Page 29 of Curse of Darkness
“We break into the Underworld,” Finn says, “and demand our prince’s soul back.”
“And what if he doesn’t come back the way he was?” she demands. A furious glare rakes the table. “You all know what he was like… before Vi arrived.”
An awkward silence falls.
“What he was like?”
Thalia looks troubled. “He was beginning to lose hope he’d ever find you, Vi. And while he didn’t like to admit it, the Darkyn inside him was beginning to strain against the edges of its cage.”
“Strain?” Eris barks. “He was struggling to control it at all.”
“True.” Thalia meets her friend’s gaze. “But he did control it. And then he found Vi, and it was like there was light in his heart again. If she can resurrect him, there’s nothing to say he won’t be the same male he’s always been.”
“There’s nothing to say he will be, either. His wards will be shattered,” Eris argues.
“And the Darkyn souls he’d consumed are gone,” Thalia counters.
“Baylor?” Eris looks helplessly at the enormous warlord.
Baylor sits back in his chair, staring through the table. It’s as if he hasn’t heard a word we’ve said. Until he slowly lifts his gaze to her face. “When I was bound to serve the Grimm,” he says quietly, “I came face-to-face with the Horned One. I saw his madness, Eris. His yearning to crush the world. Now he’s been freed from his prison, his fury will only be stronger, and this time, he won’t fall for our seelie tricks. It’s going to take everything we have to destroy him.” He hesitates. “And maybe what we need right now is not our prince. Maybe what we need is the Darkness inside him. If anyone can wield Death—and not the other way around—it’s Thiago.”
Eris’s shoulders slump. “I want no part of this.”
“We all have our parts to play, E,” Baylor tells her gently. “Even you.”
But Eris shakes her head. “No part of this.”
Thalia reaches for her. “E—"
“Let her go,” Finn says coldly as Eris turns for the door. “She’s not going to listen to reason right now. And we have to take this chance. We have to get him back.”
There’s a quiver inside me: Hope. It feels like I’ve been in the dark for so long and now, I can finally see light ahead of me. “What do we need?”
Finn grimaces. “Your warmest clothing. The crown—”
“I’m not taking the crown,” I say quickly. As if it senses me thinking about it, I feel its touch like cool fingernails trailing down my spine. Instantly, there are images in my mind: The God of Death cowering before me. Tearing the gates to the Underworld open with my bare hands. Sitting on a throne that’s not mine— “It would be safer here. After everything we went through to get it back… it would be safer here.”
“As you wish, Vi.” Finn arches a brow. “Cursed shame you left the Sword of Mourning driven into the slate floors of the Hallow at Malagath. If we’re going to be facing Kato, it would have been nice to have something like that on our side.”
Neither fae nor immortal can stand against the Sword of Mourning.
It’s invincible.
Would go nicely with me,chuckles the dark voice in my head.Nothing would stop us.
Shut up,I tell it.
“Yes, well. Somehow I don’t think the Erlking would appreciate us stealing into his territory and taking back the sword that was his downfall.”
Finn shrugs. “Maybe we don’t have to steal it? He owes you two boons, does he not?”
A breathless laugh threatens to escape me, but then I still and glance down at the pair of golden antlers stamped onto the inside of my wrist. “The Erlking owes me two boons….”
Suddenly my mind is racing.
I stare at the map table in front of us.
The armies rising from the south and north. The goblins threatening to crash down upon my country like a wave breaking. And Malagath sitting to the north of the goblin lands like a dagger at its spine. My mother wants to play this game? Well, why the fuck not play it back?
