“The Daughter of Stars,” she insisted. The others began to slow as they noticed her attention on me. “You are the one from the prophecy.”
I shifted on my feet and exchanged an uneasy glance with Kalen. “What prophecy?”
“The prophecy of the stars! The savior of the fae!” another Crone exclaimed before dancing away on frantic feet.
Fenella edged up beside me. “Seems the Crones think you’re some kind of savior. Good thing we brought you back to life, eh?”
I shot her a look. “They don’t know what they’re talking about. Until now, I didn’t even think they could speak. What Oberon did to them…well, I don’t understand how they’re doing any of this. They were only shells the last time I saw them.”
“A piece of them must be left in there,” she said. “The human girls, I mean. The ones who were sacrificed to give Oberon his, erm…” She winced, glancing at Kalen. “Bellicent.”
Frowning, I watched the Crones. Nothing in that vision they’d shown me, and nothing in Oberon’s own confessions, had made it seem like the souls of those human girls could have survived becoming a vessel for someone else. But they’d still been cognizant enough to show me that vision. They’d reached out and touched my arm. Their eyes had been distant, but notgone.
An idea burned bright in my mind.
I touched Fenella’s arm. “We need to gather everyone and have a meeting.”
* * *
Kalen, Toryn, Fenella, and Nellie were gathered in the remains of Oberon’s Great Hall to discuss our next steps. Gaven had stayed outside to keep an eye on the Crones—someone had to watch them. They’d gathered around an oak table that had survived the blaze. Someone had made a start on cleaning up the place, and while the hall didn’t glimmer and shine as it had before, most of the ash and rubble had been removed.
The one-eyed dragon banners were gone, replaced by simple teal tapestries edged in silver. The charred stone floor was hidden beneath a matching carpet, and several gemstone lanterns hung from the ceiling, twinkling with light. I walked inside after listening to the chants of the old Crones one more time. I thought I might make sense of it. I was wrong.
Nellie jumped from her chair when she saw me, then rushed around the table with a bundle of black cloth in her hands. She didn’t embrace me when she reached me. I could tell she still worried I might fall apart. “You’re on your feet.”
“I’m on my feet.” I smiled.
“I am so sorry, Tessa. I shouldn’t have…”
“Nellie, don’t.” I grasped her arm. “It’s not your fault. All right? I’m here, and I’m alive,because of you.”
She nodded, then shoved the cloth into my hands. “I knew you were upset about the cloak, so I washed the strips and sewed them back together. It’s not the prettiest thing, but I thought you’d like it anyway.”
My lips tipped up in the corners. I unfolded the cloth, and the fabric rippled toward the floor. It was Kalen’s cloak, with its silver crescent moons, with its stains of blood and mud that persisted despite being cleaned. Rough, jagged lines of silver thread now decorated the length of it, but I couldn’t have cared less. It wore its remnants of battle and pain, and it was still here. Nellie had put it back together for me.
“Thank you, Nellie.” I hugged her tightly, pressing my lips against her hair. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”
After draping the cloak around my shoulders, I joined the others at the table.
Fenella leaned back in her chair and kicked her mud-encrusted boots onto the table. She pulled out a dagger and used it to pick at her nails. “Let me guess,Daughter of Stars. You called for a meeting because you want to chase down the gods.”
“Don’t call me that,” I said.
“Why not? There’s a prophecy about you. Probably an important one if those Crones out there woke up just so they could shout about it.”
I pressed my lips together. Truth was, Ihadheard that name before. From the sky itself. At the time, I thought perhaps I’d been imagining the voice. It been flying for the first time in my life, and I’d been exhilarated from the thrill of it. Beasts had been hunting me. Kalen had been in danger. And so my mind had conjured this impossible thing.
Or so I’d thought.
Could the voice have been real? If so, what did it even mean, and how had I heard it that day? Surely the stars themselves couldn’t speak to me. How could they speak to anyone at all?
“Anyway, that’s not why I wanted to have a meeting,” I said instead of acknowledging the prophecy. “Fenella, you said something out there that got me thinking.”
She grinned. “Thinking is always a dangerous past-time.”
Toryn laced his hands behind his head, rubbing his fingers across the buzzed hair he’d cut again since we’d arrived in the Kingdom of Light. Nellie sat beside him, looking at him fondly. I bit back a smile.
“It got me thinking as well,” he said. “You put one of the gods into Caedmon.” He gave Fenella an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. I know it must be hard.”
