“You did contact us for months. Years, even,” Niamh said, cocking her head at the silver-haired light fae.
“True.” Morgan nodded. “And then he found out what I was doing and forbade me from ever doing it again.”
“Prove it,” Alastair barked from behind her. “What was your mother’s name?”
Morgan paled. “Keira.”
Fenella leaned forward and pressed her small blade against Morgan’s throat. “That’s too easy. Bellicent could know that information. Try something else. Something only Morgan Allanach would know. Something she never would have shared with Oberon or his queen.”
Morgan’s eyes darted to the side, and she hissed.
Kalen moved to my side and wound his arm around my back, tugging me close. His mist curled around me, a comforting embrace, even as he kept his hard gaze locked on Morgan. It took all my strength not to sag against him. As I’d wandered through the mists, watching the comet streak through the skies, I would have given upeverythingjust to see him. One more time. And now, here he was.
“I have an idea,” I said, tensing when every eye in the room turned my way. “If Oberon went through with it, Morgan will have that mark on her back. The same one I have—the one-eyed dragon. It’s part of the ritual.”
Morgan smiled.
There was something in her expression that unnerved me, even though this seemed like a good idea. Oberon had to carve the mark into the vessel’s skin with the ancient comet’s dust. It created the magic that allowed the transfer to happen. If Morgan was Bellicent, she’d have that mark. But the look in her eye felt wrong—like we’d walked straight into another trap.
Fenella dug her blade into Morgan’s neck and hissed into her ear. A trickle of blood dripped down her pale skin. “You hear that? Show us your back.”
Morgan held up her hands and met my gaze. “I can’t show you my back if you’re trying to slice my throat.”
“Fenella,” Kalen warned.
She huffed and dropped back. “You don’t deserve our mercy, especially if you’reher.”
I glanced up at Kalen, taking in the tensing of his jaw and the darkness around his eyes. I could only imagine what he must be feeling right now. Only a few weeks ago, he’d believed his mother had been dead for centuries. Since then, storm cloud after storm cloud of new information had opened the skies above him, drenching him in the truth. His mother was alive—or she had been. And she’d been working with Oberon, using the god’s power to prolong her life. Now she might be standing before us, pretending to be someone else entirely.
If it were me, I’d be seconds away from ripping the sky apart.
With steady calm, Morgan slowly unbuckled the bracers around her armor. She slid off the steel and dropped it on the ground, leaving her in a stained tunic that clung to her sweat-drenched skin. She kept her eyes locked on my face as she tugged down the material and showed us her back.
Her skin was clear and smooth. There wasn’t a single mark on her.
A whistling breath escaped Kalen’s throat, and his grip around my waist tightened. “You’re not her,” he said, his voice rough. “You’re not my mother.”
“I’m sorry, Kalen,” Morgan said, pulling the shirt back over her shoulder. “Your mother is dead.”
His arm trembled where he held me close, but there was no visible sign of his suffering. I’d heard the disappointment in his voice, though. Despite what it would have meant, a part of him had hoped we’d find that mark on Morgan’s shoulder. It would have meant Bellicent was alive. After all these years, he’d be able to speak to her again.
An ache formed in my chest. I understood how he felt more than I wanted to admit. My father had done so many terrible things—things I still hadn’t fully processed. Might never process. He had hurt me. He’d hurt Nellie, too. And yet, I couldn’t hate him. I still wished I could see him again, if only so I could say goodbye.
If only so I could move on from it all.
“I still don’t trust her,” Fenella said, grabbing Morgan’s arms and twisting them behind her back. A moment later, manacles snapped around her wrists, and Fenella hauled her out of the pub by pulling on a heavy chain. Where had she gotten that? “We’ll take her with us and lock her in the dungeons until we can decide what to do with her.”
“Kalen,” Morgan said sharply, vanishing out into the streets with Niamh and Toryn just behind her. “Surely you don’t agree with this.”
Kalen closed his eyes, and the door slammed.
And then it was just the two of us in the pub, clinging to one another. A moment passed before I found the words.
“It’s a good thing that it’s not her,” I said softly. “It would have hurt more, if it were.”
“I know. Still hurts, though.”
A moment passed in silence, my heart twisting into tangled ribbons of unease. I hated to shatter our reunion, but I couldn’t stop the questions that tumbled through my mind. Regardless of what Kalen insisted, I knew what I’d done. I’d destroyed Oberon and the necklace…
