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She gave me a comfortable sleeping gown and offered to help comb out my damp hair.
“No, Hava. Thank you for the meal and the company. I’m tired now. You may go.”
Her brow pinched, and she looked sad, likely mirroring my own expression. “I understand. I’ll leave you now and return in the morning with breakfast. You’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep.”
When she was gone, I crawled into the giant bed and slid under the covers, facing the boarded window, yet anotherreminder that I couldn’t let my guard slip and believe that I was a welcome guest here. No matter how kind Hava was or how luxurious my cell was now, I was indeed a prisoner of the new king of Northgall.
Chapter 6
GOLL
I readthe missive from Soryn in the war room my father had rarely used. In the past few days, I came to realize that my father waged this war by throwing more and more of his soldiers into one battle after another rather than wield any kind of strategy that might end it more quickly or spare any bloodshed.
After hearing firsthand some of his commands given to the officers at the front, I berated myself for not acting sooner. The toll this war had taken on our people was harrowing. So many lives lost, and yet it still wasn’t over. Not officially. One step remained.
The only smart move my father made was sending his Kel Klyss on a covert mission to abduct Connall Hartstone’s daughter. My gut tightened at the thought of her several stories above me in my mother’s former bedchamber.
“What news from Soryn?” asked Keffa.
My old friend was recovering well. Except for the eye patch and the scar down one cheek, he looked like his old self. While he was still healing, he seemed to be gaining weight quicklyand appeared vigorous and healthy. It was remarkable what the healers had managed in only a few days.
“It is time,” I answered him, dropping the scroll on the table where a map of Lumeria was spread wide with campaign movements marked around Issos.
“I would like to join the soldiers at the encampment, Goll.” Voice grave and solemn, he added, “Seeing as I missed all the glory, I’d at least like to celebrate with them at the end.”
“You fought your own battles well enough.” For many years he’d battled the darkness and loneliness and starvation in the dungeon. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner.”
He shook his head. “There will be no apologies for what Xakiel is responsible for. Leave them behind. We are embarking on a new world. Thanks to you.”
I grunted and rolled up Soryn’s message then tucked it with the others in a drawer in the desk.
“That will depend on Princess Tiarrialuna.”
“How so?”
“Whether or not I must follow in my father’s footsteps, that is. Much depends onher.”
He grew quiet for a moment then added. “Dalya’s vision. You believe she is the one mentioned, don’t you?”
“I know that she is,” I answered without hesitation.
Last autumn, Dalya had a powerful vision while scrying with a drop of my blood shortly after she’d pledged her fealty and service to me as my royal seer. She was a distant cousin serving as a priestess at the Temple of Silvantis, but secretly she’d been scrying for me, guiding me in my ascension to the throne.
She’d had many visions, but the one that had stayed with me the most was when she proclaimedthe female fae with the demon’s mark will bring about Vix’s reckoning.
Vix’s reckoning was the old legend, the promise that one day our kind would rise above and rule over all. In all the writtenhistories of faekind, the light fae—specifically the moon fae of Issos—had dominated our world. They’d controlled the richest, most fertile lands, woodlands overfull with game, and mines of precious stones. And they’d kept their borders well-guarded to prevent trade, except when it benefited them.
Smuggling was common, especially around Hellamir. Many wood fae who lived there ignored the laws of their king that prevented trade with the dark fae of Northgall, but it was the bloody skirmishes and attacks on our fae by their soldiers that was unconscionable to me.
“My father was content to dwell here, Keffa, in this palace while he ignored the problems of our people. I will not do that. I know it is my right by birth, sanctioned by the gods, to take this crown and to rule over our landandLumeria. And I will do it at all costs.”
“And the princess is the key, is she.”
“She is. Now, I must make her understand that.”
He chuckled, his scar pulling tight on his cheek. “You think she’ll accept your…invitation gratefully?”
I straightened from the desk, steeling my spine, my entire body locking tight, finally ready to go to her after Soryn’s message.
