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“Nicolas,” I breathed. My deadaima, his soul held in limbo in the ancestral mist, stood before us, tall and transparent and sorrowful.
The Trials will continue, mon amour.
The words slipped into my mind like a whisper, his vampire mindspeak being the only way he could communicate with me from beyond the living world.
Do you know what I saw? I asked him back, sending the images of what I’d seen in the darkness to him, and him alone. The others had no idea.
Nic nodded.I have seen it, too. The darkness rises. But the Trials continue - they must, mon amour. You must regain the magic, or all is lost.
“What am I supposed to do now, Nic?” I said aloud, my voice breaking with the heavy burden of this new puzzle.
Wield your weapons. Find your prophet. The game hasn’t changed - there are simply more players.
I glanced at Kassian, then Luca. My weapons, according to the prophecies Rush had given me. My fae prophet, vanished without a trace. And the ice wolves, bringing dead gobbelins to Saori Sang - there were definitely new players on the board there.
How can I trust them, Nic?I begged him for an answer, my gaze searching the empty darkness of his eyes.
He advanced on me, more solid than ever before, and my heart thumped with longing to touch him. The back of my knees touched the bed and buckled, and the chill of Nic’s ghostly fingers caressed my cheek like spiderwebs thick with dew.
Weapons can slice you open, yes. So learn to hold them tightly. Keep them close. Learn their strengths. Can an arrow fly true if you do not aim it? The girl is right. No more secrets, mon amour. The people in your path are here for a reason. Trust yourself first if you cannot yet trust them - you can survive it all.
I shuddered as his translucent hand cupped my cheek, then slid down my neck. I felt an impossible pressure against my veins, and the glint of fang in the mist. By the Goddess, I wanted him. His blood. His body.
I miss you so fucking much, Nicolas.
I pushed the words so hard into the mist that he flickered before me. Lifting his wrist to his lips to bite it, he held my gaze with the calm, consuming fire I remembered. My eyes fixated on his fangs, but no blood appeared beneath their bite.
Because as much as we both might want more, Nicolas was dead.
And as much as I wanted to win the throne, I feared the end of the Trials would mean the end of his visits to me, as the mist grew tired of us beating against reality.
He began to fade as quickly as he’d formed, leaving my fangs aching for blood and my core pulsing with unspent desire. My chest heaved as I watched the mist tumble and swirl into low-lying clouds that eventually disappeared beneath the door again. Fuck, I missed him so much.
But as the others looked at me, still waiting, I worked to find the strength I’d been born with.
I was tired of fighting, but I’d been built for this. Nicolas was right. Even if one of them did betray me, I would survive it. It was time to fully grasp the weapons I’d been given and let them do what they’d been built to do.
“The mist still wants the Trials,” Luca guessed, and I nodded, rolling my shoulders back.
I looked at Blaise. “If you double-cross me, I’ll send Valentina’s head to you in a box.” I knew the two of them had kept in contact after Valentina’s surrender. Friends or lovers - either way, it was a threat I was willing to make to show Blaise how serious this secret was.
Blaise nodded solemnly, knowing it wasn’t an idle threat, either. “In the Trials, we’re still competitors. I’d make a fucking good Queen. But in the meantime - whatever this other mess is? I’ve got your back.”
I nodded my agreement, disliking that I needed her, but recognizing that although I was accustomed to doing everything on my own, that wouldn’t work forever. I took a deep breath and began, giving Blaise my fiercest challenge stare.
“Okay. Here’s what I know. Rush - who you know as Monsieur Saint Laurent - is an energy fae. Nobody beyond this room knows he isn’t a vampire. He’s given me two prophecies already - and one of those was a repeat I was given by a water elemental during the first Trial, so I know he’s the real thing. Kassian and Luca are somehow tied to my fate, and the prophecies call them my weapons. I’m not sure what that means, exactly. The mist takes the form of my murderedaima, Nicolas.”
“I saw him just now,” Blaise said, nodding and remaining surprisingly calm despite the load of crazy I’d just dumped on her. “And although I couldn’t hear him, I could feel the ice magic when he spoke to you. And yeah, I felt that heat, too,” she added, winking.
I swallowed hard, trying not to think of the memories of Nic’s hands on my body, his blood on my tongue. “He told me the Trials must continue. And he said I have to find my prophet,” I added, my shoulders slumping under Luca’s sharp glare. Neither of my men were very impressed with the fae right now.
“But you said he opened some door to let the darkness in. How is he involved in that mess of a gobbelin being found?” my wolf asked.
I took a deep, steadying breath. This was the part I hadn’t shared with them yet. “Gobbelins were supposed to be extinct, I know. But when I was unconscious... in the darkness that night... I saw them. They were never gone. It was all a lie. A mistake, maybe? But they were pushed deep into the ice and black water of the mountains and the Surtout Sea. They’ve been sleeping, but something woke them. I... I thought it was Rush. But that’s only a piece of the story.”
“What’s the rest, then?” Kas asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
His expression was torn between the trust and care we’d developed over all our time together, and the hard look he used to give me when he called me princess and hated me simply because my blood was royal.
