Toryn shook his head. “No, he was worried he’d caught something, and he didn’t want to spread it to us. Now that we know what it is, I wonder if he suspected the truth.”
Druid Balfor nodded sagely. “When he arrived at my door, he told me not to touch him. And then he said something about Talaven.”
“Talaven?” I frowned. “What would Talaven have to do with this?”
“They once told me I would starve to death if I failed,” Ruari said in a voice that crackled like fire. He laughed, then coughed. “I suppose this means I’ve failed.”
“What are you talking about?” I moved closer to his bed.
He peered up at me with bloodshot eyes. “They instructed me not to tell you anything, that it would ruin it all. But if I failed, I suppose it doesn’t matter now. You should know what’s coming for you.” Trembling, he held his hand out toward me.
My heart squeezed. I reached to take his hand, but Druid Balfor appeared by my side, pulling me back.
“He’s delirious,” the old Druid said. “Likely, he’s hallucinating. He might not even realize who he’s talking to right now, much less understand what he’s saying.”
“You don’t think there’s any truth to his words?” Kalen asked.
“How could there be?” Druid Balfor said. “He’s rambling about Talaven and warnings of starvation. It’s Orion’s power doing this to him, I hate to say. And I do not know of a way to save him from it.”
“I do,” Nellie said, stepping inside the candlelit room. “I’ll rake my claws across Orion’s face. That will bring out the better side of him, right? Like it did with Sirius. Then we can bring him here. He’ll be compelled to undo his famine. He can make it stop.”
Druid Balfor sighed heavily. “I’m afraid it would be too late, even if you managed it, my dear. A god can undo what they have done, but they must do it quickly. Within minutes.”
“He’s right, Nellie,” I said gently. “At least that’s how it’s always worked with death.”
She shook her head and brushed the tears from her cheeks. “This isn’t fair. It isn’t right.”
“No, but it is my fate,” Ruari croaked out. “A fate that I deserve. I’ve failed us all.”
* * *
Back in the Great Hall, the mood was somber. After Druid Balfor confirmed our worst fears—Ruariwouldpass famine on to anyone he touched—we returned to the table to determine our next course of action. Remnants of a happier time littered the table: half-empty tankards, playing cards, and puddles of dried candle-wax. Until Kalen and I had arrived, everyone had been celebrating. They’d been happy.
Kalen now stood at the head of the table, chair pushed back, shoulders squared. Somewhere along the way, he’d donned his crown of twisting branches, and waves of his power radiated down the table. He still barely glanced my way.
“The gods are demanding we return the gemstones. If we don’t, they will ransack this city and kill everyone within it,” he said, his booming voice echoing through the expansive room. “We have until dawn.”
I could have heard a pin drop.
Toryn braced his forearms on the table and groaned. Fenella clucked her tongue, tossed her booted feet on the table, and started polishing one of her daggers. Gaven merely sighed.
Nellie whispered to me, “You can’t return the gemstones.”
“They’ve backed us into a corner,” Fenella said. “We have to choose between Aesir and the mortal kingdoms.”
Toryn nodded. “If we don’t return the gemstones, they’ll destroy us. But if we do, they’ll use them against the humans.”
“They’ll bring back Callisto and put her in another body,” I said. “Pandora, too, whatever she is. It means there’ll be seven of them instead of five.”
“Do you think that’s all of them? Or are there more?” Nellie worried at her bottom lip. “What if there are hundreds of gods? What if there’s an entire army of them?”
“There are seven.” Druid Balfor appeared in the doorway. Lines streaked out from his eyes like whiskers, and he shuffled forward as if his body bowed beneath the weight of exhaustion. “Death, War, Fear, Famine, Pestilence, Shadow, and Storms. And they can cause a significant amount of damage if they’re all in play.”
“Shadow and Storms?” Kalen asked with a frown. “Those are the names of two fae kingdoms. You can’t tell me that’s a coincidence.”
Druid Balfor ignored him and looked at me. “You have in your possession Storms and War. The essences of them, at least.”
“How do you know all this?” I asked.
