Page 166 of Crown of Darkness
“Then I guess you had best prepare for a long night ahead.”
Oh, that makes him angry.
“Andthereyou are again.” He shakes his head and turns for the door. “For a second, I almost thought you were something more than your mother’s clone.”
It’s only once the door slams behind him that I find I can breathe again.
And I feel sick to my stomach, because as I lift my eyes to the mirror, I see exactly what he sees.
My mother’s daughter.
Eaten hollow from the inside out.
“One thing,” I whisper to myself. “You did one thing right.”
It’s not enough to balance the scales. It never will be.
But at least my sister has the crown she needs to save her daughter.
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Chapter Thirty-Three
Iskvien
We land in a Hallow in the snow, and Thiago freezes, his head cocked as if he’s listening. Baylor and Eris fan out, swords held low, and Finn nocks an arrow loosely, prepared to draw on a second’s notice.
I don’t care if there’s danger here.
My daughter is here.
And if anything gets between us, I will destroy it.
“Snow,” Thalia growls under her breath, taking a step and sinking up to her boots. “Why does it always have to be snow?”
“Quiet,” Baylor mutters.
She rolls her eyes. “Did you think I didn’t ward us all the second we arrived? If there’s anything out there, they won’t see or hear us. All they’ll see will be mysterious footprints appearing in the snow.”
The last time we were in unseelie, Thiago said he didn’t dare use his power here, and it’s furled up tight and small within him, just in case there’s another darkyn nearby.
My heart skips a beat as he and Eris share a look.
“Nothing,” Eris finally says. “I can barely even hear the heartbeat of a pair of birds.”
“The wards on Old Mother Hibbert’s cottage are so old, they were crafted by the otherkin,” Thiago murmurs. “You won’t smell the children. You won’t be able to hear them. Not even a heartbeat. She puts a spell on all her children, so they’ll always be able to find their way back to the cottage, even on the darkest night.” He turns to the south, peering intently into the forest. “It’s this way.”
“Even after all this time?” I ask as I follow him.
Thiago slogs through the snow, cutting a trail for me. “It’s not a sound or something I can see. It’s the call of the hearth. A beating drum in my heart that says, ‘Home, home, home.’ A feeling more than anything. And yes, even after all these years.”
Eris frowns as she falls into step beside me. “There aren’t any animals nearby,” she says in a troubled voice.
“The cottage spells tell predators to move on,” Thiago explains. “They won’t know why, but they’ll simply feel the urge to be elsewhere.”
“Not even any birds, Thiago,” she points out. “There are no mice squeaking beneath the snow, no owls fluffing their feathers in the trees. The world is simply silent and empty.”
Finn sets a hand on the hilt of his sword. “Thanks, Eris. I wasn’t quite feeling nervous enough about entering unseelie in the first place. Now my balls want to tuck tail and run.”
