cliff face.
