Page 170 of Crown of Darkness
“I can get in,” I tell them.
After all, there’s a Hallow there.
It’s not just an Old One’s prison.
“And then we’ll kill them.” I meet Thiago’s eyes. “We’ll kill them all.”
And he nods.
* * *
I wait outsidein the snow as Thiago leaves the keys for the eldest girl. He can’t break the wards, but he can slide the keys through them, because they belong to the house.
It’s just me and Grimm.
The others are sweeping the snow to make sure there’re no other survivors out there—children who didn’t make it back to the cottage in time, but who might have found shelter.
And the grimalkin’s tail lashes back and forth, back and forth, as he sits there and watches me.
“Did you know?” I ask hollowly, my fists shaking with rage. “You say you see the future, and everything you have said to me…. Tell me you didn’t know that I have a daughter out there who is all alone!”
For the first time, there’s a hint of doubt in his eyes. “I knew. It was not yet time for you to face your past.”
“Who are you?” I demand. “Why are you taunting me?”
“Haven’t you not realized yet?” he growls. “I have lost mychild. The child you will lead me back to.”
The shock drives the heat from my face. “Amaya? Amaya is your bonded companion?”
He merely blinks at me.
“But why did you not say something?” I slide to my knees before him. “If you knew where she was—?”
But he’s looking at me, and I feel that debt of knowledge sink into my bones like lead.
“She is my child, and I promised I would protect her with my life,” he tells me, his voice serious for once. “And I would have given my life when the fetches came to get her. I saw it as clearly as I can see the grief on your face. It didn’t matter how many times I tried to twist the future, it all came down to the same scene: I died, and they took my child anyway.”
“Then why are you here—?”
“There was one future that led me down a different path. A single future in which I could protect her, and that future meant I had to abandon her. I had to let her be taken and find the one person who could save her: Her mother. And don’t think it didn’t cost me. I abandoned her in the moment she needed me most, and I couldn’t tell her why for fear it would interfere with my possibilities.”
The one person who could save her….
I kneel back on my haunches, sick with grief. “We’re going to rescue her?”
His green eyes hold the weight of the world. “I don’t know.” He hesitates. “You are theleanabh an dàn. You twist fate, Princess. I see a thousand possibilities around you, but I don’t see the end of our journey. I only see… a Hallow, an ancient god rising, and a princess sobbing as she rocks her daughter in her arms. I never see beyond that moment in time, but I do know this: You will find her. And you will hold her in your arms before tomorrow ends.”
“Vi?” Thiago murmurs, stepping out of the cottage and resting a hand on my shoulder. “What’s he saying?”
I didn’t realize I was the only one who could hear Grimm, so I swiftly fill him in.
“There is one last thing,” Grimm tells me, and his eyes glow so golden I can’t look away from them. “If you set out for the Black Keep, then the Horned One will be freed from his prison. You will hold your daughter in your arms, this I promise, but in doing so, you will set about a chain of events that sees him freed.”
A punch of breath escapes me.
The only way the Horned One can break free is if powerful blood is spilled within his Hallow—if Angharad manages to complete her sacrifice.
“If we don’t go, he will rise anyway. Her blood will be just as powerful as my own. But if there is a possibility we could rescue Amaya, then I will take it.”
