Page 111 of The Rebel Seer

I try to help the king stand, offering him my shoulder to balance against. He’s pale and unsteady as he gets to his feet, but he forces himself to face Eoin.

“Do not harm her. Let her go, Eoin. We were friends once. She is the only person I have ever loved. Honor our friendship. Let her go,” he says, his voice shaking.

I can tell him it won’t work. I can certainly tell him that I am not the woman he loved, that he didn’t love her enough. Instead I stand there and wait for the inevitable because there’s nothing else to do. There’s nowhere to run, and I can’t get into a fight because they’ve already shown they don’t mind lodging an arrow in a person. The problem is if they lodge one in me, they might hit my daughter, and I cannot risk that.

Eoin’s head shakes, and he pulls out a sphere. It’s a familiar one. This has to be a gift from Myrddin. Sarah played around with them as transportation spells. A sphaera motus.

“I don’t trust you, and the wizard was specific about who I was supposed to bring.” He stands close to us and drops the orb.

It hits the ground, and there’s a whirring sound and the world goes fuzzy. I hold on to the king, and in a flash we’re in a completely different place. The bubble around us dissipates and I’m suddenly cold, harsh winds blowing my hair back.

I look up and recognize the mountain. Not this one, but the same in our timeline. This was where we’d once looked for the Blood Stone all those years ago, where Danny had taken on a frost giant and at the end of our successful smash and grab I was sold into sexual slavery to a goddess named Nimue.

Good times. But I doubted this trip to the mountain would end the way that one did.

“You need to run if you get the chance,” the king whispers. “He won’t need me for long, and I don’t believe he has any intention to honor his word. I was a fool.”

“Yes, you were,” a familiar voice says. “You were a complete idiot, and it was my pleasure to work with you.”

I turn and Myrddin has a tent set up. He stands in the doorway, completely at ease as though it’s not frigid here.

As though death doesn’t hang over the mountain. Even I can feel the weight of it.

The king groans as the guards haul him toward the tent.

I think seriously about running, but there are two guards at my sides, each taking an elbow.

“Queen Zoey,” the wizard chides, his dark eyes on me. “You want to leave so soon? I’m afraid I have to insist on you joining our group. I have so much to show and tell you. I recently left a meeting with your brats.”

“You saw my children?” Fear is so much colder than the wind because there’s a smirk on his face that tells me he knows something I don’t know.

“Yes. Just last night. It’s why I had to leave for a while. They’ve gotten awfully cozy with Lucifer Morningstar and that whore Lilith. I was rather surprised when she showed up.” Myrddin stands in front of the entryway, blocking us and leaving me to feel the bite of the wind. “Naturally she fucked me over, but what else should I expect from the woman who spat Nimue from her womb.”

Nim’s mom? She never mentioned to me she had a mother. I kind of thought she sprang fully formed from the lake she guarded. I had a hundred questions, but only one mattered, and I couldn’t ask it because he lies.

Are my children alive?

I force down bile because I’m about to be at his mercy and he will have none.

Myrddin studies me for a moment. If he feels the cold, he doesn’t show it. He folds his arms over his chest. “That son of yours outmaneuvered me. Lucifer owed me a boon and I meant to collect Dean since they so thoughtfully brought him to the Hell plane. Unfortunately, Lee is fucking things up in all timelines, and I had to make do with tossing your little girl off a balcony and into the pits of Hell. Demons are probably polishing off her bones right now. Or they’re having a good time with her. I don’t really care as long as she’s dead at the end of it. You take my child, I’ll kill yours, Your Highness.”

He lies. He lies. He fucking lies.

I force the words through my head over and over because if I don’t believe them, I will break utterly. I cannot… Evangeline is not dead. She was there with Kelsey and her brother and Fenrir and Trent and Gray. They would not allow it. Fenrir would give his life for her.

Is he dead, too?

Is Kelsey in mourning?

It’s too much. Far too much. I can’t begin to process.

He lies and lies and lies.

“Nothing to say, my queen?”

He lies. Give him nothing. He’s doing it to get a rise out of me, to put me off. My daughter is not dead. Not dead.

How far could the fall be? She’s on her father’s blood. She can take a lot of damage. Fenrir would follow her. He would defend her. She is alive.

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