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“Cicely knows why.” Wrath gave me a warning look.
I nodded. “If Myst finds Alissanya—Lainule’s heartstone—she can destroy the Queen of Rivers and Rushes. And with Myst controlling the woodland, she will find it. It’s only a matter of time. Lainule is a desperate woman, Summer Queen or not. She was hoping that Geoffrey would help her destroy Myst before that plays out.”
“What do you need from us?”
I sucked in a deep breath. “I want your opinion on this. I think, if we can recover Lainule’s heartstone, she will help us. She’s afraid now—if Myst finds it, she will die. If we find it, she will regain her strength.”
“You have no idea of the ramifications of what you’re proposing.” Wrath stared at me, slowly standing. “And you should not talk of this in public.” He grimaced. I’d never seen him look so irritated.
I glanced around. “What public? We’re about as far from public as we can get in this town.”
“You know what I mean—you speak in front of yummanii, magic-born, and worst of all—vampire.” He leaned forward and for a moment, I thought he was going to strike me, his expression was stern and terrible and piercing like the eyes of an owl. But all he did was take my chin in hand. “Daughter, even now, you trust too easily.”
I bit my lip. I hated making him upset. But we had to start trusting somewhere, and as bad as we’d been burned already, we only had our little ragtag group we’d managed to pull together.
“I know it’s dangerous, but we haven’t got a choice. Either Lainule fades and dies through lack of her heartstone, or we recover it and she lives. She can’t go after it. Her people can’t go after it. Your people.”
“What exactly is a heartstone?” Luna asked, glancing from Wrath to me.
I plunged ahead. My father was right to be wary, but we were running out of time. “It’s a part of Lainule’s essence, from her heart, encapsulated in a gem, deep within the Golden Wood. If Myst finds it, she can immediately destroy Lainule. The Queen of Rivers and Rushes is too far away from it and she’s fading. Unless we find it and take it to her, Lainule will die.”
Lannan let out a sharp bark. “You cannot let Summer die.”
Wrath turned to him. “What do you care, Altos?”
“If Lainule dies, then Myst has no checks. Geoffrey’s not going to be able to stop her, as much as he’d like to think he can. She will flow through, set up the long winter, destroy my people, and all others with us. I do not wish for that any more than you do, Owl King.” Lannan leaned forward. “I will help you, and I will keep your secret because it is for the good of my people to do so.”
Grieve reached for my hand and I gave it to him. He lifted it to his lips and kissed it gently, then lightly nipped the skin. “You are my chosen for a reason. But how do you plan to find where she’s hiding the gem?”
Chatter and I glanced at each other. I cleared my throat. “When Chatter and I journeyed to the Bat People, to help wake Kaylin’s demon, we went through a secret passageway. I’m pretty sure we were close. Instinct tells me Lainule may have hidden it down there. It looked like it hadn’t been used for a long, long time and…I sensed something in the area.”
Grieve nodded. “You could be right. The heartstones are sacrosanct, but we live in desperate times. I say we do it. Lainule was always aloof, but she was never a fool, and for her to link herself to Geoffrey in his mad scheme does not bode as normal for our Lady of Summer.”
Chatter cleared his throat. “I agree. We know where the passage is, we know how to get there. We must go in and search there carefully. If we journey by creeping through the forest, they shouldn’t see us and we’ll have the time to hunt for the gem.”
I turned to Wrath. “We have no choice. If we want Lainule on our side again, we have to bring her the strength to stand with us. Until then, she’s in Geoffrey’s pocket. And suppose he decides that since I won’t let him turn me, that he might try with Summer? Can you imagine what might happen if he turned Lainule? Surely she wouldn’t be as bestial as Myst, but there’s no guarantee she’d be sane.”
My father blanched. “I had not thought of that. Surely Geoffrey isn’t mad enough to try.” He paused, then sucked in a deep breath. “He is, isn’t he? He’s just crazed enough to attempt it.”
“I think he might be.” I bit my lip. I didn’t want to hurt my father or scare him but the thought had crossed my mind more than once and I was learning to pay attention to my instinct.
“Very well. We go in search of my Lady’s heartstone. I just hope Myst doesn’t catch us.” Wrath deflated, dropping to the chair next to me. “But then Myst is coming and will take us all unless we do whatever we can to stop her.”
Outside, the wind howled around the factory and I had the uneasy feeling we were being watched. The Shadow Hunters were on the prowl, and their Queen was driving the snows behind them.
Chapter 3
But we couldn’t go after the heartstone that night. It was too late and too dangerous. We’d need to go during the day, when it was less risky. And there were other things we had to attend to first. I sprawled on the makeshift sofa, closing my eyes, wanting nothing more than a long, warm, comfortable night’s sleep.
Peyton dropped to the seat beside me. She let out a huff, then said, “Rex is coming. I finally got hold of him. At least he’s still alive.”
Rex was her long-lost father who had shown up on her doorstep a few days back, after abandoning her mother and her when she was a little girl. Peyton hadn’t been home to meet him. Making a deal with the vampires, Anadey had sold me out in an attempt to prevent the meeting from ever taking place, but her betrayal was in vain. Rex was still alive, and now Anadey was an outcast to us. Peyton had taken it hard, but she was soldiering on.
“You made certain to warn him to make sure he’s not followed, right?” The last thing we needed was for the vampires or the Shadow Hunters to track us down by following him.
“He’s not stupid.” Peyton gave me a sharp look, then grimaced. “I’m sorry. Yeah, we talked about it. He’s being careful. He’ll be here tomorrow morning. This is the first time I’ll have seen my father in…over twenty years.” She looked like she was going to cry but then grabbed the dishes from the table, carrying them off to the utility sink in order to wash them.
“There’s another thing we need to discuss before we track down the heartstone. We did a hasty ritual to band the Moon Spinners together, but if we’re going to ask for help from the Consortium, we’ll have to do things by the book. They don’t cotton to people trying to buck the trends.”
