Page 84 of Daughter of the Dark

“What’s that?” Cora joined her by the map, a steaming mug of coffee in each hand.

“A place we should check for the missing muki.” Solana took the mug she handed her. “There’s a sect of people who live there and sometimes wander through the markets of Qhilli looking for souls to recruit. Mostly orphaned children.” She squinted at the map, remembering the last time she had seen them. “And guard muki in the dungeons, apparently.”

“The Servants of Death,” Cora whispered. “But they seem so peaceful and mostly keep to themselves.”

“They aren’t popular among the people in Qhilli.” Solana paused to work through her thoughts. “But they would support the king’s plans, and their hidden existence would work in his favor.”

Cora dropped into a seat and blew out a breath. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.”

“It’s not as though your gift of discernment makes you all knowing.” It was said mostly in jest, but Cora’s fingers tensed around her cup and her lips pressed tight. Solana sat forward and lowered her voice. “That’s not how your gift works, right? You didn’t know any of this would happen.”

With a sigh, Cora set the mug on the table and stared into the dark liquid. “I knew that in order for this to happen, certain other things had to happen.”

“Certain other things like Sami dying? And my father?” The quiet that followed her question was heavy. “Did you know they were going to die?” Solana asked outright.

“It wouldn’t have changed anything.” Cora abandoned her cup and enveloped Solana’s hand in hers. “You would have gotten yourself killed trying to prevent it and then damned us all to the king’s whims and the curse.”

Solana snatched her hand out of Cora’s, her elbow knocking into her mug on the table. Coffee sloshed over the rim and onto the map, a blotch of brown over the sea. She stood and paced away, breathing out the anger that she knew wasn’t for Cora.

It was for herself.

Had she consulted Cora first about her choices, would the outcome have changed? If she had trusted someone, relied on others, would the Uku Pacha have stayed closed, and Sami and her father be alive, and Killian not be so close to complete control?

In the next room over, stairs creaked and footsteps headed toward them. Solana angrily wiped the tears from her cheeks and turned to face the rest of the team. Oskar walked into the room first, eyes red rimmed, and stopped in front of her. His fingers flew in the space between them, saying, I’m glad to see you, and then he grabbed her hand and placed it against his heart. Behind him, Suri moved to Cora and leaned down to whisper in her ear. Oskar squeezed Solana’s shoulder and then scooted by her to sit at the table.

“She lives,” Suri said, deadpan. She dropped into the seat behind Cora and reclined leisurely, as if waiting for the explanation she felt owed.

“Sorry to disappoint,” Solana shot back. “I can leave, if you’d like.”

Suri shrugged and swept a hand around the room. “It wouldn’t surprise anyone.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Solana said through gritted teeth. “Are there more of us?” A quick glance past Reyes told her it was only the five of them. Five against hundreds. The odds weren’t in their favor. “What happened?”

“You first.” Leaning forward, Suri clasped her hands over the table. “Explain it to us like we’re children, please. Tell us everything.”

All eyes were on her, waiting with a kind of anticipation that Solana hadn’t experienced before. There was trust, but mostly, there was hope. That she hadn’t betrayed them, that she had answers and possibly a solution. For the first time in a long while, Solana was acutely dreading the possibility of disappointing someone.

The heaviest gaze came from Reyes, who leaned against the wall to her side, arms crossed over his chest. Distant, but not hostile. Giving her the space she needed to keep a clear mind. Solana dropped her eyes to the map and began the story of where she had been and what she had learned.

There were some details she left out, like the memories of her father and mother, and releasing her mother’s muki form, but they listened intently as she told them about her ability, her blood, her fate. Ñakapana. Cursebreaker. A daughter of the dark.

Reyes’s hand tightened into a fist when she told them about the king’s proposal and how she couldn’t reach the muki under his control. How her father might have had the answers, but they died with him.

“How did we miss it? How did none of us see who he truly was?” Cora asked no one in particular, her eyes unfocused as if seeing every past interaction and weighing it against the truth of him. She felt a pang of sympathy, knowing how it felt to fail. But Cora hadn’t failed, and it was possible Solana hadn’t either, if she extended herself the same grace.

They simply didn’t have all the information. And by the looks on their faces, they didn’t know what Solana knew about the king. “Killian’s gift is persuasion. His father before him had it as well.”

“That explains a lot,” Reyes said slowly, focus distant as if digging through the past. “He dismissed all of us after the first muki was collared.”

There was guilt in the lines of his body. Solana softened her voice. “Masimu said it takes time, and then eventually you believe every word he says. There’s never been a king that has spoken of a way to reverse the curse, because it isn’t possible. But he spoke of it often enough that my father—Masimu—began to believe, and then Killian’s parents died in the aftermath of Masimu’s supposed betrayal, and he became king and had many more ears to listen to his lies.”

She sat forward and drew her finger through the spilled coffee on the map. The light brown mixed with the blue made a purple that reminded her of the stones on the muki’s collar. “Reyes, you said the king uses his gift to make the elixir. But did anyone ever wonder what his gift was? Or how it mollifies muki?”

“I never even thought to ask.” Reyes gazed into the dark of the room, jaw tensing. “I only knew that it made things easier when hunting and experimenting, and finding a cure was all that mattered.”

“Because of your sister,” Solana said softly. “And you went back to save her?” Reyes’s lips tightened. “Your love was strong enough to fight against everything you thought you knew. So you can understand why I did what I did. Sami was the closest thing I had left of family.” She paused and swallowed thickly. “I thought I could break the curse on my own, but I can’t. I need more power.”

Oskar whistled low. If that’s the case, then let’s go now. You can take from us whatever you need.