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I frowned, staring at her again. “What?”
“We’ve already helped ten people,” Vanya said, nodding. Her auburn hair had been tied back, and she looked different than when I’d seen her in the cells, too. They both looked like a spark had been ignited within them.
That was what happened when there was something to hope for, I thought bitterly.
“How?” I demanded.
On the outside, I was calm. I’d practiced my poker face for some two hundred and fifty years, if not more. The only way I’d been able to keep Falx off my back was by looking like I didn’t give a damn about anything or anyone.
On the inside, I was reeling. Was it really possible to get rid of Conjurite magic and go back to our Fae roots?
“With healing power,” Vanya answered simply. “Some of the Fae have a gift for it.”
“I’ve seen it work,” Hazel added, speaking up. Her voice was a little husky, but her words were clear, and they carried across the table.
I could listen to that voice all day.
If it was possible to drive away the darkness, could my people go back to what they used to be? What was more…could I?
Becoming Conjurite hadn’t been as simple for me as giving up the light and choosing dark magic, the way most of the Conjurite had. I’d been forced. If I could give it all up, I wouldn’t think twice, but it wasn’t that easy.
“Do you realize what it will mean for you to do it on a large scale?” I asked, cutting the large hunk of beef on my plate with vigor. “Most of the Fae who have Conjurite magicchosethe dark side. It won’t be that easy for them to just give it up. What if they don’t want to?”
“We’re not here to force anyone,” Rainier chipped in. “But how many do you know—aside from the late king and his high priestess—who want to hold onto the darkness they’ve chosen?”
He was right. I didn’t know a single Conjurite who would fight the idea of returning to the light if they had the chance. Being Conjurite was horrible. We had a lot of power, but it was rooted in darkness and fear, and it wasn’t the life anyone wanted to live. The glamor of having so much power was attractive, but everything else was a sentence.
Once the novelty of the new power wore off, things started going wrong. Nightmares every night meant no one ever got a good night’s rest.
I helped ruled a kingdom of people on autopilot. They regretted giving up the light once they realized that the rest of their lives would be filled with blackouts where they hurt each other but couldn’t remember it, where they said nasty things they didn’t even think. Being Conjurite meant no one could love the way they used to, because love was good and being Conjurite…wasn’t. We all lived hell every day.
“It will take a lot more than you realize. You have no idea what you’re up against,” I hissed.
I wanted to be healed as much as anyone else. I wanted to have that option, to go back to a life that was filled with love and light. But did they think the dark goddess Cyrene would just let them all go when she had them in her claws?
A part of me wondered if they knew about Cyrene at all—she hadn’t shown her face in all the wars and battles. She’d conveniently let Falx and Lavinia take the fall for what she’d orchestrated behind the scenes.
Cyrene was the mirror image of the Goddess Terra, the darkness where Terra was the light, the captivity where Terra was freedom. As soon as the Fae gave up the light and turned toward the darkness, Cyrene had them in her grip and damned them to a life of eternal darkness.
I glanced at Hazel again. She spoke up now and then, but she was silent for the most part, and her poker face was as good as mine. What was she thinking?
Had she felt that same spark I’d felt when we’d met earlier? Hazel had always been a point of interest. From the moment she’d arrived at the dungeon as my prisoner, I’d been fascinated by her. Now that she was free and her own person, she was that much more mesmerizing.
Being so close to her in the hallway before dinner had brought to the surface feelings I hadn’t thought I could ever feel now that I was Conjurite. But I’d felt them around her.
Had she felt them, too?
I stared at her until she looked up, her eyes locking with mine. For a moment, a jolt passed between us, and I felt it to my very core. It was over so fast, I didn’t know if it had happened, and when Vanya started to speak, telling me how they’d managed to bring the Conjurite back to their Luminescence, Hazel’s eyes were firmly trained on her mother.
I wanted her to look at me again, but no matter how hard I stared, she didn’t. Either she was determined not to look at me because she felt it as well, or she wasn’t interested because she felt nothing at all.
“I won’t deny that we’ve had challenges,” Nylah said softly.
When she glanced at me, she looked guilty.
“What happened?” I asked.
The High Priestess never looked uncertain as she did now.
