I shrugged. “I’ve just… lost interest.”
“Not everyone can master shadow manipulation. It’s a difficult art,” Lucien said.
“But she’s the Worldweaver,” Arthur objected. “This should be easy for her.”
“Shadow manipulation isn’t about ability. It’s about acceptance of self,” Lucien explained. “It can’t be fully accessed unless Emma comes to terms with that.”
No thanks. If learning shadow magic meant accepting I was going to die, then I never wanted to experience it.
“But it’s one more tool in her arsenal she can use when the Black Claw comes for her blood,” Arthur insisted. “We’re barely months away now.”
“Yes. The prophecy,” Lucien stated grimly. “We know it quickly approaches.”
“December is still a ways off,” I said, though my words still felt grim. It was growing colder. Soon, cultists would be searching for me, to offer me as a sacrifice to raise the dark god.
“Why do they need my blood to raise Droga, anyway? Why am I so special?” I asked.
“Centuries ago, Tomir used the blood of another Worldweaver to seal Droga away, which is why he needs the blood of another to resurrect himself,” Lucien explained. “Droga and the Worldweavers have been at war since the beginning of time. You are one in a line of many champions sent to defeat him, Emma.”
Hopefully I’d be the last. Arthur went to protest further, but Lucien raised a hand. “She’s not ready. Give it some time.”
I didn’t think I’d ever be ready. Accepting your destiny was a hard fate.
Knowing that destiny would harm someone you loved, and take your life? Near impossible.
But fighting against the inevitable felt even worse. And I knew it was coming. I could feel it like the incoming of a storm, just waiting to strike.
My shadow self insisted there was no other way. I wouldn’t believe that until my last breath left me.
Until then, I’d keep fighting. For now.
Chapter Thirteen
Ethan
“We’ve arrived, your majesty.”
The carriage came to a stop as the brusk voice of the alicorn pulling the cart echoed through the air. Emma started at my side, clutching at the carriage seat. She appeared very nervous.
“Take a breath,” I told her as I took her hand. “It’ll be all right.”
She swallowed thickly. “What if they don’t like me?”
“They will love you, and if they do not, they are fools.”
Dolinska had several outlying Faction villages surrounding the city. Emma had been to all of them but our own, and I thought it was high time she did. We had decided to travel to the wolven village to meet with the pack before our wedding. It was the end of October, and our nuptials were weeks away. If Emma was to be my bride, our Faction had to accept her as their female alpha first.
Previously, the two of us had been banned from the wolven town’s borders, but now that we were king and queen, we had an invitation to visit again. I planned to use our visit to make things right with the pack.
“What if they’re still angry at us for cheating in the Contest? They don’t blame you for losing, you know. They blame me,” she argued.
“They know we have partaken in the Trial of Tears. Most are merely happy to see wolvens on the throne,” I told her.
“But some of them still support Gabby. You can’t say that’s not true,” she insisted.
“Some do, yes. But they left the pack months ago, to be with Gabby at her fortress. It is only the ones who are still wavering in the middle that we need to convince. Courage, Emma.”
She nodded. We walked out of the carriage, and she turned in place as she looked around.
