Page 27 of Curse of Darkness
Something large is surfacing.
Something pale.
It takes my eyes a moment to realize what I’m looking at.
There’s a body on the large flat rock, still and lifeless.
Black wings are splayed wide; the exact same way they lay when he fell.
Thiago.
No.No.Grabbing my skirts, I wade into the water, climbing aboard the first rock and nearly slipping. This cannot be happening. He was gone. He vanished, leaving nothing more than ash behind in his wake.
I leap from rock to rock, careless of the lights surging toward me through the water as if they sense prey.
“When we were in the Black Keep and your husband was struck down, I told you I had this one last gift for you,” the Mother of Night calls. “I used the last of my power that day to remove your husband’s body from the world and keep it safe here. For you.”
“Thiago.” I clamber onto the last rock, staring across the water toward him, but the distance is too great. I can’t leap it. I’d need to swim, and there are shapes rising in the water, clawed hands reaching for me. I eye the distance again, heat swimming in my eyes. Maybe it would be worth it—
“You cannot go to him,” the Mother of Night says. “Not yet.”
Sinking onto my knees, I stare at him, tears streaming down my face. “Is this some twisted game? You want me to free you and you’ll what? Give me his body back?”
There’salwaysanother bargaining point to press.
A shimmer forms in the air, and then she’s standing right in front of me, her hand sliding through my hair. “Child, you mistake me. You have always mistaken me. I am the mother of all my people. Even those who think themselves fae.”
My heart makes a jagged leap in my chest, and I gape up at her.
“I do not wish for freedom for my sake,” she continues, once again touching the scorched mark on her cheek. “I amdying, Iskvien. I can slow the spread of this strike, but I cannot stop it. The Horned One’s magic will consume me from within as I have always seen.”
“What?” I push to my feet.
“I am dying,” she repeats, her palm cupping my cheek. “But I have a little time left to set my final pieces into play.”
We’re going to lose.
Without her, the Horned One is free to wreak as much damage as he can. And then both fae and otherkin alike are going to be destroyed as the Horned One rampages across both seelie and unseelie alike.
“There was one ray of hope in all my nightmares.One. A queen is coming, Iskvien. A queen with the power to straddle both worlds. A queen with the weapons at hand to defeat the Horned One himself. She has marked the Sword of Mourning, she has claimed the Crown of Shadows, and now all she needs is Death riding at her side.”
I gape at her.
“All I ask is this.” She grabs my hand, surprisingly strong. “When I am gone, you will protect our people. You will find them in the forests and you will offer them sanctuary. You will rescind the laws that call for their heads. You will welcome them into your lands and forbid their deaths, their persecution. You will protect them. And you will force the other queens to abide by these rules.”
“But I have no sway over the southern alliance,” I whisper. My mother would never accept such a deal, nor Queen Maren. Lucere, maybe….
Her face hardens. “Then you will find a way, Vi. Bring those southern queens to their knees and free my people. Promise me once. Promise me twice. Promise me thrice.”
I stare at Thiago’s body.
“I promise once,” I whisper. “I promise twice. I promise thrice. If I am still standing at the end of this, then I will use whatever power I have to welcome your people.”
“Our people,” she insists. “There is one final thing you will need. Lucere gave you the key to it. And I have kept the vessel.” Reaching behind her neck, she undoes a small chain, tugging an amulet forth from her dress. There’s a glass moon charm hanging from the end of it.
The key? What the fuck did Lucere say to me?
“Thiago’s soul has not crossed on to the Bright Lands. It cannot cross.”
