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Voices whispered past, vicious and cold.
…not of royal blood…never ascend to the throne…keep your nose in those dusty books…
Anger roared like a violent, red-tinged storm.
They drown in their decadence, unambitious and without vision. Now is my time. None of them had the gumption to even try, and it will be their ruin.
Basil’s face again, his beauty like a knife to her heart. More images, thoughts, memories rushed around her, and she saw, felt the horror he planned.
“What's going on?”
The male voice punched through the swirling mist of Calâr’s thoughts. A hand grabbed her shoulder, pulled her away from the other fae, broke the connection of their minds. Isa staggered against Basil, blinked at the light of the real world filtering back into her consciousness.
“Isa and I were just—” Calâr began, his chest heaving as if he’d run a mile, but she cut him off, her heart racing.
“He’s set a trap, Basil.”
Basil frowned, snapped to attention. “What?”
“Don't listen to her,” Calâr said, taking a step towards Basil, his face set in such reassuring lines, his whole demeanor that of an honest, well-meaning male. “She seems to have had another of her seizures, and it confused her mind.”
Isa gritted her teeth, looking daggers at the other fae. “My mind is fine.” She stood, turned to Basil. “He cast a spell. While you were sleeping the other night. Some sort of mind mirror. He bound himself to you, so when you trigger the true name revelation at the oracle, he’ll see what you see, hear what you hear in your head, because your thoughts are mirrored in his mind. Once he knows your true name, he’ll be able to control you.”
Basil tensed, glancing between Isa and Calâr.
“You have no proof,” Calâr said, the calm of his voice betrayed by the twitching of his facial muscles, the murderous glint in his eyes as he glared at her.
Isa turned back to Basil. “I broke into his mind just now. I had to know, had to find out what he’s planning to do with you. Remember my warning? This is it, this is the part that I was missing—why he’d want to control you. As a demon-fae half-breed, your powers—”
Calâr made a move, but froze at the sight of a nocked arrow pointing directly at his face, ready to ram into his eye. The muscles in Basil’s arms flexed as he pulled the arrow back farther on the bowstring.
“Don’t even think about it,” Basil said to him. Looking at Isa, he added, “Keep talking.”
She gave him a grim nod. “Your powers are a direct threat to all living fae. Used maliciously, your magic can weaken and hurt every single fae in Faerie…even kill them. Calâr wants this power for himself. Half-breeds like you are rare since the fae consider them abominations, and they’re normally killed at birth, so he’s been waiting for one for hundreds of years. Most fae don’t even know about this anymore, because demon-fae relations have been forbidden for so long that all but a few of us have forgotten why. I had no idea. But he—”
She jerked her head at Calâr, curled her lip in disgust. “As keeper of the fae archives, he came upon this information. He found out about you, and now he’s on the verge of a power grab the likes of which Faerie has never seen.
“And he’s been lying to you beyond that.” She focused on Basil again. “That story he told you about how the fae who exchanged you at birth told him on her deathbed about you, and asked him to take care of you? That’s a bald-faced lie. Oh, he did learn about you and your identity from the fae who exchanged you…right before he murdered her. And he hasn't told you about your father.”
“She’s the one who’s lying,” Calâr hissed. “She hasn’t mentioned that she—”
“He’s still alive,” Isa added, in a rush to distract Basil from whatever Calâr was going to spit out. “Basil—your father is still alive. He wasn’t killed back then, he was imprisoned, and he managed to escape just a few days ago. He slaughtered the entire royal court to avenge you and your mother, and he injured the fae who exchanged you. She told your father about you, and he immediately left the fae in the throne room to go searching for you. Calâr was there too. He survived the slaughter, and he pressed the fae for more information and then killed her. He’s been lying to you from the start, just like I warned you. He’s been leading you here to the Oracle so you can learn your true name, but with the mind mirror he’s set up, he’ll learn it, too, and he’ll enslave you.”
The fae sneered. “Why should you trust her to tell the truth—”
“I trust her with my life.” Basil’s voice was deadly quiet.
“Oh?” The vindictive glint in Calâr’s eyes chilled the blood in her veins. “The same life she needs to take to break her death curse?”
Basil frowned, but kept his bow and arrow trained on Calâr. “What?”
Isa trembled, her pulse a roar in her ears. This is it. Her precarious house of cards was going to collapse and scatter to the four winds.
An evil smile sneaked across Calâr’s face. “She hasn’t told you about that, has she? Not even in those intimate hours she spent in your arms…” He clucked his tongue. “How disappointing. Then again, it makes sense she’d hesitate to tell you that she needs to kill you if she wants to live.”
The bow shook in Basil’s hands. “Isa?” he ground out. “What the fuck is he talking about?”
She opened her mouth, her stomach cramping, but her voice fled. Words failed her.
