Page 246 of The Robin on the Oak Throne

“Can I…even hold it?” Kierse glanced between them. “It’s iron.”

Graves considered. “Worth finding out.”

“It’s of the gods,” Gen said. “I don’t think it’s the same thing.”

Kierse nodded, searching for another reason to put it off but not finding one. She had to do this. She had to hold an iron cauldron and hope that it would fix what had happened to her. The fear that it wouldn’t be able to help her with anything she needed was overwhelming.

“Kierse?” Gen said softly.

“Right. Yeah. My turn.”

“Do you know what you’re going to ask for?”

Kierse nodded. “Sure.”

“We can do this later,” Gen told her.

“No,” she said on a sigh. “I just… I thought…”

She trailed off, unsure where she was even going with it. She hadn’t been convinced that the cauldron could give her magic or make her wholly Fae before. She didn’t knowwhatit could do. Even seeing Gen’s increased magic and the potion it had made for Nate, she was still a skeptic. Despite all she’d seen.

“Trust me,” Gen said.

And in the end, Gen’s soothing voice was all she needed. She placed the cauldron in Kierse’s hands, and all the noise fell away, all the what ifs filtered out of her head, and in its place was silence.

Kierse closed her eyes, and she felt a presence. As if something was evaluating her. She didn’t even have time to ask anything of the cauldron. To figure out what it was that she wanted from it. The cauldron seemed to figure out what the answer to her problem was before it was even requested.

This was done to you, a voice said in her mind.

She shivered at the sound. So like the spear, and yet…nothing like it at all. This was feminine, almost gentle, and somehow more ferocious than the spear had ever been. A duality she could hardly grasp.

And you want it gone. I can see that.

She did. She wanted the bond gone desperately.

It was done correctly. It is part of you.

No.This wasn’t part of her. She didn’t want it to be a part of her. She wanted it gone. It didn’t matter to her if it had been done correctly. Surely there should be a way to unravel it when it had been done under those horrid circumstances.

There is another way.

Kierse held her breath. Hope still beating in her chest. She would do it. Anything to make it stop.

Anything? Are you sure?

Was she? Yes. Anything to make it stop.

Except.

Except…the voice prodded.

Her humanity. The part of her that was connected to her father. She couldn’t give that up. She didn’t want to be fully Fae. It was the first time that she had known. She was part wisp, part human. It was who she was. And it was who she wanted to remain.

It’s agreed, then.

Agreed?

This might hurt.

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