“You have to talk to him, and bring him to his senses. Today he was raving about some children’s book that had a ritual to raise Vara back from the dead,” I blurted. “This has to stop.”
“I know the tale.” Lucien rubbed his eyes. “I will speak to him, but it will not deaden his grief. Losing a mate is the most painful loss a shifter can endure.”
Lucien sat forward. “But that is not why we are here. Keep that key safe, Emma. We’ll discuss it in time, perhaps when Kalina is a little older. For now, you have to practice on advancing your Unseelie skills, and we are running out of time before you must perform the ritual to unite the Crystals at the Sacred Gathering.”
“If we even get them all,” I mumbled.
“Ethan will find the Unseelie stone. Have some faith in your mate,” Lucien replied. “For now, your entire focus needs to be on your recovery, and pushing your powers to their greatest potential.”
“Am I even strong enough to try?” I was worried about setting myself back, and spending the next few days in bed.
“Unseelie magic will not drain you as Seelie magic does, as you must pull it from a source here on Earth, and not in Edinmyre,” Lucien replied. “That source can be anything, even something inside yourself that you wish to draw out.”
There were a lot of things inside of me that I wanted to get rid of. “But I don’t believe that I can anymore,” I said. “If I don’t believe, the magic won’t come, right?”
“Emma, if this is all I’ve taught you about magic, I apologize,” Lucien stated. “At its core, illusion magic— that is to say,Seeliemagic— must be done with belief, but Unseelie magic doesn't. It works on its own whether you believe it or not.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m not explaining correctly. I am a poor teacher.”
“Don’t say that. You werethe best,” I insisted, reaching out to grab his hand. “I’ve never had a better teacher than you.”
“Well, you always were my favorite student, but that’s a bit biased to say, considering you’re my daughter.” He squeezed my hand back.
“You never lost faith in me,” I continued. “Just… teach me how to regain faith in myself, so I can do this.”
“I know what happened with Droga was a great wound to you, but we lost the battle, not the war,” Lucien said firmly. “We must press onward. You can’t lose hope before the end has even arrived, Emma. You must push through until it is certain all is lost.”
I hadn’t been doing that lately. I’d given up and been preparing to lose since Dolinska had fallen.
That wasn’t right. There were still fae out there who hadn’t given in. I couldn’t, either. “Okay. So what’s the difference between Seelie belief and Unseelie magic?”
“Unseelie magic is a much more difficult craft to master, because it works primarily with the powers offate,” Lucien instructed. “You see, this kind of magic relies on the will of the gods to work, and the will of time. We all have choices over our destiny and our lives, but at the same time, our destiny is designed for us, and we cannot diverge from the path that we have been chosen to take.”
“How can both be true at the same time?” I questioned. Arthur had said something similar, and I still didn’t get it.
“Imagine life like a winding road, heading toward one destination,” Lucien said. “The path splits into many side streets, and you can take any road you’d like to get there, but in the end, you will always end up in the same place. You cannot avoid fate, for it will always come to pass, even thoughthe wayit may take place can change.”
“So, in that sense…” I sat back and mused on it. “Ethan used his wolven tooth to cast the Unseelie magic that killed Elijah. If it wasn’t the will of the gods that Elijah die that day, the spell wouldn’t have worked. Ethan’s will was aligned with the will of the gods, and the will of fate.”
“Exactly.” Lucien nodded. “You’ve got the idea.”
“But Droga is a god, and his will is different from the will of the other gods. He wants to rule over everything,” I pointed out. “Doesn’t this contradict the idea that Unseelie magic comes from fate?”
“The gods are eternal beings outside of the control and laws of nature,” Lucien replied. “Only they can choose to rewrite fate as it has been decided. Droga is not the only god who gets an opinion.”
“So Seelie magic relies on belief, whereas Unseelie magic comes from trusting fate.”
“Of course. You don't need to believe for Unseelie magic to turn out like it should, like you do with Seelie magic. Seelie magic relies on your own will, on having faith in yourself. Unseelie magic is its own power, because Unseelie magic works with what ismeant to be, not with what you create within. Thus, it is the power of destiny and fate. You cannot avoid it. You can only follow the path the magic chooses to craft for itself. In order to perform it, you must put aside your own will, and accept the fate that has been chosen for you.”
“Does that mean that I’ll potentially succeed? No matter what happens?” I asked hopefully.
“I believe you will succeed, Emma, though in what way, I can be unsure,” Lucien replied. “And there can be no guarantees on the outcome of what that victory will cost us.”
I understood what he was getting at. I could win. But that victory could turn out a hundred different ways. My friends could all end up dead at the end of it. I could banish Droga, but by then, the fae could be wiped out.
And, as I was reminded, I was destined to die. If the gods had decided that was the path for me to walk, I wouldn’t be able to avoid it. Not if what Lucien said was true.
