Page 38 of Stone Sentinels

That catches me. “My father?” I insist as I glare at him. “What do you know of him?”

“He bowed in the end, like all the rest. Abedon thrust his blade through your father as though he were no more than a mortal. Gildlorthoine’s bloodline should have ended that day, but here you are, a beautiful abomination that none of us foresaw.”

“I don’t believe you,” I scoff, maneuvering around a soldier. “You could be full of shit.”

“But, I’m not,” he insists. “And what about your mother?” he chuckles. “You already know she and your sister are no longer alive, but do you know who took their lives?”

“Tell me.”

“Give me Morrigan and I will answer your questions. I’ll even tell you who took your memories. And then I’ll fuck you just like you want me to.” Theren turns suddenly and kicks a harpy in the chest, sending her careening back until she catches herself with her wings. I watch him raise his blade and plunge it through the heart of the beautifully savage creature. Her cries call forth the other harpies, who circle her as Theren retreats slightly. Their power lifts the fallen harpy and with a glow of warm magic, they revive her, healing her wounds and turning on the Unseelie with rampant bloodlust.

Theren comes at me once more, but I jump out of the way. Aima and I keep him in our sights, neither of us willing to meet our end at the tip of his sword. But, before I can stop him, the Unseelie King grabs my arm and I catapult through time...

The world is silent as I stand in the grove. Flecks of snow cling to my armor and dampen my hair. “Hello?” I call out, but only the sound of my voice echoes back to me. The crunch of footfalls in the snow reaches my ears. I spin and reach for my dagger, but it’s gone. I brace myself for death, but it doesn’t come.

Theren.

He stands in front of me, lacking all traces of the cold indifference I saw in him a moment ago.

“Eilish…” the Unseelie King breathes. “What you see isn’t real. Variant and I aren’t in control of ourselves, that much you know, but there’s more.Shehas found a way to trap us inside our minds while her minions work through us.”

“Why am I here?”

“Because you broke through the spell—or at least cracked the wards that hold me prisoner. I only had a moment to react, but I took a risk in bringing you here… to this dream world.”

“What’s going on, Theren?” I insist.

“Morrigan has an artificer crafting a talisman to hold the life forces she harvested from the fae,” he says quickly. “This talisman will help her find and kill Silvanus.”

“Why does she want to kill Silvanus?”

“So she can get her power back. Silvanus is the last of the gods; his death will shift the Realms further into darkness. I don’t have time to explain the rest; I feel myself growing weaker. However this ends, know that I will try to aid you in any way possible. If you survive, destroy the Threst and find a way to release Variant and me from our prisons.”

The vision shatters.

Aima shakes me with one hand while defending us with the other.

“Eilish! What happened?” she yells at me. I unsheathe my dagger and bury it to the hilt in a harpy’s gut. Unlike Theren’s sword, my dagger absorbs the creature’s soul. She can’t be revived. Aima fights her way back to me and checks me over for injuries.

“What the hell was that?”

“Theren.”

“No shit. What did he do to you?”

“He told me what to do next.” This whole time, we’ve been waiting to figure out the next step in our mission. And, all along, the answer was within our enemy. “And you were right—that’s not Theren.”

***

BARON

The Veil

Shit. I whistle to Kolvar as the harpies fly towards the clearing. The large satyr jumps from the window and plows through Theren’s men with a strength I envy. I climb down from the tree and fight my way back towards Pyre, but I stop at the tree line, watching as Theren seems to battle with himself. He and Eilish cling to one another in some sort of trance until they fall away.

Aima, thankfully, gets the angel to safety while Theren’s men pull him behind their ranks to secure their king. Whatever that was... I hope Eilish isn’t foolish enough to allow it to blind her to our cause. Theren has powerful magic and it would be easy to fall captive to it.

The last thing we need is to end up losing another member of our faction. Cambion’s absence alone has affected us greatly. We can’t afford to lose Eilish, too.

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