“No.” His defensive stance melts, and he scratches the back of his neck the way he does when he’s torn up about something. “But it’s called the Spindle of the Gods. It’s rumored to spin a thread strong enough to make someone immortal. I’m talking true immortality, a way to cheat death forever.”
“True immortality is a myth,” I blurt out.
Nick grins in a mischievous fashion. “I know it goes against everything we believe, but it’s real.” He pauses for a moment. “Legend has it the Spindle of the Gods can also tie a soul back to its body.”
“By the Dark One?—”
My stomach twists and my heart hammers, my palms suddenly sweaty as hell. I dry them off on my jeans, suddenly understanding why Nick asked for E to leave the room.
My twin’s jaw sets in a hard line. “You can’t tell your ghost friend about it. He’d want it for himself. Promise me, Max.”
My pulse swirls at my temples.
Want it for himself? Hells, I’d give it to him in a heartbeat, but I can’t admit to that.
“This spindle is invaluable,” I whisper. “No wonder the Mist King is ready to kill for it.”
Nick nods emphatically at that. “Any Fae would kill for it.”
“So Mabel kept it hidden and out of their reach for a reason.”
Her name is enough to cast a dark cloud back upon Nick’s face. “Mabs is out of the loop, Maxie. She’s too attached to the old ways. If we’re going to take our lands back for ourselves, to stop living in fear, we’re going to have to forge our own paths and use every possible tool at our disposal.”
I comb my fingers through my hair and start braiding it to one side. My gaze drifts around the kitchen as I do. The oldcupboards with their uneven hinges. The curio cabinet holding Mabel’s most treasured teacups. The double French doors that open into the gardens—the only real home I’ve ever known. A place I ran toward instead of away from. After a childhood of moving from hut to hut, always fleeing, always hiding, this house rooted me and kept me safe. And now its foundations are shifting.
“We should try and contact Devi,” I say. “She’d know what to do.”
“Devi is a criminal, an outcast, and we have no way of contacting her in Faerie. But my contacts could introduce us to people who want real change for the continent. Powerful people who could help us return our forest to its former glory.”
Nick leans forward, bracing his forearms on his knees. His hands clasp together for a second before breaking apart again as he adds, “The very foundations of Fae society are shifting as we speak. I’m talking about a full-on revolution. With the right allies, we could strip power away from the Reds and get revenge for what they did to Mom. We could go home, sis, and that spindle could be our ticket into the inner circle.”
I gasp. “You want to barter it away?”
“Who knows? But whatever happens, we can’t let that Mist fucker get it, right?” Nick raises a brow, squinting as though he’s not following my train of thought.
Or maybe he is following it, and doesn’t like where it’s going.
He’s right, of course. We can’t let the most dangerous Fae in existence get his hands on something that could resurrect him fully. Mabel is the reason he didn’t become the one and only king of Faerie in the first place, and now he thinks he’s got to kill her entire bloodline to get his jewels back. The bargain we made that he would leave us alone in exchange for the spindle was heavily skewed in his favor, even though he pretended otherwise. Thishouse isn’t worth setting a psychopath loose on the worlds, but a small part of me wishes it was.
I don’t know what silly hopes I clung to. Some quiet belief that I could hold up my end of the deal, keep my head down, and live a danger-free life. Nick’s incredulous tone crushes that fantasy under its heel.
This life, this house… All of it is about to crumble.
“There’s something else.” I swallow. “This morning, Armand called me the daughter of the Dark One.”
Nick blinks. “Because you’re a witch.”
“No. He sounded…gleeful. Like he knew more about my own blood than I do.”
“He was trying to mess with you.”
I shake my head, unconvinced.
“Mabel told me to stop the Angelica tea. She said I had more power than I knew.” I hold up my hand. “Look.”
My serpent flames rise to the surface. It takes concentration to summon them, but less than before. They feel familiar, like they’ve always lived in me, and I’m finally letting them breathe.
Nick’s eyes widen. “You’re a fire witch. Damn.”
